Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #6 of 9 in that tierWatch the moment (0:53:22)
Enter the Gungeon
- Developed by
- Dodge Roll
- Published by
- Devolver Digital
$14.99
Enter the Gungeon is a bullet hell dungeon crawler following a band of misfits seeking to shoot, loot, dodge roll and table-flip their way to personal absolution by reaching the legendary Gungeon’s ultimate treasure: the gun that can kill the past.
Consensus
S83.2/100
Steam players95.1% positiveOverwhelmingly Positive89,923 reviews
Metacritic ↗84/100Users: 7.7/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈4.1M copies · ≈$39.7M gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2022 · #3 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (0:21:37)
Ranked Aug 2024 · #4 of 10 in that tierWatch the moment (0:53:42)
Ranked Jul 2023 · #10 of 21 in that tierListen to the episode
Scored 7.83/10 · tier derived from the score
Ranked Jun 2023 · #6 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Sep 2024 · #1 of 3 in that tierWatch the moment (0:15:01)
Ranked Dec 2019 · #3 of 3 in that tierWatch the moment (0:28:18)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #5 of 15 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
Ranked Jun 2025 · #3 of 14 in that tierListen to the episode
Ranked Apr 2025 · #8 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (1:12:09)
What players say
A gun-themed bullet-hell dungeon crawler from Dodge Roll (published by Devolver Digital, 2016) in which quirky Gungeoneers dodge-roll through procedurally generated chambers to reach the gun that can kill the past.
Enter the Gungeon is widely regarded as a genre standard-bearer for action roguelikes. It holds an Overwhelmingly Positive Steam rating (about 95% of roughly 90k reviews) and Metacritic critic scores in the low-to-mid 80s (PC 84, PS4 82, Xbox One 85, Switch 87), with a more lukewarm Metacritic user score of 7.7. Players and critics praise the weapon variety, tight dodge-roll combat, pixel art, theming and humour, and the huge depth of secrets. Complaints centre on its punishing difficulty, heavy RNG, unlock-only (no permanent stat) progression and weak-gun clutter. It is not early access; the last major content patch (A Farewell to Arms, April 2019) ended development, although it reached mobile in 2025 and Steam reviews show players still active in 2026. The sequel Enter the Gungeon 2 has since been announced/released on Steam.
Players love
- Huge, whimsical roster of guns and items packed with pop-culture references, and a consistent gun-pun theme (Chambers, Gundead, Blanks, Ammonomicon)
- Tight, responsive dodge-roll and bullet-hell combat that rewards skill over stacking overpowered builds
- Polished pixel art, music and charm; reviewers say the love for gaming culture is obvious
- Enormous endgame of secrets: hidden floors, secret bosses, secret characters and quests that keep players returning for hundreds of hours
- Fair-feeling difficulty curve in the eyes of fans: deaths feel earned and improvement is tangible
- Local co-op, pause-and-save, free DLC updates and a very low price for the content
- Bosses are memorable and distinct, with no-hit bonuses that reward mastery
Common complaints
- Progression is almost entirely item unlocks; you always restart with the same stats, so meta-progression feels thin compared with Hades-style rogue-lites
- Runs are heavily RNG-dependent; a run can hinge on getting a decent boss-killing gun and a second room-clearing gun
- Many guns and items are considered weak or useless, and unlocked items still have to drop by chance
- Limited variety in room layouts and enemy encounters; players who master it say rooms become memorisable and content after beating the Lich is sparse
- Characters often feel similar, with some commonly described as near re-skins apart from special ones such as the Bullet and Robot
- Normal rooms feel like a long runback to the boss fights; any damage taken in a boss fight (no-hit bonus) can feel demoralizing, and some reviewers call normal fights spammy or filler
- Cryptic item descriptions and steep learning curve for newcomers
- Some players report the camera/screen motion causes dizziness, high GPU usage, and an occasional co-op soft-lock with no settings fix
Can feel tedious
- Grinding for the last unlockable characters and 100% achievements, including NPC quest chains that some find irritating (e.g. Frifle's quests, finding the Lost Adventurer)
- Slow, sideways meta progression that never makes you stronger
- Thieving rat stealing saved ammo, plus key and chest shortages frustrating runs
- Runs ruined by ammo starvation or only having the starter pistol at the first boss
- Long repetitive room-clearing stretches to reach the short, high-stakes boss fights
What's unique
- Fully committed gun theme: floors, enemies, currency-like items and UI are all bullet or gun puns
- Dodge roll with invincibility frames in a bullet-hell context, which divides hardcore shmup fans
- Reward system for no-damage boss fights (extra heart containers/currency) that pushes skill play
- Unusually large secret ecosystem: Rat fight, secret floors, secret NPC quests, alternate chambers, extra characters
- Weapons with bizarre mechanics and references (for example a T-shirt cannon), with guns treated as characters
- No permanent stat upgrades; progression is sideways, via unlocks, so skill remains the main variable
Players want
- Add a way to ban or filter weak guns/items from the loot pool
- More meaningful permanent progression or build-shaping choices at chests and shops
- Online co-op (only local co-op exists), ideally with separate screens
- More variety in room layouts, enemies and late-game challenge content
- Camera and accessibility options (one reviewer reports motion-sickness dizziness and no fix in settings) and GPU usage tuning
- More clarity on what unlocks and items do before selecting them
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Bullet HellAction RoguelikeRogue-likePixel GraphicsDifficultDungeon CrawlerIndieLocal Co-OpMultiplayerTwin Stick Shooter
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Enter the Gungeon is a famous top-down action shooter roguelike that he has played extensively, 100 percent completing it. He calls it a masterpiece and an obvious S tier, and says it helped revive roguelikes alongside Binding of Isaac. He does feel it could offer more content today and he now prefers the more modern-feeling Dead Cells, partly from burnout after so many hours.
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