I've put in over a hundred hours since I first got the game 5 years ago, even though the vast majority of my hours were from 2018 and 2020, and it's made me come to the most annoying and ignorant opinion I've ever had about any video game or any piece of media I've ever experienced: if you think this game isn't amazing you haven't played enough of it. I never say anything like that. When I see people saying something like that I think they're annoying as hell. But you have to hear me out.
For my second really annoying statement of this review, I will say the game does not start when you first launch it. It does not even start the first time you beat it. It took me around 70-75 hours to beat the game the first time, and another 15 or 20 after that to realize the game is a masterpiece, and really that's when the game starts. So really when I say I've played 100 hours I was actually lying, I've actually only played 10-15 hours. I joke, but I really do think of the game in that way to some extent.
The main mechanic of the game is that you use guns to shoot enemies, which is important because guns have limited ammo. Beyond just being a balance measure to make sure that the really strong weapons aren't picked up and used for the entire rest of the game, it encourages you to think a lot more about what guns to use in what situations, what guns are better against groups or individual enemies, what guns are too good to be used against normal enemies, what guns are bad enough to be used against them, what guns are so bad they're not even worth using late into the run, etc. You can also recover ammo if certain rooms drop ammo after clearing them or you can sometimes buy it at shops. As someone whose only experience with other top down roguelikes are Isaac and Moonlighter, I really enjoyed the depth that such a simple mechanic created. Even for being a metroidvania, very few games can say that they're half as creative as Enter the Gungeon, with the insane amounts of unique guns and items that you can pick up and unlock. There are literally hundreds of guns and items in the game. Even beyond that there's synergies, where if you pick up a specific combination of weapons and/or items special effects can happen, like the weapons getting completely new properties. This is different from items that just power up your weapons by giving them effects like "electric bullets", these synergies are special and often drastically change how the weapons work. The game is also very creative with the different unlockable modes and characters that you can get after you beat the game, as well as the secret floors and the way that you find all of them.
The real star of this game in my opinion is the rainbow run mode that you get after you beat the game. Stop reading now if you don't want to get spoiled on what it is, though I wouldn't consider the knowledge of an unlockable mode a huge spoiler. In this mode at the beginning of every floor you get to choose a weapon or item out of eight randomly selected ones, four of each, to get and you can only get weapons and items from those chests at the beginning of every floor. It doesn't sound like much, in fact it sounds like it could be less fun because you get way less items every run, but it is some of the most fun gameplay you can experience. Being able to choose a gun or item every floor completely breaks the game, allowing you to get the most powerful things in the game very early on. It's hard to express just how much fun it is if you haven't played the game, but it's basically playing the game on easy mode. The last thing you want from a roguelike is an easy mode, but I think as something you can only unlock after beating the game, and likely having to do many more runs to find the npc that allows you to do rainbow runs, I think it's justifiable. Shredding through everything so easily on a good rainbow mode run is so satisfying and fun, even after beating the game so many times.
All in all, Enter the Gungeon is an incredibly fun game with an insane amount of content. Even after putting in so much time into the game, every run is still satisfying to complete, every run is unique, and it does everything an amazing game should. With the multiple huge updates that have come out over the years, if anyone reading this played the game before 2019, when the final huge update came out, I strongly recommend you check the game out again. I promise you you will appreciate the game so much more. There's very few games that I can keep coming back to the way I keep coming back to play Enter the Gungeon. Amazing game.
For my second really annoying statement of this review, I will say the game does not start when you first launch it. It does not even start the first time you beat it. It took me around 70-75 hours to beat the game the first time, and another 15 or 20 after that to realize the game is a masterpiece, and really that's when the game starts. So really when I say I've played 100 hours I was actually lying, I've actually only played 10-15 hours. I joke, but I really do think of the game in that way to some extent.
The main mechanic of the game is that you use guns to shoot enemies, which is important because guns have limited ammo. Beyond just being a balance measure to make sure that the really strong weapons aren't picked up and used for the entire rest of the game, it encourages you to think a lot more about what guns to use in what situations, what guns are better against groups or individual enemies, what guns are too good to be used against normal enemies, what guns are bad enough to be used against them, what guns are so bad they're not even worth using late into the run, etc. You can also recover ammo if certain rooms drop ammo after clearing them or you can sometimes buy it at shops. As someone whose only experience with other top down roguelikes are Isaac and Moonlighter, I really enjoyed the depth that such a simple mechanic created. Even for being a metroidvania, very few games can say that they're half as creative as Enter the Gungeon, with the insane amounts of unique guns and items that you can pick up and unlock. There are literally hundreds of guns and items in the game. Even beyond that there's synergies, where if you pick up a specific combination of weapons and/or items special effects can happen, like the weapons getting completely new properties. This is different from items that just power up your weapons by giving them effects like "electric bullets", these synergies are special and often drastically change how the weapons work. The game is also very creative with the different unlockable modes and characters that you can get after you beat the game, as well as the secret floors and the way that you find all of them.
The real star of this game in my opinion is the rainbow run mode that you get after you beat the game. Stop reading now if you don't want to get spoiled on what it is, though I wouldn't consider the knowledge of an unlockable mode a huge spoiler. In this mode at the beginning of every floor you get to choose a weapon or item out of eight randomly selected ones, four of each, to get and you can only get weapons and items from those chests at the beginning of every floor. It doesn't sound like much, in fact it sounds like it could be less fun because you get way less items every run, but it is some of the most fun gameplay you can experience. Being able to choose a gun or item every floor completely breaks the game, allowing you to get the most powerful things in the game very early on. It's hard to express just how much fun it is if you haven't played the game, but it's basically playing the game on easy mode. The last thing you want from a roguelike is an easy mode, but I think as something you can only unlock after beating the game, and likely having to do many more runs to find the npc that allows you to do rainbow runs, I think it's justifiable. Shredding through everything so easily on a good rainbow mode run is so satisfying and fun, even after beating the game so many times.
All in all, Enter the Gungeon is an incredibly fun game with an insane amount of content. Even after putting in so much time into the game, every run is still satisfying to complete, every run is unique, and it does everything an amazing game should. With the multiple huge updates that have come out over the years, if anyone reading this played the game before 2019, when the final huge update came out, I strongly recommend you check the game out again. I promise you you will appreciate the game so much more. There's very few games that I can keep coming back to the way I keep coming back to play Enter the Gungeon. Amazing game.