Tossdown Preview: Parcels, parkour, projectiles

Tossdown is an Action Roguelike with a developer seeking to answer the question of how you could possibly give a delivery worker a worse day on the job. Their answer? Make it a bullet hell.

Well, a bullet hell if you took out all the bullets and replaced them with meteors, missiles, alien orbital lasers and some angry goons trying to rob you. A lot of all of the above. Tossdown is being developed by a Nigeria-based solo developer named Fer Factor.

Gameplay and Graphics

Following a brief tutorial, you are immediately off to deliver packages. A seemingly simple task that is made fairly more stressful given approximately ninety percent of the local population (plus some of the local solar system) has decided your free trial of life just ran out.

This rather troublesome detail is responsible for the main friction between you and the gameplay loop of retrieving and delivering the packages in each level. A 150 meter run is much easier without three meteors, twelve missiles, two dozen angry goons and an exploding car in the way. Give or take a few falling cargo containers and the odd water spout.

As for how this carnage is displayed, Tossdown uses a fairly clean, if slightly gritty, cell shaded look. Like Borderlands (2009) if it traded the guns for a part-time delivery gig with Evri. The look complements the rampant chaos, and most of the time it'll stay easy to read.

It can become a bit messy when it comes to the explosions, because there are a lot of them. Meteors, missiles and exploding cars do add up at this scale, and that's all before the chaos power ups add to the mix. Let's talk about those next.

Power ups, while sometimes fun, could be a bit lacking. Most of the time it came down to a mad sprint to the next delivery for a free shockwave to clear out everything chasing me, and activating just about every power up I found along the way.

Some of them, like bombs, consistently felt disappointing. It's cool to add explosions, but if those explosions only kill goons chasing me on foot... well, those guys weren't really making the list of my top ten concerns after the lasers start.

Arguably, this is more of an issue with the most basic enemy type being a non-threat nine out of ten times. I'm not really sure what their plan is, trying to punch someone triple flipping through a construction site to avoid a meteor. But if we're getting into issues with the game, let's tackle them all at once.

Issues and Irritations

Perks and power ups, mentioned above, need a bit of polish. Some power ups seem conceptually flawed, like the bombs discussed earlier. You can't avoid any you consider bad either, because they're all identical on the ground. Giving them unique sprites ala Doom, Serious Sam, etc. would go a long way to addressing this issue.

Others are no-brainers - a shield that prevents damage or shockwaves pulses that knocks out every enemy and projectile in a wide range around me? I'll take ten. Freeze felt like a good, powerful balance - stopping all enemies and threats for a short time. However, most of the fun options feel weak, and the practical ones trend towards boring.

Perks were a similar deal. These are your level up rewards, with the usual strategic trade-offs. Do you want run-specific advantages, or meta-progression bonuses between sessions? Although the options I saw were often lacklustre. Some extra cash for upgrades, taking some damage a more generous sum, or the ability to self-heal after enough enemies die? There's an obvious practical winner but none of them are interesting.

Before all these are even a concern, we have the tutorial experience. Fresh into the gameplay, you move around as you expect on PC, using WASD. You'll need to know this immediately, as you have to walk over to trigger the tutorial in a nearby highlighted zone… which then tells you all about using WASD for movement.

Tossdown does have a bit of that signature jank to contend with. For instance, the version I tested locked me to full screen, making alt-tabbing strictly off-limits—though, to be fair, that might just be an immersive touch, considering Amazon probably wouldn’t be thrilled about you sneaking a peek at another window on the job either

A later stage involved surviving for a single minute; a task that I promptly managed to fail. At least for me, in a dangerous spawn, my first instinct is, naturally, moving away. That impulse was far more lethal than the damage would have been, having been spawned bordering the void of a game world edge. Off the edge our deliveryman sails, into the shadow realm, game over.

All of that aside, I really didn't find any major issues in my experience with this game. Yes, there were some cheap deaths, and some simply meh options. There were plenty of small problems that mostly came down to some odd elements or a lack of clarity here and there. However, none of these issues impact the skeleton holding the game together. As such, I'd expect these to prove easy to correct for the developer in future updates, which leaves the door open for the game to get some swift improvements.

Verdict

Although this is a preview, Tossdown has a strong fundamental premise and intro hook. The controls are consistently solid, and the music features a catchy loop that keeps you engaged. This is a game that can sell itself on gameplay alone—as every good roguelike should.

The graphical style looks very good too and works well for purpose. Also, the otherwise everyday cityscape somehow filled with apocalypse level danger solely interested in you - all to deliver a handful of packages - is an entertaining and unhinged spin on delivery work.

Right now though, Tossdown is a solid 6/10. The game's strong fundamentals are held back by a lack of clarity, perks, and power-ups. But damn, it's a 6 with the potential to be an 8 or higher if it can only find its feet after the front flips required to reach drop-off. Assuming, of course, that your package doesn't make you a target for every missile ever made.

A PC (Steam) copy of Tossdown was provided for preview by Fer Factor. You can wishlist the game on Steam.