Project Tower Preview

I got the chance to check out a demo of a third-person bullet hell called Project Tower, developed by Yummy Games. Having only seen the basic description, I was going in without many expectations so… Let’s get into it.

This isn't as pretty as it should be. Blame my PC.

The start of the game is quite the downer. Humanity has been all but wiped out by invaders called the Hiks, and the few survivors are now prisoners forced to fight in towers as part of Project Tower, which gathers combat data to help train Hik soldiers. You are one of those prisoners, Prisoner 9220. You’ll be fighting all sorts of aliens and monsters to reach the top for a chance of freedom. Or, at least, that’s what they tell you but it’s not like you have much of a choice. You’ll be fighting a lot so let’s talk about combat first.

For the section that I played, all you have for weapons is a pistol and a sword. You can dodge roll out of the way of attacks (telegraphed by enemies flashing red) and sprint. You’re actually quite fast, and you need to be, as the enemies you face are quite aggressive. Shooting and slashing feel good, although I was a little bothered by the fact that the auto-fire is so much slower than pulling the trigger for each shot. Really wears down on you if you want the most damage output, especially during a boss fight.

The game is really pretty too. So pretty that my PC overheats even on Performance settings (I desperately need a cooler upgrade). From the graphics to the lighting, and the animations make it all feel so great and snappy. Actually, Project Tower is really reminding me of Returnalexcept with less psychological nightmare stuff and weird time travel stuff! However, there is a unique mechanic that caught me off guard.

Being a squishy human with only the bare essentials to survive, you’re not gonna get too far without running into serious trouble. That’s fine though, as your overlords have seen it fit to give you the power to morph into creatures and objects, which is useful for both combat and puzzle solving. Turn into a recently killed boss and mow down your enemies with fireballs, then turn into a robot to solve a block-pushing puzzle. It’s a really interesting mechanic and opens up a lot of possibilities.

My time with Project Tower was only 30 minutes, including cutscenes, but it left quite the impression. It has a lot of potential from what I can see, with boss fights becoming absolute insanity full of bright lights and frantic dodge rolling. I also got really interested in the story from what little there was. For a team of only four people, this wouldn’t be too out of place with a AAA game. I’m really looking forward to this one, and you should too.

Project Tower is expected to release sometime in the third quarter of 2024. You can wishlist it now on Steam and the demo is free, so check it out yourself when you can.