Review | Buckshot Roulette - Luck On My Side

Despite my usual aversion to games of chance, Buckshot Roulette managed to captivate me with its exhilarating soundtrack and engaging game mechanics. The fusion of these elements with the concept of Russian Roulette was an exciting experience.

Although I had fun, the game was relatively short and lacking in substance. I can only hope they add more to it in the future.

Booting the Door Down

You play a faceless character, going from the bathroom to the backroom to gamble. Kicking the door down with an electronic soundtrack in the background, you prepare yourself for what may be the last night of your life. 

Your opponent is a peculiar-looking fellow. Rather haunting, with an absolutely massive mouth. Nothing about the situation is normal. You can choose between shooting yourself or shooting the dealer and hope you get lucky.

I enjoyed the grimy look of the room and the distortion that surrounded the entire event.  It had a rusted feel, with a pixellated or noisy-looking effect over the top. It made the game feel dated but in the best way.

This is a rather short experience. The aim of the game is to get to round three and successfully kill the dealer. Of course, luck isn’t always on your side. For me, I somehow managed to get lucky throughout my experience, and didn’t die at all! 

To make things more interesting, there are items you can use that can help or hinder your experience in Buckshot Roulette. For example, you can use a magnifying glass to see if the shell in the gun is blank or not. After you have completed the initial Buckshot Roulette, you unlock a game mode called Double or Nothing, which is exactly what it says on the tin. You play again, but you have the opportunity to double your money each time you win. This game mode unlocks new items, such as a burner phone that will tell you whether one of the shells is blank or not. 

Empty Clues

The items that you get through the game are probably one of my favourite parts of Buckshot Roulette. They can really spice up the experience and will leave you hanging on the edge of your seat if you use them incorrectly. One item had me especially curious, though. Once you unlock items in the second round, you pull a bloodied waiver out of the box, signed by “God.” Nothing is ever mentioned about this in the game afterward, and there seems to be no point to it. I was disappointed by this, as I was hoping that it would provide some extra layers of lore or weirdness to the game, but there was nothing.

On top of the bloodied waiver, there are also Quaaludes you can take in the bathroom. I did a playthrough taking them and a playthrough where I didn’t. To my knowledge, it didn’t have any effect on the experience, which, again, left me disappointed, but, hey, it was just a placebo batch. 

I feel as if the developer, Mike Klubnika, had a really fun opportunity with this to add something to the game or to add some form of a backstory by including these items, but it just came up empty. This makes sense, considering this was originally an itcho.io game, but now it's for sale on Steam; it feels a little light on content.

Although I enjoyed my time with Buckshot Roulette, I do wish that there was a bit more to the game. I understand that the experience is meant to be a short-lived one, so it was fun for the hour that I played, where I completed the game. However, it would have been exciting to see some story elements or even just some extra game modes to breathe life into its Steam release.