Project Tower Review: A Short and Underwhelming Bullet Hell (PS5)

New year with many games to play and review and for any fans of Bullet Hells or Sci-Fi, this game might be a fun distraction. Developed by Yummy Games, Project Tower is a new third-person shooter set in an original Sci-Fi universe. You’ll shoot and dodge your way through a few levels set in different biomes, on a quest to climb the alien Tower towards freedom. It’s a short 2-4 adventure, though your time within Project Tower may be extended if you find Bullet Hells tricky. For more details, check out our review down below. 

Project Tower is available for PC and PS5 for $24.99. 

For more reviews, check out these below:

1. Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered Review: Modernization and Nostalgia, A Beautiful Mix
2. Among Ashes Review: Horrorception
3. Lost But Found Review: Addictive Chaos

Story – Lost Plot in the Tower

During my seven-hour playthrough of Project Tower, I was presented with a Sci-Fi tale that continued to disappoint me. The main plot revolves around an alien race called the Hiks who abducted numerous survivors during their invasion of Earth. The survivors are then put through Project Tower, a simulation to test the capabilities of the Hiks’ army. You are Prisoner 9271, a mute protagonist who wears a blue jumpsuit that reminds me of a Sci-Fi crash test dummy. You go through a few levels of the Tower, defeating enemies and solving the environment’s puzzles. During the journey, there’s not much story to tell since Project Tower focuses more on gameplay. A few twists and turns do occur but it’s only during the last section of the game. 

Now, why did this disappoint me? This was mainly due to the lack of a rich universe that Project Tower advertised. In fairness, Yummy Games had a good story concept, however, it needed more than that. Specifically, worldbuilding since other than a few bits of dialogue from the simulated voice that guides you, there’s not much to discover. Heck, there’s even a point where you discover a fallen prisoner with a recording detailing some lore. However, unlike most games that have a few collectables scattered around detailing lore, Project Tower has none. Characters are also non-existent apart from one alien villain though they only appear twice and don’t have that much of an impact. There are other prisoners you see but you don’t interact with them apart from one cutscene. As I said, Project Tower relies on its gameplay more than its story. 

Gameplay – Simple Controls Alongside a Mostly Pointless Gimmick 

Moving on to the gameplay, which is probably the only reason to keep playing. However, this would probably only apply to fans of Bullet Hells. Most of the controls are your traditional third-person shooter, jumping, crouching, dodging, shooting, and melee are all present. There’s a small arsenal of weapons to use when taking on the Hiks’ menace, from pistols to explosive combat bows. You unlock them by defeating the boss of each Tower and are usually useful to take on the next one. Speaking of bosses, this is when the Bullet Hell comes into play. I haven’t got the biggest track record with Bullet Hells but I found Project Tower to be quite fair in difficulty. The bosses ranged from unique enemies to just bigger versions of standard mobs. I was able to defeat the early bosses quite easily with only a few attempts. Luckily the difficulty did go up and I had many deaths and many tense moments with the later bosses. 

Project Tower does have one unique gameplay mechanic that allows the player to morph into a fallen enemy. However, like many things in Project Tower, it was underwhelming and could have been implemented better. You can only morph into one designated enemy or inanimate object at a time. These transformations are used to solve puzzles and get through obstacles. Some of these forms were fun to play as, they offered unique abilities like slowing time, shooting fireballs, and more. Sadly, even with these cool transformations, it felt too linear and self-contained within the level. I would have loved to get creative with the ability, changing to one form after the other to perform fun traversal or combat scenarios. 

Graphics & Audio – Some Unreal Environments & Sci-Fi Mishmashes

Starting up Project Tower, the environments look good and range from Sci-Fi locals to modern environments. My favourite is the underwater level since it looked both beautiful and was the most entertaining. Surprisingly, more than one boss was located on the stage and there were even three unique areas to explore. Alongside the Tower levels, the in-between sections where you go into a Control-like void were interesting though other than a few puzzles, there wasn’t much there. Outside of the environments, the enemies look good and pretty much tick the boxes of random alien design. There’s a good mishmash of different Sci-Fi inspirations from Alien to No Man’s Sky. 

Now, the audio is decent when it comes to the music used for boss fights and certain parts of levels. They’re able to assist in creating intensity when dodging numerous projectiles from the boss. Sadly the general atmospheric themes that would play whilst traversing the environment weren’t as good. The voice acting was somewhat decent, there are not many characters in Project Tower, but the ones that do talk aren’t engaging. Though, as I’ve said before Project Tower concentrates on providing a fun gameplay experience. 

Project Tower was reviewed on PS5 with a review code courtesy of Yummy Games.