FULL REVIEW: Archtower

[Two Clicks]

RANKING:

AVOID | LACKING | MAYBE | WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE

SYNOPSIS:

WHAT TO EXPECT:

Archtower (At) is an unconventional mix of ARPG dungeon crawler and roguelike. It has pixel graphics and can be played in 1st or 3rd person modes. Players launch excursions from a populated hub into a mysterious tower and primitive fantasy world, Characters are built from several classes are assigned different skills and abilities and attack types are determined by equipped weapons and power crystals from a large quality-derived inventory. Quests gained from NPCs raise the fame of the hero's clan to provide additional bonuses to stats. Permadeath is balanced with a survival mechanic and dropped loot at death that can be retrieved. Made using Gamemaker it current provides solo play only

STATUS:	Remains in Early Access and is likely to be there for the long haul (2-3 years)
AUDIENCE:	For fans of difficult, immersive, fast-paced, action driven dungeon crawlers with simple gameplay and a roguelite format
VALUE FOR MONEY:	Current composition of content probably warrants a small sale. Price will be increased after Early Access is completed
REVIEWED USING:	Intel i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 @ 1GB 1920x1080 windowed, EVO850 SSD

More info below....

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893327955

OBSERVATIONS:

THE GOOD:	▲ MANY LEVELS: 7x multi-part levels will rise to 15-20x for the main tower, plus additional standalone areas revealed through quests that are full of chests, traps, enemies, and NPCs to interact with ▲ NOT SO PERMADEATH: This is balanced with a novel mechanic that gives a % chance to continue the adventure unharmed, but with the chance to eventually get injuries/traumas. Restarting at the tower with only carried equipment, dropped inventory can be retrieved ▲ INVENTORY: Includes a large range of items to fit 8x equipment slots such as: melee and ranged weapons, armour, jewellery and a shield. Each with three levels of quality up to rare. An additional level (epic) to be added ▲ NUMEROUS QUESTS: Huge number of quests can be acquired from NPCS found throughout the game. More to be added ▲ RESPONSIVE CONTROLS: Has some surprisingly tight controls perfect for the action part of this roguelite. Players can jump, dodge, or use two actions to attack, cast spells or attempt tactical abilities ▲ TOWER HUB: Located at the tower's base filled with a vendor, skill respeccing, strategic character upgrades, quest givers and other useful NPCs
THE BAD:	▼ GAME SAVES: Saving a game just stores meta, quest and character progression and not the location of the character, causing a lot replaying of uncompleted levels ▼ STUTTERING: Movement of the character begins to stutter around level 5 of the tower in some places. Could be tied to overcumbrance. Experienced across several sessions ▼ GUI ISSUES: Character, inventory and clan are made of multiple windows hiding info away. Features that should on by default in settings are set to off. Some elements are not populated completely (skills) ▼ CAMERA VIEW: Camera sometimes goes from 3rd to 1st purely or can have visibility obscured by scenery, given the positioning of the character ▼ GRAMMAR & PROOFREADING: Some of the English text need better translation ▼ SCENERY CLIPPING: A few areas have problems with badly clipped scenery which cause invisible blockages for character movement ▼ CHARACTER PROGRESSION: The forced hero level cap stunts the number of skill upgrades currently available for a build, making this aspect incomplete and unsatisfying. Possible to get skills but be unable to allocate points to them ▼ DISJOINTED QUESTS: Questing can be confusing on a reload of a saved game as they occur at specific locations and players can choose to start in other areas
AND THE REST:	= CHARACTER BUILDS: Starting classes are small and can adopt a variety of skills, perks, traits and equipable tactical abilities but are currently capped. Additional classes can be unlocked after death. Hero levels to rise to level 20-30x by end of EA. More traits, perks and classes to be added = COMBAT: Numerous attack and defence mechanics afford characters the ability to dodge and block attacks, and use ranged or melee attacks or cast abilities to strike at enemies. Equipable abilities are quite varied = META PROGRESSION: That includes hero levelling through adventuring, stat bonuses earned with increasing clan fame by completing quests and Tower upgrades to enhance character capabilities = LEVEL DESIGN: Scripted and semi-persistent in nature, their division into multiple parts means they must be replayed from the first area once the tower is left. Scenery is varied but a fair amount of props and furniture is reused = ENEMIES: Get to fight a small cadre of enemies some 'unique', with melee, spellcasting or ranged attacks. Either humanoid, animal or insect in nature. Spawns are tame at the start but become more diverse and get tougher = (MINI)MAP: The mini version is difficult to read and very limited. However, the superimposed one (turned on in settings) provides a more comprehensive and strategic overview of levels = STEAM SUPPORT: Screen capture through overlay and partial controller support. Achievements are being added right now

