Part 1 (Sep 2023) · #3 of 18 in that tierWatch the moment (1:07:11)
Gunfire Reborn
- Developed by
- Gunfire Reborn Studio
- Published by
- Duoyi Games
$19.99
Gunfire Reborn is a level-based adventure game featuring FPS, Roguelite and RPG. Players can control heroes with various abilities to experience diverse Build gameplay, use various weapons to explore procedurally-generated levels. You can play the game alone, or join 4-player coop.
Consensus
B75/100
Steam players93.1% positiveVery Positive103,754 reviews
Metacritic ↗75/100Users: 7.1/10
VG Insights estimate ↗≈3.1M copies · ≈$34.4M gross
What creators say
Ranked Apr 2022 · #7 of 8 in that tierWatch the moment (0:21:37)
Ranked Aug 2024 · #1 of 5 in that tierWatch the moment (0:53:42)
Ranked Jun 2023 · #3 of 11 in that tierWatch the moment (0:47:25)
Ranked Apr 2023 · #13 of 16 in that tierWatch the moment (2:03:54)
Ranked May 2026 · #6 of 7 in that tierWatch the moment (0:13:45)
Ranked Apr 2025 · #1 of 5 in that tierWatch the moment (1:12:09)
What players say
A colourful first-person roguelite looter-shooter with RPG-style characters, scroll-based builds and 1-4 player co-op, made by Duoyi Games' Gunfire Reborn Studio.
Players love it: Steam shows about 93% positive across roughly 104k reviews (Very Positive), and Steam Spy puts owners at 2-5 million. Praise centres on satisfying gunplay, character and weapon variety, and strong co-op. Critics are more lukewarm: the Metacritic page (Xbox version) has a 75 critic score from 10 reviews and a 7.1 user score from 64 ratings. It launched in early access in May 2020, reached 1.0 in Nov 2021 and later came to consoles and mobile. It is still updated, with seasonal content and paid DLC characters about every six months. Recent Steam negatives focus on DLC power creep, machine-translated text, dead co-op matchmaking, suspected AI-generated art and an EULA change.
Players love
- Gunplay is fun and satisfying, often compared to Borderlands and Immortal Redneck, with an addictive run loop
- Large roster of characters, each with two skills and an ultimate, that change how a run plays, especially in co-op
- Wide variety of weapons and scrolls allows many build experiments, including lucky-shot and elemental builds
- Bosses are distinct and fluid, each with readable mechanics
- Great character designs, from cool to cute, in a colourful art style
- Co-op networking is smooth, and each player gets their own drops that can be traded
- Seasonal mechanics are all kept available so players avoid FOMO, and support continues years after release
Common complaints
- English localization is widely described as machine-translated, with confusing or wrong descriptions and some text left in Chinese
- DLC characters are much stronger than base ones, making runs on the highest difficulty very easy and creating power creep
- Build variety becomes stale, with each character reduced to a few optimal weapon and skill combos, and seasonal mechanics feel similar
- Online co-op matchmaking is described as dead, so co-op needs friends
- Balance swings in high difficulty, where enemies either die in one hit or barely take damage
- Recent reviews cite undisclosed AI-generated art in official artwork and emotes, which drove a wave of negative reviews
- Some players report worsening performance, crashes and lost save data over time
- New EULA added forced arbitration and deletion of data after 365 days of inactivity, drawing the most-upvoted recent negative reviews even from fans
Can feel tedious
- Runs can feel repetitive in the short term, and veterans say restarting becomes a chore once builds feel samey
- Waiting for co-op matches, or never finding one
- Getting key scrolls matters for some builds, so a run can be lost to luck of drops
- Reading unclear tooltips and untranslated text to understand mechanics
- Meta-progression is quickly maxed, leaving little to chase between updates
- Dodge feels awkward and the game can feel laggy even solo for some players
What's unique
- Hades-and-Borderlands-style mix: FPS shooting with hero abilities, scroll (passive) builds and Chinese mythology-inspired anthropomorphic characters
- Scroll system lets players assemble synergies, with each character having a different preferred approach (cat for elements, owl for scrolls, fox for frontal assault)
- Seasons as switchable, permanently available mechanics with a free battle pass rather than limited-time FOMO
- Each co-op player has individual drops, guns and scrolls that can still be exchanged
- Runs are long, skill-based dungeon crawls where player skill and enemy knowledge matter more than level-ups
Players want
- Add more bosses per stage and new stage areas, since current boss variety is limited
- Make updates meatier, because long-term players say a year of patches can be seen in a few hours and maxing meta progression is quick
- Improve English localization and tooltips so item and scroll interactions are clear
- Rebalance DLC versus base characters and give hard difficulties a real challenge ceiling
- Fix matchmaking or add a lobby or social hub for co-op players
- Offer a clearer dodge (short distance and unclear i-frames) and possible third-person or mod support, both requested by players
Summarised from Steam reviews and community discussion.
Steam tags
Rogue-liteFPSRogue-likeOnline Co-OpCo-opMultiplayerLooter ShooterIndieActionRPG
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Tier list Part 1 (2023)
Gunfire Reborn is a first-person shooter roguelike with multiple characters, weapons, passives and abilities, and it keeps receiving updates. He loves it and calls it packed with content, enjoying it in both single player and multiplayer, though he rates it as a single-player game. He nearly gave it S tier but, after comparing it with other games on the board, settled on high A. He recommends it to shooter fans and advises playing the Steam version over the stale console ones.
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