Gun Rounds is a really unique rougelike that feels like Downwell x Slay the Spire. It's a deck builder with a max of four different guns that all act pretty differently.

You start out with ten bullets and all guns will take a different amount to use, the better the gun the more it takes. They vary in bullet time, bullet size, whether or not they pierce, and other miscellaneous additions. There aren't too many but thankfully the game incentives you to continually swap guns by healing you when done. This means you'll never have the same load out no matter the run and it can be great risk reward trying to figure out whether or not you want to swap out an amazing gun just for some health since you're limited to only 4.

Another cool part of the game is how you can parry enemy attacks. After you shoot the enemies, who have 2 unique moves each, will shoot back and if you press spacebar when the projectile is in your circle not only will you take no damage but you'll reload one bullet. This can lead to some amazingly tense situations where you're one screen away from being able to heal and having to go the whole way without being hit. There's even a cool addition to the feature where if you ever reload the parry window is shorter to make sure you manage your ammo correctly.

As far as the randomization elements since it's a rougelike they're fine. I was able to play for multiple hours at a time but it is a pretty short game so I can't comment on whether or not it gets old on repeat playthroughs. Each world has different enemies that will appear in it and then the number and which kinds are randomized for each screen. There aren't too many types of enemies but the different guns and items help to keep things fresh. You get items from a shop at the end of each world, which are four levels long, and they all have different buffs. There were a lot more than I thought there would be and they get more expensive as the game went on. They're all pretty good although because of the way money works you'll never get to experiment with stacking a bunch since you'll likely only get 3 or 4 at most per run.

Reviewed on Jul 04, 2022


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