''Exit the Gungeon'' is a 2019

bullet hell , also known as manic shooter, is a subgenre of shoot 'em up video games with large amounts of projectiles the player is required to dodge. Introduced in 1993 with '' Batsugun'' and initially limited to vertically scrolling shooters, bullet ...

platform game A platformer (also called a platform game, and sometimes a jump 'n' run game) is a subgenre of action game in which the core objective is to move the player character between points in an environment. Platform games are characterized by levels wi ...

co-developed by Dodge Roll and Singlecore Games and published by

Devolver Digital Devolver Digital, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Austin, Texas, specializing in the publishing of indie games. The company was founded in June 2009 by Nigel Lowrie, Harry Miller, Graeme Struthers, Rick Stults, and Mike Wil ...

. It was released for

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

through

Apple Arcade Apple Arcade is a video game subscription service offered by Apple Inc. It is available through a dedicated tab of the App Store on devices running iOS 13, visionOS, tvOS 13, iPadOS 13, and macOS Catalina or later. The service launched o ...

on September 19, 2019, for

macOS macOS, previously OS X and originally Mac OS X, is a Unix, Unix-based operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple since 2001. It is the current operating system for Apple's Mac (computer), Mac computers. With ...

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and

Nintendo Switch The is a video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. Released in the middle of the Eighth generation of video game consoles, eighth generation of home consoles, the Switch succeeded the ...

on March 17, 2020, and for

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

and

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

on November 13, 2020. A sequel to ''

Enter the Gungeon ''Enter the Gungeon'' is a 2016 bullet hell roguelike video game developed by American studio Dodge Roll and published by Devolver Digital. Set in the firearms-themed Gungeon, gameplay follows several player characters called Gungeoneers as t ...

'', players take control of one of four playable characters as they attempt to escape the collapsing Gungeon. The game received mixed reviews on release.

Gameplay

''Exit The Gungeon'' is a 2D

. Players control one of four characters, called the Gungeoneers, which must escape the crumbling Gungeon. The Gungeoneers each have their own unique set of levels, and travel aboard an elevator, where they are attacked by gun-themed enemies that

spawn Spawn or spawning may refer to: * Spawning, the eggs and sperm of aquatic animals Arts, entertainment and media * Spawn (character), a fictional character in the comic series of the same name and in the associated franchise ** ''Spawn: Armageddon' ...

around them. Players defeat enemies using a gun that randomly transforms over time due to a "blessing". Each time the player kills an enemy in succession without taking damage, the greater the chance that the next time their gun transforms, it will be into a more powerful shape. More types of gun transformations can be unlocked by defeating

boss Boss may refer to: Occupations * Supervisor, often referred to as boss * Air boss, more formally, air officer, the person in charge of aircraft operations on an aircraft carrier * Crime boss, the head of a criminal organization * Fire boss, ...

enemies, which give the player an

in-game currency A virtual economy (or sometimes synthetic economy) is an emergent economy existing in a virtual world, usually exchanging virtual goods in the context of an online game, particularly in massively multiplayer online games (MMOs). People enter t ...

called Hegemony Credits that can be spent to unlock the new guns. Once unlocked, the gun may be randomly transformed into the new shape. The player can transverse levels and dodge enemy attacks by dodge rolling or jumping, which allows them to be immune to losing

hit points Health is a video game or tabletop game quality that determines the maximum amount of damage or fatigue something takes before leaving the main game. In role-playing games, this typically takes the form of hit points (HP), a numerical attribute ...

while airborne. As a

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a style of role-playing game traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player character. Most ro ...

game, players are sent back to a safe area called the Underbreach every time they die. There, they can switch between Gungeoneers, talk to

non-player character A non-player character (NPC) is a character in a game that is not controlled by a player. The term originated in traditional tabletop role-playing games where it applies to characters controlled by the gamemaster (or referee) rather than by a ...

s, or use Hegemony Credits to buy guns and items that may be randomly encountered while playing.

Reception

''Exit the Gungeon'' received "mixed or average reviews" for its Nintendo Switch version according to the

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews and ratings of products and services, such as films, books, video games, music, software, hardware, or cars. This system then stores the reviews to be used for supporting a website where user ...

website

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

. Nic Vargus of ''

IGN ''IGN'' is an American video gaming and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa district and is headed by its former e ...

'' disliked the constant swapping of guns, but said that the chaotic nature of each play through made the game fun. Jon Mundy of ''

Nintendo Life Gamer Network Limited (formerly Eurogamer Network Limited) is a British digital media company based in London. Founded in 1999 by Rupert and Nick Loman, it owns brands—primarily editorial websites—relating to video game journalism and ot ...

'' rated the game a 7/10, saying it was a challenging action-platformer but lacked the "freewheeling imagination and tantalising sense of adventure" of ''Enter the Gungeon''.

Shacknews ''Shacknews'' is an American video game journalism website founded in 1996. It that publishes news articles, reviews, and cheat codes. History ''Shacknews'' was founded in 1996 by Steve Gibson. The website, originally named 'Quakeholio', was ...

noted that the game was shorter than its predecessor and had less exploration, but considered it comparable in terms of combat difficulty and praised the

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated video, pinball, electro-mechanical, redemption, etc., game ** Arcade video game, a coin-operated video game ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade video game's hardware ** Arcad ...

-style gameplay.

References

{{reflist Windows games MacOS games IOS games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Xbox One games Devolver Digital games Bullet hell video games Action games Platformers Single-player video games 2019 video games Apple Arcade games