Tower of Guns

 PC
Metascore
76

Generally favorable reviews - based on 16 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 11 out of 16
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 16
  3. Negative: 0 out of 16
  1. Destructoid
    Mar 9, 2014
    85
    Tower of Guns is a beautiful marriage of two of my favorite genres, the first-person shooter and the roguelike. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to my run I paused to finish this review.
  2. GameCritics
    Mar 4, 2014
    85
    Despite these minor hiccups, Tower of Guns almost perfectly achieves what it sets out to do. The tower can be run quickly, but the array of weapon and perk choices, combined with the randomness of the drops, the bosses, and the levels themselves, produces an enormous variety that ensures running it almost never gets old.
  3. GameSpot
    Apr 24, 2015
    80
    Complaints aside, Tower of Guns delivers an engaging experience that is well suited to short bursts of play in its standard form or long marathons in its ranked endless mode. The game offers no shortage of fun. So grab your gun--it's time to go to bullet hell.
  5. CalmDownTom
    Jun 24, 2014
    80
    Tower of Guns offers a fresh and exciting blast of satisfying thrills with each play-through, all delivered in easily digestible, rogue-like chunks. That this is essentially the work of just one guy, and that the price is right (currently £11.99 on Steam), makes Tower of Guns easy to recommend to PC gamers looking for something just a little bit different.
  6. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    May 16, 2014
    80
    Frenzied and unforgiving, Tower of Guns reeks of nostalgia but when you give it a try, it throws a curveball that’s hard to deny. [Issue#241]
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  7. SpazioGames
    Apr 13, 2014
    80
    Not everyone will like the graphics, the absence of a classical narrative, the level design, and many kind of enemies, but if you are looking for a shooter a little different than usual, think about getting it.
  8. Games.cz
    Apr 7, 2014
    80
    If a traditional 3D arena action merges with a roguelike, it can be hell, or hell of a lot of fun game. Tower of Guns is the latter.
  9. Hardcore Gamer
    Mar 4, 2014
    80
    Tower of Guns is an ass-kicking bullet-hell FPS arcade-style action, loaded with cool toys and unpredictable situations, and one of the most purely fun shooters I’ve seen in a very long time.
  10. Riot Pixels
    Apr 10, 2014
    75
    A fun, original take on the FPS genre that puts randomization to a very good use.
  11. Multiplayer.it
    Mar 12, 2014
    75
    Tower of Guns is a good FPS roguelike. The only real flaw is the confusion of some areas.
  12. 4P.de
    Mar 7, 2014
    75
    Fortunately Tower of Guns doesn’t bite off more than it can chew. It delivers a nice mix of arena shooter and rogue like.
  13. 3DJuegos
    Apr 13, 2015
    70
    It may not be the best roguelike we ever played, but it helps that it’s virtually unique in its genre, mixing permanent death with the first person shooter.
  14. IncGamers
    Mar 15, 2014
    70
    For a game packed with cold, mechanised artillery, this FPS-Roguelike mash-up has a surprising amount of warmth and humanity. Scale the Tower of Guns and you’ll find some pick-up-and-replay charm.
  15. Eurogamer Germany
    Mar 10, 2014
    70
    Even though it never gives you an adequate feeling of when and from where you are taking damage, you'll end up playing this over and over again. It's a refreshingly undiluted experience.
  16. D+PAD Magazine
    Apr 30, 2014
    60
    There are definitely better roguelikes and FPS’, but this combines them both well enough to provide an entertaining experience to dip in and out of.
  17. Gamer.nl
    Apr 24, 2015
    50
    Tower of Guns takes a lot of elements from other roguelikes, but it has not depth and no feeling of unpredictability. This makes Tower of Guns only fun for a few times, but after that, there is not much fun left to get out of it.

User Reviews

All reviews »
User Score
7.2

Mixed or average reviews- based on 45 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 28 out of 45
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 45
  3. Negative: 8 out of 45
  1. Ryukaki
    Mar 6, 2014
    8
    Tower of Guns is a promising first-person-roguelike which has been stuffed full of the charm and attitude you would expect from a developer ifTower of Guns is a promising first-person-roguelike which has been stuffed full of the charm and attitude you would expect from a developer if you grew up loving games like Serious Sam.

    Full of enjoyable easter-eggs, secret locations, and zany power-ups, ToG puts you right into the action and provides just enough curve-balls while you progress to keep you on your toes.

