Gunfire Reborn
Release Date Developer Publisher 2021 Duoyi Games Duoyi Games
Gunfire Reborn stands out as a captivating fusion of the roguelike and looter-shooter genres. Up to four players traverse through procedurally-generated environments, fighting enemies and collecting weapons and power-ups to become more powerful. By delving into the core gameplay mechanics, we can uncover how it combines features from popular titles in both genres while also examining potential areas for improvement.
Character Progression
Like most games, Gunfire Reborn has a variety of ways to improve your character. And like many roguelikes, some upgrades last for a single run, while others are permanent. Here is the list:
- Skill Tree (global)
- Skill Tree (per-character)
- Occult Scrolls
- Golden Goblets
Skill Trees
The skill trees are the least interesting part of character upgrades. Most of them are direct stat upgrades, making your character more powerful the longer you play the game, but don’t feel powerful to unlock (though many roguelites have this, like Hades or Dead Cells).
Additionally, the character-specific skill trees (right) can hardly be called trees and are also chock full of numbers boosts. While there are a few gameplay changes for characters, like the Crown Prince’s Energy Charge, which increases shields when hitting multiple enemies with an ability, there aren’t many permanent upgrades that shake up the game too much.
For the most part, the permanent upgrades mainly give players the stats needed to excel at the higher difficulties. And, as I’ll touch on later, those levels challenge the player in more interesting ways than just increasing the stats of enemies.
Golden Goblets
The Golden Goblets are character-specific upgrades that are earned at the end of each level. Unlike the character-specific skill tree, the Ascensions — as they’re called in the game — let you empower each character’s abilities, often complementing their unique playstyle.
For example, the character Qing Yan has an ability called Cleave which damages enemies nearby. Initially it does damage, but after a few Golden Goblets, it might mark enemies for increased damage, permanently increase in damage on a kill, or recover armor for each enemy hit.
The Ascensions provide some known improvements and depth to each character. Mastering which abilities mesh best with the random weapons enemies drop takes practice. This is further cranked up a notch by the final type of power-ups, Occult Scrolls.
Occult Scrolls
At the time of writing this, there are 179 different Occult Scrolls in the game, all of which last for only a single run and are found during the adventure. Each scroll grants a specific bonus, ranging from increased damage for certain weapon types to unique abilities that can alter the way you approach combat.
The effects of Occult Scrolls vary widely, offering bonuses such as increased critical hit chance, additional elemental damage, enhanced movement speed, or unique abilities like reflecting projectiles. As a result, players often need to make strategic decisions when choosing between different scrolls. Some may synergize well with the player’s current build, while others might offer a unique advantage that changes their approach to combat.
This random input adds both an element of risk and reward to the decision-making process as well as encouraging experimentation, as players must do the best with what they have. This tension keeps the game engaging and adds replayability.
Combat Mechanics
While the progression on Gunfire Reborn draws much from roguelikes, the moment-to-moment gameplay is an excellent spin on the classic Borderlands formula.
And Duoyi Games definitely crib from the Borderlands formula. There are identical elemental effects in the game which damage enemies differently based on their defenses. Some enemies have just health, others will be protected by either shields or armor:
| Effect | |
|---|---|
| Fire | Increased damage vs. Health |
| Lightning | Increased damage vs. Shields |
| Corrosion | Increased damage vs. Armor |
| Explosion | Area-of-effect damage |
But also like Borderlands, they’ve put care into making the characters and weapons all feel so different, encouraging players to engage in combat in a variety of ways. Add to that the procedural generation and challenging enemy modifiers at higher difficulties and combat feels fresh run after run.
Character Diversity
Gunfire Reborn boasts ten characters, each with unique playstyles, Ascensions, and abilities. Here are three of my favorites:
 |  |  |
|---|---|---|
| Qing Yan | Lei Luo | Tao |
Qing Yan, as mentioned above, caters to enthusiasts of close-quarters combat, excelling with shotguns. His abilities focus on swift movements and devastating short-range attacks, an ideal choice for players who prefer an aggressive frontline playstyle (like me!)
On the other hand, Lei Luo is tailored for sniping and ranged engagements. With abilities designed to deal damage from a distance and supercharge powerful single attacks, Lei Luo suits those who favor a more strategic and precise approach to combat, providing valuable cover fire in team compositions.
Tao, with her emphasis on high rate-of-fire weapons like machine guns, encourages players to embrace a fast-paced and chaotic playstyle, as she can deal loads of damage, but has low health. Her skills enhance rapid-firing capabilities, making her a formidable choice for those who relish being a glass cannon.
Each character brings a distinct flavor to Gunfire Reborn, influencing not only the player’s preferred weapons but also their overall approach to combat. The uniqueness of each character lies not only in their designated weapon preferences but also in the synergy between their abilities, providing diverse tactical options for players to explore.
In addition to the specific abilities and playstyles, each character has their own visual design and backstory, adding depth to the overall gaming experience. As the game evolves, developers may introduce new characters or make adjustments to existing ones, so it’s a good idea to check the latest updates for any changes to character design or abilities in Gunfire Reborn.
Higher Difficulties
Gunfire Reborn was designed to be mastered by players looking to challenge themselves. As of late, there is now an entire Reincarnation difficulty mode which adds new mechanics, but even the difficulty unlocked first, Elite, adds Challenge Events and enemy Enhancements, rather than solely raising the stats of enemies.
These Challenge Events spice up existing rooms by adding additional factors. Enemies might explode when they’re killed. Or maybe they heal back their health quickly. Because they are applied to a random room, the effect adds a new twist to familiar levels and enemies.
The meat of interesting changes, though, comes in the form of enemy Enhancements, which change enemies throughout almost every encounter! Enemies can gain a variety of effects: dealing elemental damage, summoning clones, making nearby enemies take less damage — there are 20 documented effects, as of this article.
The stacked layers of randomness add nuance to the game, but keep it engaging at higher difficulties. Giving enemies more health won’t cause a player to change their strategy, since players will always be incentivized to deal more damage. But entropy via which enhancements you encounter pitted against the chosen upgrades the adds satisfying accomplishment to player choice.