Developer: Milkstone Studios
Publisher: Milkstone Studios
Price: $14.99
Release Dates: Oct 23rd, 2014 (PC, Mac, Linux), April 21st, 2015 (PS4, XBO)
Where to Buy: PSN, XBLA, Steam
This game was provided to us by Milkstone Studios in purposes of review.
Rogue-likes, which are one of the upcoming genres are coming in a stream of momentum. Some are good, some are great, others are just flat out bland, and playable for five minutes before you turn them off. Ziggurat comes at you with a few great ideas, while maintaining its polish and lady like features. It is a dame you can print on a center fold and stare at for a while. However she does have a few issues, that once you over look you will love her inner as well as outer beauty. The game itself actually has been out for a while on PC, having the early access treatment until deemed fit for public consumption.
The story is lightly structured in explaining why you are even entering this temple of death as I nicknamed it. More or less is presented in scrolls you uncover in rooms through out the game. However what I have scraped together from the plot is many wizards venture into the Ziggurat to prove their rite of passage. Past that the game did not have to explain anymore.
Game play is a hybrid sense of the word mixing elements from games like Heretic, Hexen, and even Binding of Issac, without the dark/crude humor involved. Unless you are counting in the Evil running carrots. The building itself that you adventure in is completely randomly generated. Varying out monsters as you go along, including and not coy of expressing their hatred to you. Most of the bosses are basically large versions of the enemies you counter throughout the game. Tossing you a hard ball as you fight them. Some of them providing a scary challenge, some of their mechanics being a bullet-hell like attack system. Other bosses have your ground slam, get the heck outta the way, making you move quite a bit. So in blunt terms, they are ether very quick in movement and spam abilities often, or are simply bullet sponges until you beat them. This game has many characters of which you can access by completing various objectives. For example killing over two hundred enemies with the Magic wand. Stuff like this I think is a great thing.Each of them having different starter perks having advantages greater then some of the other characters. While being weaker in exchange for those said benefits. In order to see those unlock-able characters you must keep playing. Good luck, there are over twelve. There is a ton of assorted enemies to fight through in the game. All having a pretty decent AI to boot. You have demons, fungi, Evil, freaking carrots, skeletons who toss swords and Axes at you. I could go on, but I will spare you that, and let you discover the rest for your own time.
The system I played this on was on the PS4. So R2, or the right trigger fires primary spells, or your staff, elemental gun, or wand. L2 does your secondary attack. The bumpers play to swap out one of your four weapons you may carry at once. Yes, rather then being able to carry only two weapons like modern shooters try to force you to carry, this game gives you a handy little weapon bar to peak at what you are carrying. Be advised after while you can swap out weapons of old to new, by running over newer weapons, losing those old weapons. If you wish to obtain those weapons again simply walk over them to obtain them for that respective slot. The range of weapons you may find is seventeen or more, all varied from Spell books(being a mixture of: Staves seeming like a mixture of everything, a wand(arcane), the Magic Wand you start with, Alchemy being mostly what seemed like fire based attacks. Each and every weapon has their own benefits, and perks. Those perks are from wide shot, to area damage(Grenades) as well as rapid fire. One of my favorites being the Skull of Xanatos. Which fires a hallowed form of the skull dealing good amounts of damage. Then its alt ability being its heavy tosses out a massive helmet wearing skull(themed off of the boss:Sir Author). Just about all of the weapons are fun to use. I am practical to splash damage in these kind of games, so I am mostly going for the explosive fire based weapons. Now with that said you may only carry one weapon per category. So pick your favorites, and be on the look out. Leveling in this game is accountable to how much you fully explore all of the areas in order to get stronger. So if you are the lazy type, prepare for a world of hurt when boss time comes around. Every time you level you are given a choice of two cards to apply to your stats by default, unless you pick a perk granting you more cards to pick from. Secret passages can be found by simply shooting at a wall. At first I assumed maybe this game did not have that sort of thing, from memories of yester-year blasting down walls for the spoils of fancy loot. Then Milkstone Studios said “Na bro we got you covered!” Then out of no where out of sheer chance, I shoot towards a cracked wall by mistake after shooting a monster down reveling a hidden room. I stood up in my chair, then did my success dance. This was a reenactment of that moment.
The level design in this game is clever, and enforces you to explore everything on the first go. Otherwise you might loose out on extra experience points from the orbs that enemies may drop. Or perhaps a shrine room which offers you three shrines. One being a free shrine, costing you nothing. These however are most likely ether going to benefit you, or give you a kick in the rear end. There are many types of rooms, like a trap room, a room with enemies, like generally the others having a chance to roll a status effect to it or not. Generally most enemy gauntlet rooms do not have a status effect applied, just being set as a theme of certain enemies, like a pack of slimes or some druids spawning a bunch of freaking carrots. Every other level is different proving you a new, pretty theme to glance at.
The game itself is pretty much solid in terms of concept, and clear narrative to what it wants to do. On the PS4 platform for myself at least, it has some limitations that show themselves. For example artifacting is something that happened to me at weird moments, where I would be moving in a certain way, or turning while combating enemies. This drove me crazy because it looked like a hood was fluttered across my screen. Blocking the top half of my screen with a grayish blue like color. Another factor is huge lag spikes. Causing the game to bog down to almost nothing. This usually happens during a large room location when enemies spawn, or cast out fire balls and projectiles. Honestly I can expect this kind of thing with consoles. As they are caped for their maximum potential frame rate. The game itself has a decent frame rate, until those moments occur. These issues are not game breaking but do cause a annoyance more then any thing else.
In Closing:
Ziggurat is a shining example of a well made Rogue-like. It might be a challenge to some, so if you do not enjoy challenging games it might not be for you. However if you do not mind that, it can be a very addicting and enjoyable experience once you get your head into it, dying a few times. Everything such as the graphics, game play and overall appeal stands up. Aside from a few technical issues with the glitching of the game, which some patches can address in times to come. The controls for the console port are pretty good, mapped out fittingly for the PS4. Get this game if you are a fan of Rogue-likes, or wish to start off into the genre. You will not be disappointed.
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