Ziggurat is a dungeon-crawling first-person shooter that blends magic and intense combat in a truly engaging package. The game is addictive and keeps the player coming back for more. You play as a novice sorcerer who must go through a rite of passage to prove his worth and become a powerful wizard. This is accomplished by surviving the hordes of monsters and traps inside an ancient labyrinth. Each game is procedurally generated so it feels like a unique experience. Aside from a few performance issues, Ziggurat is a truly phenomenal title that everyone should experience. While the combat is challenging, every encounter is an opportunity to learn something new about an enemy or trap. After a while you feel like an expert, are surviving for longer and progressing even further.
As alluded to earlier, Ziggurat’s story is rather simple. It is presented mostly through images and text in the beginning of the game. A multitude of scrolls are also scattered around the levels and provide additional information. Rogue-like games are usually like that. Randomly generated levels and permanent death characterize these experiences more than anything else. There is minimal room for error and they are notoriously difficult to master. You will die many times before you fulfill the requirements to unlock additional content like other starting characters. Unlockable weapons and perks significantly enhance replayability as well.
Ziggurat also features a wide variety of beneficial and damaging upgrades. There are shrines that grant abilities at the cost of health or other resources. For example, faster movement comes at the expense of health. Increased drop rates, mana regeneration and refilling ammunition work the same way. The game has a lot of depth due to enemy variety, numerous perks, varied weapons and unique characters. There are also killer carrots in the game. Yes, you read that right. There is no inventory to manage or need to compare found items. Weapon selection, mana and health are the primary foci of this game and this approach works because the player just has to focus on combat and survival.
Ziggurat’s graphics are also very unique and feature a dark fantasy setting. They look like painted concept art. According to the developers, the look is inspired from games like Heretic and its sequel Hexen. The combat is similar as well. Pressing the trigger fires bolts of energy at enemies and some weapons can cause devastating damage. These weapons require their own source of power so collecting crystals throughout the playthrough is very important. Destroying enemies is so satisfying in this game.
One playthrough requires you to complete an entire labyrinth. A labyrinth is composed of five floors with procedurally generated rooms. A portal key is needed to go to the next level. Many of the rooms house items but others require you avoid traps. For example, there is a room filled with spikes and another that has flaming lava. However, the majority of them feature enemies that must be defeated to unlock the next door or even go back. Each floor is guarded by a ferocious boss that must be defeated before the player can progress further. These encounters are usually quite challenging because these gigantic foes attack swiftly and deal a lot of damage through projectiles.
Many enemies drop orange gems that fill your experience bar. This is another crucial part of Ziggurat. Every time you level up, you get to select from two perks that are permanently affixed to your character. Selecting the right perk can make a significant difference to survival. Sometimes choosing unusual ones can lead to better abilities down the line. Selecting the most obvious benefit might not be the right choice in the beginning. This is just one more example of how the developers added complexity to the game.
There are many elements that come together to make Ziggurat a lot of fun to play. The procedurally generated levels, graphical style, great shooting mechanics, multitude of weapons, among other aspects, makes it a worthwhile experience. This title cannot be recommended enough because of this.
The game is not without its flaws though. Ziggurat suffers from many performance issues which detract from the experience. The game freezes for a while when you try to access the menu. There are random stutters and frame rate drops during gameplay. They do not seem to correlate with intense action or anything graphically demanding. They happen out of the blue. This draws the player out of the experience and rips you away from the intense combat. Performance issues are probably more noticeable in a fast-paced titled like Ziggurat because these drops are so jarring and frustrating. Hopefully the game will be patched soon to address these problems.
Ziggurat also has a significant disconnect between different playthroughs. Titles like Rogue Legacy combat this by providing players with persistent upgrades or the ability to purchase special items before they start another game. This leads to some moments of frustration in Ziggurat, especially if you managed to considerably upgrade your character in a previous run. You should feel more powerful as you play the game more and more. This does not really happen in Ziggurat because it is more about getting good at avoiding projectiles and killing enemies. There is satisfaction to be had in that, but some players might not enjoy this. The items and abilities you unlock during a session might not be available in your next one because everything is random. There should have been a way to at least choose some of the items you unlocked for your next playthrough. Maybe making it a separate mode would have made the game even better.
These are just minor complaints and Ziggurat is a great game overall. As stated earlier, you want to come back to it. This rogue-lite is a treat for any gamer, especially if they enjoy difficult experiences that require patience and practice. Anyone who is a fan of Rogue Legacy should purchase this title. Given Ziggurat’s price and the amount of content and replayability it offers, it is a must-buy for any Xbox One owner who enjoys these types of experiences. Do yourself a favor and pick this one up.
Asher is a games journalist, former News Writer (Gaming) at Windows Central. They contributed 1110 articles to ICXM between 2015–2017, focused on opinion pieces, game reviews, Windows and PC, and Xbox news: wrote over 1,100 ICXM pieces on Xbox news, hardware reviews, and platform commentary before joining Future plc’s Windows Central in 2017.