It took a while for me to realize just how good TowerClimb is. You have to put in some effort to begin teasing out the nuances of its gameplay and, eventually, its plot.
TowerClimb unfurls its tricks and twists at a leisurely pace, making sure you’re fully versed in everything you’ve learned so far before springing the next surprise on you. You’ll be playing defensively and getting used to your role as a fragile human for a long time before you are finally able to wield your first sword. You can make it through half the game before even discovering the existence of a story beyond “climb the tower because it’s there”.
TowerClimb contains wonders, but it’s not going to give them up without some hard work on your part. Spelunky too easy for you? Try your hand at TowerClimb! This is a game that not only rewards but demands mastery of its controls. Virtually every move you make must be precise. A large part of being proficient at the game is being able to judge distances, such as the length and height of a running jump vs. a standing jump, or just how far you can fall and still survive, and so on.
When you start out on the first floor of the tower, with nothing but a random name, all you can do is run, jump, and climb. But that won’t get you far. As you progress, you’ll obtain potions that let you jump in midair, corrode things in your way, teleport, and revive. Revive potions are the only way to survive death; otherwise, it’s permanent and you’ll have to start again from the ground floor.
Later, inventory items like a grappling hook, swords, and various other implements and accoutrements will grant you new abilities and further modify the way you play the game. There are tricks to discover, too. For example, you can get an extra boost by dropping an item and jumping off of it. Another: you can blow up those clusters of four spikes that you see everywhere, then gather up the individual spikes for later use.
In general, you’ll always be going up, but the tower is huge and the environments inside it are vastly varied and sprinkled with diversions, secrets, and sidequests. The basic gameplay of climbing and contending with traps, monsters, and gravity remains intact throughout, but there is so much more to discover.
Sometimes lava will rise up from below you as you ascend; sometimes a giant fireworm chases you up the tower.You’ll meet beings who will trade with you, test you, or trick you. You’ll explore ice caves, infiltrate the temple of an evil god, float through the sky on a fungal balloon-thing, visit a sci-fi disco, and go inside an arcade game (in the game).
Every so often, you’ll have one of several memorable boss encounters that generally require some out-of-the-box thinking to survive. You might play an impromptu game of one-on-one basketball with a wizard inside of a dream. You’ll be sparring with that wizard more than once, actually, as he’s a big deal in the world of the tower, though you could play for hours before even learning his name.
It’s a big game, with tons of procedurally generated content in the main game and new modes that you can unlock by completing it (or parts of it). TowerClimb also contains a cool metagame. Every type of death that can be suffered in the game has a corresponding “death card”—a close-up pixel-portrait that is shown to you upon your demise. These can be collected and viewed later, and you can try to add to your collection by seeking new and obscure manners of death. The game handily keeps track of all of your deaths for you and can even display them in a chart.
Developers (and brothers) Davioware and Quazi spent 5 years of their lives crafting TowerClimb, and it shows. It’s intricate in design, epic in scope, and polished to a glittering sheen. It also requires some patience. It rewards careful, extended play, but if you don’t ever make it past the first few floors of the tower, you might never even realize that you’re playing one of the best games of the year.
TowerClimb is $14.99 on Steam. It’s currently Windows-only.
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