Developed by Archmage Labs and published by Ultimate Games S.A., God of Weapons is a roguelike survival horde game with a twist. I would say it closely resembles Vampire Survivors in terms of gameplay only, but it has enough elements to make it stand out and not be considered a clone.
There doesn’t seem to be any story in play other than you can pick from a group of characters and you have to climb the tower to defeat the Overlord Zhor to reclaim the last light. There are 5 different difficulty levels to defeat, and they do raise in difficulty quite steeply, but you can swing the balance in your favour with all the other characters, items, weapons and upgrades you can unlock.
With only a few characters to choose from at first you have to jump straight into the tower for your first adventure. Here is where the controls get very simple and it is likened to Vampire Survivors. There is no attack button, so all the attacks happen automatically and vary per character and starting weapon. There is one button that is used and that is a dodge button which has a cool down before it can be used so it can’t be spammed.
As you enter a tower floor you see enemies spawn around you in a small area. They will continue to spawn, and you have a timer at the top of the screen which you have to stay alive for. Every enemy you kill gains you experience, and they also drop gold which you will need to collect. There will be barrels that occasionally drop on the floor which contain a random item inside. The barrels can contain a temporary invincibility, a chunk of gold or valuable items, some recovery food or a bomb that explodes after a few seconds plus a few others.
At the end of each level, you are brought to big inventory screen where all the enemies you killed and gold you have looted comes into play. Depending on how many times you levelled up is how many times you can expand your inventory size. Then with all the gold you have collected you can buy the items from the shop to fit into your inventory. But you have to be careful as you can only by the items that fit into your inventory with the space you have and with its shape. Reminiscent of the Resident Evil inventory, you have to shift things around and rotate them to fit everything in. Not only that, but each item has strengths and weaknesses, and these can be enhanced if you place them next to the right weapons or other items. If anything, this screen is more important than the fighting as if you don’t set yourself up well then, the next level is going to get very tough. You need to know when to take risks and which stats would benefit your character other the others.
The game teases you into taking bigger risks as you progress; gain more experience but make more monsters appear or make them stronger; drink this potion to gain more inventory slots but make elite enemies appear, and so on. You have to have the confidence to know that you can survive the next floor with those risks. Then sell some of those items to get different ones and boost your chances of survival. But if you manage to make it to end and defeat Zhor, or even if you don’t quite make it, then you can take back all the special loot you have to either buy more weapons or items so that they appear in the shop on your next run. Or you can buy upgrades to make your next run just that tiny bit easier.
I feel like it has the same magic that makes Vampire Survivors fun. It’s simple yet challenging and there are always some targets to aim for to unlock other things. It could be to kill so many enemies without moving, or get your attack speed up to a certain level, or buy so many items in one playthrough. There are at least 10 different character types to play as and most have 3 different variations of that character which have different perks. Then you can choose a starting weapon and artifact to play through with a different style. From a non-moving juggernaut to an agile dodging thief and even to a life sapping vile wizard. The drawback I find with God of Weapons is a shame because this is such a great pick up and play game – there is no quick resume and if there was a game that would have needed it, it would be this. Its not completely bad because if you do close the game, it remembers your progress so you can carry on, but it seems so strange that it doesn’t use quick resume. Unlike Vampire Survivors it doesn’t offer multiplayer, but I don’t think it would work very well as everyone taking turns to rearrange their inventory would get old fast.
Conclusion
God of Weapons may not be as refined as Vampire Survivors to knock them off their perch as the best rogue-like survival game. But I think it does plenty to provide a fun alternative. I like the variety of characters, unlockables and objectives as it keeps the game fresh and interesting. It’s very easy to pick and play, and not difficult to master.
