Posted Fri Jan 29, 2016 at 08:29 PM PST by Brian Hoss
I'm going to need more skill.
'Enter the Gungeon' has plenty for me to like. It starts with character choice, and with roguelike, room by room dungeons, but on a more fundamental level, it starts with R1 to shoot, L1 to dodge roll, left stick to move and right stick to aim. As enemies come at me with their elaborate patterns of (hopefully) dodgable bullets, I have to stick and move, fire and reload, dodge and dodge roll until I'm the last living thing in the room.
Working my map and teleporter, I go room to room, clearing and searching for chests with weapons, items, and door keys. I'm also on the lookout for the door to the boss room, and for any shops. There is a health system, so even as a new player, I can be comforted that no one attack will kill me. (Though I do need to watch the floors, giant rolling psikes, and so on.) And yet, I have to figure out how to dodge roll. When dodge rolling, no bullets can hurt me, but when I have to stand back up, there's a moment before I can roll again.
Sadly, without a better grasp of dodge rolling, weapon switching (Triangle), and even item identification, the boss of the first dungeon makes quick work of me.
Ditto, the boss of the second dungeon. Meanwhile, on the other end of Devolver Digital's PAX South 2016 booth, players are tackling the game in co-op, working together to take on enemies, but then fighting over pickups and shop items.
Naturally, I need to get a lot better before I can enter the gungeon with a greater degree of comfort, but even in my current state, the moment to moment progression is a blast. ('Enter the Gungeon' is coming soon to the PS4 & PC.)
The frenetic action just pushes me to go faster and to be aggressive. I even dragged a friend of mine over to the booth just to see how he would face up to the challenge. Ouch. Still, I was to share how to kick over tables and use them for quick cover, and how teleport between different parts of the dungeon, and even how to jump the bottemless pits. Maybe tomorrow, we can try out some co-op ourselves.
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