Gunfire Reborn - The Little Brother of Borderlands

Before telling about Gunfire Reborn, it would be nice to remember Borderlands. The comparison is inevitable, because familiarity with the first one is guaranteed to cause déjà vu over the second one.

Borderlands is a controversial game. If we estimate it as a shooter - it is a failure. Borderlands turns out to be almost the worst representative of its genre. Borderlands is full of genre's ills: a lot of grind, concrete enemies that soak up damage like sponges, boring boss battles, as if inspired by "The Horribly Slow Murderer with the Extremely Inefficient Weapon" and horrible shooting system with almost zero weapon impact, but...

...If you look at Borderlands as a diabloid in a shooter wrapper, everything falls into place. Not everyone likes the setting of Sanctuary, Reklast and other perilous places. Not everyone likes the isometric camera from above. This is where Borderlands is revealed in all its glory. It's funny, that in the first module of the review the word "Borderlands" flashed eight times... And I declare with full confidence, with a clear conscience, that the title of this article is not a clickbait.

First-person Diabloide was already there, now it's time for Rogue-lite

In short, Gunfire Reborn is Borderlands, but with almost no story, but on a roguelike foundation. The legacy of the famous shooter is evident in the tutorial, where we are taught the basic mechanics in case we forget how to shoot. Just looking at how Gunfire Reborn picks up weapons immediately brings a warm wave of nostalgia inside.

Like in Borderlands, in Gunfire Reborn the player has to work long and hard on the hero, gradually building a dream build. The only difference is one: in Borderlands the death of the protagonist penalized the player for experience and loot, in Gunfire Reborn the game begins again after death. All the attributes of Roguelike are in place: here you have permanent death, and dungeons with random generation of levels and bonuses...

...And meta-progression:

...and randomly placed in the location traders from whom we resupply, improve and buy equipment for gold coins:

The game is divided into rooms, where the player will meet with enemies, search chests, and sometimes geocaches. The stashes can be valuable loot, as well as a trap. Locations over time acquires a growing number of complexity modifiers - spikes, explosive barrels, fire-breathing holes in the walls and on the floor. At the end of the cycle of short levels you'll meet the boss, and then the biome changes, see point "1".

Gunfire Reborn doesn't bring anything new to the Roguelike genre; it's a methodical game without bold experimentation with mechanics, a deep role-playing system, or any kind of clutching plot. But Gunfire Reborn does not seek to make a new word in the genre...

The developers of the game, - Duoyi Games, - studied the mastermind well and corrected the main problem of Borderlands - cardboard shooting system. Shooting with a variety of cannons in Gunfire Reborn is extremely enjoyable. It took a small budget to make sure that each weapon had a recoil, the sounds corresponded to the type of weapon, and the enemies reacted correctly to the hits. Unfortunately, they didn't bring in sixteen million guns, but they brought in all kinds of small arms and some hand-to-hand weapons.

Armed with a minigun, the character will slow down significantly, but each hit will be accompanied by a fitbeat. It's about the same kind of hit sound we had in Call of Duty and Halo: Infinite multiplayer. Most of all, the sound of the hit is like a thudding click. The same sound is also heard when dealing critical damage. If you have played Call of Duty or Halo multiplayer and hit the enemy at least once, you know what I mean...

It's not easy to put into words the impact of Gunfire Reborn's weapons. No matter how many dithyrambs they sing about the shooting system, the real experience is different. The best way to understand "Is the shooting system good in the game?" - is to cover your weapon with an impenetrable barrier and play. If you can tell the difference between firing a submachine gun and an assault rifle, then there's nothing wrong with the shooting. Gunfire Reborn manages to not only tactically convey the weight and damage inflicted by the weapon, but also show a different recoil pattern for each type of gun. The recoil here is not limited to dispersion.

But the shooting system is the only undeniable virtue of the game...

The balance was not brought in

But the resources to grind the balance, apparently, were not enough. Let's start small: Gunfire Reborn has a huge problem with the protagonist's vanshots. During the first hour of the game you will be killed lightning fast at least twice. It is not possible to guess the cause of death and, most importantly, to learn a lesson from the mistake. The player is simply put before the fact: you are dead, because you have a weak character. The situation is corrected after pumping one of the improvements, it does not allow to die with one stroke, but ...

...one hit doesn't always mean a simultaneous attack with a lot of damage. You might as well die from a lightning strike, poison, or fire. The upgrade against vanshots, by the way, opens too late. By the time it unlocks, not the most experienced gamer can lose twenty or even thirty times. The game should test the player, not his patience.

Second problem: all weapons in the game are either useless or too strong. In addition, it is more profitable to pump the initial gun to the maximum, than to spray on the rest of the assortment.

No sane build builds are out of the question. Experimentation ends rather quickly, exactly at the moment when you find a comfortable combination of skills, weapons and abilities. It also does not help that since its release the game has undergone a lot of rebalancing, has become surrounded by a dozen characters with their own unique features and even managed to sell a couple of DLC.

Many non-obvious original assemblies went under the knife over time. But there were ways to ensure immortality - high walking speed. There is no sprint, all the characters move as if under water, so the rapid movement provides the equivalent of 100% evasion from all attacks. With all the dynamics of shooting, the movement speed in Gunfire Reborn is unacceptably low, as if you play with a ping of 300+. But that's half the trouble...

Started playing in the co-op - now play in the co-op always

Gunfire Reborn reveals itself in a new way in co-op. And while the only interaction mechanic with your teammates here is getting back on your feet after a touchdown, it's quite realistic to put together a group of successful combinations:

The player is dependent on the team in a rather clumsy way - they give the mobs such modifiers, against which there is no universal weapon. For example, the enemies have energy shields, and your weapon is sharpened against armor. Changing weapons is tantamount to voluntarily worsening your character, and this is where partners come in handy.

The elemental damage in Gunfire Reborn is balanced in exactly the same way as it was in Borderlands: corrosion is good against armor, shock damage is good against energy shields, and fire damage is good against enemies with high health reserves. If you combine the elemental damage, you might get a non-obvious combination with an additional effect, like briefly luring the enemy to your side. And all this variety would work if Gunfire Reborn could adjust to the differences in teammates' levels. If you, say, pumped up to level 20, and your friend in the game took a great interest, spent a whole week in it and pumped up to level 120, then together you can not play. According to the logic of the game, the mobs at this level gap should be 70 level, but they will be 120, which will not leave behind a lagging on the progress of the player a chance to play comfortably.

Verdict

Gunfire Reborn is the perfect game for those who loved Borderlands for its alternative vision of Action-RPG grind, but were spitting at its shooting system. Gunfire Reborn pays for its modest cost, but may disappoint if you're looking for a savvy Roguelike with the inherent depth of the genre.