Downwell Review
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Developers: Moppin
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Publishers: Devolver Digital
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Genres: Roguelike, Arcade
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Platforms: Android, iOS, PC, PS Vita, PS4, N. Switch
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Release date:
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iOS: October 14th 2015
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PC: October 15th 2015
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Android: January 27th 2016
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PS4/PS Vita- May 24th 2016
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Nintendo Switch- January 31st 2019
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Playtime: Around 3 hours
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Reviewed on Nintendo Switch
Downwell is straight to the point: a true rogue-like where player skill is all that matters. Here, unlike in Binding of Isaac or in Enter the Gungeon, there’s no upgrades to work towards. All the upgrades you can find during a run are the same whether you are playing for the first time or have already played 10 hours. However, since the gameplay never deviates much from its core (even when you manage to pick up a good combination of upgrades) there was a conceptual chance of it growing stale and uninteresting. Thankfully, falling in a well to shoot and/or kick down bats, frogs, skulls, and whatever more appears is quite fun. There’s a nice rhythm to the thing, as you try to keep up the combo of enemies killed without touching any ground. No matter if you’re trying to complete a section by avoiding all enemies or doing the exact opposite, there’s always a rush of adrenaline attached, as they are both high-risk high-reward scenarios.
On the topic of upgrades, these can be obtained when you finish a room, rather, a vertical section, as the game lets you choose one of three available upgrades (a friendly drone to shoot enemies, health refill, explode enemy bodies by shooting them, etc.). Alternatively, you can may come across small caves during the descent, where there’s modifications to your shooting style, such as shooting in bursts, shooting three bullets at a time, shooting a laser that evaporates everything on the way (clearly my favorite), etc.
Behind the fun and adrenaline-fueled gameplay of Downwell lies, to no one’s surprise, a decent challenge. Making it the norm to finish the first area (each area is comprised of three sections) in almost every run is fairly easy, but it’s not easy to make the same thing for the second area. Each area seems to introduce its own challenge besides the area-specific enemies: the first one seems to have none, precisely to be used as the “testing grounds” of the game; but the second area introduces spikes so that you can’t spend much time on the ground and the third area is completely underwater, so that you have to take into account your remaining oxygen, on top of everything else. Unfortunately, I still haven’t made it to the last two areas, but that’s precisely what keeps me motivated to continue playing: “what lies ahead on the fourth area?”, “what kind of enemies are there?”, “what are the new gimmicks?”.
Lastly, there are the unlockables. Even if you can’t unlock gameplay-affecting upgrades, there are still some neat rewards to keep you motivated. The score of every run played is added to a running sum, so that you can unlock something new that will, hopefully, make you enjoy the game even if a just a tiny bit more. I know this is highly subjective but, at least for me, I quite like to unlock a new “skin” for the game. Instead of having to play with the original black and white palette, you can unlock new color schemes for the game. I found my favorite (at least for now) early on, but there are still more palettes to unlock so there’s a good chance I’ll find one that I like better. The exception to these unlockables are characters styles. These work pretty much as gameplay modifiers, with some slight physical changes to your character (posture, body type, minor stuff really). There are only five styles in total, but they offer some interesting twists to the original formula. For example, one allows you to play with six hearts (instead of the default four), but as a consequence you can’t visit shops, that is, the sources of health replenishment are almost none. All in all, this unlocking system is a perfect complement to the gameplay: Downwell remains a roguelike, but still offers the player some neat rewards for the time invested, without affecting the challenge. On the contrary, it ends up giving the player different takes on the challenge, without compromising the original gameplay design.
One last thing I want to praise this game for is the visual design. I was happy, as I was experimenting with different color palettes, to see how the various on-screen elements were visually distinct no matter how bizarre the palette was. You see, some of the enemies, originally colored red, can’t be kicked, only shot at. These stand-out perfectly from the originally white-colored enemies, but what I’m trying to get at is how the visual design remains impeccable, independently of the color palette you choose to play with. It’s easy to pick different colors for two types of enemies, but even if you don’t have that many elements on the screen to steal the player’s attention, it’s not as hard as you think to mess up the visual design in a video game.
To conclude, there’s not much content in Downell, period. However, because it’s a roguelike, every run will be different from any other played so far. Gameplay is challenging, but the adrenaline of avoiding enemies as you fall down what is probably the world’s deepest well is exciting without a doubt. Besides that, it’s fast-paced and, in turn, you can create a good rhythm by jumping on the heads of enemies to rack up a good combo before you have to hit the ground again. Lastly, you can unlock new color palettes the more you play the game, which creates a mental reset of sorts. “Oh, a new color palette. Let me do one more run to see how this new one looks”. No need to say it’s always a lie whenever I say “one more run” in Downwell.