Collapsed from Glaive Games and OverGamez is a 2D roguelite action platformer set in a post-apocalyptic world. Learn more in our Collapsed review!
In Collapsed from Glaive Games and OverGamez, you will take on a new 2D roguelite action platformer that is set in the aftermath of a mysterious series of events that have destroyed everything around you. You’ll have to explore this post-apocalyptic world to find the answers you’re looking for as you search for memory clusters that can hopefully give you a bit more backstory so that you can start to put the puzzle back together. You will take on different procedurally generated levels, with an increasing difficulty that will challenge you every step of the way.
You’ll control your character with the left analog stick, aiming with the right one. Melee attacks are mapped to the R button, while your ranged attacks will be used with the ZR button. You can quickly climb up vertical walls to reach new areas, jumping and double jumping with the B button. If you need to avoid enemy attacks or make it through some barriers, you can dash with the ZL button. The A button will be for interacting with things. You have a healing urn at your disposal, which you can activate with the L button to recover some of your lost health. Once you find some new abilities, you can map them to the Y and X buttons. There’s going to be a minimap at the bottom right of the screen, but if you want to take a closer look at things, you can bring up a larger version of it by pressing in on the left analog stick.
There are four different character classes from which to select so that you can take on this new adventure with the gameplay mechanics that best suit your overall playing style. There’s the Reaper, a multipurpose Warden Vessel that has an automatic rifle and a rather large scythe to slice up opponents with ease. It has two passive abilities that can certainly help. With Funnel, dashing increases the looting radius by 300% for three seconds, and Ammo Steal will make it possible for melee attacks to restore 5% of your ammo every four seconds.
The Devourer class favors ranged combat, using its gauss gun to deal damage from long range, as well as a spear with piercing attacks for when things get a bit too up-close and personal. On top of this, the Devourer has a pair of passive skills that can prove to be useful. With Counter Air, it’s damage against flying enemies will get a 1.5x boost, which will make a big difference if you end up on a run with many floating opponents. Free Shot will give your character a free shot once every five seconds, which can help to keep ammo consumption in check.
The Warrior is a tank-style character who loves to keep active in the frontline. It carries around a heavy two-hand sword that will deal massive damage to opponents, as well as a shotgun that can be used for some mid-range crowd control. The Warrior has three passive abilities that play to its strengths. With Blade Booost, every melle attack increases overall damage for two seconds. Bullet Bust makes it possible for ranged attacks to get a 1.15% boost. Ammo Blow allows the final melee attack of a combo to restore 20% of ammo.
The last class in Collapsed is the Pest. If favors the use of a spray gun that has a high chance of dealing some additional elemental damage. It also wields two daggers that can stun enemies when using a flurry of melee attacks. Its passive abilities are Ultimate Aim and Ammo Regeneration. Ultimate Aim allows every subsequent shot to decrease spread by 10%, up to 95% in total, which makes the Pest a great long-range option. As the name suggests, Ammo Regeneration will allow melee attacks to regenerate 2.5% of ammo per second for a five second window.
You can also find crafting stations from which you can activate the Workshop to create new items to aid you on your quest. You could use your resources to disassemble three items to craft a new one. You could, for instance, craft an Acid Power Plate, which will add a boost to your character’s resistance to acid while also adding a boost to your fire damage when injured. You could also craft an Eagle Pendant, which can give a boost to your melee damage while attacking in mid-air, while also getting a boost to your maximum health for a nice bonus extra.
There will be random portals you can activate with the A button, which will function as optional arena-style challenges you can take on to destroy the enemies that were previously trapped inside it. Once you’ve defeated all enemy waves, you will be rewarded with some resources for crafting, items you can add to your equipment to boost it, as well as points you can spend back in the safe hub to unlock new abilities and skills in the skill tree, so that you can always make some progress no matter how good of a run you had.
One of these portals will remain open after you’ve defeated all enemies, and it is thanks to it that you’ll be able to explore the next area for that particular stage. Eventually, you’ll use a portal that will take you into a boss fight. This area will have one last portal that is holding the boss prisoner. If you’ve managed to obtain enough resources to craft more powerful items, and as long as you pay attention to a boss’ movement and attack patterns – and heal as much as possible before activating the boss fight, you should be ready to go.
You will die in this one a lot, but the good news is that death is not as harsh as in other roguelites you might have played. You won’t lose your loot upon death, so you’ll be able to regroup when back at the safe hub to better your odds of increasing the length of your next run. You’ll also be able to sort your inventory and decide which items you can send into storage so that you can have enough space to collect a new set of resources and boosts that can end up being more powerful than what you’re using for your current loadout.
And now, let’s talk for a bit about the skill tree I mentioned before. Depending on your overall performance in each run, you will obtain shards that can be used as the in-game currency to unlock new nodes in the skill tree, which will provide you with boosts to your stats, new abilities, or new items. Some nodes will be connected to new branching paths, so you’ll need to pay attention to see if unlocking a new node makes sense, or if you should instead work on improving the stuff you’ve already unlocked. A boost to your overall health is probably more important early on than unlocking a pair of heavy boots that will make your falls from four meters or higher result in an explosion when you land that will do some serious damage to enemies around you.
Collapsed does many things right, giving us a fast-paced and action-packed 2D roguelite with a solid art style, four different character classes, and a lot of loot. Due to its procedurally generated nature, some runs are going to be more fun than others, but there’s definitely more than enough variety in here for the game’s asking price. Collapsed is out now on Nintendo Switch for $15.00.
Disclaimer
This Collapsed review is based on a Nintendo Switch copy provided by OverGamez.
