Games worth discovering

A dance of bullets and revenge, in top-down shooter roguelite format | Review - Kill the Crows

2K View2023-08-23

Kill The Crows

5.9

Pixel GraphicsGorePost-apocalypticArena ShooterActionBullet TimeTop-Down ShooterTop-Down

Get

The untamed landscapes, the rugged characters, and the thrill of a quickdraw duel – it's a recipe for unforgettable experiences. Kill the Crows, a fast-paced arena roguelike shooter, tries to encapsulate this feeling in a top-down roguelite format.

🟩Pros

+Simple, easy to pick up controls and mechanics
+Intense one-shot, one-kill combat
+Progression that is done via milestones and not resources and currencies
+Immersive gunslinging experience

🟥Cons

-Not much gameplay depth and variety to counter the repetitive nature of roguelite games
-Only one arena/level to play in

This arena roguelite shooter draws inspiration from its wild west roots while embracing modern mechanics. The arena gameplay setup itself feels like a nod to popular games like Vampire Survivors and Brotato, yet it takes a different approach, forgoing auto-casted skills and abilities for a more traditional top-down shooter combat.

Visually, Kill the Crows boasts an artistic direction featuring retro low-fi graphics that reminded me immediately of the classic title Another World. This aesthetic choice surprisingly captures the essence of the wild west era, transporting players to a time when the world was painted in a palette of rugged authenticity.

Starting the game, Kill the Crows wastes no time in plunging players into the heart of the action. As a gunslinger, players are tasked with surviving the onslaught of enemies. There’s really not much complexity here other than moving around, shooting, and surviving. That’s not to say the game isn’t challenging; in fact, it's actually ridiculously difficult. You can one-shot basically all enemies, but all it takes to kill you is also one shot—just one unnoticed bullet, and you're down.

The controls are deceptively simple: aiming with the mouse, movement with WASD, and dodging with space. Yet, within this simplicity lies a challenge that requires both finesse and strategy. To introduce more complexity and challenge, reloading is manually done, which adds a bit of frantic immersion to the gunslinging action, which reminded me of another gunslinging action with the Time Crisis arcade games series.

As a Roguelite, it comes with persistent progression in the form of achievements and milestones that unlock new weapons, perks, and special abilities — No pesky resources and skill points to collect.

The special abilities are highly reminiscent of Red Dead Redemption’s Dead Eye targeting, where time slows down, giving players the ability to aim at multiple targets and dispatch them quickly in succession. This special ability replenishes during combat upon achieving more kills.

There is only one continuous backdrop level, and dying resets all level progress back to zero. This includes rebattling all the bosses from the beginning and taking just as long to get back to where you died. While the unlockables can provide some assistance, ultimate survival relies heavily on player skill and mastery. Unfortunately, there isn't much gameplay depth to counteract the inherent repetitiveness of roguelite games. Therefore, if you find yourself stuck on a boss fight or level multiple times without meaningful persistent progress, the game can start to feel VERY repetitive.

Despite its retro graphics, Kill the Crows excels at immersing players in its world and is brimming with flavor. The blood splatter from shot enemies, the thunderous gunshot sounds that accentuate the power of a well-aimed shot, and the rising dust with every interaction with the environment – these elements converge to create a sensory experience that's rich and dynamic.

No disrespect to Red Dead Redemption 2’s ultra immersive and borderline-simulation qualities, but this game really did a better job of making me feel like an unstoppable deadeye Cowboy, which speaks volumes for its quality. Not only did I feel like a badass cowboy, but at times, I even felt like Cleric John Preston from Equilibrium, utilizing Gun Kata with the speed at which I was aiming left and right, dispatching enemies in quick succession.

Conclusion:

Kill the Crows delivers an experience that's more than the sum of its parts. It draws players into a dance of bullets and revenge that feels both challenging and gratifying. It's arguably the antithesis of Red Dead Redemption with its low-fi graphics, simplicity, and roguelite gameplay., but it nonetheless still delivers a quality Western game worthy of your time and coin.

Mentioned games

Kill The Crows

5.9

Pixel GraphicsGorePost-apocalypticArena ShooterActionBullet TimeTop-Down ShooterTop-Down

Get

Play a weird western with crazy cultists and one-shot kills - Kill the Crows Quick Review

SHOULD I PLAY KILL THE CROWS? Play it if you’re a fan of top-down shooters or are looking for a simple, old-school game you can play in short bursts. Kill the Crows is a western about a lone gunslinger on a quest for revenge. There are no bullet sponges here; players, enemies, and even bosses can be felled by a single bullet, and just one mistake can bring a run to an end. At first, this felt frustrating, but once I got into the swing of things, racking up one-shot kills was incredibly satisfying.ﾠ

Ndi5K2023-08-26