Ziggurat

 PC
User Score
7.7

Generally favorable reviews- based on 60 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 38 out of 60
  2. Mixed: 16 out of 60
  3. Negative: 6 out of 60

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. EchoBlack
    Nov 22, 2014
    7
    It plays a lot like Heretic/Hexen would if they had Roguelike elements. Map layouts are far more arena-like and not as complex as they were in the classics, though. You must pick from a number of characters (you start with one, but can unlock others) and reach the 5th floor to win, and every floor is randomly generated from a number of pre-built rooms that are then strung together. A floorIt plays a lot like Heretic/Hexen would if they had Roguelike elements. Map layouts are far more arena-like and not as complex as they were in the classics, though. You must pick from a number of characters (you start with one, but can unlock others) and reach the 5th floor to win, and every floor is randomly generated from a number of pre-built rooms that are then strung together. A floor ends when you beat its boss, and you will need a Portal Key to summon the boss. The game has permadeath and you can only save between floors.

    There is a good variety of weapons (the pool grows bigger as you unlock more of them) spread across 4 categories. The first is the basic wand, whose mana (ammunition) replenishes quickly and automatically for all characters. Different characters will have different properties for this starting weapon, such as faster or slower ROF, a differently-styled secondary attack, less or more accuracy. The second class of weapons are books, whose attacks are typically shotgun-like and don't consume too much mana. The third type are staves that function as rapid-fire crowd control weapons, and mostly have a primary attack with good accuracy and a secondary that excels at close quarters, burning through your mana rapidly while firing a barrage of projectiles inaccurately. The fourth and last type are weapons that deal area damage. These are usually firearms or throwable explosives, and often have a steep mana cost per use. Some weapons deal self-explanatory status effects, such as poison, stun, or freezing.

    You can find usable amulets that must be recharged (by killing monsters), lore scrolls (these give a large EXP boost) and occasionally perks. You also get to choose between two (or three with the Bookworm perk) random perks on level up. In roguelike fashion, you can find statues in certain rooms that allow you to trade your health or mana (or offer nothing, for a lower chance of success I presume) for a possible bonus. You can get a random effect (Divine Indifference) or even a punitive malus from these statues.

    I have thoroughly enjoyed this game so far. The challenge is markedly above average and you can extract many hours of quality gameplay from Ziggurat. The shooting feels tight and fast-paced, and the emphasis on dodging projectiles gives the game an interesting quasi-old-school feel. When I first played this game, I ended up stopping only six hours later, and in my book that's pretty high praise.    … Expand
  2. TitaniumDragon
    Jul 15, 2017
    5
    Ziggurat is a fantasy-themed FPS roguelike game. You play as an apprentice wizard sent into the titular Ziggurat as a test to prove your worth, killing waves of monsters in rooms and fighting your way through five levels (and five bosses) to complete the game.

    While the idea of wielding magic instead of weapons seems really cool, if that’s why you came here, you’re apt to be    Ziggurat is a fantasy-themed FPS roguelike game. You play as an apprentice wizard sent into the titular Ziggurat as a test to prove your worth, killing waves of monsters in rooms and fighting your way through five levels (and five bosses) to complete the game.

    While the idea of wielding magic instead of weapons seems really cool, if that’s why you came here, you’re apt to be disappointed; the weapons in this game are wands, staves, magic spell books, and alchemic devices, but a lot of them more or less function like various common weapons (shotguns and rifles, most notably). Your wand is your default, infinite ammo weapon which slowly recharges itself over time; it fires relatively quickly, or you can do an alternate shotgun blast fire which is a bit slower.

    The other weapons are randomized and found in the first room of each level of the dungeon (and occaisionally elsewhere in a level as a treasure). There’s a fair number of weapons in the game, and you will only see half a dozen or so on any given playthrough. They are of pretty mixed quality; some weapons are clearly much better than others, but their presence or absence is totally random. Sometimes you’ll find a great weapon right off the bat; other times you’ll find a terrible one deep in the Ziggurat.

