Darksburg

A co-op roguelite survival game with an interesting twist; Darksburg by Shiro Games gets you to team up with some friends and fight your way through hordes of infected. There are unique characters with interesting powers carving up through zombies, what more could you ask for?

Gameplay

If you’ve ever played Diablo III then you’ll know what this game is all about; top-down isometric hack and slash with flashy fighting and flashier magic. What makes this game unique is the horde system that is prevalent throughout. Introducing zombies will introduce hordes, hundreds of enemies that you have you slice through to get from A to B and it can add a lot to a game as it does here.

After battling your way through four levels, you will fight the boss. Sadly, it’s the same boss every time and that gets a little stale. What I did appreciate was the large difficulty increase after completing the first set.

You have a decent selection of 4 abilities which are available to you at the beginning but you won’t get any more after that, instead you can get 3 random perks every time you level up and slowly craft your character into the ideal build. You fight and win in order to get enough experience to unlock those passive abilities but you may not get enough from your play through so it may require a lot more plays before you get something good. Given you can’t see what the ability does before you buy it, adds a lot of tension to the small gamble the title provides.

Features

With the horde feature, the game requires you pay attention as you can easily become overrun if you don’t make good use of your abilities at the opportune time. The maps here are procedurally generated and it helps keep you on your toes throughout as it provides a nice amount of diversity for you to constantly adapt to. There are also random tasks that can occur in the levels that require specific attention and solutions.

The multiplayer aspect is really good, requiring you and your friends to work as an effective team. I found the game was provided a lot more replay value when I was playing with friends while having a laugh.

Art Style

This world is simple but very well designed, with a polished and well presented aesthetic; it’s cartoony but that doesn’t detract from the ambience that it provides. A lot of that atmosphere is successful in thanks to things like the darkness illuminated by ambient light from your lanterns or an occasional lightning strike. It keeps things creepy and I appreciate that.

The characters and their animations and weapons are all unique. I found this helped a lot as you never really get stuck wondering where the heck your character has gone in the all the chaos.

Pros

• Brilliant art style
• Randomised levels added a lot to replay

Cons

• Not a lot of characters to choose from
• Barely any gameplay diversity