What do giant laser gun wielding, sun glass wearing octopi, blind ninjas, lion-headed lion tamers, evil unicorns, a killer rocket launching, enemy barfing T-Rex, and magic tubas have in common? Well, not a whole lot actually, but they all appear in The Weaponographist. It’s difficult to put into words the sheer weirdness of this game, but I’ll give it the old college try.
The Weaponographist has you staring as Doug McGrave, world-famous demon hunter on his quest for adventure. All standard stuff, but Mr. McGrave, while an excellent adventurer, has let fame go to his head and now charges an abhorrent fee to save villages. Our handsome jerk of a hero denies the request of aid from an old lady with no money to spare and it just so happens that said woman is a powerful witch and curses McGrave. This curse sets up our adventure as now our hero is deprived of all his items and weapons, but also any weapons picked up will now crumble to pieces in only a few swings.
The Weaponographist is a classic top-down dungeon-crawling arena combat game. That’s a lot of words to say that the game is a rouge-like that takes heavy cues from The Binding of Issac. You head into the dungeon and collect ‘goop’ that can be turned into cash once you leave the dungeon, and by leaving the dungeon I mean dying. But this isn’t some ordinary dungeon as the creatures that inhabit it are all sort of insane. That’s actually one of the best things about The Weaponographist. The inventive enemy designs make you really want to keep coming back for more just for the chance to see what insane creature you come across next. Bomb throwing Goblins, check; Crazed Unicorns, check; Tommy-Gun wielding gangsters, check; A vomiting T-Rex, check; And so much more make this one crazy game.
Gameplay is as easy as pie to figure out. Essentially, The Weaponographist is a twin stick shooter. Playing with a joypad is recommended and your movement is dictated with your left thumb stick in four directions, and your attacks are handled by the four face buttons in the four directions. This layout works great, but you have the option to map the buttons to whatever you want in the options menu. The game is very responsive, but every once in a while I felt the player’s character felt a tad bit floaty. Not being able to attack or move in eight directions may also seem like a cheap move, but it really forces you to better evaluate your tactics.
Because of the curse, you’ll only be able to carry a single weapon at a time until it breaks and you are left to only your fists. You’ll find some weapons are better than others in certain situations and you’ll have to risk keeping a weapon you like, or swapping out for something different that isn’t closer to breaking. You’ll also be able to grab abilities that are left behind from killing certain enemies. If you kill a Medusa you can pick up the head, kill laser wielding sun-glass wear octopus and get his lasers, etc, etc. All of these items become unlocked in town as you find and use them, and you’ll be able to upgrade them to power yourself up on your next trip down, although you won’t be able to actually be able to buy any weapons in town.
The natural progression of powering up also helps to keep the game from getting too repetitive. Sure, it’ll begin to wear on you because the base mechanics don’t change much, but the game offers enough visual charm to make it an enjoyable experience. Graphics are nice with bright colors and a cartoon style. Unfortunately the same can’t be said of the music as it is pretty mundane and forgettable. It’s not bad from a musical standpoint as it’s well composed, but it just doesn’t do much to help better the gameplay experience and suck you into the world.
At the end of the day The Weaponographist succeeds at what it sets out to do. It’s a really fun rouge-like in the vain of The Binding of Issac that is easy to pick up and play, while providing enough challenge to test those gamers looking for a nice challenge. The games weapon degradation mechanic works at always keeping you on your toes and making split-second decisions, but the games use of an incredibly fun and original enemy pool really helps it stand out.
Still, many may find the repetition to become unbearable after the twentieth time you see the same stick wielding ninja wandering around. The game offers up a pretty deep dungeon to explore, but all the rooms will sort of just blend into each other after a while. All that coupled with the fact that there is no real character progression outside of upgrading found weapons means you may not be coming back to this one once you finish.
If you want a nice little rouge-like to mix up your gaming sessions then you’ll probably enjoy The Weaponographist, but if you are expecting a deep experience you may want to look elsewhere.
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