Nongunz (2017)

A savage monochromatic roguelike shooter with a difficulty curve reminiscent of a vertical straight line, Nongunz: Doppelganger Edition is tough to love early on. Over time though, the smart risk vs reward system rises to the surface and the slick gunplay becomes challenging rather than simply impossible. While it doesn’t match the heights of its more modern day peers, it’s still worth a look if you’ve got the time to dedicate to it.

Roguelikes... the tendency is you'll either love them or hate them, and I've been on both sides of the fence, sometimes against the popular grain even, when it comes to the category...

With a number of unlockables and different ways to improve your chances of survival, there are plenty of ways to play this title. Though the initial learning curve can be somewhat tough to get around it is worth as Nongunz is a satisfying title when you get the hang of it. Of course, it is not a game that will click with everyone but if it does you will absolutely love it.

Nongünz is really something special; a shooter with brains that's not only haunting, challenging and utterly compelling but, thanks to its procedural nature, is hugely replayable.

Having a game that doesn't force feed the player anything is just a unique enough experience to merit checking Nongünz out on its own. Beyond that though, there's enough good things and few enough bad things (most of which is not being able to shoot up, which is a really big problem for something that seems so small) that this a genuinely entertaining gaming experience.