Abusive Arcade Action on the Atomic Scale
Nuclear Throne is a post-apocalyptic twin-stick shooter roguelike from the folks that brought us Luftrausers. In the wasteland you must seek out the Nuclear Throne. To take your seat, you must evade the I.D.P.D. and blast your way through a number of obstacles, collecting weapons and power-ups along the way.
Runs end as quickly as they begin. Similar to Spelunky, the dream run might only take you ten minutes, but not screwing up during the dream run is the real challenge. There's a good mix of narrow corridors and open spaces with a wide variety of enemies that make either as treacherous as the other. Nuclear Throne is frequently abusive and often downright oppressive. Some runs you'll be swimming in less than ideal or overlapping perks, in others you'll have the perks, but not the firepower.
While not all of it works for every situation, whether you're dumping into a wall or your enemies or just spraying hot lead down a corridor, all of the weapons feel really good. This is helped by the bassy sound design and the violent Paul Greengrass screen shake, that often makes it difficult to assess what is even happening. It can be disorienting, but it's definitely an integral part of what makes the shooting so enjoyable. The larger picture of what makes Nuclear Throne tick, is its endorsement of itself. The individual pieces are often silly an unmatching, but somehow fit together with style and confidence.
There are plenty of characters to unlock and choose from, each coming with their own unique ability, such as rolling around or shielding yourself. Upon leveling up these abilities can be enhanced is some pretty cool ways by choosing the Throne Butt perk. These characters and abilities lend themselves to a bunch of different playstyles and are better or worse against certain enemies than others.
The enemies you defeat will drop rads, ammo and sometimes health or weapons, but if you're not quick to grab them, they will disappear (except weapons) into the wastes. Rads are Nuclear Throne's form of experience. Acquire enough rads and you will level up with the ability to choose a new perk. Perks range from boosting survivability, damage output, other special abilities, or if your in pinch, you one perk offers a one time restock of health and ammo. You can also find chests in every level with new weapons and ammo for them. While ammo is rarely a huge concern, it can sneak up on you, and without ammo, unless you're have a melee weapon, you're doomed to fail.
In perhaps a bit of an oversight, I did find melee weapons to be the most reliable strategy, simply because you can hit people through walls. However gamebreaking that sounds, it never felt that way. At some point you're going to want to get those rads, so you can get more perks, and to get those rads, you're going to have to expose yourself. When exposing yourself for even a second is often enough time for you to die from full health, you take what you can get. Playing it too safe can also mean you won't gain enough perks to be strong enough to contend with the more aggressive enemies in the later stages of the game. This creates a compelling tug of war between getting in the thick of it to ensure that you're strong enough for later and hanging back to even make it to later.
It's arcade action on an atomic scale. Nuclear Throne's frenetic runs will usually last no more than ten minutes, but by the by it delivers. It's as explosive as it is abusive. While runs coming to a frequent and sudden end can be frustrating, the ramp up is quick to get you back in the thick of the unrelenting turkey shoot until you finally sit that throne.