Exit The Gungeon Review

Exit The Gungeon is everything that Enter The Gungeon was; a fast paced, action packed, bullet hell. However Exit The Gungeon doesn’t feel like a sequel but more like DLC or, in better terms a epilogue if you will. It’s just more compact and smaller than you’d expect compared to its predecessor.

Exit the Gungeon begins with a short introduction informing you that the gungeon from the previous game is collapsing and now you must escape the gungeon. Makes sense right? Anyway, there’s an optional tutorial section that you can do right after. The mechanics are pretty much similar to the last game but in this one there is one new element. Instead of your classic dungeon crawler you instead have elevator shafts you take to reach the top of the gungeon.

To succeed in your endeavor your character now has the ability to jump. It’s not as exciting as the game made it sound, but trust me they pulled it off. I felt like the elevator decision was a huge downgrade from Enter The Gungeon, there’s no exploration anymore. Every level you just stand in an elevator shaft shooting enemies. The game tells you at the hub that if you switch characters the levels won’t be the same as each character had their own given routes exiting the gungeon. I’ve played both the starter character, the convict and the hunter, and I saw no difference, or at least not one big enough to notice. 

The gameplay itself is fun and entertaining. It keeps the same excitement from Enter The Gungeon, having waves and waves of enemies coming at you while you trying to dodge all of their bullets. The bosses along with the selection of guns at your disposal are so creative. One moment I could be fighting a cat in a mech suit, while I’m shooting a shotgun shell that fires mini shotguns that fire as well. Yeah, just take a minute to absorb all of that. The game is practically a long sequence of fighting for your life against waves of enemies – you could it compare to a horde mode in some video games. After each level you stop at a shop where you can either purchase power ups to help you as you continue up the floors, or buy shields or hearts.

With everything being on a 2D platform this time around it does become rather difficult to dodge all of the incoming bullets. It’s such a tight fit you can easily end up rolling into incoming fire, just trapping yourself in a corner, falling off the map – which I will admit will happen plenty of times. In this game you also don’t have much control over which guns you get to use. Every 10 seconds your gun will change up on you and you just have to hope you get lucky. You could be having a good run and get shafted with a bad gun throwing off your flow. 

The graphics are still 8-bit like the previous game however it doesn’t look as dull. The sprites seem much more colorful and pop out at you. The music in the game is okay I guess; it’s fitting for a dungeon crawler but as I said this game is more fast paced and it would make sense if it’s music was as well. It just comes off as dark and slow paced.

Conclusion

Exit The Gungeon is a a game that I can’t say would keep me coming back for more. I absolutely love how creative the guns and bosses in the game can be, but I can’t see myself coming back to play it over and over again. It’s not a dungeon crawler anymore, your just fighting enemies in an elevator shaft. While the fun is immediate in the beginning, after a couple of runs it is sure to die down. 

This game was reviewed based on Xbox One review code, using an Xbox One console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.