The anxiety of something as adrenaline-inducing as Russian Roulette lies in its unpredictable circumstances. It’s almost ironic how a game of pure luck can grow increasingly thrilling even though nothing is truly in your control. Except, in the case of Buckshot Roulette, luck is merely an illusion. The game’s immaculate design and choice of themes fool you into believing you’re in control, yet gives you ample choice over how things go.
In my time playing through the indie table-top horror game that originally came from itch.io, I found myself at the edge of my seat, breaking my head over every possible ‘right’ decision I could take for my character. This may seem like a paradox because, at the start Buckshot Roulette, a shotgun and a couple of rounds in it decide my fate before I can make sense of why I’m even doing this to myself.
What begins as a game of fortune soon turns into a series of rounds that test my wits, asking me to play ‘one more round‘ before I realize I’ve spent hours playing Buckshot Roulette, ending my streak with a huge craving for Russian House music and a couple of cans of beer.
Buckshot Roulette releases on April 4 for PC.
Luck, skill, and the promise of a (somewhat) controlled outcome
Buckshot Roulette starts with a promise that resembles a post-graduate game dev project. Or, rather, the promising return of tabletop games to modern-day gaming. There’s a vision, there’s a theme, but there’s almost an open-ended nothingness to it. You walk out of a bathroom that looks like a crime scene into what resembles a Russian nightclub from the 1980s.
You then enter a room, and as the music fades into the background, you’re greeted by a creepy, enigmatic character called the Dealer. What follows is an explanation of the game’s rules.
As the game progresses, you find yourself using a shotgun to shoot the Dealer, or yourself. The shotgun rounds are either blank or live. This turn-by-turn experience of terror keeps going on until one of you is dead (rather, dead enough) to make it to the next round, and things get increasingly interesting with the introduction of certain items.
Until this point, I was still making up my mind about the causality of this game. Did I have a say in any of this? Was this pure luck? Fortunately, the ‘aha!’ moment didn’t take too long to find its way to me, and items like handcuffs, magnifying glasses, and a few others entered the table.
Buckshot Roulette also manages to do the little things right. The nervous shake of the shotgun as you hold it, the sinister flair of the room you’re in, and the Dealer menacingly staring at you… everything sits well with the game’s horror-inducing themes.
Schrödinger’s Shotgun, and the 50-50 chance of wanting more
These items shift the game’s skillset more than you’d expect them to. The magnifying glass lets you see what kind of round the shotgun is holding. The handcuffs stop the Dealer from playing the next round.
Similarly, different items give you a slight advantage over your current situation, and if you’re smart about things, you’ll likely predict future events.
This doesn’t take away the absolute thrill you’ll feel coming back to life (thank you, another creepy person, for the defib) and the utmost sense of joy every time you outsmart the Dealer. All in all, fortune favors the Buckshot.
Is Buckshot Roulette good?
Buckshot Roulette can be extremely fun unless, like me, you’re curious enough to know the deal with the Dealer and everything else that’s going on. The pixel-esque art with gloomy colors is an intentional choice, and that gives me reason enough to believe that the art direction here was well thought out.
Since this is the PC version of the game, I went in expecting a lot more, rather than a 20-minute gameplay loop on repeat. Nevertheless, Mike Klubnika’s re-imagination of a thrilling game of life and death will be a pleasant surprise to newcomers, considering its minimal UI, daunting AI, and incredibly addictive mechanics. Moreover, I faced no bugs or glitches during my playtime.
Buckshot Roulette undoubtedly offers everything you could expect from the itch.io classic. If you’re like me, make sure to keep aside the aftertaste of a promising narrative wrapped in mystery that manipulates you into asking for more.
Buckshot Roulette – 8/10
