Review: DEMON'S TIER+ Makes Players Work Hard, But Rewards Handsomely
When playing through a roguelike game, there are some crucial pieces that need to be well made or the game falls flat. These things would be a steady and strong difficulty, great core gameplay, and reasonable progression outside of runs. Without these, any roguelike will become boring, annoying and/or forgettable. But thankfully, Dragon’s Tier is one title that has found that magic formula to highly succeed in each area.
Let talk about the first part: steady and strong difficulty. roguelike games will never baby the player, no second lives, no checkpoints, nothing. The enemies will be challenging, but steadily grow in difficulty as players further their run and upgrade themselves. Dragon’s Tier+ has a great progression, I never felt overwhelmed at any moment, but I also never felt it was too easy. It was always just the right amount of desperation and validation of my skills. Enemies felt fair but tough, bosses were demanding and dungeon layout always ended up being really good.
Next, we’ll address the gameplay. It is more or less a twin-stick shooter game, but set in a magical world. The control feels tight and my equipment to stay alive was good. The enemies always kept me on my toes, especially as I went to higher tiers. They became smarter, stronger and more vicious. Starting over and over, like any roguelike, did get a little tedious. But because of the in-run and out-of-run progression, starting over wasn’t so bad. In the run, at the end of every level, players can spend their in-run gold on boosting stats: health, armor, range, damage, speed, mana regen and currency boosting. Being able to take control of the customization of your character through any given run (the changes be very noticeable) made each run exciting and loads of fun.
Progression out of the main gameplay is also done better here in Dragon’s Tier+ than any other roguelike I’ve played. When playing through a run, a player will accumulate a separate currency that is used to buy characters, potions, quick escapes, new weapons and more. Having this strong progression outside of the core gameplay allows players to feel like they still made good use of their time even if they fail. If a player dies, they do have one chance to make it to the same level and reclaim their soul and those lost credits, which is a nice little mercy.
Another great part of the game is the multiplayer. Having a second person in the battlefield makes the run a lot more fun and easier in certain ways. On one hand, players can revive each other, a second player will also attract enemies and kill enemies. However, when playing two players, gold at the end of each level is split, so neither person is as powerful as going solo. It is a great trade off and a perfect way to balance playing with two people instead of one.
Lastly, the visuals for the game are really good, but just short of great. The reason why is because I found the screen to get too cluttered too often. Many enemies, lots of environmental pieces and projectiles all over the place with the retro-bit style, it became very hard to see what was just the ground and what were traps at times. This doesn’t ruin the game, it just feels a little too hectic and visually noisy at times.
Overall, this is easily my favorite roguelike game. The amazing gameplay, strong progression systems and lots of reasons for me to keep playing makes this an easy recommendation for anyone who likes arcade, action, or challenging games.
