Nuclear Throne Review (PC)

Nuclear Throne first killed me in less than two minutes, when I was unable to dodge the salvo of a scorpion-like creature and I was then touched inappropriately by a worm that reminded me a lot of Frank Herbert's Dune.

The onslaught continued for about one hour, time during which I died at the hands of a lot of enemies, including lowly rats and maggots, but I also learned a lot about the world I was exploring and the best way to stay alive and kill my opponents.

The game is a mash-up of influences and core mechanics that work despite the fact that they initially seem overwhelming and difficult to understand.

Death is never conquered in Nuclear Throne, but the player will slowly learn, through repetition and luck, how to make more progress, gain more weapons, improve his characters and deal with normal enemies and powerful bosses.

Vlambeer is offering the title only on the PC and the game has long been in Early Access, which means that there's a lot of content to experience, and all the core mechanics are very well polished.

Story

Nuclear Throne is a rogue-like, and there's little in the way of a classic narrative that the development team offers to the player, although a lot more can be gleaned from the levels, the enemies and even the weapons by those who want to create their stories.

The world is a wasteland, with some of the mutations and creatures as clear indications that atomic weapons were deployed and devastated the entire world, creating anomalies that STALKER would not be ashamed of.

The game also features plenty of similarities to Fallout when it comes to world building, but Vlambeer is much more interested in the mechanics of the experience than in delivering loads of text or details about the weapons or the enemies.

Nuclear Throne laser line

There are plenty of characters to choose from in Nuclear Throne, most of them unlocked by progress, and all of them are unique, each class clearly designed to allow the player to put together his cool stories of reaching for victory before being inevitably defeated by this wasteland filled with threats.

The small snippets of text that appear during level transitions are worth mentioning for their ability to induce hope or panic with just a few well-placed words, with my favorite currently being "Death, death, death," which perfectly sums up the atmosphere of the game.

Gameplay

Nuclear Throne is a very classic take on the rogue-like, a game that procedurally generates levels and enemies and challenges gamers to get as far as possible without dying, although in the end it's impossible to avoid this fate.

Players are dropped into the middle of a world, asked to take out all enemies moving around to open up a gate (magic portal or advanced tech?) to get to the next one, doing so until they reach the special royal chair mentioned in the title.

To make good progress, players will need to carefully manage their health and their combination of weapons and ammo, choosing when to fight, when to run and how to use the environment in order to get an advantage.

Initially, the enemies are relatively slow to fire and move around in relatively predictable patterns, allowing players to plan how they will approach an area and then strafe when the level allows it to take them out.

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The biggest limitation is the fact that only two weapons can be carried at once, and ammunition can often be scarce, especially for the most powerful guns.

The health of the player characters is low enough that even one enemy hit can feel like a huge blow, but in the first three levels it's not hard to stay alive, get some cool new weapons and prepare for the challenge ahead.

Nuclear Throne then introduces snipers, cops, fast rats and many more, enemies better equipped to surprise with their accuracy, their speed or their unique abilities.

Death comes very quickly when the player is overwhelmed, unable to find ammo or get a weapon that gives him a fighting chance or fails to register the fact that an enemy is very close and ready to deliver a killing blow.

The bosses created by Vlambeer are also deadly the first few times the player meets them, and only solid on-the-fly learning and planning will make it simpler to deal with them.

In order to give gamers a fighting chance, the development team offers some unique powers for each character, with my favorite being Crystal's deflector form that allows him to get out of hairy situations, and a unique new mutation for each level up, ranging from more max hitpoints to an ability to explode corpses.

“There are plenty of combinations to explore in Nuclear Throne, which add replayability even beyond the traditional confines of the rogue-like space, and through hours of constant failure I always knew that there are alternate ways to approach each of the moments that led to my demise.”

Constant failure can become annoying at times, which is why Nuclear Throne is best enjoyed in small doses, one to two hours, with breaks designed to allow the brain to process all it has learned about the game and how it can influence future strategy.

I had the most success using Crystal when I managed to get an assault rifle and a laser-based weapon, which allow a player to choose between accuracy and overwhelming numbers of bullets when attacking an enemy position.

The grab upgrade and power that increases the number of health and ammo drops are also very helpful.

The beauty of Nuclear Throne is that gamers can choose how they want to approach the game and play knowing that when they die and see no way forward, they can switch to someone new or can try a different upgrade path.

Graphics and audio

Nuclear Throne is a weird-looking video game, with the fast-paced rhythm of the action able to make the entire experience look better than it should while also exposing the fact that the player should not be focusing on the looks of the title at any point because that tends to get him killed.

There's an incredible variety in the design of the levels and the enemies the screen shakes each time the player shoots or when he gets hit, creating a constant rush of adrenaline even early on, when there are relatively small number threats to worry about.

Gamers can turn down the movement of the screen and increase auto-aim to get a tamer experience and to make easier progress, but the kinetic overload of Nuclear Throne is one of unique aspects of the experience, even if it takes a little time to get used to.

The sound design of the game is superb, with some very creepy environmental sounds and songs that underline the violence and the constant danger associated with this futuristic and mutated wasteland.

The Good

The Bad

Conclusion