So what happened to the world? Why was everything destroyed? At first, these questions are left unanswered — but as you complete levels and the game grows more challenging, the history of the world begins to be revealed. This is the world of Collapsed, a rogue-platformer out now for Nintendo Switch.
In Collapsed, you play as one of four unique Hunters who have to track down their prey. Each one has its own set of abilities, skills, and combat style. You’ll have to travel through hazardous procedurally-generated levels, fighting dozens of enemy types and challenging bosses. Sounds familiar? Well, it’s the same setting as most of the indie rogues that pop up on the Nintendo Switch.
Collapsed Dead Cells?
Just like in Dead Cells (or even Neon Abyss) this post-apocalyptic world is filled with useful items, that you’ll combine to gain new traits, and with experience points, you’ll invest in a vast skill tree. And you won’t lose all of your precious treasure when you die! You’ll die a lot and start from the beginning each time – but all of your loot and items are carried to your next run. Yup, same as the last few reviews I wrote.
So what do you get with Collapsed? Next to gorgeous art, Collapsed features a dangerous world to explore—collapsed features nine uniquely styled locations with procedurally-generated levels filled with formidable enemies and deadly traps. When I booted the game up, it felt like a 2D-version of Borderlands in away. I had to pick one of the four Hunters, each with its own ranged and close combat styles, and engage in a hardcore timing-based fights. I wouldn’t say I liked one of them. Most of them felt too complicated and required me to play a few hours with each of them to get the hang of the game.
Mix & Match
Sure, when you combine this with the Collapsed massive and branchy skill tree, you get the option to develop your unique war machine. Add in the possibility to mix and craft over 100 different items that’ll help on your way. Sadly, just like the skill tree, these options are overly complicated and way too much for a game of this genre. The same goes for the level progression. Since its features, nine levels (or biomes), which are randomly rotated, there are just a few levels/biomes, which makes the game very repetitive. You just run through them, then do those ‘portals’ (practically an arena room with spawning mobs, kill or be killed)—nothing to look forward to.
To give you an idea – you can beat act one in 3 hours. After beating the first act, you repeat the next eight acts doing the same as in the first act. Defeat mobs, defeat bosses, find pieces of information, and complete the map. They are all the same. The only difference is you get a little bit more of a conversation for every time you beat an act. This system made the game feel a little bit like a grind-galore.
Conclusion
So, to conclude – Collapsed is a mixed bag. You could say it’s in the title since the gameplay and story collapsed under the own weight of what they were trying to achieve. The basics are there, but the way they build the rest of the game is wonkier than the tower of Pizza. By adding a lot of different mechanics from all kinds of a rogue- and A-RPGs and putting them into this game, they created a little bit of everything, but also a little bit of nothing. I do believe that with a little bit of elbow-grease, Collapsed could become a stand-out rogue-lite, especially on the saturated market of the Switch. However, in its current state, I still don’t know how to feel about it.
