So I have decided to start playing a new game and have a go at recording my experience with it on this blog, the game is called Entering the Gungeon and I am at the very beginning and have never played it before and I have never watched anyone else play it, so this is completely blind.
One game I can say I have played a lot though that is very similar to this is The Binding of Isaac, which is a dungeon crawler like this, although Enter the Gungeon has a lot stronger of an aspect on actual (and fantasy) guns and also being a bullet hell.
Naturally upon first entering I am very much lost, I am in some big hall somewhere and have a variety of characters to choose from, I decide to randomly choose the female convict without really looking much into anything. All the characters to choose from clearly have their own quirks and abilities and I assume each one is better at something than the other, as it would appear.
After that I proceed to fall down the hole several times before realizing it wasn’t solid ground. I then moved on up the great hall towards a pair of scary looking guards, apparently it’s the entrence to the Gungeon as I later discover, but they are reluctant to let me pass without first learning the basics in the tutorial area – which is fair enough as I also wanted to have some kind of tutorial as well as I was clueless on what to even do at all.
So, the big scary guards, being helpful and all, thankfully directed me to the tutorial area where there was this blue guy sitting next to its entrence, seems like a sort of guy who has lost all hope and is very down-beaten on the whole thing, reminds me of the fellow from Dark Souls 3 sitting in Firelink Shrine who had similarly given up all hope.
So anyways, into the tutorial I go and I meet a sarcastic little blue man known as Ser Manuel, who goes on to guide me through the very basics of the game. I’d also like to note at this point walking through objects and knocking them over was very enjoyable, especially the books. Shooting Ser Manuel was also amusing for a time, not that he found it amusing himself, I can only guess he has put up with this for so long with so many others that at this point it’s all a bore.
Manuel teaches me how to jump over bullets, holes and how to kick over tables to block bullets and also gives me my first gun… the pea shooter, which as the helpful almanac tells me is the most useless gun in the game, but it’s good enough to massacre the little bullet kin, which are the first enemies I am introduced to.
So that’s what happened, I massacred the little bullet kin and at some point pick up an AK47 which didn’t appear to come up in the almanac for some reason, which I later discover is possibly because the gun is only in the tutorial area and no where else. By the way I am so happy the game includes an almanac on the guns, enemies and bosses to learn more about them and also some lore as well, I always love that kind of stuff. Perhaps it might irk some I am calling it an almanac instead of the “Ammonomicon”, but that is a bit of a mouthful… and hard to spell.
I eventually made it to a boss… and plot twist… Ser Manuel is that boss, which I actually didn’t see coming but is a sort of trope I guess.
Ser Manuel was very easy to kill, especially with the AK47, which I expected, and after I defeat him he becomes very “sad” and “upset”, which I can only assume is further mockery from this character who I actually assume is far more powerful than me, and as I am to soon learn, the future bosses, even at the very beginning, are pretty hard.
And so with the tutorial complete and the prospect of knowing that I am heading into literal bullet hell, and that the game is obviously setting me up for hopelessness and dispair… I enter the Gungeon.
Lots of Dying in the Gungeon
And so I enter into the first chamber, Keep of the Lead Lord, and boy did I not realize that it was actually going to be fairly difficult, mostly because I am pretty bad at dodging and aiming anyways. I start off in some cave in-front of an old statue surrounded by candles, which I could not resist knocking all over.
Some rooms you come across a single Bulletkin while others you get absolutely swarmed by various types, which is bad news if you suck at dodging. As the convict I started off with a sawed-off shotgun and an aptly named Budget Revolver, which I mostly avoided using over the shotgun as it sucked.
There were also some big boy enemies as well, such as a giant dude with a big bullet sword and another big dude with a bullet whip, luckily since they’re pretty slow they were quite easy although they look very menacing.
There were also some very annoying explosive enemies about, Pinhead’s and Nitra’s that could be hard to avoid at points, especially when swarmed by other enemies. I also came across a ghost with a machine gun who had the ability to go invisible at points.
Other notable enemies were a floating book that shot bullets organised into letters at me and the Apprentice Gunjurer who ordered bullets into various “simple” shapes as the almanac puts it. I also like the Bubulon enemy including its preceding forms and the little bit of lore on their empire.
I like to try and thouroughly explore every single room to discover everything I can but I also understand this isn’t always a useful thing to do and can also waste health and ammunition, but at the same time it can also be important if you need both of those, for example if you come across a chest.
At some point I discovered the molotov by using it on accident, and it’s pretty decent I guess. Most of the time I was not utilising the surrounding environment such as kicking over tables as I was panicing too much dodging everything, and when I panic I more easily forget the controls.
I also eventually discovered the shop that can be found in the Gungeon, staffed by a big beefy man who gets angry if you shoot your gun in there. It’s useful if you need a better gun or perhaps a chance at some health or ammunition, but basically everything is quite expensive in there.
At some point after fully exploring the entire floor I head towards the boss room and begin my first proper boss fight, against this giant bird that has a gatling gun and sprouts a musclely human body. Naturally I panic while fighting him, mess up the controls and encounter my first death (excluding the times I fell down the hole in the beginning, although these deaths weren’t recorded in the almanac – because who the heck dies in the safe area?!).
So after being defeated by that odd bird I head right back in and discover that the floors change-up on each retry, which threw me off a little bit at first but it makes sense as it is a dungeon crawler, the Binding of Isaac does the same thing.
And so I once again head back on in, discovering some more enemies that I have already gove over previously and also some new room scenary and the such, while the whole time still being terrible at dodging bullets.
By the time I reach the boss it is once again the Gatling Bird and he literally just one shots me as I only had a small bit of health left… and alas I met my 2nd death. And so I barrel on right back in again for a 3rd attempt, this time I didn’t explore around the floor as much hoping I could make it to the boss with as much health as possible.
During this 3rd attempt I came across a curious gun known as the glass cannon, very powerful but also fragile, which I didn’t realize was a literal meaning, I thought it was just some kind of joke, but the game would be the one laughing later on.
Since the gun did lots of damage but only had a small amount of ammo I decided to save it for the boss rather than using it on the normal enemies in hopes I could quickly take the boss down.
Eventually I find the boss room and discover that the boss can also change up when repeating a floor, which again makes sense, Binding of Isaac also did this as well. This time I met the Bullet King himself.
So there’s me heading on in, a little bummed that it’s a new boss as it means I would be completely new to its pattern of attacks, but confident that I could take him down using my highly damaging glass cannon.
That’s when the fragile joke exploded in my face, quite literally, the glass cannon exploded in my face only after getting one shot off, which later I learned from the almanac was due to getting hit causes it to shatter… which is why it is fragile. After the glass cannon shattered I paniced not knowing what was going on and was promptly executed by the King, meeting my 3rd death.
After that I decided to quickly head back in for one last attempt before taking a break but this 4th attempt I didn’t even reach the boss before I died to a swarm of Bullet Kin. And thus I decided to take a break.
And there you have it, my first escapade into Enter the Gungeon. I love these kinds of games due to all the different items, weapons, enemies and bosses and it leaves much to be discovered and also learn about as it also includes an epic almanac and some lore.
What’s better is I got this game for free, from one of Epic Games many free game offers. (If you don’t have Epic Games downloaded on your computer you’re missing out on a lot of free games… many of which are quite good).
I look forward to playing more soon and continuing to document it. Next time I will make it past the first chamber!
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