    The single developer of the game has gone out of his way to add a lot of flavour and personality to his game, without forgetting the core of why you come to an FPS: Shoot stuff. And do you get to shoot stuff. From the very beginning you are facing down ever-increasing swarms of robotic enemies, environmental hazards, spikes, sawblades, lava, and larger-than-life enemies who are all determined to kill you at any cost. Along the way, there are a multitude of power-ups, which can do anything from increasing your health, or allowing you to jump an extra time (Or a seventh, or eighth time..), to making your weapon's bullets into mines, or home in on enemies.

    While the AI is rudimentary and simple, and enemy variety isn't terribly huge, the bosses are interesting, and the level design and vast number of secrets are reminiscent of old favorites, like Doom or Serious Sam. The iteration time on runs is very quick, and the developer has done a good job of getting you back into the game right after you've died, making it so that any single loss never feels heartbreaking, and you don't feel like you're set back too far to just try one more time.

    One of the biggest weaknesses of the game comes in that the level variety is quite small, and after playing through the game four or five times, the only challenge lies in greatly increasing difficulty (Damage from enemies, increased enemy count, harder enemy types.) and the geography becomes quick to memorize. This memorization turns into a positive, however, as you begin to explore new avenues of moving around a level, and further engagements in that terrain become more and more familiar until you're leaping across vast chasms and over huge thresher-filled spike-pits without ever looking away from the horde of spike-bots that are chasing you down.

    Hunting the secrets in the game is an enjoyable exercise, and often times when you discover a new one, you feel that the solution was very clear, in retrospect. This indicates solid puzzle design, and iteration on the way the secrets were made. They're not obvious at first, but you never feel cheated, or as though they were unfairly hidden. Instead, you feel clever for having lined up your cunning with that of the designer's.

    The level design focuses much more on spaces that are interesting an exciting to use, rather than the photo-realistic environments that we're used to from other FPS games, and this works incredibly well; you feel creative and skillful when you make that triple-jump across a gap full of enemies and rain death down on their heads with your saw-launcher, to land on the far side behind some cannons and blow them apart. You feel sneaky and agile when you launch yourself to the top of a massive open room with acceleration cubes and stick the landing on top of a massive column in the center of the room, to be greeted by "Secret Found!".

    There are a number of small bugs, and a few big bugs, that show that this game was indeed made by just one person, but the issues that come up, even when they ruin your whole run, never feel like they've ruined your game session. Items can get caught on unkempt geometry and remain out of reach, you can get nicked by slightly overzealous damage volumes, but all in all, any single run is unlikely to be more than grazed by any specific bug.

    Tower of Guns is a fun game. It's a rare gem in a sea of whitewash; uniquely challenging, inspired, and one of the most enjoyable experiences that I've had in at least the last six months. It wraps up everything good about the golden age of FPS games, bundles them in the accessibility and randomness of a roguelike, and gives an experience that people new to any one part of its genres will love, while retaining just enough of its core values to keep even the most hardened player enjoying themselves. I sincerely wish we could get more games like this one; simple, fun, deep, and made with love.    … Full Review »
  2. Tirah
    Apr 11, 2015
    8
    A simple yet enjoyable game. You run around in randomly generated levels and kill robots. That's all there is to it. If you prefer your gameA simple yet enjoyable game. You run around in randomly generated levels and kill robots. That's all there is to it. If you prefer your game to have a bit of depth, ToG will be a disappointment.
    If all you want is some mindless fun, however, this game will be right up your alley.
    I usually hate playing FPS's on consoles because controlers are nowhere near as precise as a mouse and a keyboard, but ToG on PS4 was a pleasant surprise. Targeting is perfectly smooth, jump controls are floaty and feel strange at first, but you get used to it fast. ToG lacks multiplayer, so if that's what you expect from your FPS, move along.
    Overall, the game is fun. It's simple, fairly challenging but never to the point of frustration, and secrets, unlockables and randomly generated levels keep an otherwise short game interesting long after you've beaten it.    … Full Review »
  3. EricNeo
    Mar 12, 2014
    8
    A fairly hard fps rogue-like, very enjoyable and quite impressive for a one man dev project.

    Only negatives I have about the game at the    A fairly hard fps rogue-like, very enjoyable and quite impressive for a one man dev project.

    Only negatives I have about the game at the moment is no multiplayer and the collections don't tell you what they do.

    Joe the dev is active on his forum and interacting with the community which is nice to see, and the humor also reminds me of portal.

    I expected an indie fps rogue-like and I got one, I'd be interested to see what kind of game Joe makes next.

    Now you didn't see me hunt these hug-bots for loot.    … Full Review »
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