Vertical Drop Heroes

Developer: Nerdook Productions
Steam Release: Jul 2014
Hours Played: 5.4
Similar To: Bard's Gold / Downwell / Freedom Fall / Super House of Dead Ninjas
Rating: 2/5 Parsnips

GAMEPLAY
Like Super House of Dead Ninjas but with no need to rush and like Downwell but with a more elaborate upgrade system, Vertical Drop Heroes has your character falling forever downwards. It operates in a similar vein to Diamond Dan but we're talking a 2D format here and more enemies to fight. Also, although there is always a path allowing you to reach the bottom, blocks do impede progress somewhat with some crumbling away, some needing to be smashed, some having deadly spikes sticking out and some teleporting you back to the top. A huge variety of enemies thwart your progress by hurling missiles at you and when you do reach the bottom there will be an awaiting boss keen to chip more hit-points from your arse.

  

BALANCE & PACE
You're given a dinky melee sword attack but added abilities are conferred upon you when you choose one of three heroes to play. To keep things fresh developers have put a lot of carrots on the end of lots of sticks. You start your descent next to a shrine which informs you of the level's random quirk. This could be that random bombs are going to explode, the boss has a twin brother or that monsters have twice the hit-points. Similarly, shrines and statues are encountered which offer all sorts of extras like hit-point rejuvenation, a one off power-up, the topping up of abilities, or the chance to buy permanent skills for future heroes. The goodies and curve balls keep coming...passing over banners spawn more enemies and NPCs pop up now and again to give quests to retrieve such items as roses, dogs and diamond rings in return for XP and coins.

PRESENTATION & DESIGN
VDH uses a solid engine that is stable, runs smoothly and which shouldn't take hits to your framerate. Animations are good and you get the option to do a useful mid-air jump. However, the jury is still out on the melee attack which you basically spam furiously in the hope of hitting first and landing decent slices. The game is similar to Rogue Legacy in that you choose one of three heroes to do your run. These show important info such as hit-points, special powers and abilities. Once your hero is selected, you're taken to your hub with your new character which has you leaping about on ledges to buy upgrades from NPCs for such things as weapons and permanent health upgrades with the coins you've picked up. It's all very Rogue Legacy but with the exception that a nasty man doesn't take all your gold before entering the portal to dive in. 

PROGRESS SYSTEM
The game seems to have so many different goals to discover that you could say the object of the game is to unravel exactly what they are and then to fulfil those goals by becoming more and more powerful. For example, from the main start-screen you can drift down to the lower ledges to shrines that reveal how many of its 5 types of unlocks have been discovered. Nevertheless, the game has ten levels altogether so I imagine that your initial aim would be to complete all ten. Still, with so many hidden surprises in store I wouldn't be surprised if many more goals get unlocked or revealed after you have reached the end. And there's nothing to stop you continuing on in an effort to max out as much content as possible.

CONCLUSION

Vertical Drop Heroes has plenty going for it and is a purchase I'm proud to have made. It is so packed with features that I have yet to mention: the keys you can collect to smash treasure chests; the abilities you start with from fireballs to daggers to turrets to recovering health; the two powers you get as standard when you select your hero; the level up process in place as you go about your business; the characters you can rescue from cages who then help you out in battle... and the list goes on. For those into Downwell or Super House of Dead Ninjas, this retains the same basic gameplay formula while throwing in a much more complicated progression system.