Brenden BeersIt’s a Friday night, and you’re looking for a good time. You find yourself in a underground, dingy industrial nightclub bathroom and you came for one thing in mind…
When you leave the bathroom you’ll make your way to the back room to face off against The Dealer, who shows you how to play the game.
Three shotgun shells. One real, two blanks. It’s your job to find out which shell is the live one. You both take turns shooting each other or yourselves, and whoever runs out of charges, wins the round. Pretty simple, yet fear-inducing concept. When you successfully shoot The Dealer, his face contorts from the creepy smile you see to something more broken and worrisome, knowing he could potentially lose this deadly game of chance.
As the rounds play out the number of shotgun shells change. Your chances of scoring a successful hit decreases, unless you keep track of what shots have been fired. Once the first round is over the game kicks it up a notch and adds a little more strategy into the mix by introducing items, such as a pack of cigarettes to heal one of your charges, a pair of handcuffs to skip The Dealer’s turn, or a magnifying glass to show you what round is currently in the chamber. You then have to shoot The dealer four times to progress, and the stakes increase further once you get closer to the end of the round.
The thrill of not knowing what round is in the chamber, combined with the item system, creates such a tense and rewarding feeling when you can successfully shoot The Dealer, but gives you a deep sense of fear when you either have the gun pointed at you, or if you point it at yourself. Although, if you lose within the first two rounds, you can always try again, as you awaken back in the bathroom, ready for a new round, and surprisingly not dead.
Once you shoot The Dealer for the final time in the second round, the final round kicks off. The soundtrack fades out, and there’s now no more chances for revival.
It’s do, or die. For real.
This is when things get a lot more tense. The game will starts adding in the saw item, which doubles the damage from the shotgun. The Dealer will also announce that there’s no more revives, so once you lose your charges, it’s game over.
If you manage to make it out alive, you’ll win all the money you could ever hope for. You’ll never have to worry about your debts again and you’ll drive home, winnings and shotgun in tow.
Released on December 28th 2023, Mike Klubnika‘s Buckshot Roulette is a dread-filling take on Russian Roulette sprinkled with some item mechanics reminiscent of Inscryption’s card-based gameplay. The item system adds a surprising amount of strategising as you have to plan for which items you might get. Additionally, seeing The Dealer use their items when it’s their turn is worrying, especially when it comes time for them to turn the gun on you.
Buckshot Roulette’s gritty graphics suit the gameplay and world very well. It makes use of posterisation techniques, a low amount of colour and enough light to sell the environment you’re in. Along with only enough light at any given time, the game’s tense atmosphere is easier to buy into.
Although this is a very short game, Buckshot Roulette has an endless mode. In it everything is randomised, including shotgun shells, items obtained, and the amount of charges for each round. This adds a ton of replay value, which is quite appreciable.
Buckshot Roulette is a short experience that’s well worth the time.
