Scarlet Tower

When Scarlet Tower released it was very much a Vampire Survivors clone, with the 6 passives/6 weapons system, some of which were identical in name and functionality to ones in VS, they have since replaced the passives with a talent system, which while confusing is very unique and leads to a lot of build combinations. However this game has an abundance of issues stemming from balance, bugs and lack of dev communication that make this the only bullet-heaven so far that I do not reccommend.

Before I go through all the things I dislike about this game, I will say that I give praise to the art and artists of this game, they are the standout of this game, it's a very visually-appealing game.

Gameplay

This game has an interesting gameplay loop, there's a day and night cycle that effects what enemies spawn as well as a winter season with unique enemies, each map has different bosses with different attack patterns.

There are currently 5 maps in the game, the first map is full of trees you constantly get stuck on and is incredibly infuriating, 2nd plays roughly the same but much less trees, 3rd is underwater with a breathing mechanic, 4th is a vertical map where you must reach the end and the 5th map has a final boss that activates after it's conditions are met.

The weapons in this game feel strange, it never feels like they are shooting towards the nearest enemy, the majority of the gameplay ends up being dodging enemies because weapons just feel weak and slow, most of your damage comes from talents that effect your weapons.

Each map has 10 levels of corruption that you unlock by beating the previous level, you have to individually beat these 1 by 1 to unlock the next and all 10 to unlock endless mode which is absolutely ridiculous and seriously boring.

Endless mode is a complete mess, typical endless mode in games like these are a slight difficulty increase from the base game as you and enemies scale stronger and stronger, it isn't like that here, endless mode starts ridiculously difficult with enemies practically undodgeable and the game bombards you with Tanky bosses after 2 minutes, this isn't endless, it's challenge mode.

This wouldn't be such a bad thing if it weren't for the fact that there is only 1 viable playstyle which is tank, armour and hp, you will get obliterated if you focus anything too much before these. Bosses/elites drop chests and since you are bombarded by them, you end up with 100s of chests on screen at a time which dramatically slows down the game, bosses should stop dropping chests and award meta-currency after everything is max.

There is a lot of meta-progression in this game, the majority of which is extremely easy to max out. characters have multiple alternate passives to unlock/upgrade, as well as a bunch of stat-based upgrades that apply to all characters.

However there is also a currency called Shining coins that are for purchasing upgrades from a shop in endless mode, these require an obsurd amount of grinding Endless mode to get miniscule upgrades but they are practically required to beat the hardest challenges in the game.

Visual clarity isn't great either with no option to turn off visual effects, this doesn't help when 99% of the game is dodging enemies.

My final gripe with this game is the number of unsolved bugs for a significant amount of time, a bug will be reported in their discord where they say "they are the most active" and 6 months later they do a bug fix patch which doesn't solve a number of reported bugs. Granted their last few patches have been full focused on bug fixes so I will give them that.

Achievements (79/79)

For a lot of the reasons I mentioned above the achievements in this game are ridiculously difficult, my 79 hours were full focused on getting the achievements, I got 90% of them in my first 20 hours and the rest of my time was spent monotonously grinding difficulty levels and meta-upgrades, I do not reccommend this to achievement hunters as it is a deathly boring grind-fest.

Music/sound

The music and sound effects are good but it does get repetitive after all the grind required.

Settings/Accessibility/Misc

Options for auto-aim, auto-attack and auto-level up. In-game achievement menu and enemy/weapon encyclopedia. No option to reduce visual effects. Keyboard and gamepad supported but no rebindable controls. 11 languages supported.

TL;DR

Grindy Bullet-heaven that always seems to get new bugs with every update. Great art. Lack of dev communication. Weapons feel weak and slow. Endless mode is unbalanced and stupidly difficult. Bad visual clarity. Only 1 viable late-game strategy. Ridiculously monotonous achievements.

