Have Game, Will Play: Ziggurat Review

Ziggurat Review Xbox One

In order to join the protectors of the realm, magic-using recruits must survive the Ziggurat. The Ziggurat is a tower comprised of floors with countless enemies, traps and bosses. Milkstone Studios latest is a first person dungeon crawling roguelike(lite?) shooter. Players are initially given one balanced character to control but many more can be unlocked. The amount of health, mana, speed and magic proficiency are how the playable characters differ. Which is to say – quite a bit.

Floors in Ziggurat are randomly generated and contain rooms filled with minions that all must be destroyed to progress. If fighting numerous enemies wasn’t enough, rooms can have effects as well. Smaller, larger, tougher or easier enemies are just some of the room effects you’ll contend with. Bosses are typically accompanied by many minions as well but they can only be reached once you find the portal key. Much like the floors themselves, the bosses are also randomly generated. Rooms with traps, treasures, secrets, books, scrolls of lore and alters can also be found. A valuable treasure is often a reward for players who successfully traverse a trap room. Alters allow you do sacrifice health, mana and/or alchemy to gain a perk.

Perks, abilities and weapons are earned while playing and even after death. Dying means starting over from the first floor but anything you have unlocked can potentially be found again and leveled. Leveling up is an important part of the game as is watching the magic meters. Learning what weapon or staff works best is integral to surviving the tower. I enjoyed Ziggurat so much that I completed it and immediately started with another character from the ground floor, which is something I rarely do. But it just felt right.

Recommendation: Worth a buy – now
Full Disclosure: This game was provided to GameEnthus by the publisher.
Genre: first person roguelike dungeon crawler
Developer: Milkstone Studios
Publisher: Milkstone Studios
Platform(s): Xbox One, PC, Steam
Price: $14.99

Links
http://www.milkstonestudios.com/games/ziggurat/
https://store.xbox.com/en-US/Xbox-One/Games/Ziggurat/fb6cb71f-48b9-472b-bf72-b4f1de3732db?cid=majornelson
http://GameEnthus.com
http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/gameenthus-podcast
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/gameenthus-podcast-video-games/id286435007?mt=2

Scale:
Worth a buy – paying full price for fans of the series or genre makes sense – often includes a caveat
Worth a buy on sale – not quite full price worthy but close, – often includes a caveat
No – borrow it if you must play it
Please no – Don’t waste any time and/or money on it