Tower of Guns (PlayStation 4) Review

Tower of Guns is a first-person shooter with the most Spartan mechanics required to be playable. There really isn't much to this game and yet there is a simplistic charm to it that manages to make it strangely compelling. Almost no real story to speak of - in fact there is an option to turn off the story entirely. Any notion of a narrative is expressed as a few boxes of text over the gameplay in the intros of each level, complete with some goofy character portrait that has been drawn in the style of a newspaper comic. The stories seem to be randomly generated, or at the very least seem to be the result of an algorithm generating a story from a set or rubric. Sometimes the results are quite amusing, like how the player-character is some old lady who is on a journey through the titular tower of guns to reclaim some kind of family heirloom and her commanding officer is her butler. Really, though, the random stories are of little consequence but do add a bit of quirky humour and charm and it is nice that there is an option to disable it. This kind of irreverent silliness is even expressed in the load times, where the developer makes up all kinds of comical excuses for the loading.

A basic game session in Tower of Guns is as follows: pick one weapon and then pick a perk. Run through levels and make it to the end while picking up experience points or weapon mods from destroyed enemies. At the end of a stage, there is a boss and then this begins again in a newer setting with a different theme until the final boss is defeated. Typically, whichever gun chosen before the game begins is the one that will be used for the whole session, but sometimes there is a chance to purchase a different gun (or even a weapon mod) that can be bought with money that was earned from fallen foes. This level of randomness does manage to keep each session interesting although it becomes hard to get invested since game over does not let anything carry-over and each session must always begin with the barest set-up. There is the concession of unlocking other weapons but most of the options don't always feel distinct enough and the very low level cap of five (six if using a perk that allows level six) means it can be a bit tedious to have to level up all the way back up again. Tower of Guns doesn't have any way to spend the accumulation of assets, which is peculiar since the title does present the opportunity in the form of all the money earned, which can only be spent in levels via one-use kiosks. It must also be mentioned that Tower of Guns is very short and a run through can be completed in about 20-30 minutes, but in all fairness this is a game designed around replayability and character-building, even if the latter aspect is fairly shallow. Despite the aforementioned shallow character-building, it is very entertaining to have five 'double jumps.'

Like any game that relies on randomly generated levels, Tower of Guns does not have well thought out level design. The layout tends to be chaotic and haphazard, but then again the only actions that can be done are to jump and shoot. Once in a while the level generated may even place users in a location where it is impossible to get out and that is where the dedicated respawn button comes into play. The enemies don't have a lot of creativity and usually fall into two categories: fixed turret or some kind of flying object that either will be a turret or will explode when it gets close enough. Sometimes the game will have the standard turrets be gigantic - big enough to confuse and mislead people into thinking they are part of the level. Aesthetically, it copies Borderlands (which in turn copied 'Codehunters'), with textures that emulate comic book ink and line work. It isn't original and one could easily be mistaken for the other upon first glance. Tower of Guns also does manage to have quite a bit of slowdown when things get really hectic.

While it does run at 60 frames per second for the most part, there are times when it will be wall-to-wall in turrets of varying largeness and the screen teeming with bullets and projectiles, so it is not entirely a shock when there is such an absurd amount of action on-screen that it is making the game chug its frame-rate down to single digits. It becomes entertaining to see such outrageous bedlam happen and is somewhat satisfying to see the game break and buckle underneath its own weight.

Control-wise, everything feels a lot like how old arena-style first-person shooters play, with an emphasis on bunny-hopping for dodging and the lack of an iron-sights function. Only one speed of movement and jumping has a floatiness to it that makes some of the mild platforming a bit forgiving. Once in a while, Tower of Guns will throw in some boxes into the environments that have varying properties, like one that launches or one that slows down movement.

Overall, it is a tad overpriced at $14.99, considering how haphazard the overall product is. It is what can be best described as a 'guilty pleasure' and can be genuinely entertaining at times. It is not much to look at and the core concept was not explored to its fullest, but this is a title with a solid foundation. There is no multiplayer option, though, which is a missed opportunity, especially since it does try to look like Borderlands, which was renowned for its co-operative play. This does have some other modes to mix up some of the action, like 'endless' mode, but the fact that only one weapon can be used really begins to make the enjoyment wear thin quickly. Tower of Guns is an interesting distraction, but not one worth $14.99. If this game was cheaper it totally would be recommended. Anyone who enjoyed the Borderlands series would probably think this game was interesting and, in a way, Tower of Guns seems like it could have been like a mini-game or alternate mode in one of the Borderlands releases.