Beginning of the game, repetitive gameplay and such (am I missing something?)

[Thermidor]

Hi, I'm relatively new to the game, at the moment, I spent 5 hours in the game, haven't found any secrets or progressed farther than the second chapter. Am I missing something?
I'm not totally new to the roguelikes (I have 278 hours spent in both Isaac games) but I feel that EtG has a very small content/time spent ratio. If I die fighting a boss at the second level, I am back square one with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gun praying for the RNG to give me something to work with.
The credits you get from beating the boss (top right corner at the lobby) look promising, but I don't have an incling how to spend them, I have no idea what a guy in shop's sewer wants, how can I open a door at the second chapter (aside from the possibility that it opens with a pricy item from the shop) and most irritatingly I have no idea how to get new information.
So, to sum up, I can't understand this game: is it just an overhyped piece of garbage or am I too dumb and unobservant to get this game?

[D2daICE]

Not sure what exactly you mean with "content/time spent ratio". Might wanna explain this for me?

Originally posted by Thermidore:

If I die fighting a boss at the second level, I am back square one with a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ gun praying for the RNG to give me something to work with.

That's basically how Isaac works too? Sure, with the later patches and add-ons there is much more content and you can unlock new "loadouts" for your chars but when you die in Isaac you still have to start at the basement with your "basic tears" in general.
Same goes for Gungeon.

The Hegemony Credits you speak of are used to unlock items via the breach, which then can spawn or be dropped in the gungeon.

Also the door which you mean (if it's a cell with an NPC) will require a special key to unlock which drops on the floor where you find the key.

If you talk to the sewer guy he asks if you brought some stuff for him and since you can drop almost every item/gun in Gungeon (except your starter stuff) just try what happens when you throw stuff onto his gutter.

If there is a blocked path (with kind of a red cross) this means the path is blocked but can be accessed via another route.

Rogue-Lites are not meant give you every mechanic on a silver plate and some unlocks or other stuff require very specific things you have to do - just like in Isaac and i bet that you didn't know everything about Isaac back in the day when you first played it, did you?

Edit:
Don't be surprised if the difficulty in Gungeon spikes at later floors, since dodging skills are more important than in Isaac.

[Duke Von Rollington]

Yes you're missing a lot lol. Just play more and you'll start finding NPCs, unlocking guns, getting good, etc. If it was just overhyped garbage I don't think there'd be 4-5k avg. players. There's always Isaac or NT if this rogue-lite isn't your cup of tea.

[D2daICE]

Or Risk of Rain - which is one of my personal favourites

[Thermidor]

Originally posted by D2daICE:

Not sure what exactly you mean with "content/time spent ratio". Might wanna explain this for me?

As far as I feel, Isaac has more "things" to do (even if we only consider the original game), first level gives you: several basic enemies, one of the bosses, one of the items (which sometimes change gameplay completely by altering the basic rules), shop, devil deals, mini bosses. EtG gives you one/two guns/passive/active items (some change gameplay a little, like guns with freeze/poison effects, but none push you to another level of play). And the fist level of Isaac can be beaten in 3-4 minutes by the new player, while EtG makes you spend more time at least before you find a first gun.

Originally posted by D2daICE:

Sure, with the later patches and add-ons there is much more content and you can unlock new "loadouts" for your chars but when you die in Isaac you still have to start at the basement with your "basic tears" in general.

Items in Isaac synergize leading to combos which make game much more fun, while guns are pretty orthogonal to each other.

Originally posted by D2daICE:

If you talk to the sewer guy he asks if you brought some stuff for him and since you can drop almost every item/gun in Gungeon (except your starter stuff) just try what happens when you throw stuff onto his gutter.

I probably missed the part of tutorial about dropping stuff, thank you.

Originally posted by D2daICE:

Don't be surprised if the difficulty in Gungeon spikes at later floors, since dodging skills are more important than in Isaac.

Difficulty is less of a problem, maybe it's just because I don't want to invest time in the game badly enough.

[D2daICE]

1. Gungeon isn't like Isaac when it comes to the guns/items. There are weapons or items that can carry you pretty good but Gungeon will need much more skill to best the game than Isaac. There are synergies in Gungeon but not all of them has been discovered yet and i think they don't alter the gameplay as much as some of them do in Isaac.

2. If you expected Gungeon to be another kind of Isaac rogue-lite then you were mistaken. It's more of a bullet hell game and the gameplay loop is a bit different because it values good play and not getting hit more than other rogue-lites i've played.

Originally posted by Thermidore:

EtG gives you one/two guns/passive/active items (some change gameplay a little, like guns with freeze/poison effects, but none push you to another level of play). And the fist level of Isaac can be beaten in 3-4 minutes by the new player, while EtG makes you spend more time at least before you find a first gun.

There are items that give you piercing bullets, bouncing bullets, grant you flight, make you invisible, let you teleport/blink, invincible, electrify your bullets, let you shoot twice as much bullets for a period of time, some items give you familiars that shoot on enemies, there are curses which can affect gameplay because they spawn enemies that take a lot more hits.

Also there are pretty hilarious weapons that spawn sharks, tigers (they do a lot of damage to single targets), there are area of effect weapons (molotov launcher), there are weapons that get stronger the more enemies you kill with them (love the game reference), there are weapons that let you clear rooms of the fifth chamber with one shot.

You are basing your opinion on the short amount of time and the few levels you have seen, which is a bit "unfair" in my opinion but i still have the impression that Gungeon might not be the right kind of game for you.

[Carrier Pidgeons]

Frustrated because you haven't gotten good gear.

Once you get carried past chamber 4 by OP gear you'll chill a bit, hehe.