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I love a good
reference, a
well-hidden Easter
egg or knowing
wink. I’m the type
of guy that gets
giddy when Keanu
Reeves says, “Guns, lots of guns,”
in the latest John Wick movie (a nod
to his famous line in The Matrix).
And speaking of guns, Dodge Roll’s
roguelike dungeon-crawler Enter The
Gungeon is packed with references
to legendary weaponry from popular
culture, and this is exactly why I
love the studio’s otherwise painfully
difficult bullet-hell shooter. To give
you a flavour of what to expect, let’s
jump straight in.
I start off in the Gungeon’s lobby,
or ‘Breach’, where I get to pick my
character. I opt for the ‘Pilot’, a Han
Solo stand-in who comes with the
‘Rogue Special’ handgun. It’s been
a bit of a while since I last played
this, so I refamiliarise myself with the
mechanics: shooting, waddling around
and, most importantly, dodge rolling.
Once I’m ready, I hop into the bullet-
shaped elevator.
The first floor is pretty easy.
Enemies are slow-moving and fire
their weapons with all the speed
and grace of a grandma with
a BB gun, which is good
news because the Rogue
Special is absolute pants.
Luckily, I come across
my first new weapon
squirreled away inside a
chest: the ‘Origuni’. While
this origami-themed gun
isn’t strictly a firearm, its
paper bullets can be guided
with the right stick – not bad for
the first floor. I enter the boss room
with all the swagger of someone who
is acting way too big for their boots.
Ah, Gatling Gull. This chirpy chap
hefts around a giant minigun and
is a homage to Vulcan Raven from
Metal Gear Solid. I know this guy pretty
well and he falls victim to my paper
cuts pretty swiftly. For my efforts I’m
awarded some extra health and the
‘Blooper’. I like this one: it’s a riff onthe shotty Joseph Gordon-Levitt uses
in the Rian Johnson time-bending noir
film Looper, only this time around it
fires blue bullets (which accounts for
the ‘Bloo’, I guess) and knocks foes
back a couple of country miles. Next
floor, then. Let’s go!Bullet ballet
I take a couple of stupid
hits from some shotgun-
wielding shotgun shells
(don’t ask), which
knocks my confidence
a bit. Not long after,
though, my spirits are
lifted as I come across
the ‘Ice Breaker’, a double
whammy reference to Titanic (the
flavour text says ‘never let go’) and
the best gun to ever grace Bungie’s
MMO shooter Destiny. I prefer my
Blooper, but it still could be helpful in
a pinch as I face down the Beholster
boss (a pistol-toting D&D Beholder).
This fight goes down smoothly, it’s
like this one-eyed menace and I are
old friends, as we slip into a dance of
dodge rolls and destruction. It soon
goes down and rewards me a – oh my- Proton Pack! Yes, the signature tool
of the ghost-busting trade is now in
my hands, and boy is it a doozy to
wield. I love it. I make the ‘doo do doo
do’ sounds from the Ghostbusters
theme as I use it. I’m having fun.
Then I stumble into a battle with
the Cannonbalrog (any LOTR fans out
there?), which pretty much chews
me up. I can’t dodge its tempest of
bullets, not even Egon Spengler’s
magnum opus can help me here as my
last sliver of life falls away because I
roll directly into a stray shot.
The Pilot falls to his knees, takes
one last breath and is cruelly snuffed
out – a reference to me being not very
good at Enter The Gungeon. Q
Take a guided tour around the most munition-filled museum in
gaming history with Enter The Gungeon DREW SLEEP
PUBLISHER DEVOLVER DIGITAL / DEVELOPER DODGE ROLL / FORMAT XBOX ONE / RELEASE DATE APRIL 2017“Enemies are slow-moving and fire
their weapons with all the speed and
grace of a grandma with a BB gun”
WHAT IS IT?
A bullet-hell roguelike
where you’re dropped
into the titular Gungeon
with the mission to find
a gun powerful enough
to literally kill the past.098 THE OFFICIAL XBOX MAGAZINE
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