Tower 57 PC Review

It’s not uncommon for indie titles to look back a few decades when searching for inspiration or things to emulate. In the case of Tower 57, Pixwerk gave a good look at Amiga titles when building their brand of pixelated mayhem and, as it turns out, managed to create an engaging top-down shooter.

From the get go, Tower 57’s retro aesthetic is quite striking. While it can look a bit rough, even when compared to other pixel art titles, the detailed environments will come to the forefront after a brief period of getting used to them. Environments differ in both assets and colors, making for treks through levels that feel distinct while carrying with them the weight of the game’s dystopian world. Enemies are easy to differentiate from one another making it so that, once you were decapitated by a specific one once, you usually know what types of attacks to expect. The environments are rich in detail and décor, a decent amount of it being destructible. It’s true that in some scenarios the crosshair can get lost amidst flames, projectiles and explosions, but that doesn’t occur often enough to be truly bothersome. Tower 57 also boasts a soundtrack that is quite varied. Whether it’s energetic synths that accompany combat or patriotic music that harkens back to the American Revolution (which plays upon entering the weapon shop), the music both sets location-appropriate mood and sends one back to the retro titles it tries to remember. The same can be said about the sound. The sound effects and voices are put through a filter to sound similar to the older games Tower 57 looks at and, while to some this can become a little bit annoying after a while, it does help maintain aesthetic cohesion.

There are several characters to choose from when starting Tower 57’s campaign. Each character basically acts as one of three available lives, being replaced by another upon death. Dead characters can be resurrected, provided you find Amber orbs and visit the appropriate NPC. Aside from aesthetic differences that range from gangsters to scientists, beggars and even a Lincoln lookalike, they each come with a weapon of their own, a special attack that tends to damage everything on the screen, and a tool of their own. Tools bring some utility to the characters, whether in the form of damage dealing Molotovs, time slowing devices or a bionic arm that allows hacking doors. Characters can benefit from permanent upgrades via stations that can be found both in Amor’s Den, the game’s hub, and throughout levels. Upgrading parts replaces them with bionic versions, granting better stats and even self-healing. These upgrades are identical for every character but only apply to the active one when purchased. Buying a bionic arm for Lincoln won’t give the Beggar or the Mafioso a bionic arm, which does require adapting to a character without self-healing and long dashes once your enhanced buddy gets eaten.  Amor’s Den acts as a hub in between missions giving access to a variety of things such as saving the game, upgrading both weapons and characters, buying new weapons, tools and consumables, alongside a variety of minigames that can help you gain more money to spend on items. It’s also worth noting that the area doesn’t skimp on the details, adding to the overall dieselpunk, dystopian atmosphere the game tries to convey through its crowded sidewalks, screens telling inhabitants to obey, or announcements that contain ironic commentary aimed at the world which, incidentally, isn’t something we see a whole lot in games these days.

Each character comes equipped with the default MG08/15 and can use up to two other weapons. Weapons can be upgraded, although upon dying, not picking up the weapon means the upgrade is lost. Upgrades range from incremental increases to damage and ammo count, to specials like broader flame range or projectiles that break off into more, smaller projectiles. There are a couple of weapons to go through, each useful in certain situations. The Barrel Cannon’s rounds take some time to reach their destination but do area of effect damage, working well against turrets, as it can help you attack from a safe spot. On the flipside, it doesn’t fare that well against moving opponents. The Flamethrower is good against multiple targets, especially smaller enemies that tend to swarm you. You do, however, have to think about your movement differently as it has limited range. There are a couple other weapons that can be used to blow, cleave and obliterate foes which include a sawblade launcher, a Rocket Launcher and even a Black Hole Gun. Overall, the weapons feel satisfying and offer a proper power trip while still requiring one to think about how they approach each encounter. Provided you play the Amor’s Den minigames, there’s the possibility of buying and trying all the weapons out during one playthrough. If, however, you mostly stick to a couple of them, there will be at least some untried weapons that can feed into the game’s replayability potential.

Tower 57 introduces new enemies as you progress through its levels, making sure things don’t get too stale. Trial and error plays a part, as you’ll end up cleaved in half because you drew too close to a foe, or just couldn’t dance your way through multiple streams of projectiles. This is especially the case with bosses, which go through several phases that mix, admittedly familiar, things up in order to stop you in your tracks. From humans to small drones, floating robotic octopi to dinosaurs, there are a good number of foes to fight. Tower 57 isn’t incredibly fast paced. However, the abundance of enemies and the requirement of being careful with your movement, based on which foes you’re facing and which weapons you’re using, make for enough adrenaline-filled moments. There were times when, running out of ammo for the other two guns, I had to rely solely on the default weapon whose damage is inferior and projectiles require more accurate aiming. This made fights with foes I’d already encountered many times before feel more dangerous and the fulfillment when they’d inevitably explode into a shower of cash double.

Tower 57’s checkpoint system works, for the most part, striking a balance between rewarding progress and having players trace back through the level with the knowledge to overcome what killed you. The game’s levels are hand-made, which plays into that. There are, however, a number of checkpoints that do seem to be a bit too far apart from each other, particularly in the later levels. Incurring damage can also lead to the literal loss of limbs. In my experience it didn’t happen consistently, but there were cases when getting hit resulted in losing the hand that held the weapon, followed by the legs, and the other hand, which led to battling a pack of hungry dinosaurs as a disembodied torso slowly crawling across the floor. As for its story, it’s told through brief dialogues between the player and various bosses, with snippets about the world being found in announcements and terminals spread throughout the levels. The story itself isn’t particularly deep but carries a dose of mystery that provides an extra reason to push on and find out more about what’s happening with the tower. The side-text, detailing the world, has some really great stuff outlining the current state of affairs. One excerpt that stuck with me described how although a person defended herself well in court, she was sentenced to death solely because it was the cheaper option.

For all it does well, Tower 57 isn’t without faults. The six levels the game comes with can be finished in as little as two to three hours, if forum reports are to be believed. It took me closer to six to get through the game and, even then, it still felt like there should have been more. There is, undoubtedly, replayability potential in trying out new weapons, finding secrets and even playing as different characters, although the differences between them aren’t that many. There are also a couple of bugs that remain unresolved. The most common one is getting stuck in various walls or objects. Needless to say, that can lead to a swift, undeserved death. In areas rich in décor, or tight corridors, this does tend to happen a little too much. Spawning as a new character had them moving in a random direction and only answering to commands after several button presses, giving enemies enough time to take a few bites. At times, spawning as a different character resulted in them not having any limbs. I also encountered an upgrade bug where after upgrading the Barrel Cannon’s special ability, dying and picking it up again, the special effect wasn’t triggering, despite the weapon being recognized as upgraded.

From its rich, detailed pixel art, to cheesy lines, from ironic commentary to flat out mayhem, Tower 57 comes off as an action-filled, top-down twin-stick shooter that’s a lot of fun to play through. Sure, certain checkpoints might lead to unneeded frustration, but that doesn’t overshadow the sheer joy of mowing down foes. The movement and collision bugs do tamper with the flow of the action and the game does end a little too soon but, at the end of the day, if you’ve a retro itch that needs scratching, look no further than Tower 57.

Bogdan Robert, NoobFeed
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