It has been quite some time since developer Mike Klubnika announced tabletop horror Buckshot Roulette that took off everywhere it could. The game tests players’ brainpower, prudence and luck, allowing the winner to leave with money and their life.
Gameplay-wise, it all boils down to Russian roulette… but with a shotgun.
As a visitor of an underground club, you decide to play a game with the Dealer, a sort of eldritch horror with a huge number of teeth and empty eyes. The essence of the game is simple to a fault. There are 3 rounds, during which you are given several dummy and combat cartridges. Your task is to guess or count correctly, and to shoot yourself and the Dealer with the correct version of the ammo.
The Dealer charges the shotgun with combat or blank cartridges in random order, and the game begins. You take turns shooting either yourself or the Dealer. A blank shot into your own self grants you an extra turn, while using a combat cartridge takes away a point of health and moves the turn to your opponent.
The first round acts as a pure tutorial, where players get shown the game’s mechanics. Once you win, you press onto round 2… and the game starts adding new items:
- Magnifying glass allows you to spy on the current cartridge in the chamber;
- Shotgunning beer allows you to safely get rid of the current cartridge;
- Scab increases the damage done to 2 points, up from 1;
- Cigarettes restore one point of health;
- Suspicious pills have an equal chance of restoring a health point and losing two;
- Handcuffs prevent the participant from taking their turn;
- Phone provides a single hint on a random cartridge from a mysterious voice;
- Inverter changes the current cartridge in the chamber to the opposite;
- Adrenaline allows you to use any of the opponent’s items, except for another shot of adrenaline.
Every round, you should consider the number of dummy and combat cartridges and rely on their ratio. If there are more blank cartridges, it’s better to shoot yourself. However, if the combat rounds are the ones in greater quantity, it’s best to shoot the Dealer.
The items mentioned above allow you to make the game even more interesting and win by using unusual combinations. For example, if you are sure that the next cartridge is blank, you can use the Inverter to change it to the combat version and fire at the Dealer. Alternatively, you can use Adrenaline and steal the handcuffs from the Dealer, only to cuff them and force them to skip a turn, giving you more chances to shoot. Players can also use the Phone to correlate how many (and what type) cartridges remain in game.
In a normal game, you need to bring the Dealer’s health to zero three times to win the prize. After that, you will unlock a new mode “Double or Nothing”. Winning in it provides you with an opportunity to play again but with an increase in winnings, and you can continue playing that way endlessly – provided you have the skills to match! You can stop at any moment or continue testing your luck and skills until they inevitably run out.
With each subsequent round, the quantity of cartridges will increase. If the first round only features 3–4 bullets, then by the third there are 8: 4 dummy cartridges & 4 battle cartridges. It becomes increasingly harder to simply guess your way through the Dealer’s hand, and that is where items come into play.
With every passing round, the game will be turning more and more interesting as passions and stakes run higher. Shooting themselves, players shake hands, while the Dealer doesn’t really react outwardly in any way. At the same time, having been shot with a combat round, the player is pumped back to life by defibrillators. The Dealer simply reappears from darkness. The player character also uses items for their intended purpose, while the Dealer’s animations are meant to be mocking.
Sometimes you can also run into the Quick Death mode, when the health board simply gets cut off and players only have 1 HP left.
Buckshot Roulette features simple, stylish graphics that might require some getting used to at first. The granular picture seems kind of messy and unpleasant at first, but a few minutes in you will get drawn into it completely. The game exudes the atmosphere of dirty hopelessness, starting with gray walls and worn equipment and ending with monotonous club music. The creature with the shotgun also causes real doubts about the safety of whatever’s happening. However, the excitement from the dangerous game blocks the sense of self-preservation.
You can beat the game in half an hour, unless you are exceedingly unlucky. At that point, you can unlock the “Double or Nothing” mode, which can be played back-to-back. And yet, the excitement and the desire to win don’t die down between rounds.
