TombStar Preview

A dynamic duo of Andy Sum and Marcus Grambau has created quite an impressive roguelike game in the form of TombStar, published by No More Robots. Any fan of top-down twin-stick shooters should feel right at home in this rootin’ tootin’ futuristic Wild West themed title.

While the game shows me three characters, all with their unique abilities and varying health, speed, and stamina levels, I’m only able to select one character initially. Picking Jack Galloway and his starting weapon “Old Faithful Mk.II”, a six-shooter revolver with unlimited ammo, I’m thrown into the first level, Settler’s Run. Thus starts my adventure into a randomly generated level filled with danger and bullets… Many, many bullets!

It takes me over an hour, several deaths, and as many restarts before I’m able to defeat the first boss in this game. To say this is frantic would be an understatement. Trying to avoid the bullets, bombs, knives, and environmental hazards had me on the edge of my seat throughout my playtime. TombStar took great pleasure in kicking my arse and I couldn’t help but ask for more.

Those familiar with games like The Binding of Isaac or Enter the Gungeon will be in familiar territory here, moving from room to room, clearing out the enemies while trying to avoid taking damage and looking for weapons, items, and powerups. Clearing a room can grant one of several rewards from a pool, such as an upgrade token, extra health, or a handful of coins that can be used at the shop to purchase guns, health, and many other helpful items.

Kick the bucket on a run and it’s time to do it all over again from scratch. While being granted experience after each run that unlocks new weapons and items to use in additional attempts, each run has you starting with basic gear, just like any good roguelike game should. The more you play, the more you die, the more experience you gain, and the more items you unlock. It certainly builds up the variety as you’re never sure what powerups or weapons you may encounter on a run, having you think of builds on the fly.

Movement is relatively simple in the game, keyboard for moving around while aiming and shooting with the mouse is pretty much all that’s needed. TombStar can also be played using a controller with no issues at all and it’s down to personal preference on what you’d want to use. The game even has a handy fast run option that activates while you’re out of combat, reducing the time needed to run between rooms and a fancy teleport system should you need to jump back to another room on the map, should your chosen path become a dead-end or you just want to quickly move somewhere else.

I love the visuals that TombStar has gone for. A wonderful 3D modelled game with bright, colourful art that flows beautifully within the first level, then a quick switch to an eerie, uneasy feeling as the second level becomes set within a mine. Even when running like a maniac avoiding all the red hot death flying towards my character, the graphics never faltered and continued to portray this galactic cowboy shooter. It’s certainly striking enough to capture the attention of any fan of this style of game.

While there’s no set release date, only sometime in 2022, TombStar is one to watch out for!