If I had a nickel for every $15 game that I played in Spring 2025 that has a sequel worth $25, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot…

Jokes aside, Ziggurat 2 looks better, but Ziggurat still makes a decent case for being a budget option, starting with a pretty solid progression system. In each run, you select level-up perks to manage your personal stats and three special weapons that use different reserves of mana. Upon failing or completing a run, you unlock more characters, weapons, and level-up perks to experiment with in future runs.

Aesthetically, it hasn’t aged too much, and it’s lit very well, but it is pretty generic, with your typical lava mines, temple dungeons, and courtyards. The enemy variety is also underwhelming, with a lizard thing, a plant thing, a witch thing, a mushroom thing, a few skeletons, way too many faceless armored creatures, and living carrots just to evoke the otherwise-lacking magician theme. The interstitial graphics feel like they could be used for a mobile game, and I don’t remember a single bit of lore from any of the scrolls I picked up.

The difficulty is pretty high. You can’t run around wands blazing in normal mode, as you need to preserve your mana and health while watching for projectiles. It helps to keep moving and stick to high ground, but the damage adding up can really sneak up on you. I struggled on normal, and even switching to easy felt only bearable, and I only hit my stride when I unlocked the first character, who is very good with the default weapon. I made it to the final boss once, but was completely outmatched. Then I had a run where I stacked experience gain and enemy drop rate increases with the extra level-up perk option, propelling me to level 29. This gave me big mana pools and pre-fight recovery bonuses, along with post-hit invincibility and the Trader perk that allows any mana type to refill any weapon. I blasted the boss away without even dodging any attacks. This feels like an appropriate “easy” run, but it was helped a lot by good RNG.

Calling back to my opening sentence, there’s not really any point in comparing Ziggurat to 911 Operator, since the games have pretty much nothing to do with each other. That said, I did find it interesting how both felt like solid concepts that falter a bit due to repetitive content and under-immersion. I don’t want to reduce the difference in opinion to third-party price points, though I do admit it factored into my decision. Still, the trickle of unlocks, procedural generation, and more hands-on gameplay do make Ziggurat more replayable, which I feel is the more important distinction.

I wish that I felt a bit more enthusiastic about Ziggurat. It starts slow, it’s not a fave, and I think some players will experience the same initial difficulties and misgivings as I did, but while it’s not current nor especially innovative, it’s solid enough at its core. Not a strong recommend, but competent and a bit fun.

Was bored during my first hour. Just not enough variety. Every room felt more or less the same and the weapons felt boring and clunky.

I'd give this game a resounding 'Ehhhhh'
It's fine. It runs well and it has a few decent ideas, but nothing that could overcome the blandness for me. I did a lot of circle strafing and killed a lot of the same dozen enemy types over and over. I took cover behind objects that should be solid but aren't. I unlocked some different weapons and perks. I smashed a lot of barrels with my face.
The random generation isn't the greatest, but this game is also a decade old now and several other titles have done this better by now. If you find yourself sent back in time to 2015 or you just really want a rather bare-bones rogue-lite, I would wait for a sale.