Review: Is Scarlet Tower Worth Playing?

Game Overview.

Vampire Survivors Clone

Taking inspiration from a popular game is nothing new. Some genres owe their existence to “copying someone else’s homework,” most notably the battle royale genre, which can trace its roots back to a series of popular mods of Minecraft and, more recently, mods for Arma II and the DayZ mod (Arma II) by Brendan Greene, the creator of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.

Vampire Survivors is a genre-defining title that will undoubtedly spawn a flood of both low-budget and AAA spin-offs for many years to come, and some overlap of mechanics is to be expected; however, in the case of Scarlet Tower, this cuts a little close to the line, with dozens of similarities including but not limited to:

• Items with the same design, stats, and function as their Vampire Survivors counterparts.
• Enemies with the same animations and attack patterns as their Vampire Survivors counterparts.
• Weapons and Weapon Evolutions that have the same design, stats, and function as their Vampire Survivors counterparts.
• A levelling system that is mechanically nearly identical to Vampire Survivors.
• Maps and locations that are aesthetically very similar to their Vampire Survivors counterparts.
• Heroes that have the same animations and mechanics as their Vampire Survivors counterparts.

While none of this is illegal, to me, it feels like cheating, as it builds a title off the hard work of a fellow indie developer who had already done all the legwork in perfecting mechanics for what would become the first game of a new genre.

Controls

While Scarlet Tower mimics Vampire Survivors in many ways, the way the characters move is not copied from the latter. All characters in Scarlet Tower suffer from “boat controls,” which make narrowly avoiding enemy swarms and area-of-effect attacks far more difficult than it needs to be.

Improvements

To give credit where credit is due, Scarlet Tower is a much prettier-looking game than Vampire Survivors. I could see an eventual sequel to Vampire Survivors opting for a similar aesthetic, with larger, more detailed sprites and a more comprehensive UI.

Scarlet Tower looks fantastic, and if not for the fact Vampire Survivors was already on the market, I would give Scarlet Tower a much higher rating, as it is a very good game, albeit one whose good points are mostly (legally) copied from that of another title.

Edgy

I have said many times before I am a Christian and view magical lore and in-game depictions of religion as mostly harmless nonsense; however, I feel that Scarlet Tower’s insistence on upending over 125 years of horror lore by forcing players to replace traditional holy items with unholy variants is needlessly offensive.

While I believe Holy Water is a load of nonsense (no offence to Catholics intended), it’s well-established in the horror genre. By forcing players who use certain builds and wish to fully upgrade their holy water to replace it with antichrist blood, the developer has (perhaps unintentionally) set out to offend over 2 billion people.

By all means, include dark items for those who wish to use them, but by forcing players to use “evil” items and powers unless they either avoid certain otherwise mundane items or focus only on selecting holy weapons exclusively if they wish to complete the game, Pyxeralia has made Scarlet Tower unpalatable for many people, myself included. It’s a shame, as frankly, while it’s not the most original game, it’s pretty fun for a Vampire Survivors clone.

Popularity

Compared to the leading title in the genre (Vampire Survivors), Scarlet Tower is not even a blip on the radar; with an all-time high of fewer than 900 players and a daily average of around 100 players, it is unlikely ever to surpass Vampire Survivors, which daily peaks at around 4.5k players on Steam alone, not including its massive Xbox and PC Game Pass community, which is believed to number into the millions.

Progression

Scarlet Tower offers players multiple ways to improve each playable hero. This is a huge improvement over Vampire Survivors, where upgrades were less catered to an individual playstyle and more generic.

Day and Night Cycle

Scarlet Tower rewards players who face the more dangerous foes of the nighttime hours with unique rewards, including relics, NPCs, and currency available at no other time of day. This is a great system and is one of the few mechanics in Scarlet Tower that differentiate it from Vampire Survivors.

Scarlet Tower FAQ

Scarlet Tower is an action rogue-like game developed and published by Pyxeralia, it released on 25 March 2024, and is available on Nintendo Switch, Nintendo Switch 2 and PC.

What Peripherals Are Supported?

Scarlet Tower supports the following peripherals:

• ☑ PC - Controller
• ☑ PC - Mouse and Keyboard

Is There Any Mature Content?

Scarlet Tower is rated PEGI 12+ and contains:

• ☑ Gore
• ☑ Violence

Final Verdict.

While Scarlet Tower improves upon Vampire Survivors visually, in all other areas, it lacks the polish and attention to detail that made it a cult classic.

Because of this, I find it difficult to recommend Scarlet Tower over Vampire Survivors, which is quite frankly a better game, despite Scarlet Tower’s more eye-pleasing visuals, intuitive UI, and in-depth progression system.

Is Scarlet Tower Worth Playing?

We found Scarlet Tower to be a mediocre game, meaning that while it has some redeeming qualities, it's held back by noticeable flaws that prevent it from being truly enjoyable.