This game is basically Dead Cells with a Bloodstained aesthetics. Well, even a bit more than "just aesthetics", as it pulls in a light version of the Bloodstained attack mechanisms. (e.g. down-left-attack, down-up-attack etc.) On the downside, it's neither as good as Dead Cells, nor as good as Bloodstained. Not that those are fair comparisons; Tower Hunter is a game mostly made by three guys, for which it really exceeds expectations. Just set your expectations accordingly; the game is quite good but not great, whereas Dead Cells and Bloodstained are great. If you haven't played those two, well, do so first. When you have played them enough, and want for some change, then give Tower Hunter a go. There's one thing that I don't like in this game, and it's the roguelike level generator. The generated levels just feel 2x too big for what they offer; lots of completely pointless areas and dead ends that feel like a waste of time and a drag. The game doesn't get a good pacing as result of those overlong levels. (for reference, in Dead Cells I feel the levels size and pacing is "just right"; your opinions may vary...) The other minor gripe: the music. The music is actually *good*, very good even. But there's very few tracks (9 total, I think?) and it combines badly with the overlong pointlessly dragged levels. A track will repeat from start to end of a level, and it would be just right if the levels weren't so "filler-stuffed". But the levels drag on, until that one music track repeating overstays its welcome as much as the level itself. (shame, because it's good tracks otherwise) Those two gripes out of the way, all else is quite good. The graphics, the animations, the fights, the variety of attacks, the bosses, the "chips system" which lets you improve very specific aspects and capabilities, within limits, depending on how you like to play... The game certainly loses one star due to the above gripes, but it makes for fun gameplay otherwise.
There's many reviews of the base game, but not any of this add-on, so to get the ball rolling... The basic game, as you may know, is decent-enough fun for single-player, and fantastic fun for local coop. If you're a "single player", Dark World will offer you a few new environments, a few new enemy types (who are mostly new sprites for old acquaintances), a few new interesting bosses and equipment. Everything seems to have been speeded up a bit. All in all, if you feel you need some new TowerFall challenges, you won't go too wrong with this add-on. If you primarily enjoy "local coop", then you *really should* go for this add-on. The multiplayer mechanics have been reworked. The base game has 5 lives both for single-player and local-coop, with local-coop also offering one free resurrection at the end of every level that got finished by your surviving teammates. The add-on also gives a number of lives to the single-player, but multi-player comes with a twist: you get only one life, and unlimited resurrections by teammates who must "stand their ground" next to you for several seconds. In practice, this works great. As much as I really enjoyed the original local coop, I rarely wish to return to it after having tried the new local coop. It adds even more fun and tension to the game. "Unlimited resurrections by teammates" in no way means "unlimited lives"; the game doesn't merely end when your teammates gets killed before having succeeded to resurrect you, it so often ends when you accidentally kill your teammate while trying to kill an enemy, and then the "missed enemy" kills you. Even the boss fights are "by design" more efficient and satisfying when executed by a well-handled local coop. In short, if you're a "local coop" player of TowerFall -- don't miss this add-on!
