Developed and published by Duoyi Games comes a fast paced shoot-out with a mystical world feel. Gather your friends and traverse the mysterious dungeons, taking down powerful foes and collecting dangerous weapons. This game is a bizarre but fun combination of Risk of Rain, Torchlight, and Borderlands.
Throw back a drink and prepare to depart, for this is Gunfire Reborn.
So, you all meet in a Tavern…
I’ll be straight-up honest and say it, there is little to no story for Gunfire Reborn. At least, not that I could see. You boot up the game, grab a hero and begin the expedition. As a roguelike FPS RPG there are multiple layers to how this game works.
First let’s look at the heroes. Gunfire Reborn currently has eight different Heroes, one base, three unlockable via level up, two unlockable with currency, and two more with the current DLC. Each Hero has a primary and secondary skill that augments the play style of the game. These skills very vastly in between Heroes, and can further be upgraded with power-ups in the dungeons.
The dungeons in the game are procedurally generated, with each stage having its own unique design. There are four acts in gunfire Reborn, each containing unique enemies and Hazards. Throughout the stages you will come across Vaults and Challenge Events, rewarding the skillful and diligent. You will also encounter The Peddler and the Craftsman during your expeditions. The Peddler will sell you ammunition or health, and is upgradeable to provide weapons and upgrades. The Craftsman can, for a fee, upgrade your current weapons beyond your starter gun.
Loot, Shoot, Reload!
Weaponry and Gunfire Reborn is a wonderful combination of mystical artifact and wacky firearms. Every “gun” has a gimmick, some shoot fast with low damage, and some shoot miniature black holes that explode. Each gun has one of three types of ammunition: normal, large, or special. Defeating enemies or breaking objects have a chance to drop these ammunition types.
Outside of the starter pistol all guns in the game can have power-ups called Inscriptions. These come in various rarities and can do anything from lowering reload time and upping critical hit chance, causing enemies to explode and causing projectiles to home in on their target. These inscriptions are random in every run, so you could get the same gun with vastly different effects on it between playthroughs.
Power ups in Gunfire Reborn come in two flavors. One is in a occult Scrolls which give a passive buff to your character, such as increase damage whenever you have full health. These Scrolls can common various rarities including being cursed, so be careful on what you pick up through the dungeon. The other way power-ups Express them self are in Ascensions. By obtaining goblets at the end of stages you are able to power up and change your abilities passively. These ascensions differ between Heroes, and can grant three different ways to build your character.
Unlimited Cosmic Powah!
Finally there are talents. By completing stages, killing bosses, and plundering vaults you can acquire Soul Essence. This Soul Essence is spent at the end of expedition runs where you can upgrade various talents that buff your hero for the next run.
Ultimately this is where you will be spending a lot of your efforts for the game as to max out all of the various talents will take thousands of Soul Essence. Acquiring more talents will eventually unlock more characters for you, so you have an incentive to keep going.
Concluding thoughts
I enjoy this game a lot. There is just enough grind to keep me going, just enough content to keep me looking, and just enough difficulty to make me think I can get it in the next round. I’ve sunk time into this game and I still have a lot to uncover. Beyond a few petty gripes about enemy scaling, I don’t have much bad to say about the game at all. It’s fun solo or multiplayer, and has enough content to cater to various playstyles. With one DLC released and another in Q1 of 2023, I look forward to coming back to this game.
Steam key was provided by Duoyi Games.
VERDICT
GREAT
GREAT
I enjoy this game a lot. There is just enough grind to keep me going, just enough content to keep me looking, and just enough difficulty to make me think I can get it in the next round. I’ve sunk time into this game and I still have a lot to uncover. Beyond a few petty gripes about enemy scaling, I don’t have much bad to say about the game at all. It’s fun solo or multiplayer, and has enough content to cater to various playstyles. With one DLC released and another in Q1 of 2023, I look forward to coming back to this game.
