This is one of those roguelikes/lites where there isn’t enough meaningful progression to bring to new runs. Or at least nothing up to dungeon 3-4 (out of 5). You get to buy new stuff that can show up randomly on the next runs. Okay? Is that it? The game is insane with RNG. I had one time I made it to dungeon 3-4 (out of 5) due to getting good drops and good items for sale. No such luck since. The game can be very cheap because of its perspective and very small rooms. The boss fights are more annoying than fun. Basically, it’s worth playing for gamers who want challenge and want to get punished. If you’re playing roguelikes/lites for a fairer challenge and long term progression systems, then it’s better to play something else. I highly recommend NecroBouncer or TombStar.

49

Exit the Gungeon is like the lite version of its predecessor, it removes everything that made the original unique, and waters every mechanic down to its simplest and most barebones form. All of the floors, guns, items, enemies, and bosses are less varied; which makes sense because this was apparently a mobile game that was made for Apple Arcade, that was eventually ported to PC. It’s just funny how I can happily play Enter for 90+ hours, but then get bored of this one when I've only put in 20 hours. There’s nothing here that has any longevity, you’ll play through everything the game has to offer in about 10 hours if you’re buying items/guns from vendors.

There’s still a lot of fun to be had with the bosses as they’re all mostly enjoyable and rewarding to master, except the Bolt Python… that mf can fuck right off. The new combo mechanic is hit or miss; I like how it rewards skill, but on the other hand, bosses can become annoying to fight if you happen to mess up once and then have to use the shittiest weapons known to man, it just makes me want to restart the run more than anything else. This is also made worse by how it can’t be turned off, so you’re essentially forced to use a bunch of bad weapons whether you want to or not (and no, turning on arsenal mode doesn’t help).

I have no idea why Dodge Roll even made this— instead of focusing on a better and bigger sequel to the first game, hopefully that’s still being worked on… because man, this ain’t it.

Some notes:
- The music is still great, but they haven’t exactly changed anything, or even added new tracks… I think? It’s honestly a bit hard to tell.
- I hate how long the exit animation takes to play when you complete a run, it’s frustrating to scroll past the same credits for the 20th time.

Playtime: 25.6 hours

Every Game I've Ever Played - Ranked (By Score)
2019 - Ranked

I hate to give this a bad rating with how much I liked the original, but the apple fell very far from the tree.
The game drastically changed genres to be more of a 2-D platforming/bullet hell hybrid in the same vein as Neon Abyss, but it is sadly not succeeding at that. This is unfortunately one of the worst of it's new genre, with the game making a lot of design choices that would be baffling even if it wasn't tied to the source material. Almost every design choice in this game changes or removes the mechanics that made the first one good, and adds mechanics that make this game frustrating to play. Examples of this include the uncontrollably changing weapons which takes control of your run out of your hands, sometimes trapping you with weapons your enemies are immune to.

All in all a disappointing game when judged on its own merits, but straight up heartbreaking when compared to the masterpiece that was its predecessor.

I’m not sure what they were thinking when they released this one. It doesn’t feel like a sequel to enter the gungeon, it’s more of a significantly lighter version. This game didn’t really take any risks in changing the formula. The perspective was changed to work like side-scroller, floors are shorter and composed of a few combat rooms, and controversially blessed runs are now the default way of playing (which is still kinda fun).
Many things don’t work about this new model, for starters the game is significantly easier. You don’t take damage while airborne, it’s easy enough to spam jump and dodge to get you out of most bullet hells. There is a new combo system that rewards better randomized guns the more time you spend without taking damage, it’s poorly balanced; you can get to the 20 max combo and still get the worst weapons. It was likely to prevent you from being too overpowered, but the game is so short that it hardly matters.
What stands out the most is what they took away from us:
- Hidden rooms
- Mimics
- Rainbow Chests
- Rainbow Runs
- Extra secret floors
- A significantly reduced pool of items and weapons
- Curse levels
- Less characters, both playable and not playable
- SYNERGIES. THIS GAME HAS NO SYNERGIES
I’m sure I’m missing more stuff but these are the ones that stood out the most. I realize some features were added in later updates of Enter the Gungeon, but it’s been years since the release and dodge roll doesn’t seem concerned about updating this game. The community doesn’t seem to care much either, there isn’t a wiki for this game, only some blurbs on the existing Enter the Gungeon entries.
I love Enter the Gungeon, and this game still has a similar satisfying gameplay loop. I enjoyed some of it, even if that fun ran out fast. There isn’t much to keep you engaged in here, the endgame is mostly grinding credits for the costumes and hats.