Developer: @Moppin
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Rrp: £1.99 (Steam), £1.99 (Humblebundle)
Released: 15th October 2015
Available on Steam and Humblebundle
Played Using: A Xbox 360 controller
Retro games are a bit of a trend it seems these days and understandably so, with the resurgence of indie developers its very tempting to try and recapture some of the nostalgia from the games of yesteryear. Most, however, fail to make the connection and it can be for a variety of reasons, controls that are too loose, too controls that are too tight, overly punishing gameplay, wrong art style… the list goes on and on. Every so often though a game will rise above its contemporaries, Downwell is one of those games.
Downwell’s genre is… hard to define exactly. Its kind of a platforming, bullet-hell, runner with some roguelite elements. If you wanted to be picky you could call it a platformer but only if you applied the most broad sense possible.
In a game like Downwell the story is pretty bare, but then does every story have to be a masterwork? No, it just needs to be enough to justify the actions of the character, in this case the character (who is nameless) jumps down a well in an attempt to get the treasure at the bottom. The game doesn’t tell you this though, I had to find that out on the Steam store page.
The game doesn’t have a manual or even a tutorial preferring the player to discover what objects, upgrades and certain portions of the UI do for themselves. Usually I would call this a case of bad design but much of it is quickly gleaned from the first few play-throughs.
One such thing you will quickly discover as you play is that your gunboots recharge when you touch the ground or kill an enemy through stomping on them. The recoil from firing these gunboots will momentarily slow your descent allowing you extremely brief moment to take stock of your surroundings. As you would expect though, this uses up your ammunition. The longer you manage to kill enemies without touching the ground the bigger your combo, the bigger your combo the more rewards you receive, although this does plateau after a while.
There are quite a few other weapons in the game, each with their own properties that suit certain play styles.
Enemies come in three types, those that can be shot but not shot, those that can’t be shot but can be stomped on and those that can be killed either way. As you descend these enemies become more tricky such as having ones that explode after they die or use projectiles.
When you kill an enemy they drop gems which can be used in the shops you find (who the hell sets up a shop in a well) to buy more health and charge (ammo) for your gun boots.
Upon successfully reaching the end of a level you are given the choice of three upgrades, what upgrades appear is randomised and there are quite a few that can turn up, some more helpful that others.
Each time you die a progress bar gets filled based on how well you’ve done and every time that bar fills up you get a unlock. In some cases this is a style (which changes the way the game plays) others its a palette which changes the aesthetic.
Should you get this? Hell yes, its cheap as chips… cheaper in fact, unless your getting a cone (hohoho British humour), and is addictive as hell. Honestly, it feels like I should be popping in coins into a machine just to have another go. You can even get it on IOS, so for those of you so inclined you could play it on the go.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Rogue Legacy
Crypt of the Necrodancer
Spelunky
