This is like those little games that your grandma has on her computer, except if your grandma was a huge fan of Doom and Mortal Kombat.

Buckshot Roulette is a simple, yet addicting game, with a gameplay loop that provides a level of fairness to ensure players never feel cheated out of a run, but also a level of RNG that succeeds in making the game feel tense.

The ability to earn another turn by pointing the gun at yourself and firing a blank creates a massive incentive to aim the gun at yourself. Taking a blank both means your getting closer to emptying the gun (and getting more items) and the chance to better your odds for your next shot. But of course your taking that risk that there could be a live in the chamber waiting for you. It's very nerve racking, and makes that one second where the gun is simply pointed at you very chilling.

Items also spice up what would have otherwise been a simple game of chance. Items give you different abilities that can turn the tides, and learning when you should use them can be challenging. Not to mention that the dealer always gets as many items as you, meaning you really need to understand what he's going to be able to do on his next turn, and how to survive it.

One of the greatest elements of the game is it's sound design. The sound design of Buckshot often lends itself to creating this tense atmosphere that the game strives in. One of the best examples of this is the gun's two firing sounds. A blank being fired can either be one of the most relaxing, our most tense sounds you hear, depending on who's got the gun. If you point the gun at yourself and you hear the blank sound, it's like such a relief of tension and a huge invitation to let you stop holding your breath. However, aiming at the dealer and hearing that blank go off is such a big "oh fuck" moment. Not only have you better the odds for your opponent, you've also just ended your turn, and that pathetic click of the blank firing is the most disappointing way for it to end. The dealer firing a blank works the same except vise versa. If he aims the gun at himself and a blank goes off, it creates rising tension, as he can shoot again with better odds, but if he aims at you and fires a blank, I feel like every player gets a big smirk on their face. Look at how dumb the dealer is (ignoring how many times you've put yourself in that same situation).

Double or nothing was one of the most simple, but perfect updates to the game. The ability to essentially create a high score system is very fun, and keeps me coming back whenever I have an hour I need to kill. If I had any complaints about this however, it would be nice to have the option to customize the mode, like choose how many items per round and things like that.

Overall, Buckshot Roulette is a simple, yet amazing game to play if you're bored and just need an hour to disappear. The games aesthetic does a fantastic job as creating a tense environment, and despite how much the game is based around RNG, it always feels fair.

i'm sorry this game fucking sucked and also it is fucking unwatchable. the photosensitive mode doesnt work and just changes the lights to a different kind of seizure inducing shitfest. its fakedeep and fucks its own dick philosophically every chance it gets. the gameplay is fun but it quite literally punishes you halfway through the game for using an introduced mechanic that deepens the gameplay loop. its almost the exact opposite of undertale in that regard, where attempting to "spare" the enemies (you know, because all quirky rpgs have to have sparing mechanics/genocide routes now) actually makes the gameplay more grating on both the eyes and hands rather than being stylistically and narratively interesting and fun to engage with. This game mistakes difficulty from skill curves with difficulty from just fucking making the screen hurt to look at. there is a story buried in here, but it's not worth digging for.