I have a few games that I keep going back to, not even because I want to finish them, but because I want to understand them better. To feel them better.
Games that will always be installed on my computer.
Tower of gun is one of them.
Tower of gun is an Rogue-like FPS. It looks exactly like [every FPS you played before], it's actually exactly the game I would use to represent someone playing a dumb FPS in a movie : you shoot stuff, they explode, end of story.
So what makes tower of gun special ?
Lots of things.
There's something in this game that makes it so that you feel it's been made with love : from the hidden message at the begging of the game that dedicates the game to someone special, to the fact that the 3 persons in the credits have the same last name : it feels like the developer deeply want to make a game that is important to him and that others will like, and that all family is being supportive about that. The amount of details and hidden stuff in the game is incredible and it always feel like the developer thought about you to make your journey a better journey.
The game doesn't even really care about being nice to you though. Depending on what power up you choose, you might never be able to find any secret for long (''you didn't choose the double jump ? Well you can't reach the triple jump bonus hidden up there. And you'll need a triple jump for every secrets, too bad.''). It often feels unfair that you just can't reach a secret and that this secret would make you able to go to others secret zones... But actually I love that. I love that the game is not even caring about me discovering, or reaching those zones. On the one hand, it really feel like these zones have been made with love, just for me to discover, on the other hand, the game sometime won't let me access them.
And it's actually pretty clever, because it makes the rogue like aspect less repetitive, as, depending on how the game gives you power up, you won't experience the levels the same, and the secrets sometime feel completely new, while they were just impossible to reach last time you played.
Weather it is the bullet you fire, or the one that are fired on you, they have a concrete existence : you can feel their speed and it's not just a flash when you fire, it truly throws a projectile that you can see, that enemies can avoid, and you can avoid theirs. Tower of gun is a bullet hell with FPS view and it makes the game way more interesting that any FPS in term of gameplay, because not only it adds an ''avoiding'' mechanic to the gameplay, but it also bring you back the control as a player. When an enemy hits you, you know why, who and why they got you. Even if someone shots you in the back, you know that all you have to do is to be careful, watch your back, and you'll see the projectile coming.
I love the architecture of the game, it's not something I pay attention to a lot usually. I usually just think about whether or not the level design is clever and make me do clever stuff as a player, but here it's not even about that. The world always feel big and incredible, even though you keep being in closed places. The rooms you enter always feel, once again, made with love, crafted by hand, and yet, once again, the game doesn't care about me looking at them. To finish a room you don't have to stay for long, you don't have to kill the enemies. You have to go to the next door, usually just in front of the entrance : just walk 10 to 20 second, shoot the door to open it and you're done.
The last levels feel incredible, but as my weapon and health are at their best, I always just rush, not killing the enemies, not looking at anything, just to go and finish the game.
...And I never finished it
...And I don't care.
...And from what i've seen, I don't think the game itself cares about me finishing it. A session in tower of gun is quite a huge journey, but when you die, you go back to the beginning. To start a new game in tower of gun ask you a bit of your time. But you're gonna die in the middle of it and it's okay.
I love how the game just doesn't care.
It's not that it doesn't care about you, player : it cares. It loves you and has been made with lots of love.
It just doesn't care about you seeing the love that has been put in the game.
It just doesn't care about you loving it.
The game is in love with you and doesn't care about you knowing it, doesn't care about you loving it back, and I think it's beautiful. The game is an akoiromantic game. And i've never played an akoiromantic game before.