Ziggurat

Game Info

Ziggurat is the name of a temple to where wizard apprentices are sent to fight demons and complete to become a Daedolon brother.  Also, a way to keep the evil forces at bay, the brotherhood offers the souls of the apprentices that have failed.  The Greyhorn Citadel holds this event every 10 winters.  You will have to use your magic wand, upgrades and other pick ups to defeat the temple to survive and become a brother.

The game begins with a choice of wizard apprentices to choose from.  There are only a couple unlocked in the beginning to choose from.  They will be unlocked as you progress throughout the game.  Once you have chosen your character, you will begin with a wand that has unlimited magic and you will begin your quest.  All floors will begin with a new weapon right in front of you to collect and use.  There are four types of magic to use and each one has its own mana pool.  Each mana weapon box also has a couple of different weapons per box as well, some are stronger weapons than others, shoot faster or have a special power shot to use.  Pick which weapon suits your fighting style though because some work better than others but also some seem to be more frustrating to use too.

In this first person shooter, you will face some minions that are cool and creepy looking and some that are just odd and goofy looking.  There are these blue ones that remind me of B.O.B. from the movie Monsters vs. Aliens but definitely not as funny or as lovable.  Some of these demons are easy to kill with just a couple of shots but a few of them take a little bit of running around, as they will attack with there own weapons, ranged or up close, they will come at you all at once with all they got.  Each demon you destroy will drop experience pickups and mana or life.  You will progress through each floor facing all sorts of random villains trying to find the scrolls of each level to unlock the floor boss to move on to the next floor.  As you progress through each room bad guys are always in every room unless it is a room with hidden upgrades and sometimes they will attack you there as an ambush.

As you progress through Ziggurat, you will collect items, upgrades and level up.  Again, each time you destroy a demon they will drop some pick ups.  Collect these items throughout to help you survive this gauntlet of evil.  You will be able to upgrade your health to take more hits, your outfit to weaken the enemy damage you take, the mana levels can be raised and lots of other cool goodies.  There are fountains that will either help you, screw you or possibly be indifferent.  You will have to give up some mana for one of the fountains, health for another and the other is just praising it.  Sometimes you will gain a divine gift of like more health or use less mana with magic on your next battle.  It could also be indifferent to where it’ll give you a positive or negative attribute for your next battle but also the same type of deal for the demons as well.  Then there’s those lovely times where they screw you with taking away health, mana or making the enemy stronger during the next battle.

The best part of this game is that no playthrough is ever the same.  The levels are randomly generated every playthrough and no levels are ever repeated.  The boss battles are the same for each level but that’s because they are made for the bosses benefit and make it more challenging on you.  The map will show you the doors in every room and show where you have been.  Once you have been in a room, you can go in again and the demons will not reappear so now worries on walking into the same rooms.  Also, keep an eye out for special cracked walls, there is a hidden room in each floor with a pick up for your battle.

The game plays pretty smooth but there are a few glitches that I ran into and found to be very annoying and frustrating.  If there were too many demons during regular or boss battles, it would almost look like your characters hood would fall over your face and cover like a triangular part of the screen making it difficult to fight and see what is going on.  It happened weirdly though, like some days it wouldn’t happen and then others it just would not stop happening.  The graphics were pretty good though and the characters had nice color and followed thru smoothly during battles.  The controls were very comfortable too, with the trigger buttons being your shooting.  Use the joysticks to move and look around.  Basically, it felt like the controls of Call of Duty, which I feel was the right way to go with it.

The Recommendation

I played this game a few times and just couldn’t get into it.  Then one day I played again and I just couldn’t stop playing.  I really enjoyed the game a lot, plenty of challenge and lots to gain and has great replay value.  Even if you die or defeat the game, you will collect more items to help you play through again.  Like previously stated, no play through is the same either, the levels are randomly generated as you begin the floors.  The game plays great and has a lot to do throughout.  The biggest downfall, there is no multiplayer or coop.  I don’t think it’s needed but it would have been cool considering this game is a cool new concept as opposed to the usual FPS like Call of Duty.  I definitely recommend checking this game out.