Tower of Guns

I have a soft spot for games built by a single person with something to prove, and Tower of Guns is exactly that kind of project. Joe Mirabello made it after the collapse of 38 Studios, channelling years of working on big-budget RPGs into something lean, fast, and almost violently arcade-minded. The result is a roguelite FPS where a successful run clocks in around thirty minutes, the whole tower can be climbed in one to two hours, and the game gleefully tallies your deaths on screen every time you fail. The loop works like this: pick a gun and a perk at the start of each run, then fight through five floors of procedurally arranged rooms, each ending in a boss arena. Enemies, fixed turrets, flying spinbots, roving mechanical tanks, drop blue tokens that level up your weapon, and taking hits costs you those levels back. That tension between aggression and survival is the spine of the game. The weapon variety earns its place: saw-blade rifles that bounce shots off walls, spread-shot machines, rocket launchers you can modify with a shotgun modifier to create something gloriously overcrowded with projectiles. Perks at run start include the beloved triple-jump, no-fall-damage options, and deployable shields, and the right combination can snowball dramatically by floors four and five. Movement is swift, circle-strafing matters, and there is no reload button, a small mercy in rooms where twelve turrets wake up at once. Where it earns the most praise is also where it shows its limits. The first few runs feel genuinely surprising: the randomised room chunks, random boss selection, and the absurd gun-mod combinations keep things unpredictable in a good way. But veteran players will notice that the room layouts themselves are fixed even if their order shuffles, and the enemy roster gets familiar quickly. The secrets system, meant to reward explorers, draws some fair criticism: some are gated behind random item drops and others sit behind invisible walls, which feels less like discovery and more like guesswork. For players hunting depth on the scale of a Binding of Isaac campaign, Tower of Guns will feel lightweight after a handful of completed runs. The presentation is cartoonish and colourful rather than technically ambitious, and that suits the tone perfectly. The writing that frames each run, randomly selected backstories ranging from a soldier following orders to an inebriated scholar who has confused the tower for his friend's apartment, is quietly funny and gives each attempt a small flavour without overstaying its welcome. Mike Mirabello's soundtrack carries the kinetic energy the gameplay demands, and the directional audio does real work when bullets are incoming from every angle. Worth noting for Mac users: the game is not compatible with macOS Catalina or above, which is a practical limitation worth checking before you buy. Tower of Guns sits at a Metacritic score of 76 and around 86% positive on Steam, a spread that makes sense. Critics who wanted a deep roguelite with endless build variety found it too thin. Players who wanted a focused, handcrafted burst of old-school FPS energy found exactly what they needed. The honest read is that it excels at being a specific, contained thing, and it knows when to stop. For a solo-developed title, that restraint is itself a craft decision worth respecting.

Kai · Scout Team

Indie & narrative

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