We’re in the thick of the holiday season, made all the more stressful this year thanks to the global lockdown. Now, more than ever, we’re in need of titles that allow for fun and challenging gameplay experiences without being overly involved or deep to help get our minds off of things. Destropolis, from Igrek Games, fits this mold perfectly, featuring top-down shooting action in a minimalistic style that, while frantic, still allows for surprisingly relaxing gameplay sessions at the same time.
There’s not a lot to Destropolis, but that’s part of its charm. You take on the role of a diamond - a literal blue diamond - which is outfitted with a gun designed to take out the various other simple blocky shapes that are after you. The city in which you battle these enemies also features simple block-shaped buildings, all of which are fully destructible.
Destropolis is essentially a horde mode designed in the most minimalistic way. The primary colors of the main “characters” standing out against the grey and white cityscape. No need for anything especially flashy in this game, which can be played solo or with up to two other players locally.
That said, as you progress through the endless wave of shapes, other more powerful types of enemies will come at you - changing their shapes and abilities from cubes to pyramids to hexagonal bosses - which means you’ll also be needing stronger weapons to take them out. Be it mini-rockets, assault rifles, or shotguns, Destropolis provides plenty of options to use against the endless threats. Power-ups and other special items are also part of the strategy, with these being randomly dropped from slain enemies or destroyed buildings.
Success in staying alive is often predicated on the items that drop and the timing of when they actually drop. There are certainly plenty of times when drops work in my favor, most notably when I set off a nuke to take out the massive crowd of enemies around me. There are, however, plenty of times when my equipped weapon is nowhere near as powerful or fast as I need it to be - especially when I become surrounded and overwhelmed by the enemies. In these situations, I try to blast my way out as I wade through the horde. Alas, I end up dying, having to start up a new playthrough.
Really though, one session at a time is really all I need. Each round of Destropolis is, at minimum, about five minutes long. This can extend to upwards of 20 minutes or more depending on your luck and skill, the latter of which Destropolis requires a decent amount of in the later games of longer sessions.
Even if you don’t become an expert player, Destropolis has plenty to offer in the way of a casual quickplay experience. It feels like it could easily be a mobile title, but it fits well on Nintendo Switch. Destropolis is, at the very least, a nice way to take a break from the holiday craziness for a quick gameplay session or two.
A Switch copy of Destropolis was provided to TheGamer for this review. Destropolis is available now on PC and Nintendo Switch.
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