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[b][h1]Scarlet Tower[/h1][/b]When Scarlet Tower released it was very much a Vampire Survivors clone, with the 6 passives/6 weapons system, some of which were identical in name and functionality to ones in VS, they have since replaced the passives with a talent system, which while confusing is very unique and leads to a lot of build combinations. However this game has an abundance of issues stemming from balance, bugs and lack of dev communication that make this the only bullet-heaven so far that I do not reccommend. Before I go through all the things I dislike about this game, I will say that I give praise to the art and artists of this game, they are the standout of this game, it's a very visually-appealing game. [b][h2]Gameplay[/h2][/b]This game has an interesting gameplay loop, there's a day and night cycle that effects what enemies spawn as well as a winter season with unique enemies, each map has different bosses with different attack patterns. There are currently 5 maps in the game, the first map is full of trees you constantly get stuck on and is incredibly infuriating, 2nd plays roughly the same but much less trees, 3rd is underwater with a breathing mechanic, 4th is a vertical map where you must reach the end and the 5th map has a final boss that activates after it's conditions are met. The weapons in this game feel strange, it never feels like they are shooting towards the nearest enemy, the majority of the gameplay ends up being dodging enemies because weapons just feel weak and slow, most of your damage comes from talents that effect your weapons. Each map has 10 levels of corruption that you unlock by beating the previous level, you have to individually beat these 1 by 1 to unlock the next and all 10 to unlock endless mode which is absolutely ridiculous and seriously boring. Endless mode is a complete mess, typical endless mode in games like these are a slight difficulty increase from the base game as you and enemies scale stronger and stronger, it isn't like that here, endless mode starts ridiculously difficult with enemies practically undodgeable and the game bombards you with Tanky bosses after 2 minutes, this isn't endless, it's challenge mode. This wouldn't be such a bad thing if it weren't for the fact that there is only 1 viable playstyle which is tank, armour and hp, you will get obliterated if you focus anything too much before these. Bosses/elites drop chests and since you are bombarded by them, you end up with 100s of chests on screen at a time which dramatically slows down the game, bosses should stop dropping chests and award meta-currency after everything is max. There is a lot of meta-progression in this game, the majority of which is extremely easy to max out. characters have multiple alternate passives to unlock/upgrade, as well as a bunch of stat-based upgrades that apply to all characters. However there is also a currency called Shining coins that are for purchasing upgrades from a shop in endless mode, these require an obsurd amount of grinding Endless mode to get miniscule upgrades but they are practically required to beat the hardest challenges in the game. Visual clarity isn't great either with no option to turn off visual effects, this doesn't help when 99% of the game is dodging enemies. My final gripe with this game is the number of unsolved bugs for a significant amount of time, a bug will be reported in their discord where they say "they are the most active" and 6 months later they do a bug fix patch which doesn't solve a number of reported bugs. Granted their last few patches have been full focused on bug fixes so I will give them that. [b][h2]Achievements (79/79)[/h2][/b]For a lot of the reasons I mentioned above the achievements in this game are ridiculously difficult, my 79 hours were full focused on getting the achievements, I got 90% of them in my first 20 hours and the rest of my time was spent monotonously grinding difficulty levels and meta-upgrades, I do not reccommend this to achievement hunters as it is a deathly boring grind-fest. [b][h2]Music/sound[/h2][/b]The music and sound effects are good but it does get repetitive after all the grind required. [b][h2]Settings/Accessibility/Misc[/h2][/b]Options for auto-aim, auto-attack and auto-level up. In-game achievement menu and enemy/weapon encyclopedia. No option to reduce visual effects. Keyboard and gamepad supported but no rebindable controls. 11 languages supported. [b][h2]TL;DR[/h2][/b]Grindy Bullet-heaven that always seems to get new bugs with every update. Great art. Lack of dev communication. Weapons feel weak and slow. Endless mode is unbalanced and stupidly difficult. Bad visual clarity. Only 1 viable late-game strategy. Ridiculously monotonous achievements. [quote][url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/39729435-JHG-Reviews/?appid=2218750]Check out my Curator page[/url][/quote]