    Each of the three categories of weapons – spellbooks, staves, and alchemic devices – have their own mana pool, which serves as ammunition. All weapons have two firing modes, a primary and a secondary, with the secondary typically being a more powerful but slower-firing version of the primary, generally simply launching 2-3 times as many projectiles, generally in a broader spread; some weapons subvert this, with the alternate fire being a faster fully automatic fire mode.

    The player starts out with just two characters who have generally balanced stats unlocked, but as the game is played more the player unlocks additional characters. These characters have unbalanced stats, generally specializing in one particular weapon or another, sometimes starting out with equipment, sometimes having special perks that make them faster or fire faster with one weapon (and slower with others) or a limited health pool but more mana, ect. These don’t change things up too much, but they do make some difference, particularly in the early game, where your starting weapon apart from your wand is entirely dependent on what the Ziggurat throws at you.

    The various weapons have various effects, but most of them are comparable to various standard weapons – grenades that blow up on impact, automatic weapons, shotguns, ect. There are some which have odder effects and feel more different from the standard fare – one weapon fired a bunch of bouncing projectiles along the floor, another one shot out enemy-seeking rings, and a third froze enemies it shot. While such weapons exist, they’re mixed in with a lot of weapons which feel very standard, and unfortunately some of these weird weapons are just not very good (the bouncing along the ground weapon, for instance, is terrible against flying foes, which make up a large portion of the endgame enemies).

    As the player kills enemies, they drop experience crystals, mana, and healing potions, and the player must collect them before they disappear, preventing the player from simply standing back and mowing down enemies from a long range (though most weapons are ill-suited for such anyway). This encourages a more aggressive and constantly moving style of play.

    As the player gains experience, they level up, gaining a marginal amount of hit points and mana to all their mana pools, restoring them all somewhat, and gaining the choice between one of two randomized level-up benefits. As the player plays more, they unlock more randomized benefits, and some things will give them access to additional choices at level up during a particular play-through. In addition, the player can also be powered up by a few random rooms, which contain additional free level-up cards or various treasures hidden behind platforming puzzles, none of which are particularly difficult to solve and which seem to repeat very frequently (I only saw two puzzles, but I saw both of them multiple times – twice in the same playthrough, in fact).

    Sadly, while all of this sounds okay, that’s really all that can be said about the game – it is okay. The enemies are never all that exceptional, the game actually becomes rather routine the later you get into it as the greater number of enemies means that you get more health and ammo back to spam your powerful weapons with, and there just isn't that much variety in the gameplay - just more of the same, by and large.

    If you liked Tower of Guns, this is more of the same, but if you're looking for something memorable, this isn't that.    … Expand
  3. ave
    Jun 25, 2015
    7
    First of all, I really like the idea of reviving the old Heretic / Hexen serie. My first playthroughs were enjoyable and the Card reward system pretty nice.

    However, I felt the weapons are in many ways too similar. There is no "in this situation use this weapon" kind of choice. Plus, since each bolt is treated as a projectile, you'll always have a short delay between firing and hitting.    First of all, I really like the idea of reviving the old Heretic / Hexen serie. My first playthroughs were enjoyable and the Card reward system pretty nice.

    However, I felt the weapons are in many ways too similar. There is no "in this situation use this weapon" kind of choice. Plus, since each bolt is treated as a projectile, you'll always have a short delay between firing and hitting. It's kinda hard to have that feeling of power.

    About the randomly generated levels and the rogue-like elements, it's clearly a design choice for replayability ; but at the cost. Once you start to see the same rooms again, you quickly lose the feeling of novelty or character. But since it could be played as an inbetween shooter, it's no big deal.

    I also encountered performance drops during some fights or when doors are open. But the thing that really drove me from the game is a "weapon autoswitch" bug : at anytime, your weapon can change without you choosing it. I guess it was a problem with my controler so I'll try using a pad.

