Capsule Review: TowerFall Ascension
A fast-paced, very precise 2D arena fighter based on shooting arrows and head-stomping. A few simple moves are combined to create a lot of strategic depth and a high skill ceiling. There are also a ton of modifiers and modes available for varied gameplay, such as giving everyone bomb arrows or even taking arrows away completely, and there’s a co-op campaign as well that pits you against a variety of enemy types. The game is perfectly balanced since all characters play identically, though this also means you can’t pick a character to get good at and there aren’t varied matchups. It feels good to play and especially to pull off skilled moves, but it’s hard to enjoy alone, with single-player serving really only to practice the skills you’ll then use in multiplayer, so it’s worth noting that there’s no online play (though there are good reasons).
I Stopped Playing When: I no longer had easy access to a consistent group to play with and had very little interest in playing solo. I also don’t think this would have held the group’s interest for long due to the lack of character matchup variety meaning there was less of a metagame.
Two Stars: Meh. The game has some merit - it probably held my attention for at least an hour or I came back to it for more than one play session. But there wasn't enough draw for me to stick with it for the long haul.