For a while there it felt like cRPG’s were going to become a lost art. Great games like Baulders Gate and Planescape: Torment were becoming a thing of the past. This left us older gamers with nothing but fond memories of these games. But with the rise of Indie developers, the genre is slowly making its comeback, so this is were our Tower of Time First Impressions comes in. The game fits and follows the genre perfectly and even adds its own additional twists to the genre itself with one of the most unique plots I have ever encountered.
Story
You begin by journeying into an upside-down tower that’s buried deep into the ground. This tower holds the mystery of the post-apocalyptic world that you now reside in and the long-forgotten one before it. My first thoughts on the story so far are quite positive, simply put, I’m intrigued. Every level I descend down the tower I learn a little more of this tragic world’s past.
There is a lot of dialog in this game though and most of it feels like mindless banter between the characters, but it does help draw you into the story. It may come off as annoying but it was refreshing at the same time and kept things interesting.
Combat
Combat feels good, and the real-time action, with time stop and slow-mo, gives you the necessary time to think when you’re in a tough situation. For example, you can stop time in the middle of a battle. Now you can think about what might be your best attack skill, character position, or even which character needs a heal.
At the early stages, I found the combat overwhelming but as I learned my skills and proceeded to upgrade my characters each fight became rather easy. Battle’s entailed several strategies to win. Sometimes you would have to destroy a portal and then take out the remaining enemies, destroy small towers, or simply protect some while killing off your opponents.
Rpg Elements
The Rpg element or upgrade system part of the game was intricate. It was all there from crafting, skill points, to enchanting. Although, I didn’t get far enough into the game to find much use for the enchanting.
Also along your journey, you obtain additional characters (7 in total). I personally managed to get 6 and the 7th was a mystery to me. But you’re only allowed your pick of 4 in combat. Each character has their own upgradable skill set, but honestly, I invested so much time into my initial characters that I didn’t want to try the others. They became more of the storyline than the addition of combat for me. None the less the collecting of gold, scrolls, and assigning skill points with the four playable characters was still a pleasure.
Graphics & Sound
Even though the graphics were quite stunning there was an annoying stutter that really should be patched. Now to be fair, I didn’t try playing this on any other consoles other than the Xbox One S, so I can’t say how it will perform on the One X or the PS4. But I’m assuming you should get a little better performance. As for the sound effects, they were good but nothing special. The soundtrack, on the other hand, got annoying and repetitive quickly.
I’m anxious to finish playing through this game. Even with it’s few technical problems, it has been a fantastic experience so far and brings something special to the genre. I hope this Tower Of Time First Impressions was of some use to you and if you’re a fan of classic cRPG’s like myself, you may consider adding this to your collection.
