Tower of Guns Review - Blast Your Way Through A Tower Of Randomly Generated Enemies And Bullets In This Old School Styled Shooter

Written by Brandon Hofer on April 13, 2015

Reviews: Fans of classic shooters will be delighted to play this game because Terrible Posture Games clearly has respect for the founding fathers of FPS.

Tower of Guns is a blast from the past. When people hear the term First Person Shooter, games like Halo, Call of Duty and Battlefield are the most common games talked about. Before these games became the powerhouse titles that we’ve come to know, games like Doom, Unreal Tournament and Duke Nukem were household titles. They weren’t overly complex games. For the most part, these games were linear with the exception of a few secrets here and there. Tower of Guns is a game that clearly draws inspiration from these classics and because of that, I miss the games I grew up playing.

Tower of Guns is a game filled with nostalgic moments as well as elements that makes the game feel unique. Upon entering the game, Tower of Guns seems familiar. A glance around the environment feels a lot like looking at Doom and the game plays like it too. It doesn’t take long for the action to start and when it does, Tower of Guns becomes one hectic experience. Enemies materialize as soon as the player enters a room. Once that happens, the bullets will constantly fly from all directions. The action is fast-paced, sometimes frustrating, but ultimately rewarding.

Enemies drop health, experience to level up guns, currency and occasionally upgrades as well. Getting hit by a bullet will cost the player health as well as experience. Guns can level down just as fast as you can level them up. Moments like this can change the game in an instant. Surprisingly, Tower of Guns is lacking in the amount of guns a player can actually use. There are 10 guns in total, but the upside is that each of these weapons handles differently. There is a gun that shoots like a pistol, while another shoots electrical balls. There is even a pizza shooter that fires buzzsaws. The cool thing is watching how a weapon changes as it levels up. When weapons level up, the game becomes a different experience and it can decide just how a person plays the game.

Before starting the game, players must choose one weapon and one perk. Upon first booting up Tower of Guns, the game gives us two guns and one perk and it is up to the player to unlock the remaining guns and perks. Requirements could be anything from defeating a certain amount of enemies, completing a run of the game, not taking damage, beating a level’s par time, etc. The lack of guns can be excused because plenty of combinations can be made with perks to make any run unique. The cool thing about Tower of Guns is the fact that each run plays different than the run before. This is due to the fact that enemies are randomly generated. Sure, there are occasions in which you will travel to the same environments, but upon revisiting these areas, enemies will be in different locations. This mechanic will constantly keep players alert.

In addition to guns and perks, there are powerups and items to be found throughout Tower of Guns. Powerups can include things like additional jumps, health upgrades, speed upgrades and more height with each jump. Items that can be used after acquiring enough points can include random items like a really small but powerful missile, a gelatinous health recovery station, a barrage of grenades and much more. Players should be careful though because there are mystery boxes that can actually increase the difficulty.

Players looking for a deep narrative or even a story in general should look elsewhere because a storyline in Tower of Guns is almost non-existent. Normally that would be a downside for me because I really enjoy stories in video games, but with Tower of Guns, it’s not a big deal. The reason why is because the game doesn’t need a story to enjoy the game. There are pieces of dialogue that pop up on the screen, but the chaotic action makes it difficult to understand what is going on. After playing enough of Tower of Guns, I purposely took damage to stop and read the dialogue. While humorous, it’s not really a necessary addition to the game. I can’t really tell you the motivations behind the villains in the game because they are forgettable, but a villainous dog and a man who constantly says “bro, bro, bro, bro, bro” for all of his dialogue is good for a few laughs.

The “Normal” difficulty of Tower of Guns starts out tough, but soon becomes pretty simple. Luckily, there are perks to increase the difficulty and the endless mode becomes tougher as you progress. Secret rooms are scattered throughout the levels in the game that are reminiscent to Doom and Duke Nukem. These can often be difficult to find. In certain levels I found 3 secret rooms and after assuming I found a majority of them, the game told me only 45% of secrets in that area were found.

The biggest flaw in Tower of Guns involves the controls. Most of the time, I had no problems playing the game, but sometimes aiming didn’t work as well as I had hoped. Other than that the game plays fluidly. This is refreshing because many modern games seem to ship with a lot of problems. It’s great to see that Tower of Guns doesn’t have many problems.

Tower of Guns is a really fun game. It’s not amazing, but it’s also not a terrible experience. Tower of Guns is a nice distraction from the multitude of games out at the moment. Runs are short, sweet, chaotic and entertaining. Fans of classic shooters will be delighted to play this game because Terrible Posture Games clearly has respect for the founding fathers of First Person Shooters. These players will feel right at home. Fans of the genre in general will have their reflexes tested in a shooter that will constantly delight players. Can you survive the tower of guns? You’ll have to enter to find out, but trust me, you won’t regret it.