Steven Rogers

Just played this at Jupiter bar in Seattle. Definitely one of the most squishy and satisfying shooters I've ever played. I have played the game through from beginning to end three times now, once with a 2nd player then twice by myself. Positives: The shooting challenges and destructible terrain are incredibly satisfying. The core of the gameplay, the moment to moment firefights, were engaging and fun! Early game was just gleefully dispatching gundead, and the late game felt as though it demanded a bit of thought in weapon selection, ammo management, and on the order of which enemy to focus first. The lights and sounds exceeded my expectations of an Enter the Gungeon game. The difficulty was not too hard and at no point did I feel like taking damage was unfair. The controls allow reloading through pumping the gun or shooting off screen, the option of which is great. There is a d-pad on the left side of the controller, and pressing left/right swaps the currently equipped weapon. I'm certain I did not see all of the weapons which makes me eager to play it more and experience the other items. No individual weapon felt bad. Dodging feels great! The sound and screen effects really sell it! Negatives: My biggest dislike here is that the bosses and the dialogue charts are currently not random from run to run. I only expected this because of the randomness of other games in the series, and I recognize it's unfair for me to expect this. 2-player was mostly nice, but had I played with a selfish or bad player, I would have had a worse time. Weapons are not shared, only the first person to shoot a weapon gets it There are certain enemy attacks that have red skull dodge icons where, if shot, automatically fail the Dodge and take damage. This is a problem for two people because one player can force damage to both players with certain incoming attacks. I have a personal dislike on game mechanics where one player can negatively impact their ally in a way that could cause arguments between players, and the current mechanics allow for player griefing. Also, when using a slow fire rate or pulse weapon, hitting the Dodge targets becomes (feels?) more difficult due to the fire rates. As for the controls, the buttons were placed in such a way that it wasn't exactly easy or intuitive to swap weapons or use blanks in the heat of combat (which was not so bad with a bit of practice). The game is significantly easier than other shooters I've played, which can be both good or bad depending on the player, myself personally I like that I'm able to get a good chunk of gameplay on one life, and I never felt cheated out of my health or quarters, but I can see some hardcore players leaving this game unsatisfied with difficulty. However, there are other metrics (accuracy, objects destroyed, health lost) that is tracked and could offer a challenge to such players. Conclusion: Overall a great experience! If you're going in with a partner, I recommend going in with someone who willingly shares resources and has patience (maybe discuss having weapons shared in alternating order). If going in solo, I recommend paying attention to the tutorial and prepare to have a blast!! I hope to one day have an arcade game cabinet in my garage, and as of right now, Enter the Gungeon: House of the Gundead has become the number 1 item on my wish list!!