Edit: I’m on day 31. Holy cow do the prices and difficulty ramp up. A bit of balancing would be nice in the post-game. Also, more weapon types would be nice. Also, there are interesting goals (like finding some mysterious relic) that say completed but I never see that mysterious relic so I’m confused. Finally, the final boss is always easier than literally every other boss. Perhaps that’s on purpose, and if it is, great, but if not, it needs fixing.
I cannot fathom why this game has such a low rating or why so few people have played it. It’s an incredible, addictive masterpiece. I’m not surprised it’s gotten a ton of praise over the years on other platforms. I only hesitated because it hadn’t been updated in 2 years but then it WAS updated!!! Thank you SO MUCH for updating!
The art is a perfect balance between gruesome and cartoonish. The music is awesome. The animations are epic. The quotes add to the strange atmosphere. 10/10 on art, sound, music, and atmosphere. Whoever did that did a phenomenal job.
The controls are fluid and the gameplay comes easily after a bit of playing around (the very brief tutorial doesn’t help much). But it’s okay! Messing up your first few rounds is fine because there’s zero penalty for dying other than having to start over the round. Match 3 has always been a satisfying mechanic; that’s why it’s so popular in mobile gaming. Gunhouse has taken that mechanic, twisted it a little, and made it even more satisfying by making it into a tower defense! Whoever rated it one star for not understanding is too impatient. Give it one hour. You can be comfortable with matching in one hour.
The key is to move one of a column of the same type of tiles from the side. That’s how you get blocks; through side matches. I’m not sure there’s any other way. It’s too quick for me to experiment much.
The game ramps up difficulty, it seems, in sets of 3. You earn money (and heal) for every enemy you kill. So you’re constantly progressing. In that way, gunhouse is excellent for both casual and not-casual players. As long as you enjoy the main mechanic, matching and loading guns, you can continue to keep playing and playing. To infinity, actually.
A lot of infinite games don’t work because they become repetitive, but this title is so well designed, with its art and animations, the variance in weapons in enemies, and the randomized match 3 mechanic.
Match 3 isn’t the only thing though. There’s also a shop with upgrades and different weapons, so you won’t be bored because you can switch it up. You can even “return” an upgrade for another.
The survival mode is meh, but I can see why people like it. I hope this game continues to get updated, because I haven’t been this addicted in a loooooong time. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
One note — I still have black bars on my iPhone 11. Not a big deal but I thought you fixed it. Also there’s a bug where a swipe won’t register which has to do with notifications popping up. Other than that, it runs smooth as silk!