Gladiator’s Arena, developed and published by Afil Games is an indie top-down arena shooter rogue-lite where you play as a gladiator in an arena and defeat enemies that come in waves. Its base game loop is similar and probably inspired by Vampire Survivours. I want, in benefit of transparency, to start this review by stating that I got an early review key for the game. This however will not influence in any way my analysis. I would like to thank the developers/publisher.
Gameplay
Weapons
You start the game by choosing between 7 different weapons, such as a sword, bow, crossbow, lance, and more. From the start, you only have a sword and a shield. To unlock more you need to reach certain feats in-game, for example, defeating 100 enemies without being hit. Then you are put in an arena where enemies start coming from every side in waves.
Upgrade System
Like other games from the genre, there is an Upgrade System. Every time you kill an enemy you gain coins. When the wave reaches the end, you will be able to choose between three upgrades to buy. I don’t know exactly what triggers it, but sometimes the store will allow you to reroll. I think the game should be more clear about that.
In the main menu, it is also possible to purchase new upgrades to appear at the store.
Enemies
There is a good variety of enemies. Most of them are just the same with a new design and more hp, but others introduce new challenges to the game. Certain enemies can: dash, run faster, deploy other enemies, and throw projectiles. However there are no bosses, and every enemy gets two/three shot in the mid-late game.
Abilities
At the end of some waves, in the same stores where you buy upgrades, you will be able to buy Abilities instead. There are only passive abilities. Some of them do damage, while others are scalable, like giving the player 0.1 attack speed until a max of 3.
Gameplay conclusion:
Gladiator’s Arena can be fun when experiencing it for the first time, however, it is lacking in some important gaming aspects that make the experience less enjoyable.
The game has 7 weapons but none of them really make a difference. Some have more range, others have more attack speed, but none add new experiences to the game. You don’t feel like testing a new weapon because, in the end, it is the same as the weapon you are already using. Besides they are far too easy to unlock. I unlock almost all the weapons, missing two in my second run, without even trying.
The game also has only one character and one map, losing the chance to add a bit of progression and the playthrough seems endless. At least I played until wave 50, which took something like half an hour or more and nothing special happened.
The enemies are added progressively as the waves advance, and while enemies have new designs, as I said before, most of them are redesigns of the old ones with more hp. Now, to be fair, some enemies do some things differently as mentioned above, but even then I feel like the challenge is too easy. In the late game your money basically never goes down, you have all the abilities and there is nothing for you to do.
The upgrades are also a bit lackluster. While Vampire Survivours and many other games of the same genre have upgrades that add new weapons, visual effects, sounds, etc. this game’s upgrades are usually just stats, so you don’t feel you just purchased an upgrade. The abilities are more similar to the above-mentioned game’s upgrades, but there are extremely few of them.
To sum it all up, the game doesn’t encourage the player to continue replaying, which is crucial for these kinds of games, since there isn’t a progression system. Vampire Survivours, for example, encourages the player to keep replaying by unlocking new maps, new characters, and new secrets.
You can unlock new things in Gladiator’s Arena, but they are few, don’t really matter and, in the end, the game, aside from being easy, doesn’t have an ending or goal whatsoever, which is a shame, in my opinion
Graphics and sound
The game has a minimalist, pixelated design, which is fine. In my opinion, especially these top-down rogue-lite/roguelike games have more liberty when choosing the game’s design style, which is great.
The sound is pretty generic, all the enemies’ deaths have the same sound, which is fairly common since they are all “normal” enemies, and weapons also have the same sound, changing only between melee and ranged.
The background music appears to be short and loops over and over, nothing memorable really.
Conclusion
This game uses a good genre and concept, but does it poorly with little content and an almost non-existent progression system. This is the type of game you will play for 30 minutes and never touch again.
