TowerClimb reviews

Translated by
Microsoft from French
This game is a pure masterpiece, an unjustly unrecognized jewel, passed unnoticed by chance or due to its rebutante form. This is one of the best representatives I know of the genus "Roguelike", quite similar to Spelunky in the spirit. The world (the Tower) is filled with elements all more astonishing than the others, which will terrorizing you the first time you meet them, especially if you are in the process of beating your height record. Everything, or almost (including some bonuses) can kill you, and yet nothing truly unfair. With a little caution, it may happen to you to understand and overcome an obstacle that was completely unknown to you before. The controls are difficult to grasp initially, but once mastered, you will realize their richness: what they allow, in terms of management of situations, is prodigious. You will end up knowing what you can do or not, and under what conditions. You will find yourself easily passing places that had seemed impossible to you, simply because you understand the workings of the various elements. What is particularly nice is that the procedural generation confronts us with always new situations, but composed of elements that we quickly learn to predict behavior (fan blades, lasers, falling blocks, peaks, and even animals, all obey very simple diagrams). A word about artistic direction: it is a pretty sketchy pixel-art, in a resolution too low for our screens, forcing almost to play in windowed mode. And yet, the filter applied to these pixels, which gives an impressionistic aspect, contributes, with the beautiful soundtrack, to form a real atmosphere. However, this creation of an atmosphere, when it is added to that of new situations by the gameplay and elements of the world of the game, makes in my opinion of this game a real masterpiece. We see that the person (I think she was more or less alone) who made this game worked it, passionately, down to its smallest detail. She even put a surprising and discreet humor, which breathing in the title a strong personality (I will say no more to not spoil the surprises). Finally, because it's important: the content is important enough to make you want to play for a long time. I do not know exactly the extent of what the game proposes, because I have not finished it, but what I have seen justifies already, in my opinion, the purchase of the game at the price "strong". In summary: demanding Roguelike with incredible artistic direction. Try it, and especially do not stop at the first impression, due above all to the apparent rigidity of the controls and the low resolution. Masterpiece!
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