Exit the Gungeon should seem pretty obvious after the success of Devolver Digital’s first entry, Enter the Gungeon. Enter the Gungeon came onto the scene as this mishmash of as many genres someone can pack into a single package, a roguelike-bullet-hell-shooter-looter-dungeon-crawler. After struggling through entering the dungeon, it’s time to get out and of course, it’s just as big of a pain to exit. I went into the sequel excited due to how much fun I’ve had with Enter the Dungeon.
Exit the Gungeon immediately follows up the events of Enter, in which it’s time to escape the dungeon. Of course, you just take the elevator back up, no problem! Unfortunately, nothing in the dungeon is that easy. You have to survive the seemingly endless hordes of enemies. The elevator, like a regular elevator, makes stops at different floors along the way which offers challenge rooms with treasure rewards, shops to buy supplies, and rescue opportunities. If you bought a key in a previous stop’s shop, you can rescue various denizens of the gungeon. Each leg of the elevator ends with a random boss fight which offers the best rewards of items and a special currency that’s used to unlock more guns for future runs. The first section of the elevator is the same across all characters but after that, each character has a unique path that has its own challenges to overcome. This keeps things extremely fresh because if you grow tired or frustrated with one hero, you can change characters and tackle a different route.
The constantly rising and lowering of platforms makes the Convict path always a bit unpredictable
The primary differences between Enter and Exit are enough to keep the gameplay fresh with new challenges but it’s also familiar. The first big addition is jumping; Exit the Gungeon is a platformer and the jump acts as a vertical dodge as well as a method of navigating the screens. Knowing when to jump or dodge is key in a lot of situations, as you can’t be hit while in the air, but you also take longer to recover from a jump than you do from a dodge. The other major change from Enter is that the guns are not found as you progress. Rather, you are gifted a special gun from the might deity Kalibur that is constantly changing randomly based on your combo counter. The higher your combo, the better gun you are likely to get. Getting hit not only loses health but resets the combo. This is simultaneously fun and frustrating as some guns are amazing and others are just simply ok. There are a few guns, however, that are really counter-intuitive to the need to constantly be on the move. These guns require you to charge a shot which greatly increases the chances of you getting hit, and therefore lose your combo, which means less of a chance for the better guns. The gun randomization also changes the mindset of a more intentional and preference-based strategy to a constantly moving, frantic action strategy. Ultimately the random guns feel like a fun experiment that would be a great challenge mode but as a core mechanic it ends up being a more shallow experience.
The things that will feel familiar to fans of Enter are important as they make adapting to the new features easier. As stated before, the dodge is still there, but also the way you move and aim. Health, armor, items/power-ups, and blank shots are also present. It really does feel like a remix of the gameplay of the first game, like someone made a mod of the original to mix things up. It’s just as challenging, but in new and exciting ways, even if it does lack some of the depth as Enter. Most importantly, however, the slapstick humor makes a triumphant return. Favorite joke guns are there along with plenty of new ones. This is what made Enter the Gungeon so endearing, along with the solid gameplay, a fairly self-aware sense of humor that garnered plenty of laughs while I played and Exit the Gungeon is no exception.
Bomb Shell! Get it? You get it.
One of the things that are sadly missed in Exit the Gungeon, however, is cooperative play. That feature in Enter was one of the reasons I played it as much as I did. It was easy to pop on and couch it up with a friend for a bit while laughing and looting together. Anytime a follow-up or port of a game lacks the cooperative aspect that the original had, I find myself wishing it was there.
Exit the Gungeon is as spectacular looking as its predecessor. The sprites are clear and give the game tons of personality. I never struggled with where my character was on screen versus all of the enemies and projectiles, which is something I think can happen easily in bullet-hell shooters. The design is cartoony and silly, yet there are times where things feel truly epic. The character and enemy designs are solid with unique color palettes and features but the stars here are the bosses. Each pun inspired boss is vibrant with color and complexity without being busy, featuring their own amazing introductory splash screen and their own challenging patterns to learn and overcome. These bosses are not here to mess around and beating one feels extremely satisfying, especially considering you have to be able to do it with whatever gun Kaliber blesses you with.
Exit the Gungeon proves they were nor short of ideas for gun related puns
Everything in Exit the Gungeon has a distinct sound: different guns, getting hit, hitting enemies, picking up items, using certain power-ups, and enemy attacks all have their own unique audio cue which can be super helpful at times. If you don’t spot an enemy right away, their audio cue can clue you in to look for them and enable you to dodge or jump out of the way of an oncoming attack. The soundtrack is energetic and drives a rhythm through the chaos.
Exit the Gungeon is a really fun follow up to the original. The new gameplay mechanics and branching character paths are a fresh take on an already blast of a game too. Yet, Exit feels more like a mod or expansion of the first rather than its own fully-fledged game and I’m glad that the price reflects that. Its available for $9.99 USD versus the $14.99 of Enter the Gungeon. Playing it on the Switch is perfect for firing it up and playing a few attempts to pass some time, but for longer sessions, you will want a pro-controller as the joy-cons can feel a bit cramped when pulling off some of the maneuvers the game sometimes requires. The lack of a cooperative mode is a bummer but the overall experience is still very much in line with the first game and it is certainly worth picking up.
More information can be found on the official website. A digital copy of the game for Switch was provided for review purposes.
For more review content, check out my adventures in the experimental title The Longing or the Ghibli-esque LUNA The Shadow Dust.
