Recent reviews by Octopus Tophat

Towerclimb is the best game I've ever played. That's what I still think after playing it for more than 2 years. I've never played a game as challenging and rewarding as towerclimb. When I first starting playing, I thought I'd never beat chapter 1, but when I finally did, I was ecstatic. I thought I was a pro, who has conquered towerclimb and all the challenges it has to offer. Then the centurial trials appeared. 100 floors of pure insanity... I knew I'd never beat it. "That's just for fun, right? People aren't actually expected to beat this." Hundreds of deaths and hundreds of hours later, I finally reached floor 101. I beat the trials. It was the most amazing gaming experience I've ever had. Being on floor 90 and knowing that I can lose it all with one tiny misstep is the most scary feeling I've experienced in any game. Not even a game like dead space could keep me continuously on-edge like that.

Towerclimb is an emotional rollercoaster that can bring you intense feelings of fear, frustration, happiness, excitement, etc., and the music is a big part of that. The music fits the atmosphere and scenarios perfectly. In the plant-controlled observatory, the music feels as if it's alive, and creeping up on you. In the cold, icey ruins, you can hear just how frigid it is, and you can almost feel the pain from the cold air brushing against you. In the volcanic heart, you can feel the magma boiling beneath your feet, ready to burst any minute. The industrial segmentation plant makes you feel like you're surrounded by technology and traps that are prepared to kill you whenever you get near. Giant worm fights are backed with intense music that really make you feel helpless. But once you defeat it, you are rewarded with absolute silence to contemplate the victory you have earned.

Discovery is another big point of towerclimb. The game starts with no tutorial, and at first I thought it was a simple game, but I soon started to uncover the layers of complexity by just... playing. I didn't need to look at a wiki or anything like that. Some items took me a long time to find a use for them. I used to think the golden greaves were useless because they made me so fast that it was impossible to control. But eventually, after getting used them, I realized they are the most useful item in the game.

When I first found the bitchbane, and the game told me a quest has started, I knew I was going on an adventure, in real life. Anytime I wasn't playing towerclimb, I'd try to think about what the next step could be so I could try it out when I got home. For months, I didn't know what to do, until I discovered you can use the bitchbane to kill a giant worm to get the next sword in the quest. Then use that sword to get another sword. And finally get the last one, the Ascender. Keep in mind, at this point I already thought I had known everything that was in this game. Now here's 3 new items. I started getting more handy with their own individual uses, and eventually brought the ascender to the 101st floor to fully complete the quest.

2 years later, I still have one more quest to complete, and I try at least once a week to beat it. My experience with towerclimb still hasn't ended...