Project Tower – Transform into various creatures

• DEVELOPER:Yummy Games
• PUBLISHER: Yummy Games
• PLATFORMS: PC, PlayStation 5
• GENRE: Shooter / Bullet Hell / Puzzle
• RELEASE DATE: January 6, 2025
• STARTING PRICE: 24,50€
• REVIEWED VERSION: PC

I guess I’m a big sucker for titles like Project Tower or Moon Mystery, which bring a unique futuristic setting with third-person shooting and puzzle elements to keep you engaged. However, Project Tower stands out slightly, it’s a game that combines bullet hell combat, platforming, and, best of all, a unique morphing mechanic as you climb a mysterious alien tower. Yummy Games did a fantastic job portraying the world, but the gameplay leaves a bit more to be desired.

Let’s start by saying that Project Tower runs really smoothly. The Unreal Engine graphics are great, smooth and polished. The monsters and bosses you fight, as well as the different types of characters, look really good. Visually, the game is incredibly appealing, and who would have thought an indie game could feel more polished than some AAA titles?

Likewise, the different biomes boast unique aesthetics, so you’ll find yourself exploring a snow biome, an underwater biome, desolate alien landscapes, puzzle rooms and more. That said, the cutscenes are slightly choppy. While the animations are decent enough, the cinematic scenes are blurry and can be a bit confusing for the eyes.

Morphing is the best part of the game

The gameplay is fairly straightforward. In addition to shooting and aiming, you can also dodge, which is crucial since you’ll face a barrage of fireballs, bullets, and lunging enemies. Keeping this in mind is key to survival. The gunplay is solid, offering a variety of weapons, each with different fire rates and damage outputs. However, you’ll likely find yourself relying on the machine gun more often than the others.

Boss fights are a highlight of the game, providing challenging encounters that test your reflexes and precision. That said, the difficulty can spike with certain bosses, such as the one in the underwater biome or the final boss. These fights can feel slightly frustrating rather than fair, mainly due to the lack of consistent healing options or ways to mitigate unavoidable damage. While you do heal when reaching a checkpoint, that’s essentially the only way to recover health.

The game’s signature morphing system allows you to transform into scanned creatures or objects. Some transformations are highly useful in combat, enabling you to deal significant damage or leap great distances. However, outside of combat, the mechanic feels underutilized. While you can use certain morphing forms to solve puzzles, like turning into a pylon for a specific challenge, these moments are often sparse. You might use a particular transformation once and never again. There are some genuinely cool ideas, such as morphing into an alien to teleport across dimensions.

Platforming and puzzles offer an intriguing perspective

The inclusion of platforming puzzles offers a refreshing break from combat, requiring you to wall-run, shoot moving targets, and navigate environmental hazards. Some puzzles introduce creative mechanics, like using a specific weapon to move blocks, placing blocks into designated holes, or jumping between moving platforms. While these moments are fun, occasional janky platforming, especially around ledges, can undermine the experience. Some platforms are difficult to land on or move too quickly, forcing you to repeat sequences due to the game’s unforgiving nature.

Exploration in Project Tower is minimal, as the game follows a linear structure whether it’s story progression, combat, or boss fights. There’s little incentive to search beyond the given objectives. Unlimited ammo and health regeneration only at checkpoints simplify the gameplay, and the story lacks depth, with only occasional characters making their presence known.

Project Tower is relatively short, offering around 6 hours of gameplay. Each floor introduces a new biome, but the number of enemies between boss fights is limited, making the levels feel sparse at times. While some sections may feel slightly repetitive, it doesn’t fully break the experience. That said, the addition of a weapon enhancement system could have provided more incentive to experiment and replay the game.

Ending thoughts

In the end, Project Tower is a commendable effort and a genuinely solid game. Its engaging boss fights, distinct biomes, and clever morphing mechanic showcase the potential it could have achieved with a larger budget. However, its shortcomings, such as underwhelming weapon variety and the limited use of its unique mechanics, hold it back from reaching its full potential.

That said, if you’re someone who appreciates games like this, ones that aren’t boring and offer a decent amount of fun, you have nothing to lose by giving Project Tower a try.

Review copy provided by the publisher

3.3