    Anyhow, Ziggurat has potential and is already a good game, that you can fire anytime you want a shameless 15 minutes magical rampage.    … Expand
  4. RockStarGamers
    Jul 28, 2015
    7
    A fun dungeon crawler that mixes old-school bullet hell shooter mechanics with modern procedural generation, all wrapped up in Warcraft style graphics.
  5. j0tun
    Oct 26, 2014
    9
    Ziggurat is a true indie gem and a must in every collection of the rogue like fan. Tons of unlocks, extremely beautiful art style and amazing gameplay. The devs are hard at work and releases updates continously. Now stop reading this review and go buy it!
  6. thetimin8or
    Nov 1, 2014
    10
    This game is really addictive. At first it played it here and there, now I play it all the time.
    This game is a Randomly Generated Maze FPS. At first, it's pretty complicated, after awhile you unlock more weapons it become more complicated. Each play through can be completely different than the last.
    Even if the run you are getting is bad, it's not all based on luck, with the skill, you    This game is really addictive. At first it played it here and there, now I play it all the time.
    This game is a Randomly Generated Maze FPS. At first, it's pretty complicated, after awhile you unlock more weapons it become more complicated. Each play through can be completely different than the last.
    Even if the run you are getting is bad, it's not all based on luck, with the skill, you can pull out of the bad run and end up winning in the end.
    Difficult when it needs to be, easy when it needs to be, this game is really good, I highly recommend it.    … Expand
  7. StormingRain
    Oct 25, 2014
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. " You may be killed by a carrot!
    Deal with it, vegans "
    Actually a good roguelike, not so replayable like an Isaac
    But have a nice adrenaline shooter.
    Old school fans of DooM,Hexen, Heretic would be happy.
    Must buy ;)    … Expand
  8. Atlark
    Oct 29, 2014
    8
    Really challenging, graphics are appealing and the gameplay works really well. Even if it's a roguelite, it manages to be skill depedent, the luck is still there, but playing the game many times will make you capable to handle even the toughest rooms without using perks or weapons that you find powerful.

    I loved the unlocks, they are really interesting and overall they bring to game so    Really challenging, graphics are appealing and the gameplay works really well. Even if it's a roguelite, it manages to be skill depedent, the luck is still there, but playing the game many times will make you capable to handle even the toughest rooms without using perks or weapons that you find powerful.

    I loved the unlocks, they are really interesting and overall they bring to game so much variety that you'll continue to play even after beating the game.

    Although, if you are look for a RPG Roguelike, then this is not what are you looking for, this game is a complete different genre, of course, there is a levelling system, but other than taking perks you don't have other characteristics or skills to upgrade.    … Expand
  9. Apgalen
    Oct 26, 2014
    9
    If you like first person shooters and/or roguelites, you need this game.

    As many others have said, it plays like Heretic and Hexen with weapons reminiscent of those games. You kill enemies to earn experience, level up and earn passive skills that make you more powerful. The five floors in the game can be cleared in 40 minutes to an hour, and the different characters, skills and    If you like first person shooters and/or roguelites, you need this game.

    As many others have said, it plays like Heretic and Hexen with weapons reminiscent of those games. You kill enemies to earn experience, level up and earn passive skills that make you more powerful.

    The five floors in the game can be cleared in 40 minutes to an hour, and the different characters, skills and weapons you pick up every time make for a wide variety of runs.

    Replayability is huge. You're almost guaranteed to unlock a new skill or a weapon every time you play, whether you die on the third floor or kill the final boss, which makes for those classic "just one more run" moments. The ability to save and quit between floors is a great recent addition too.

