Ziggurat Review

Ziggurat is a combination of first-person shooter and dungeon crawler, all these purely single player.

It is developed by Milkstone Studios and received its last update in the distant 2016. the devs said that it would probably be the last update the game gets, and surely enough, this goes until today.

The game generally never really exploded or anything, but ever since 2014 (its release year), it’s been a stable dungeon-crawler choice for the fans of the genre.

Now, at this time, is it worth to buy this game?

This review will have a Storyline, Gameplay, Visuals and finally, a Personal Thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

The storyline is that the character you use, who is proficient with various magical skills, attends a meeting held by the Daedolon Brothers; the most powerful circle of wizards in the realm.

Every “ten winters”, they host a challenge for the more talented magic users in order to join the guild. In order to succeed, everyone must pass the Ziggurat.

Not much is known about the Ziggurat, other than that it houses dangers beyond comprehension. Additional lore tidbits are revealed through various Lore Scroll Rooms.

Once you finish, you get 1 of 3 endings depending on how much you explored in your gameplay.

Gameplay

The gameplay is that of a classic dungeon-crawler.

Your character begins with his/her Magic Wand, which has different fire rate, damage, and various other abilities per character. In the first room, you also get 1 random weapon from 1 of the 3 random categories; Spell Books, Staves, and Alchemy Weapons. There are many different weapons for each category.

Generally speaking, Spells are better dealing burst damage and effects, Staves are DPS oriented and Alchemy is AoE.

Every weapon uses its own respective mana; blue for Spells, green for Staves, and orange for Alchemy. The Wand uses its own purple mana. With the exception of 1 or 2 characters, only the Wand recharges over time. For the rest, you’re gonna have to find mana gems dropped from enemies and sometimes a few breakable stuff in the environment.

You start exploring. Every room has enemies to defeat in order to advance, except if it’s a special room (more on that later). You can also run for faster exploration.

As you beat enemies, you will gain experience. With every level, you will get increased maximum HP, and a choice between 2 random perks. Some perks can be chosen multiple times (assuming you have them as choices on many levels) to strengthen their effects.

Some rooms might have champion enemies, distinguished by their colored aura. The difference between a champion and a regular enemy is that the champion has some form of advantage (either in stats or by being able to turn invisible for example).

Some rooms might have modifiers, like more mana spent for specific weapons, not being able to run, more experience, double enemies, etc.

Your purpose is to find the Portal Key and head to the Boss Room beat the big baddie and head to the next floor. There are 5 floors in total.

Every floor has 10+ rooms. I mentioned that there are special rooms. Unless stated otherwise, these special rooms contain no enemies. The special rooms include:

• Starting Room: Obvious on what it is, the Starting Room always contains a new weapon every floor.
• Portal Key Room: I mentioned it as well. In there is the Key to the Boss. If you go to the Boss room without the Portal Key, nothing will happen. The Portal Key Room has a spike trap on later floors.
• Boss Room: Here, you fight the boss, as long as you have the key. In order to initiate the fight, besides having the key, you must move toward the center of the room. That means you can circle the room by touching the walls without initiating a boss fight. After the boss, this room contains the portal to the next floor
• Treasure Room: Contains a box in the middle. Despite its name, there is a good chance it contains enemies. Other drops include health drops, experience, amulets, a new weapon, and mana gems.
• Hazard Room: Is based on 1 or more hazard (among lava, arrows, and many others). Usually connected to many rooms.
• Challenge Room: More hazardous the Hazard Room, its end contains a treasure chest. Unlike the box, it always contains something beneficial, with a chance of containing a random perk as well.
• Lore Scroll Room: Already mentioned as well, this room contains Lore Scroll which gives you information about the Ziggurat and some experience. There are many breakable things as well.
• Shrine Room: Contains 3 statues of deities. Each statue can randomly give you a Divine Blessing, Indifference, or Punishment. These are like positive or negative perks. The leftmost statue gives you 1 randomly for free. The centermost requires paying with health. The rightmost one needs 1 of the 3 types of mana (chosen at random on room generation).
• Secret Room: This room is not visible on the map until you first go there. You can find it by searching all the walls on the floor. The Secret Room is behind a wall that is cracked. All you need to do is hit it a little with the wand. While that might sound hard at first, but it’s really no big deal. As you play more and more you’ll know where to start looking. The room contains a free perk and some information on various games from Milkstone Studios.

Besides experience, the enemies can drop mana gems and health pots. I also mentioned amulets. Amulets are short term buffs that recharge as you kill enemies.

As you play, you will unlock more perks for future runs, more weapons, and more characters.

Visuals

Zigguarat’s visuals are very well done and polished, and the more impressive feat is that with these graphics, it still runs on low spec PCs. There’s nothing noteworthy however.

All in all, Ziggurat’s visuals are not too good, not too bad.

Personal Thoughts

Ziggurat is a great game to pass the time. Especially if you can find it on a sale, it’s a great game to have in your collection.

Don’t expect the hundreds of items gameplay of other dungeon-crawlers however, Ziggurat has less content for a smaller price.

In the end, Ziggurat is a perfect 10-minute break from either everyday struggles or an intense competitive gaming session.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 5.0

Gameplay: 7.5

Visuals: 6.8

Final Verdict: 6.4

That’s it for my review. Do you own Ziggurat. Have you done all the achievements. If you have any questions or anything to add, leave a comment below.

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The images I used are from the following site(s):

www.igdb.com