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893329322

FINDINGS:

GAMEPLAY
► For a game made in Gamemaker a 2D game engine, (At) feels surprisingly well put together. Its very playable with gameplay that feels fast-paced and full of action.
► Character building could be more fun than it is, a likely consequence of the level cap. A disjointed GUI does not help matters. There are a wealth of classes but choice is restricted as only a limited number of new classes are offered on death. These are restricted to whatever tower upgrades have been unlocked.
► Gameplay emergence is very slow in the first half of the Tower. It only really gets into gear later on when NPC quest givers appear, standalone areas become active and enemy encounters become stronger in nature.
► The constant restarting from the tower hub means that levels not completely overcome must be repeated from the start, leading to a lot of unnecessary repetition.
► Combat against the myriad of enemy combatants is certainly fun, even if it get repetitive. Characters do not have real options to change their attack style, once a melee specialist, always one. Equipable ability stones do supply some alternatives to combat.
► Enemy spawns use the same types early on and only become more varied after the fourth level. Though there are plenty of different attack types to keep the player on their toes.
► The pixel graphics are an acquired taste and while the choice of 3rd / 1st person is cool, the engine shows its limitations when the character is positioned at certain points on the map.
► GUI organisation could be a lot better as too much important information is hidden in sub-screens that need to be drilled down into, making it difficult to get a clear overview of the character.

ISSUES
► The overall experience is limited by missing content and the hero level cap. At least this will eventually be dealt with.
► Despite the game boasting 10h of content there is a fair amount of repeating whole levels that aren't completely cleared before quitting the game, as saving does not include level locations.
► On a fast(er) PC the character (and enemies) can move and act a bit too fast in the game for my reflexes.
► There needs to be more truer options for all methods of attack. More varied types for each attack type and ranged attacks look like they may need to be tweaked as they don't feel as strong as melee options.
► A fair number of ancillary features are not yet in the game, especially 'The Tavern' which will allow players to interchange and play multiple characters at any time. This should be good.

BALANCE vs DIFFICULTY
► Some of the encounters are quite tough and lean towards giving gameplay a hardcore edge. Especially if the player's character isn't kitted out quite right. This gives difficulty an unforgiving quality that is balanced out by the revival mechanic.
► Progress can be quite fluid until the player hits some strategically placed tough encounters that are difficult to overcome unless the character is kitted out correctly. These can cause block further progress. Especially the bosses of current last two levels of the tower.
► The 50% chance of survival/revival mechanic gives gameplay a forgiving quality if the player happens to die, despite the somewhat hardcore nature of some encounters.

REPLAYABILITY vs LONGEVITY
► Gameplay is fairly repetitive during early levels due to their design and limitations on enemy encounters and a lack of quests.
► Without playing the finished article its tough to gauge longevity but continuing the game around 4x or 5x times with new characters provided a sense that it has some. At least until the rest of its content and included and all the incoming achievements are achieved.
► Multiplayer only has a low chance of making it into the final product. Though some DLC content has been hinted at.

ENJOYMENT
► YES, very much so, despite the level cap and lack of polish. With gameplay mostly a joy, a choice of perspective type, good variety of content in (later) levels, some variety of enemy types and a large number of potential builds the game has a good base of qualities that will appeal.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2893324204

VERDICT:

Archtower is already playable and looks to be heading in the right direction with around/less than 50% of the game complete. Even though its a little rough around the edges it demonstrates its potential well. However, at this stage the generation of levels, the GUI and character building needs some attention and it will require a good amount of balance and polish by the end of its EA cycle.

Currently, its very much a work-in-progress that serves as a lot more than a just a demo but only commands a MAYBE consideration for anyone interested in what it currently has to offer.

Thank you for reading. | Follow my curator here. | Review requested and key provided by The developer