This game faked me out. When I bought the game, I expected a short boomer-shooter made by a small team. A fun little division to be sure. What I got was a bit more then that, and something a bit out of my wheelhouse, but something I had a lot of fun playing.
Story: You have worked your whole life for this moment. Until today, you were merely a neophyte of the Daedolon brothers: wizards who's power is beyond doubt and beyond compare in the land. Today, you step forward as an apprentice looking to prove yourself worth to be a member of this brotherhood.
But there in also lies the source of your nerves. To be counted among such company, surely you must be tested. And that test is the legendary dungeon which claims the lives of almost all who come to the point you have reached: The Ziggurat. Will you beat the odds and join best of the best the world has to offer? Step inside and find out.
There really isn't much more to the story of this game. In this way it is a bit of a throwback to the 80s and early 90s when the story was really only an excuse as to why the game was happening, but considering the brevity of any given run, there isn't a lot of time to develop it, making this simple story and it's explanation text before the title screen rolls up work more then well enough. Simply put within a few minutes it's obvious this is NOT what you are here for.
6/10
Graphics: And that story is going to open up with one hell of a great first impression! Hand painted scenes will tell the tail before you get your first hint of a First Person game you are about to play. And they look absolutely gorgeous, even if they are a diversion.
The real game will follow shortly as you are placed in the labyrinth: a mid-eval looking maze that honestly would be right at home in a Blizzard title. Decayed and monster-infested, the place looks like it's crumbling, but the art style is a bit more toonish in nature. In fact for the old-school gamers out there, you might say the game carries heavy inspiration in this way from none other then the MMO juggernaut, World of Warcraft. And while the style is enhanced with much higher definition, it looks absolutely awesome. Sadly the world is not all that varied, however. With only 6 maps to traverse, you will find yourself with only a few area biomes to enjoy the look of.
Enemies, on the other hand, are a whole other story: not the style. They fit it very well, in fact. But the variety is absolutely staggering. Featuring an absolute menagerie of everything from killer carrots to fire-throwing imps and demons, this game is going to throw any number of nasties at you, and they will all look absolutely fantastic!
8/10
Sound: And the sound that goes with it is pretty good too! There is very little vocal work (reserved for your character's grunts and cries of pain) at all, but considering the game has no text meant to be spoken at all, this is not surprising. Nor should you be looking forward to the sounds of battle all that much either. Fire crackles well and blades whoosh around effectively as they approach dangerously close to your scalp. But most enemies don't make any noise until they are attacking, and even then its basically what you expect.
What carries the audio for the most part here is the music. Flowing effortlessly from tune to tune, expect to mix chanting, melodramatic strings, moody ambiance, and some good solid metal-esque drum rhythms together for a soundscape you will thoroughly enjoy and keep you pumped to continue! And expect it vary a surprising amount for how long the game in essence is, even if you will be playing a lot longer then it's length...
7/10
Gameplay: ...for you see, Ziggurat is a first person shooter modeled after old school games like Heretic and Hexen, but it is also something else many affectionately refer to as a rouge-like. When you start the game, you will pick a character you have unlocked as well as a mode or difficulty and drop into the first of 6 randomly generated dungeons that will make up your adventure. You will then get as far as you can, exploring to find the key of the level and the boss room. Defeating the boss will grant you access to the next level where you will rinse and repeat. All told, a successful run is a few scant hours at the longest.
But it won't be as easy as that sounds. Each room will either contain something special (like said key or alters to god who might help or hurt your chances if you worship with them), or even their own unique blend of traps and dangers protecting some treasure that could aid you in your quest. But most of the time, when you enter, the music will change and you will face off with a hoard of enemies that spawn in, requiring them all to die before you can open the doors and leave. But this is as much a chance to advance as any bonus room since killing these creatures will cause them to drop ammunition in the form of mana crystals, health vials, and always a knowledge crystal. These are the most treasured items as when you collect enough and you will level up not only increasing your health and mana pool totals, but giving you access to an upgrade perk, picking one of the two it will offer you. Get stronger to take on nastier challengers as you climb ever higher up!
Although, don't expect to do it your first time. This being a rogue-like, death is part of the picture: permadeath that is. When you die, that run is over and can not be loaded from a save (although the game will let you save in the middle of a run if you need to go do something rather then demand you beat it in one sitting). But in return, you will be rewarded by unlocking more monsters, items, and rooms being allowed to show up the next time. The further you got, the more new variance could show up. Between these additions and the randomized maps every time you play, the game nails a formula that keeps it from getting boring, and in fact you will likely find yourself looking forward to what you will see next time. Even the bosses at the end of the first 5 levels will change and swap out every time you play!
But if you need a long-term goal (beyond simply a successful run) to keep you going, this game may just have you covered there, too. In addition to unlocking things in the dungeons, you will also unlock neophytes you can choose to play as, changing your starting position to better fit your style and skill before you even begin. And while you don't see anything about the wizard-hopeful before you unlock them, you do get a progress stat on each when selecting your character so you know exactly what you have to do to unlock them. And unlike artifacts and perks you find in the dungeon, this progress carries, designed for long-term goals.
Overall the result is a game that I honestly expected to get repetitive, but I found myself really enjoying from beginning to end! Even if you don't normally care for roguelikes, this one could just surprise you!
8/10
Bugs: While the game was not perfect, it almost ran like it was. In fact there was only one bug I found while playing, but as it disappeared the moment I stopped playing with Gog galaxy and used the stand-alone installer instead. So take this with a grain of salt.
- Black Screen when starting: This sounds a lot worse then it is, but there were times when I would try to load this game up and it would play the sound like it was loading the splash screen, but show only a black screen. For whatever reason the game only took half the control of the screen and then waited for the splash screen to load though it never would, at least without intervention. This was easily resolved, however, with a quick press of the "Windows" button to bring up the desktop and then click the game's active icon in the taskbar. From that point on, there were no issues. It is also worth noticing this never happened, nor did the slight pause before it would appear when using the stand-alone game. So this could as noted above, just be another issue with Gog Galaxy itself.
Score: All I can say is I was genuinely stunned by this game. I am not normally one for roguelikes, and had I known that was what this game was, I may well have missed out. But I'm thankful to have made that mistake as I found myself absolutely loving my time with it! True, there are times it gets absolutely unfair, but understanding that even those add to the goal of more characters to play with and more stuff to run into the next time, it's surprisingly easy to chalk up those as bad runs and get excited to go again, a vibe I haven't felt since being a little kid playing arcade-style games in the 8 and 16 bit days. So glad for it.
8/10
System Requirements:
- Any Dual Core processor
- 2 GB RAM
- Any modern GPU that can run Direct X 10
- 800 MB hard drive space
- Windows Vista
System Specs:
- Ryzen 7 (5700X) 3.4 Ghz
- 32 GB RAM
- AMD Radeon RX 6650 XT (8 GB VRAM)
- Windows 11 (64 Bit)
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