 STEAM DRUNK? When I dive into the world of newer games that have a retro slant to them, I like to try and find something that will remind me of other experiences I've had with retro games from the days of Yor. You know, something that takes an established game mechanic and gives it a bit of a modern touch. I know most folks come to this channel to hear about retro stuff, and yeah, not every retro-inspired modern game hits the mark. Some games are nothing more than nostalgia bait cash grabs that are all-style in zero substance, but Enter the Gungeon, however, is not one of those games. It is freaking awesome, and if you like top-down shooter games like Smash TV, Zombies 8 My Neighbors, Pocky and Rocky, or any of those fast-paced, so intense you can feel the plastic on your controller creaking because you're gripping it so hard, if that's the kind of experience you were looking for, then you found it with Enter the Gungeon. As you can see, this game is insane, with tons of carnage and chaos happening all over the place, but there's more than meets the eye with this one. This is more than just a top-down shooter, it's a bullet-hell shooter. So in other words, it's tougher than a $2 stake at a truck stop. This game is so hard, in fact, and I suck so badly at it that I had to get my friend Captain Drakma to help out with the footage here since he's a wily old veteran at this game, so big thanks to him for helping out. But yeah, if this were just my own footage for this game, it'd be a highlight reel of at least 100 embarrassing deaths. And hey, normally that's fine, but I'd like to actually, you know, show off more footage of this game than just me dying. There's two things that give me a lot of trouble with this one, the aforementioned bullet-hell environments that you have to survive, of course, and the fact that this is a roguelike, so each dungeon is randomly generated for each playthrough. So in other words, you can't just memorize a specific path or a particular pattern, so you can't just die your way through this one while getting to know what the game expects you to do. Nope, instead this game is just pure chaos, you have no idea what the heck could be waiting for you in any given dungeon, or around any given corner. This is one of the hardest games I've ever played. Now, from a design standpoint, I should mention that there is a method to the madness this game brings about. Yes, this game is largely randomized, but each room will pick from a particular set of enemies, and they'll spawn in specific spots, so you can eventually learn to prepare for certain situations. But I'm just saying, when you first sit down to play this one, get ready to feel like your brain is leaking out of your eyeballs. But that is definitely not a bad thing. For one thing, the roguelike nature gives the game a ton of replay value, obviously, and there's a minimal amount of cheapness in the difficulty here. And one major thing that helps with that, and helps make this game so much fun, is all the different characters you can play as. For example, there's the Marine who has thicker armor and can take more damage. There's the Convict that's able to increase his firepower if he takes damage. Another character can call for backup, another can lockpick treasure chests. The game does a great job making each character distinct enough to give the player a chance to try and figure out different approaches to how they want to get through all this insanity. And of course, as you can see, another major factor that makes this game fun is all the different weapons. I mean, this game would make Ratchet and Clank blush, with the sheer amount of firepower you can collect. Just to give a few examples, there's the Fight Saber, which allows you to deflect enemy bullets while reloading. There's automatic homing rockets, there's sword guns, lasers that deflect and branch out. There's even a gun that freezes enemies in cheese. What the hell is that? And just like most games of this nature, dodging is just as much of a priority as shooting stuff, if not more so. But thankfully, the role here is very responsive, and each room has lots of stuff you can interact with to use as cover. And you're gonna need it because, uh, have I mentioned this game is hard? Just look at some of these bosses, good god. And even regular ass enemies, when killed, rarely miss an opportunity to mess you up, whether they're leaving poison or acid on the ground, or sometimes they just freaking explode. The thing is, though, this game can take it just as much as it can dish out. Like I said, the difficulty balance here is on a really steep curve, but the basic gameplay is so immediate, responsive, and accessible that despite how hard this game is, it's tough to put down. Now, I know what some folks watching this might be thinking, and that's that this is just binding of Isaac with a different coat of paint. And yeah, I get where some people might be coming from with that. Both games have an insane amount of characters, weapons, and items. And hey, Binding of Isaac is a great freaking game, but Enter the Gungeon hits much differently. There's the obvious thematic differences, whereas Binding of Isaac has some surreal childbirth biblical stuff going on. Enter the Gungeon is like Contra meets fantasy, meets science fiction, meets every 80s Arnold Schwarzenegger movie, but with somehow even more guns, and combine all that with bullet-hell patterns that you'd normally see in a game like Icaruga. The Binding of Isaac influence is obvious, but this game is far from a rip-off. Enter the Gungeon is my kind of game, and yeah, like I said, I'm freaking terrible at it, but I love what it represents. It's got a ton of creativity and imagination, it puts a major emphasis on skill, putting style over substance, and maybe most importantly, the game is very efficiently structured, and has a lot of respect for the player's time. Yeah, you're gonna die a lot, but you can jump right back into the action no problem. There's a ton to dive into with this game, the Wiki features nearly 200 pages of info, and there's Couch Co-op. It's a great time and I can't recommend it highly enough. Enter the Gungeon is available on PC, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, Mac, Linux, whatever man, just go play it. All right, I want to thank you for watching, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.