Ants Took My Eyeball >> Game Review

Guns, Ants & Platforms…

Not really a huge fan of platform games though really enjoy roguelite/roguelike games and therefore decided to give Ants Took My Eyeball a chance and was pleasantly surprised how good it is. There aren’t a lot of rogueish platformer games out there (Dead Cells is about the only one that springs to mind and is more of a metroidvania/roguelike mashup) so there are not a lot games to compare it to, though it does stand out as one of the more polished 2D platformer games I have ever played.

The story revolves along the lines of your eyeball is missing (stolen by ants) and you are a miniature guy that must descend into the ant colony and retrieve it using guns, melee weapons, gadgets and trinkets. There are a wide variety of items to unlock and collect and your weapons can be upgraded adding a bit more depth. Gadgets are a new one to me, kind of like grenades in other games, though these have a variety of alternative effects (not just exploding like grenades). Trinkets stack and give you various passive effects which help you progress along the way. You can also scrap items and use the scrap to upgrade weapons, which is an important part of the game. The gameplay basically comprises of lots of running around shooting and bashing things until you have descended to the next level and then the boss of that area.

Starting off is a bit slow going though once you have got to grips with how it all works and have unlocked a few items then it definitely improves. The game is difficult, having played 30 hours I have not yet managed to complete it, the later levels become incredibly chaotic and filled with enemies when compared to the first few levels. It is, however, good despite the difficulty level being considerably higher than many other games out there. There is a lot of variety, with different areas having different environments and enemies, and you can choose to open different areas in each level, increasing the difficulty though offering more rewards. The main problem that I had with the game was the randomness of runs, if you only find less desirable items then your run is much more difficult and the later levels become impossible, other than that not many negatives.

All round, if you enjoy a challenge, enjoy platform games and/or rogueish games then there is a lot to offer and it is good value for money, offering many hours of play for the money.

Get it on Steam Ants Took My Eyeball

THE GOOD…

• Many hours of gameplay at a low price
• A challenge, you won’t finish it 1st time
• Lots of weapons & items with upgrades
• Many items & areas to unlock
• Pleasing pixel graphics, not too violent

THE NOT SO GOOD…

• Too random (RNG) making some runs difficult
• Incredibly challenging on later levels
• Not much else really - it is quite good

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