Roguelikes are all the rage these days. Seems like every other game releasing is some kind of roguelike or roguelite. Impaler is a first person arena shooter in the style of the original Doom games, flat sprites and all, and seems to be trying to capitalize on nostalgia with some modern flourishes.
It is very light on the story side, like no story at all. It is all about just shooting and killing things as fast as you can and works really well for what it is. You choose a gun from a selection of 10, once you’ve unlocked them as is the norm for roguelikes and unlocking them can vary from killing a certain amount of enemies, picking up 1000 coins or killing enemies in a certain way.
You are then dropped in a small arena where you fight 10 waves of increasing difficulty of random enemies, obstacles, traps and finally a boss. The gameplay is smooth and snappy. The shooting is satisfying though shooting is not your only option. You always have a spike gun that shoots spikes from the ground to impale your enemies which is where the game gets its name I assume, it gets immensely satisfying impaling enemies on your spikes.
There is also another way of fighting back, if you gain enough height you smack down with force that hurts and kills enemies. Impaling them on the spikes nets you health and killing them any other way makes them drop coins. There is no ammo in the game but the guns have an overheating mechanic which forces you to mix up your tactics.
Killing enemies fast and in different ways will build up a bullet time meter and when filled up everything slows down giving you time to avoid and shoot with precision. After each wave and you have enough coins you get a choice of 2 different upgrades and if you have enough coins you can keep buying upgrades before continuing.
First time upgrades are always unknown until you’ve bought them and then on subsequent runs those upgrades are known and shown when buying. That is the only persistent progress in Impaler. Each wave will be random with enemies, obstacles and ways to earn coins for upgrades.
Impaler is the perfect game for just one more run that usually ends with you dead because of your own mistakes and not necessarily unfairness of the game or difficulty. You need to keep your head on a swivel and constantly moving to stay alive and away from projectiles and enemies to stay alive. Impaler is tough but fair though it does seem a bit short, but that could just be because I’ve not managed to beat it yet, not for a lack of trying.
In conclusion if you like old school shooters and roguelikes then Impaler should be on your radar but it all really depends on the price and content of Impaler. It is a fun game to take a run or two or ten and will be keeping me busy in between game sessions.
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