Just last weekend, we wrote about indie publisherCritical Reflex’s PAX East lineup,and closed by saying that the future looks bright for them. As it turns out, it only took a few days for things to become bright for them and developer Mike Klubnika, as their game Buckshot Roulette has officially sold over a million copies since its release on Steam just two weeks ago. The game started out as a simple game released through itch.io in December of last year, but quickly gained the attention of many thanks to its unique gameplay, premise, and the fact that it was an almost perfect game for streamers to check out. Critical reflex helped bring the game to Steam, and with that came a hit demo during Steam Next Fest that helped build up hype, then came the full release complete with critical acclaim, and now, here we are at one million served. The celebration came with a brief teaser,which you can check out at the link here.
Taking a Chance Pays Off Big Time
Buckshot Roulette’s setup is simple: it’s Russian Roulette, except now you’re using a shotgun, and you have items dealt out randomly in between rounds to try and figure out when to fire on yourself or the mysterious dealer, relying on your memory in order to keep track of what shells are or could be live and which are blanks. It’s that kind of simple-yet-elegant gameplay, combined with touches of horror, that helped make it a hit at first. The Steam version upgrades things by adding an endless “Double or Nothing” mode, throwing in even more items and challenges for players to take on, as well as the addition of achievements, plus gamepad support and more language options, making things even more appealing.
PAX East 2024: Critical Reflex Flexes Their Muscle
Despite a couple of rocky showings, indie publisher Critical Reflex still impresses with a group of varied and interesting games.
The team isn’t stopping there when it comes to the additions, though. Plans are now in motion to release the game on consoles, and a multiplayer mode will be added to the game later on as well, not to mention minor additions like Steam trading cards and community items. Needless to say, several players are likely awaiting any new content to come in the future, and all of this is for a game that, as of the time of writing, only costs a mere $2.99 USD, an affordable cost which likely helped figure into the game’s success. Buckshot Roulette is available now, and is worth checking out, so here’s hoping it continues to sell like hotcakes.
