Tower of Guns

I often miss certain information in reviews. Therefore I post it here for people like me, who need it quick and easy. Playtime: 1-2 hrs. - Levels: ~6 (randomly selected) - Backtracking between levels: no, but you can revisit level-styles in endless mode - Secrets: yes - Achievements: no - Unlockables: a lot - Collectables: no - Replayability: enormous - Sense of wonder: some

It could have been a little more polished, shinier and more varied (the enemy types, room types, weapons, perks, items etc are all rather limited and the various upgrades aren't quite hard hitting) for the asking price (which is on par with games that had full production teams behind them rather than just two brothers) but I can't complain as it's good fun regardless. It definitely feels old school. Not Doom old school, instead something that could have been released alongside Quake III and Unreal Tournament, but of course this is a single player game, not an arena shooter. At the same time it doesn't feel like a copy cat or a rip off of anything else and does new things that fit the style well. I've tried some other "roguelike FPS" games that appeared recently and I feel this is the most fun and overall well made of the bunch, although the others may each do one or another element better. I hope the sales enable them to do a sequel while also contracting additional staff to improve the aspects it is most lacking in and maybe add co-op.

It's hard to review a game harshly when it was very obviously made with so much heart. I really tried to have fun with it, often coming back to the game without even wanting to, and I just could not enjoy it no matter what I tried. Keep in mind, I never made it past the fourth stage, and I never did unlock too many of the available weapons which you get from meeting certain criteria. This is not a review written by someone who has beaten the game! The interesting thing about the game is that if I were to explain the mechanics of the game to you, you'd probably want to buy the game right away and not see where I am coming from. I actually love the idea behind the game! It wants to be a very simple FPS that relies more on reactions, dodging and precise aiming rather than hiding behind cover and managing ammo. You only get to pick your weapon at the start, so don't expect to scavenge levels for new and better weapons. What you will be scavenging for are blue orbs and blue cards which represent experience points, which you use to upgrade your gun to be able to deal more damage and increase the rate of fire. The game revolves around shooting your way through a dozen or so arena-like rooms before reaching the boss of that particular stage. It's all very simple, and that's not something you should hold against it. There is no story, and once you die you have to start from stage 1 again. Simply put, it's very arcade-y, and that's great. What isn't great is how the game feels, and that's always a very hard thing to describe. Handling my character, jumping around and shooting enemies just doesn't feel right at all. Shooting an enemy doesn't feel good, because there is no real satisfaction, no sound effect or enemy reaction, that makes me feel like I am really shredding through these enemies. The rooms are bland and the bosses feel annoying. I have a hard time dodging bullets because I just feel slow and my jump doesn't feel effective either. It's not adrenaline-pumping.

On the surface it may not seem like a very varied game, after a few runs the levels all feel the same, there isn't any major variation in the enemies (aside from the rng potentially holding back bosses so you don't meet them till your 30th or 50th run through) and once you've unlocked all the guns, decided which ones you like, the weapon pool starts to feel rather small. BUT, persue on, play this game more than just a handful of times and suddenly you will find yourself with over fifty eftra jumps, an insane amount of health and armor that isn't even enough for the insane amount of damage you take and stuck in a room with more bullets flying at you than you know what to do with, and if you're anything like me, left with no choice but to run around firing blindly and hoping you somehow survive the chaos. As you put more hours into this game and carry out further runs you'll begin to come across rooms that you may never have seen before, or merely come across as a rarity, explore a little and you'll find cleverly hidden secrets that you never knew existed or never gave any thought to due to a lack of mobility to reach such places. Along side the random and chaotic joy of the gameplay you also have the light entertainment of a story to accompany, telling the tales of of octogenarians trying to recycle their cans, evil priests summoning ancient demon gods, the failed experiments of scientists attempting to synthesise puppy's and many many more. So i compell you, do not write this game off because you do not like what you see in your first handful of runs. With randomly constructed rooms, a range from easy rooms with nothing in them to a plethra of enemies that almost seems unfair, plenty of secrets to keep you guessing when you enter a room and last but far from least perks left by Joe (the dev) preceeding milestone runs spanning well into the thousands, there are more than ample reasons to give this game more than just a brief try.