Roguelike/Bullet-hell/Top-Down Shooter



9/10

Has the potential to be a 10/10 if the devs keep up the amazing updates and fix a few things here and there


Tl:Dr; A MUST BUY for all roguelike fans and all fans of Binding of Isaac and Hotline Miami


I came across this game when some friends would not stop raving about it. I promptly checked it out and was not impressed at first and thought "Why buy this game when I can just play Binding of Isaac?" The answer to that question is fairly simple. Nuclear Throne takes the charm and bullet hell fun of BoI and adapts it (or mutates it) into a whole nother experience and game.

I was gifted the game but for a while I did not play the game simply saying "I don't have time for a BoI clone". After putting in 11 hours over 2 weeks I can safely say that I was wrong and I honestly enjoy this game very much.

The Community is very active and very kind to everyone and honestly one of the best gaming commuities I have seen. They're all very excited about the game and very active. Some people have made mods for Nuclear Throne but I have yet to download one.


Story:

The lore is currently in the wiki but has not been applied to the game yet. However, the story does not take/give any enjoyment to the game so that is a huge plus. You can load into the game and not have to worry about advancing in the story or missing dialogue.

Characters:

There are a wide assortment of playable characters, currently at 12. Each character has unique passive and actives so that playing each character is like playing a new game. Each characters active is gamechanging and are useful in their own ways (except Plant's. Because ♥♥♥♥ you Plant. I don't need your stupid snare in my life all you're doing is holding me down)

For the sake of simplicity I'm not going to list each character out but I can say that I have played each character over 20 times and even then I feel as though I only have a basic understanding of how to use them.

My current favorite character to use is Rebel, her healing when you enter portals is one of the most useful passives if you are as reckless as me when playing. Her active ability allows her to sacrifice health to summon a minion who will aid you in your battle before exploding dealing more damage to surrounding enemies.

Some fan favorites are Steroids, Y.V., and Crystal and there are so many well drawn fan art of the game to show people's love for all the different characters.

Sound:

The music in the game is definitely one good thing amongst a lot of good things about this game. Each level has a unique song that plays while you desperate shoot your way to the throne. Each song fits it's level well and when I first started, I found myself hating the music because at times I find myself being pressured by the music and dying. But now when I play I find myself humming along as I shoot enemies in the face.

Mutations:

Everytime you kill an enemy they drop something called rads (radiation). Each rad you collect goes torward leveling up. If you level up once you finish the level (aka enter the portal) you can pick a mutation (they're like perks). There are weapon based perks (homing bolts, shotgun shells bounce farther, energy weapons deal more damage) and there are basic mutations (more health, enemies have less health, move faster, chance of ammo on kills.

Each mutation will help you get to the throne but like most games there are some mutations that are better than others. Currently, it's advised not to take the weapon mutations unless you are 100% sure that you're going to keep that weapon for the rest of the game.

There are also canisters that give you a lot of rads.

When a character reaches level 10 you can choose a Ultra mutation that are a huge power spike to the character.

Weapons:

At the time of writing this review, there are 104 weapons able to be found in the game. The devs have promised to add more which is incredible. The basic weapon classes are Bullet, Shell, Bolt, Explosive, Energy, and Melee. There are subcatagories in these ammo catagories and each gun feels different to use.

My personal favorites are the Assault Rifle (there are a lot of guns that "outclass and outdamage this gun but I love the 3 bullet burst) and the Heavy Auto Crossbow (the heavy cross bow is pretty much a 1 shot on all enemy minions and it takes down the bosses in a few shots. The auto portion makes it so that you can kill them faster).

Some weapons are known to be bad such as the smg (too much ammo is being wasted in a non accurate fire) and the laser pistol because the damage feels minisicule and it takes far too long in between shots. You can find ammo and weapons in chests.

Mechanics:

The game plays like a Rogue-like, top down shooter. You're expected to die a lot and the game is simple enough to play over and over again in short bursts. When I first started what I used to do was cover shoot from afar. I soon found out that this was not a good tactic because it led to me being able to be swarmed and I could not collect rads/ammo/guns.

The tactic that works best for me is to run around and don't be afraid to get too close to the mobs because most of the time you can dodge what's coming at you and you need to collect all the rads. It's better to find your own playstyle and the game is all about trial and error. Make a mistake once? Don't do it again.

There's also a daily run. Meaning once a day you're given the same seed as everyone else and see how you rank against them. It's pretty fun to wait to play your next daily and see yourself go up the ranks.

Cons:

There's very little that I can complain about the game. It's fairly polished looks great. However, little does not mean none.

4/10 times you're going to die/get really injured because you spawned in a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ place. I once had a run where I spawned in the middle of the map surrounded by scorpions.

The game is on the border of becoming a bullet hell. Enemies will fire at you from halfway across the map often times cornering you.

Sometimes the framerate will go to ♥♥♥♥ (mostly during explosions) and might cause you to die.

You can't really change the resolution. I have a 1366x768 monitor but the game does not play in that. The highest resolution I get is 1920x1200 and even that looks a bit meh.

The game looks to have a low learning curve but the first 10-20 runs are going to be you staring at the post death stats screen. You need to push yourself not to give up at first but once the ball gets rolling Nuclear Throne becomes a game that you'll definitely look forward to playing often.

Wrap Up

Overall, I think that Nuclear Throne is definitely one of the best rogue-likes I personally, have ever played and it is definitely worth the $15 that the devs ask for. Especially since on release the game will cost more. I highly reccomend you pick this up even if you played Binding of Isaac once and thought it was ok. This game has the potential to become as popular if not more than BoI (not that BoI isn't amazing too). The problems I had with the game were minor and did not take me away from the game.

The devs have promised the community many things and I see them going through with their promises so I think that's really cool of Vlambeer (nearly all of their games are fun to play)

Again, I found myself very pleased by the game and will definitely be playing more of it.