Nuclear Throne PC Review

Nuclear Throne is a post apocalyptic, isometric, 16 bit looking, roguelike shooter. Now that is a fantastic game description for a game that was released at the end of 2015. Nuclear Throne has everything which should make gamers keep playing. There is great loot, sweet rewards for progression, and it's always changing. The Gamers Lounge has been playing a lot of this Indie PC game and at this point we highly recommend Nuclear Throne.

As someone who doesn't care much for roguelikes, I had never heard of this game until I saw the booth at PAX South 2016. They were giving away codes every hour to the crowds of people watching to see if a player could make it to the Nuclear Throne. I watched and got a few codes, I also tried the game and found out I was terrible at it.

But with some practice I have gotten better, the selling point of this game is that every level is randomly generated every time. There are several characters gamers can pick from. Each have their own abilities some of these include telekinesis, starting with melee weapons, dual pistols, the ability to shield, to snare enemies, and the list goes on and on. I recommend the Chicken or Crystal for rookies. Outside of killing everything in the level and dodging enemy fire gamers will collect nuclear waste which will let them level up and pick a new random mutation. The mutations range from restoring all ammo and health, to increasing melee damage, or increasing weapons drops.

The game is very unforgiving and health doesn't re-generate. Gamers need to play cautious, watch out for enemies, conserve ammo and keep moving. The weapons selection features energy weapons, shotguns, machine guns, pistols, rocket and grenade launchers, flame throwers, crossbows and melee weapons. Personally I found that the shovel or wrench were great melee weapons and they can deflect enemy bullets back at them. Ranged weapons, I liked the automatic shotgun (bullets bounce around a bit), laser rifle (watch out these burn ammo fast), and the heavy crossbow (it may be slow but it's a one shot kill)

The fantastic and frantic gameplay combined with the deep weapon selection and fun characters makes this a great game. It will be a game that is going to be tough to put down for anyone who likes a challenge. There are daily challenges, secrets to unlock, and new characters to find. There is also an active online community that includes some modding as well.

Here's a link to some of the frantic game play that's on youtube. 

The game is available for PC, PS4, Vita, Mac, and Linux and its $12.99.

I want to thank Vlambeer for giving out codes at PAX South 2016

Final Score 5/5