Dolanbot returns with a review of Vlambeer games, Nuclear Throne…
Picture a desolate ocean of sand where radiation has transformed scorpions into giant venom spitting monsters and bandits scour the land. They’re unpredictable, but so are you. Thanks to the nuclear apocalypse you are now a fish capable of rolling six feet through the air to dodge whatever comes your way, a revolver on your belt, your gills pulling in the dusty air. Your mission is ultimate power, to travel through sewer, scrapyard, labs and crystal coves, to claim the nuclear throne for yourself. To undertake this quest is certain death, for there are monsters far more capable than you, but they lack conviction.
At no point does this game become intuitive, even when you learn to dance among the bullets, your palms are sweaty and the adrenaline is high. With every portal to the next level, an impossibly difficult game gets harder. With every level your character gains by killing enemies and collecting radiations (rads/experience), you gain passive mutations that can be combined in seemingly unlimited combination. The weapons grow in intensity and power until you are overwhelmed in particle effects. And all it takes is two to three bullets, or one charge from a snowbot, and your progress melts into radioactive sludge.
You can choose from up to twelve unique playable mutants that each possess passive advantages/disadvantages, one active ability, and two unique ultra-mutations you acquire later in game. My personal favorite: a samurai chicken that uses his katana and bullet time to deflect projectiles back at the enemy. The perks of a chicken is that when you lose your head, you have a few extra seconds to look for a medpack to bring you back from the dead.
Play defensively, sniping from a distance, mutate to magnetically attract medpacks and ammo towards your cover or raise your maximum health. Or throw caution to the wind and charge headlong into the enemy guns blazing, and trading out weapons dropped on the ground without even lifting your finger off the trigger. Mutate to increase your fire rate the lower your health gets and increase the chance mobs drop supplies upon meeting their bloody end.
Every level is randomly generated for unlimited re-playability. In addition, there are crowns to add an extra challenge and bragging rights. In particular, the crown of blood is perfect for the sadistic gamers out there. It raises the amount of enemies and decreases the rads they drop, making the normal game seem like a cakewalk. For the achievement-hungry game perfectionists, look far and wide, for there are more secrets to this game than you can wave a screwdriver at.
Among the little early access seedling games planted, Nuclear Throne blossomed into a terrifyingly fantastic game, sure to cast a large shadow in the realm of shoot-em ups and roguelike-likes alike. I first played the work of art cringing, white-knuckled, and enjoying every second at their station during PAX Prime 2014. One year later, it’s practically spit-polished with the promise of 4-player coop just on the horizon. Have a gander at Vlambeer’s Twitch channel to see them working live and taking questions every Tuesday and Thursday.