HomeNewsBuckshot Roulette
Inscryption meets Russian Roulette in this weird short horror gameBuckshot Roulette is from the dev behind Unsorted Horror
Buckshot Roulette is from the dev behind Unsorted Horror
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Mike Klubnika
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Mike Klubnika
Russian Roulette is just an edgy version of Snakes & Ladders. It’s pure luck gussied up with high stakes and the cool aesthetic of spinning a six-shooter. A grizzled mafioso whose cheeks glitter with fragments of other people’s teeth has as much chance of winning Russian Roulette as a sleepy five-year-old in SpongeBob pyjamas. But take Russian Roulette, swap the revolver for a pump-action shotgun, mix up live and dud rounds, and addInscryption-esque items which let you change the rules, and now you have a more skillful game. That’sBuckshot Roulette, the latest from Mike Klubnika, the dev behindthose excellent horror games about operating machinery. Great weird machines here too.
Gambling with your life in Buckshot RouletteHere’s me playing up to the end of round 2Watch on YouTube
Gambling with your life in Buckshot Roulette
The second round introduces items. At every reload, the mechanical table opens to present you with a box containing random single-use items. The magnifying glass lets you peek at the shell currently loaded. Smoking a cigarette restores one life. Chugging a beer pumps the shotgun to eject the current shell. Handcuffs make your opponent skip their next turn. And the hand saw (temporarily) cuts down the shotgun’s barrel to make it deal 2 damage. The items and the fiendish adversary do make this feel quite Inscryption-y.
So. Run the numbers on how many of each shell are left in the shotgun. Decide whether to shoot yourself or the dealer. Decide whether to use items this turn or save them, perhaps hoping to wing it on probability until you can deploy a devastating combo. It’s not the most complex puzzle game but it’s fun to feel out strategies and ride the odds, and I really dig the tone, and I adore all this weird machinery.
Like Klubnika’s other games, giant weird mechanical devices govern all this. The game table is mechanical, whirring into life with flipping hidden compartments revealing shells and boxes. Scores are tracked on a machine which hooks into the defibrillators reviving you. The whole room is full of doodads, some of which remain unexplained. The shotgun itself is also a great device, with the pleasing clack-clonk that’s almost as cool as a Russian Roulette player spinning the revolver cylinder. Even entering your name at the start involves an elaborate device. I’m very into this level of mechanical overcomplication.
This device, opened with a key, is the best name entry doodad I’ve seen in a game |Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun/Mike Klubnika
After this, do also check out Klubnika’sUnsorted Horror. It’s a collection of short horror games full of strange machines. Operate a whole suite of devices to draw samples from unknown life in the depths, keep a drill running to escape a mysterious bunker, cripple a vast computer, and more. Good stuff. It’sone of my other 2023 favourites. You can get that for freeon Steam.
