Nuclear Throne like so many other roguelikes out there is not an easy game to beat. Unsurprisingly some of these are of more use than others but since leveling is fairly quick out the gate chances I rarely found myself in a run where I didn’t get at least one or two of my preferred choices.
These then offer an advantage to the player such as lowering the health of enemies, slowing the speed of their projectiles or increasing the amount of ammo you can carry. Dropping from killed enemies and destroyed canisters, collecting enough will allow you to level up and choose one of four randomized mutations. I previously mentioned rads, the game’s take on experience that plays a key role in helping you on your journey. As you’d expect each offers its own pros and cons – the aforementioned triple machinegun, for example, sprays bullets in multiple directions but eats through your ammo extremely fast – and much like the characters, testing and figuring them out is all part of the fun. With room to carry only two weapons, you’ll want to find the best pairing possible for your play style. The weaponry, for example, covers your standard mix of pistols and shotguns but also gets a little more unusual with wrenches for melee attacks, explosives, lasers and even something called a triple machinegun. It’s this level of variety to choose from that’s a common theme that runs throughout Nuclear Throne and keeps it feeling fresh and exciting with every new run. In fact, I found my go-to character change several times throughout my playtime. Of course, you’ll find your favorites but experimenting with each not only proves great fun but also could open your eyes to a new ability that works even better for you. Melting meanwhile starts with a fraction of the health of everyone else (in fact so little nearly everything will kill you in a single hit) but also receives more rads (experience) resulting in faster leveling up. Take Fish for example who not only starts with and receives more ammo from pick-ups than other characters but can also perform a rolling dodge. While you’ll only start out with two mutants to play as, you eventually expand your crew as you get further through the game, each new addition bringing their own perks and abilities. Clearing out everything in your path leaves you little time to celebrate before getting thrown into the next battlefield. There’s little downtime, the game doing an excellent job at always keeping you on your toes.
Everything feels extremely sharp and snappy whether it’s the movement of your character, the aiming, and shooting or even just the length of the levels themselves. Not until you’ve done the latter task will you be granted access to the next randomly generated stage via a spawning black hole where you’ll then repeat this same process again and again.
You’ll spend your time in each level running around searching for better weapons, extra ammo, rads (more of that in a moment) and killing anything in sight. Nuclear Throne is essentially a twin-stick shooter played from a top-down perspective all wrapped in a roguelike skin.
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After a very brief tutorial – one that covers the absolute basics of movement and shooting – you’re out into the wastelands shooting and swinging your way through a series of randomly generated levels each filled with enemies aplenty.
You play as a mutant, your aim being to claim the Nuclear Throne and… well, that’s pretty much all there is to it. It’s no-nonsense approach to throwing you right into the heart of the action – action that rarely gives you a moment to rest I might add – results in a roguelike that not only leaves a great first impression but also manages to maintain that exciting, edge-of-your-seat feeling even a hundred runs deep.Įven the story (if you can call it that) just gets straight to the point. Nuclear Throne is a game that doesn’t mess around instead choosing to cut right to the chase.