Battling Evil as a Cat with a Gigantic Revolver - Gunfire Reborn Review
Have you ever wondered what it's like to obliterate mythological monsters and terracotta warriors with guns and grenades as the cat prince of a spirit realm? No? Me neither. It might be an unusual thought, but before you turn tail, why not give it a chance? As a looter shooter dungeon exploration game that embraces that bizarre concept, Gunfire Reborn completely rattled my expectations and proved my initial skepticism wrong.
Gunfire Reborn is an action-packed first-person looter shooter with roguelite elements set in a world with adorable yet serious-looking animals vanquishing evil in the spirit realm. It features dungeon exploration, upgradable perks, and a wide variety of guns to discover. The full game costs $6.99, but it does have a trial run for intrigued paw-rsons to test out venturing into its caverns.
Image Credited to Gunfire Reborn | Duoyi Interactive Entertainment Limited
Gunfire Reborn's storyline is quite linear, and though not dull, it wasn’t really a pull for me either. You're thrown into the spirit realm as a prince who is also a cat who must defend reality from mystical monsters. But in your purr-suit away from a large enemy, you stumble and fall into a fissure and wind up passing out and waking inside a mysterious tavern. You quickly discover that this sanctuary is full of other fighters who are all trying to keep the peace across the world. You join them in delving down into the dungeons of the spirit realm to fight off its evil inhabitants.
Image Credited to Gunfire Reborn | Duoyi Interactive Entertainment Limited
For whatever Gunfire Reborn lacks with its story, it makes up for it with fast-paced roguelite gameplay. The game combines some intriguing mechanics, a boatload of guns, and power-creeping perks in a way that makes it a tremendously fun game to play.
To win in Gunfire Reborn, you must defeat all the bosses across each dungeon. You're only allowed to revive once when playing solo at the expense of soul essence—a resource collected by eliminating mobs. Beyond that, if you die, you start over again back at the tavern, so it's crucial to be a little light-footed when exploring the spirit realm. Luckily, if you decide to play with others, your teammates can resurrect you manually, making gameplay much more forgiving. The breezier co-op gameplay doesn’t open up until your account reaches level ten, though, and it features the same harsh approach to death for a total wipe: After everyone dies, the game will reset, and you'll need to replay everything but the tutorial.
I preferred playing solo, but I’d be lying if I said that didn’t lead to some frustrations. I would have appreciated the ability to save my progress after defeating the first dungeon, or to jump directly into a dungeon of my choosing when restarting at the tavern. Every time I died, I had to face the same mobs again and again; all I wanted to do was move on to new enemies or venture through other environments.
Image Credited to Gunfire Reborn | Duoyi Interactive Entertainment Limited
Surviving for any length of time in Gunfire Reborn requires power creep, and it's honestly the only reason the game doesn't get stale. The game's perk system and in-game loot-and-shoot mechanics constantly feed new weapons and ability combinations to liven up runs.
When beginning a new run, you start with nothing but a standard chunky revolver with unlimited bullets that doesn't deal much damage. New and more powerful weaponry can be found in chests and off drops from monsters. Mobs also drop gold coins, scrolls, hero resources (grenades or boosts depending on the character), and of course, soul essence to get you back up into action. Defeating bosses and clearing other special feats unlocks access to even more guns, providing a slow drip of new content to help ease the pain of having to start over so many times.
Image Credited to Gunfire Reborn | Duoyi Interactive Entertainment Limited
I have to take a moment to admire Gunfire Reborn’s weaponry. There was never a bland moment, especially since there’s a weapon suiting anyone’s gameplay style. Do you want to zap your enemies to a crisp? Or maybe you'd enjoy blowing them up with a pistol that shoots rockets? Gunfire Reborn had every possible weapon I could think of, and it's awesome. I personally loved unleashing destruction with the Lightning Blast, which would flurry orbs of electricity at enemies and disintegrate them.
But, it doesn’t stop at weapons. Gunfire Reborn has two major types of character progression: upgrades during each dungeon run that disappear when you die, and talent enhancements that can only be improved between runs but are permanent. The dungeon level upgrades are spread between weapon boosts and skill alterations that allow you to dish out more damage or improve the cooldown of abilities.
Image Credited to Gunfire Reborn | Duoyi Interactive Entertainment Limited
The permanent talent enhancements provide an even more complex and engaging way of improving over time. Essentially, each character has its own respective talent tree. Every time you die, you can use the soul essence collected to upgrade the talents of whichever character you used during the previous run.
Talents run the gamut of character growth, enhancing everything from HP to damage, as well as tweaking skills and even opening up secret dungeons to gain access to more loot. I enjoyed using the Crown Prince for his all-arounder kit and balanced talent tree. His abilities focused on crowd control, while many of his talent options supported that playstyle. He wasn't very tanky, but I was able to enhance his survability alongside powering up his damage output through careful talent choices after each run. By embracing and improving on the Crown Prince's capabilities through the talent system, I was able to progress smoothly through Gunfire Reborn's many elaborate dungeons.
Image Credited to Gunfire Reborn | Duoyi Interactive Entertainment Limited
I also have to commend Gunfire Reborn's low-poly art style. I thought it was an intriguing visual choice, especially because of how flat the enemies looked compared to most looter shooter games out there. I also found the HUD, icons, and heroes to be fantastically crafted. The low-res style actually complemented the gameplay by not taking away the experience due to tacky or overblown visuals. Especially with such a rapid-paced game, the subdued art helped make sure that I didn’t feel like my eyesight had been assaulted after grinding dungeons for hours without a break.
Gunfire Reborn took me by surprise. It's definitely not purr-fect, but it's also not what I expected from the game. I found myself enthralled by the gameplay loop, even as I occasionally found myself infuriated that perhaps my gaming skills weren’t quite as up to snuff as I’d thought. Gunfire Reborn contains so many combinations to experience, so many things you can do, systems you can grind, and gameplay styles to sample for yourself. It’s the type of game that I can see myself playing even after I’ve conquered the last dungeon, just so I can collect all the weapons that aren’t yet unlocked.
My first impression of Gunfire Reborn was, “So what? It’s just a shooter with cats.” I’m glad to have been proven wrong, though; there’s so much more to this game. Gunfire Reborn is an addictive, breakneck looter shooter filled with an almost infinite number of gameplay paw-sibilities for you to explore. The adorable, furry pals you can take control of are just an extra dose of catnip in an already claw-some game.
SCORE: 4 STARS OUT OF 5
PLAY IF YOU LIKE:
• Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine. You'll love Gunfire Reborn's similar gameplay style if you enjoy looter shooters and dungeon exploration like Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine. Read more about Endless Nightmare 3: Shrine on TapTap.
• Spellbreak. Although Spellbreak's not on mobile, it does closely resemble a lot of Gunfire Reborn's visuals. Suppose you love Spellbreak's toxic miasma, lightning strikes, or even the base art style? In that case, you might like Gunfire Reborn's toned-down design featuring some similarities to the magical battle royale title.
💬Do you like looter shooters like GUNFIRE REBORN? Let me know what you think of this action-packed roguelite game in the comments down below!
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