The condensed looter shooter experience
Gunfire Reborn is a looter shooter with an Asian aesthetic and a short, but extremely replayable campaign, which runs for less than an hour. It supports four-player online co-op, but this time, I was running solo. In short, it’s the full Borderlands experience without the questionable writing and Randy Pitchford.
You travel across multiple lands to purge the corruption (an ARPG classic), fighting terracotta soldiers in their crypts, sniper birds in the desert, samurai fish at the shores, and polar bears up in the frozen mountains.
Within the past few years since exiting early access, Gunfire Reborn has had seasonal events, like Path of Exile’s leagues, adding a bit of extra spice to the campaign. The fourth season (Star Link) started just a few days ago, so I thought it was a good time to get a run in with a character I wasn’t familiar with.
This run: Zi Xiao
In the head video, I’m playing as Zi Xiao, an owl who commands the stars with cards. I’m using Golden Bow, which deals immense amounts of single-target damage but is terrible with dealing with large packs of monsters. Good thing Zi Xiao’s abilities can make up for it! With the best cards, I call the stars to strike down an area in front of me.
Oh yeah, I somehow managed to get more than 100% accuracy in this run. I wonder how the game is counting that.
Yeah, it really is a fast, Asian Borderlands
Gunfire Reborn is transparently inspired by Borderlands. It features the same three core elements of Borderlands: fire, corrosion, and shock, and has the same focus on scavenging for weapons. One difference is that it relies on mechanically unique weapon designs, compared to the part-by-part weapon generation system that Borderlands has. Still, like any proper ARPG, there are piles of modifiers that can appear on any item.
Why not try…
- An octopus that sucks moisture from enemies to power a water laser
- A shotgun that’s really a small, handheld demon that eats fish and sneezes death
- A star compass that rather than shooting bullets, projects a damaging ring around you that you can grow and shrink
- The Unkempt Harold, straight from Borderlands 2
- A brick
Yeet.
This game and Roboquest are two of my favorite roguelikes! They both have a different feel when using the weapons, but both are incredibly satisfying! The progression and unlocks feel rewarding, the coop is fun (only played them with friends, so idk how online‐strangers coop is), and I enjoy how the difficulty scales. Love the weapon, perk, and build variety!!
How come I’ve never heard of Roboquest, that looks fun too!