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It´s been over five months since the last time I played Benitosub´s super awesome 16-bit twin-stick shooter “Tower 57” (which is in development for Windows, MAC and Linux). And during that time Benitosub has been really busy with bug fixes, polishing and tweaking “Tower 57”. And I could really tell that the developers had been hard at work when I got the chance to play through the second alpha build of the game. Because everything feels and looks better in the latest demo of “Tower 57”. And the very first thing that I noticed when I booted up the game, was the neat in-game music (the catchy tunes fits “Tower 57” like a glove). Well, I don´t know about you, but I think music is a very important part of the gameplay experience. Because if the music really fits the game in question, then it will improve the overall feel of the game with no doubt (the atmosphere, intense moments, etc.).

And I think Benitosub has nailed the music part for sure. I just wish that they could add some metal music to the mix as well (the “Loaded” soundtrack anyone?). So, what about the actual gameplay then? Well, I was just about to cover that part. You got three (out of five) playable characters in Alpha build 2. And those characters would be The begger (rifle, can spot secret areas), The diplomat (flamethrower, can make set everything on the screen on fire), and The Don (tommygun, beserk mode). And each and everyone has their own unique abilities, weapons, pros and cons. In other words. You pick your character based on what kind play style you like the most (ultra slaughter, hit and run or somewhere in the middle). In my case, I picked The Diplomat, since I have already played as The Don in my previous gameplay video of “Tower 57”.

And let me tell you what. Not only does The Diplomat look like Abraham Lincoln, but his also a real bad ass as well. Because The Diplomat loves to weld his flamethrower like there is no tomorrow (yes, he loves to set everything on fire). And I sure had a lot of fun with the flamethrower, as I realized that I could literally turn everything into a burning inferno (monsters, trees, furniture you name it!). There are of course other weapons to be found in the new demo (rifles, machine guns, grenades with many more). However, The Diplomat is a real ace when it comes to the flamethrower. So that´s the weapon that I used the most throughout the demo (everything else was just a second-hand choice for me).

Even so. I did find some rather cool non-buyable weapons in “Tower 57”, for example. You can pick up machine gun turrets and grenade launchers from fallen enemies, and use their own weapons against them. Here´s some free advice though. You need to keep a close eye on your ammo consumption, because some weapons will run out of ammo in no time. And since there are plenty of enemies (and traps, for that matter) in “Tower 57”, you really need waste as little ammo as possible. Sure, you can buy new ammo, health and upgrades via item and weapon shops (which are to be found at some certain parts of the demo). However, everything costs money, and most items are rather expensive. So think before you act, because everything you do comes at a cost (for good or bad).

Besides that, I also noticed some other things while playing the second alpha build of “Tower 57”. I think Benitosub has upgraded the graphics in the latest demo, at least that´s what I felt once I had played through the whole demo. I think the controls have been adjusted as well. Because they seem to be less sloppy than they were in the previous demo of the game, in the matter of fact, the only part which I didn´t enjoy in the demo. Was the controls in the shop menu, because it´s a real pain in the ass to navigate through the different menus (the keyboard and mouse controls collide with each other). However, I did experience some bugs in the demo (like the suicide bug, for example). Even so, none of the bugs were serious crash bugs or such though. So my overall experience with the Alpha build 2 demos were of positive nature.

That´s also why I´m rather curious to see what the final release of “Tower 57” will be like. Oh well, we will know for sure when the game launches sometime during the first quarter of this year.

Pros:

+ Awesome 16-bit graphics

+ Very nice music

+ Tons of weapons, items and upgrades

+ Plenty of playable characters

+ You can destroy pretty much everything there is

+ Co-op, single player and an online mode

Cons:

– Bugs O´ plenty

– A better and more flexible in-game map would be nice

– The high default difficulty setting might be a turn off for some people

– Some enemies takes forever to kill

– It´s somewhat hard to navigate through the shops menus



Robin “V-Act” Ek

The Gaming Ground

Twitter: @TheGamingGround

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Tags: Benitosub, Indie games, Tower 57, Tower 57 Alpha build 2 preview, Twin stick shooter