    I normally don't write reviews, but I felt this deserved one.    … Expand
  10. Ciastek63
    Oct 27, 2014
    9
    The best roguelite FPS yet! Fun combat, great weapon variety and punishing difficulty (unless you choose to play on easy, you big baby!). The graphic style is pretty nice too, though the music is nothing special (but that can be easilly fixed). Overall I'd say this is more of an 8+ but I gave it a 9 becouse it really has now competitors in the procedurally generated shooter subgenre.
  11. KRob4
    Jan 23, 2015
    10
    10?!
    Here's why:
    It's an FPS rogue like, with an awesome random perk system that really gives you a thrill when you make it far or beat the game.
    Infinite possibilities with procedural content.
    And your skill is rewarded.
    The game plays with a polish and fluidity that is quite rare from a smaller studio.
    I'm so surprised by this game.
  12. Klewer
    Jul 22, 2015
    8
    Brilliant little dungeon crawling RPG-esque game that keeps you coming back for more despite the some times frustrating difficulty. Well worth sinking plenty of time in to as you continue to unlock more weapons and features. Give this a go.
  13. Alarik
    Nov 1, 2014
    9
    Great rogue-like with fast and nervous combats who remind me of games like Heretic or Hexen.
    A lots of abilities, weapons and characters to unlock give to the game a good re-playability.
    I recommend it!
  14. suneater
    Oct 27, 2014
    1
    Despite calling itself a dungeon crawling RPG "Rogue-LITE", Ziggurat plays more akin to a classic arcade game. I could imagine walking past this in an arcade as a kid, waiting for my turn while watching people popping quarters between lives, and typing in my initials as ASS into the high score board once I ran out of allowance. However, this isn't an arcade game; It calls itself aDespite calling itself a dungeon crawling RPG "Rogue-LITE", Ziggurat plays more akin to a classic arcade game. I could imagine walking past this in an arcade as a kid, waiting for my turn while watching people popping quarters between lives, and typing in my initials as ASS into the high score board once I ran out of allowance. However, this isn't an arcade game; It calls itself a dungeon-crawling RPG, and should then be held up to those standards. Is a 5 level dungeon with floor consisting of a dozen or so randomized rooms a proper dungeon crawler? No. The only definitive RPG element here is picking between two perks after killing so many enemies. So what's left? A magic-based FPS? Bunny-hopping and circle-strafing to dodge bullet hell spell spam?

    Ziggurat is extremely underwhelming. Short on content, the "rogue-lite" "depth" of this game (which is increasingly becoming an excuse to be lazy) means you'll just be replaying the same 5 levels over and over with different characters that you can unlock. If the game was 20 or even just 10 levels long, with more rooms, you might have an actual game here. As it stands, I feel like I spent $12 on a paid demo. I do not recommend this game as it stands unless the devs really step it up and add more content.    … Expand
  15. Captain_Chaos
    Jun 22, 2016
    9
    Ziggurat is a tasty blend of roguelike randomization with 90s era FPS gameplay, featuring rapid movement, no accursed iron sight aiming, loads of enemies and a variety of weapons, all with alternate fire modes and no reloading required. I have heard it compared more then once to the Raven Software classics, Heretic and Hexen and this comparison is apt: Not just due to Its fantasy settingZiggurat is a tasty blend of roguelike randomization with 90s era FPS gameplay, featuring rapid movement, no accursed iron sight aiming, loads of enemies and a variety of weapons, all with alternate fire modes and no reloading required. I have heard it compared more then once to the Raven Software classics, Heretic and Hexen and this comparison is apt: Not just due to Its fantasy setting and wizarding weapons, including spellbooks, staves (with one, the Serpent Staff, borrowed from Hexen directly) and alchemical conconctions, but also in its fast, frenetic gameplay, with traps, jumping puzzles, large, projectile-spewing bosses, and for all you Unreal Tournament fans out there, mutators that mix up the battles. The game is very forgiving on its easiest difficulty, affording you a tour of the experience to prepare you for the challenges ahead. I've only just completed my first run, though there seems to be many more items, characters and weapons to find. If you're looking for a test of skill with no doubt a good amount of replayability, you could do worse then to put on your robe and wizard hat, and face the procedurally-generated halls of the Ziggurat.

