Headshot Roulette Review (PC)

Leaky pipes; ominous lighting; a dank basement with a single bulb illuminating a shotgun in the center of four misfortunate players. A pulsating waterfall of blood and sweat; a proximity chat echoing the fickle sounds of ravenous screams and bloodthirsty voices; three blanks, one round. The sadistic glare of a villain; a subtle glimmer of hope; two schoolyard games; and a single credit on the line. The die is in play, and the game is afoot. In Headshot Roulette, who’ll be last, and who’ll be first?

Headshot Roulette wears its heart on its sleeve, its bullet in its chamber, and its intention between its eyes. Oh, roulette isn’t a best-kept secret; it’s a game that we’re shamefully familiar with. And in Headshot Roulette, specifically, the rules are clearer than ever — to the point where you don’t need a formal booklet outlining the details.

Headshot Roulette is, first and foremost, a PvP game that centers its existence around the timeless blood sport of Russian Roulette. Similar to that of a typical quick-fire game, four players duke it out with the goal of outlasting the other three bullet-brazen opponents at the table, and the one who manages to survive the bullet through dumb luck and ballsy behavior is, well, deemed the winner. The only major difference here, however, is that there’s a shotgun to wield, a series of intercepting mini-games to participate in, and a proximity chat that, given the circumstances, is more brash and chaotic than your average It Takes Two couch-based lobby. Suffice it to say, then, that the stakes here are much higher, and the cleanup process is, for better or worse, a lot more taxing.

A Bullet for You, a Bullet for Me

At the heart of Headshot Roulette is a simple, if not ludicrously intense PvP experience in which just four players, be they AI-driven bots or real users, sit down at a table within a dark and gloomy basement setting and thrash it out for the chance of surviving a bullet. With a shotgun in the center of the table, a chat that allows each player the opportunity to wage internal debate over which route to take next, and a series of hand gestures that offer more flair to the conversation between the squad—flipping the bird in a last-ditched effort to express disdain and outrage, usually—the goal is simple: pull the trigger, and see what sits in the chamber.

The thing that makes Headshot Roulette that much more appealing to play is its inclusion of special items. For example, during a game, each player is given the opportunity to utilize and foster different strategies, with certain items allowing more freedom over the round, and others serving only to drive a wedge between opposing players’ chances of winning the feud, and so on and so forth. It’s thanks to these in-game curveballs and mystery pick-me-ups that no two games in Headshot Roulette are ever the same. And I’m grateful for that, truly, because at the end of the day, there are really only so many times that you can cock the hammer and pull the trigger before things tire out and, well, flatline.

In the Hand of Fate

I’m quite surprised by just how much fun I had in Headshot Roulette. It wasn’t the act of squeezing the trigger that enticed me to re-join another table and do it all over again for the umpteenth time; it was the art of engaging in small talk, and the act of conversing with other folk on the board whilst making obscene hand gestures and spouting out empty threats whilst also holding a heart in one hand and a shotgun in the other. It was that same punch-drunk, quip-addled camaraderie that made Headshot Roulette the barrel of laughs that it was. And that same feeling managed to stick around for hours, surprisingly, with time passing much, much quicker than I expected it would.

Sure enough, Headshot Roulette is a pretty simple game with an elementary concept that’s as old as time itself. And so, with a scope as small as that, it’s hard to see how it’ll evolve into something more complex over the forthcoming months. It isn’t a dull idea, and it certainly does come clean on its promise to invoke an adrenaline-fueled PvP experience that feels both highly competitive and stupidly entertaining. As for whether or not it’ll still be the talk of the town in the next few weeks or so is another question that we ought to ponder. For what it’s worth, though, I’m all for supporting it. Is it the best PvP game I’ve ever played? Probably not, no. But it is, however, a game that I could quite easily see myself returning to every once in a blue moon to reignite a feud or six.

Verdict

Headshot Roulette captures that same beloved sense of atmospheric pressure and spine-tingling dread that we flock to whenever the label PvP jolts through the woodwork to attach itself to a competitive IP. Whilst it is a simple game with a to-the-letter theme, it does manage to shake things up just a smidgen with its own unique twists—in-game items, curveballs, strategies, and an option to twist your opponent’s arm via some not-so-useful hand gestures, being the standout features in an otherwise densely packed basket of familiar tropes. And I’m all for those small details; it helps to give it that little extra charisma.

It feels like a no-brainer (if you’ll pardon the pun) at this point. If you happen to enjoy the reckless thrill of joining an erratic squadron of desperate survivors who would happily exchange your life for their own amusement, then it’s highly likely that you’ll enjoy marveling over the table and flipping the bird in Headshot Roulette. And if you don’t have any interest in fueling the fires amongst your teammates, then you could always resort to the easier, less intimidating option of flipping pellets at emotionless carcasses for bots. Either way, you ought to give this trigger a big ol’ squeeze the next time you’re at a loose end and looking for some good old-fashioned PvP action.