When we get into the world of the Indies we find a great variety of genres: 2D / 3D platforms, FPS, simulators of walks, survival games, etc. But
it seems that there is a genre that is starting to stand out above the rest, we are talking about the Roguelike genre. Generating levels procedurally is something that developers like, it provides infinite levels and hours of content facing the player, something that in a “linear” game is very difficult to achieve, or rather very expensive. Durin
g these last years we have been able to enjoy authentic gems like The Binding of Isaac, Spelunky, Rogue Legacy, Enter The Gungeon, Nuclear Throne … But trying luck with this genre has its difficulties, if you really want the game to succeed you must offer a poli
shed gameplay, next to a design of adjusted levels and difficulty. And that’s something in which many Roguelike fail unfortunately. Nongünz comes to try his luck in the genre, will he stand out over the rest or will we forget him after a couple of weeks?
Behind Nongünz we have the independent Spanish studio Brainwash Gang, this being one of its most important developments. The first impression that this title will cause us is confusion. Confusion because at first we are facing something different from other games, a totally unknown world in which we do not know exactly what our goal or goal is. We started w
ith a very brief tutorial in which the controls are explained to us in a very plain way. After that they let us loose in their world, a black and white sta
mp in which death and solitude are constant. According to Brainwash Gang, Nongünz wants to approach a nihilistic style, with a negative thought that puts into question everything we can come to know. With this premise and in a very cryptic way through symbolism,
The confusion not only moves to your world and thematic, it will also affect in a very obvious way its playable mechanics. In that aspect he remembers the Dark Souls saga, where the player has to discover by himself how to adapt to his playable style. We wil
l not have anyone to tell us what happens when we die, how to use their different skills, what we do with the souls collected … All that we will have to l
earn by ourselves, and although it is an addition of very difficult high for the first hours, once we learn its mechanics, the experience becomes more rewarding. Having said that, within Nongünz there will be two main areas. One that we could describe as a kind of nexus where we can manage our skills, weapons and souls that we get,
As we mentioned at the beginning of this analysis, we are in front of a Roguelike, which means that the levels will be generated procedurally, and each time we enter the church, it will be different from the last time we played. As in the vast majority of games of
the style, we will find different sections or worlds, each one will have enemies much harder to deal with. One of the great benefits of this title is the wide range of enemies it presents, and the different dangers that each of them has. We will have to memorize their attack patterns, and from there decide how to face these beings. But even with that advantage of
having so many types of enemies, there is something that we do not like. The more hours we take, the more we will begin to notice a constant sense of déjà vu. Th
e stages and their structure in general are well designed, but they end up becoming too evident with the passing of the hours. And this is something that ends up influencing the experience in general, since many situations become repetitive.
On the other hand, we have a combat system that, while simple, responds quite well in general. There will be three main movement actions: jump, dodge and slide. With these three simple skills we will have to move in a 2D space, where we will have to dodge and a
void any type of attack that the enemies pose to us. Obviously we will have a good arsenal of weapons: pistols, shotguns, rifles, grenade launchers … Typical in any shooter. As a curious fact we are facing a shooting game where there will be no type of aim, that is,
we will not be able to shoot towards the angle that we want, we will only be able to shoot horizontally in the direction that we move. We always have a gun at the start of each game,
These chests, besides giving weapons, can offer a kind of mask or head that grants certain skills to our character. These skills ra
nge from being able to use double jump, teleport, sprint, attract enemies, use a kind of portals, etc. It should be noted that there will only be one chest per world, so the improvements throughout the game in that regard will be limit
ed. But luckily we will have another type of chest, which in most cases will be available in each level. With these chests we can get some cards that will raise our statistics in many areas: life, damage, attack speed, jump height, etc. Of course, to open such chest
s we will have to sacrifice part of our life, so you will have to think more than once if it suits you to open them according to what times.