    EDIT: Many runs later, Ziggurat remains a fresh and invigorating experience, and now with the addition of a wave-based "Gauntlet" mode, can be enjoyed in bitesize form.    … Expand
  16. RagingPoet
    Jun 16, 2018
    8
    Ziggurat is good old school shooter with projectile based weapons mixed with well implemented rogue-lite elements.

    Shooting is satisfying, but it would be much better with at least some gore. There are plenty of weapons and character classes, but most are quite similar. Randomness is not too crazy, which makes runs more skill-based than luck-based, but at the same time lowers    Ziggurat is good old school shooter with projectile based weapons mixed with well implemented rogue-lite elements.

    Shooting is satisfying, but it would be much better with at least some gore. There are plenty of weapons and character classes, but most are quite similar. Randomness is not too crazy, which makes runs more skill-based than luck-based, but at the same time lowers replayability. Visuals are simple but stylish and fit the theme well.

    Overall the game completely delivers on its promises, making the most out of FPS|rogue-lite mix.    … Expand
  17. Mobile
    Feb 3, 2018
    4
    ENG
    A game that takes 30-60 minutes, the game has five levels that just needs to go and at the end of each gouging boss and so on until the end. On the one hand is not bad, but the developers have stuffed a lot of different achievements related to the number of the collection, forcing the player to pass the same levels dozens of times, pretty doubtful. Tolley did not have enough forces,    ENG
    A game that takes 30-60 minutes, the game has five levels that just needs to go and at the end of each gouging boss and so on until the end. On the one hand is not bad, but the developers have stuffed a lot of different achievements related to the number of the collection, forcing the player to pass the same levels dozens of times, pretty doubtful. Tolley did not have enough forces, whether just scored, it is not clear, but the game seems more a demo than a full product.
    RUИгра которая проходится за 30-60 минут полностью, в игре пять уровней, которые просто нужно пройти и в конце каждого раздолбить босса и так до конца. С одной стороны не плохо, но разработчики напихали много ачивок связанных с количеством сбора, заставляя игрока проходить одни и те же уровни десятки раз, довольно сомнительно. Толи сил не хватило, то ли просто забили, не понятно, но игра кажется больше демо версией, чем полноценным продуктом.    … Expand
  18. B4artok
    Sep 7, 2020
    3
    Looks fun enough, but this game has blue screened my computer at least a dozen times all before reaching the menu. Get one of the million other Doom clones if you want a properly optimized game.
  19. IdleSpace
    Dec 4, 2021
    6
    Просто хороший рогалик, не знаю что еще про него сказать)
    Вторую часть обязательно попробую.
    PS: снижаю до 6, в игре контента максимум на 15 часов, дальше духота.

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
75

Generally favorable reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Impulsegamer
    Jan 2, 2017
    68
    So if you are after a dungeon crawler (or more correctly here a Tower climber) and you get your kicks from Serious Sam style play… then prepare to test your mettle as a Wizard to be, enter the Ziggurat and show them whose boss. If you are like me and find perma-death more a nuisance than a challenge then perhaps steer clear.
    Read full review
  2. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    May 12, 2015
    80
    An excellent mix of a rogue-like genre and FPS – although it doesn't bring anything new, it works great. It has perfect controls and thanks to various enemies, randomly generated (almost) anything and RPG elements game feel fresh with every new start. [Issue#252]
  3. Riot Pixels
    Nov 11, 2014
    80
    Ziggurat looks amazing, and at first, you can’t even tell that it was made by a small indie studio. Though the lack of resources is apparent in environments that lack variety – both visual and gameplay-wise. Plus, perks grant you only passive buffs, and aside from ‘guns’, your only other weapons are amulets which work for mere seconds when activated.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »