In this Warlock’s Tower review you’ll discover this title as one of those fun engaging games. Its puzzle mechanics make it accessible to many people and its short levels make it very consumable and great in short bursts. Harkening back to times long since forgotten, it feels refreshing with its simplicity.
In today’s gaming climate many games pride themselves on their complexity and mechanics. Gone are the days where you could just pop a game on and get right into it without needing to go through tutorial after tutorial in order to learn how to play the game. Pac-Man, Tetris, Galaga… these games were simple yet engaging and fun. If you miss this kind of games, keep reading our Warlock’s Tower review.
Story
The story of Warlock’s Tower is funny and quite odd. There is a warlock who lives…wait for it…in a tower. BOOM. Blew your mind, right!? He feels that the people hate and loathe him and, as such he casts a spell that will end the world by draining it of its natural resources. The people task you, the mailman, with delivering a letter to the warlock letting him know that he is loved and cherished. This warlock is petty though. Not only has he locked himself in his tower but also placed a curse on it as well. Whoever enters will lose life every step they take. But you, being the tough as nails mailman, are not afraid! You tighten your satchel and prepare your body for the long trek to the top so that you can deliver your precious postage.
The story is fun and quirky. It’s high stakes but never takes itself too seriously, for its own good. While playing you don’t even feel the weight of the task you set out to complete. Its slapstick dialogue is a great contrast to the dark and dismal opening text and is something that I very much enjoyed.
Gameplay
As I have stated before the gameplay is simple and easy to grasp. You enter each level with 3 HP and need to get to the exit door. Throughout the level, there are health orbs that you will need to collect to help you get to the door. Orbs come in two types 3 HP or 5 HP. Each level is a puzzle that you need to figure out and make your way through. There are times where you will have to dodge zombies, slimes, and flying monsters. They move in to take you out quickly and methodically. Figuring out how you need to move and in what order to grab the health is fun and really tests your spatial awareness. You need to be very methodical in your movements as one misstep can literally kill you.
As you progress through the floors, Warlock’s Tower begins to throw more complex puzzles at you. Things ramp up at a nice pace. You start off by just hitting a few switches and pushing a few buttons but then they throw a curveball at you. You run into a young girl who you will need to work with on some levels to get through. This really starts ramping up on the later floors.
As you climb you begin to run into zombies, slimes, and flying monsters that will move one space for every 3 you move. If you aren’t careful with them you can and will get taken down. When the monsters began appearing the difficulty really ramped up and made the game far more engaging. No longer was I working my way through an empty and lonely room trying not to die. Now I have friends to deal with and avoid like the plague lest they send you to an early grave.
There were very few times where the game hiccuped or crashed. Until I got to the very end. While trying to catch the warlock the game would constantly crash. So much so that I wanted to chuck my PS4 right out of the window. It wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the fact that the final level is a multipart level with no saves in between. So if the game crashes you have to start it from the beginning. On top of that, the last level felt like it dragged on for a bit too long. You would catch the Warlock only to have him teleport away and have to repeat the process multiple times. This was quite infuriating as the game was charming and fun in every other way.
Audio
The soundtrack was great. It was nostalgic yet unique with its 8-bit tunes. Even as you are being eaten by zombies or dissolved by slimes you will be vibing out to some really good music. Which was surprising as this isn’t that large of a title. During my time with Warlock’s Tower, I never got tired of the soundtrack.
The sound effects in this game are pretty solid as well. The sounds of your death, enemies moving, and you picking up health are all clear and unique. There aren’t too many of these sounds as the game is pretty small but what they had they worked wonders with.
Visuals
Not too much to say about Warlock’s Tower on this front. It has the classic 8-bit style and does it well. Though it does look a bit chunky on PS4 due to it being on a larger screen. The colors are bright and vibrant. And it shifts colors as you go through levels and when you die. Things are easily discernible even with its 8-bit style. You can tell characters apart, know where switches and levers are, and find a way safely to the exit. I do wish it had more color and was a bit more vibrant however it was going for that classic GameBoy look and it absolutely nailed it.
