Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors has enough new ideas to stand out | Hands-on preview
When anything comes out of the blue and takes the world by storm the way Vampire Survivors did, imitators are inevitable. And imitation in itself isn’t necessarily a bad thing, either. Recently we’ve seen the likes of Zombie Survivors, Yet Another Zombie Survivors, and Halls of Torment join the ranks of the “reverse bullet hell” genre.
The latest title to throw its chewed-up hat into this particular ring of monsters is Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors, a new reverse bullet hell fantasy game that aims to bring its own ideas to the burgeoning genre.
Set in the universe of the Pathfinder tabletop game and CRPGs, Gallowspire Survivors gives you the choice of a Fighter, Rogue and Wizard and allows you to take an AI companion into the fray with you. Similarly to Yet Another Zombie Survivors, this AI companion will simply follow you around, staying close and dishing out damage the same way you are.
Each class has a power that can be unleashed after a meter is filled, such as the Fighter Valendis who can summon three magical shields to absorb damage. The gameplay is as simple as it ever is in this genre. You simply have to stay alive, focusing on positioning while your characters auto-attack at set intervals. You find new weapons and abilities or upgrade existing ones, all of which add to the loop of attacks and abilities.
Gallowspire Survivors doesn’t do an awful lot differently, although it gives you specific challenges to earn more XP and gold at the end of a run. These challenges include standing still for forty seconds, something that’s incredibly difficult to do in this genre.
Chests will appear sporadically that contain up to five rewards. A d20 will roll, determining how many of the rewards you’ll earn. Upgrades are also colour-coded for rare, legendary and epic boosts, in keeping with the fantasy RPG atmosphere. Multiple potions drop from enemies, refilling health, mana and granting you a temporary special attack that wipes out groups of enemies quickly.
If you kill enough enemies, you’ll teleport to the next level of the dungeon, and eventually you’ll face the boss. Initially, this seems like an impossible fight. The boss does massive damage, and there’s no way to dodge or block. However, when you fail a run, you can spend XP to level up your character, unlocking the ability to avoid damage and use different skills. You can even increase your class stats, improving Strength, Dexterity, Wisdom, Constitution, Intelligence, and Charisma. Quite what Charisma does in context I’m not yet sure.
Graphically, Gallowspire Survivors is fairly low-rent. It’s a step up from pixel art, but goes for a deliberately retro art style nonetheless. It moves pretty well though, even at this early stage. As it enters early access we can expect more dungeons, enemies, weapons, and classes – but for now what’s here feels just thick enough to be worth chewing through. We’ll have to wait and see just how deep it goes after the early access launch.
As a fan of Vampire Survivors, Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors certainly has my attention. It’s bright and simple, but challenging when it needs to be. It doesn’t bring an awful to the table that feels fresh, but it has enough new ideas to justify its existence in the blossoming roguelite survivor market.
Pathfinder: Gallowspire Survivors is heading to Steam Early Access in 2023.
