Fallback is a chaotic, twitchy rogue-like from developer Endroad that finds players taking on the roles of the last few remnants of humanity, leading a rebellion against killer robots. With explosive action, unique 2.5D perspective, and great-looking graphics, it's a great budget adventure that succumbs to a few sidesteps, but nothing too major.
Following a devastating ecological disaster, these individuals have been forced underground to live in a subterranean city to keep themselves "safe," or at least that's what they think originally. The robotic guards who were originally meant to protect the last few humans to ever exist are now sentient, malevolent "guards" that continue to patrol the city below. As such, the last bastion of humanity isn't taking this type of subjugation lying down. The humans join forces to overtake the robots who have pronounced themselves lords of the humans, and it all has to do with a special plant that could potentially make the environmental viable for life again. Players are charged with helping a motley crew of survivors make their way to the surface to put this nightmarish subjugation behind them once and for all.
Setting off in Fallback throughout the rust-colored subterranean tunnels and multi-floored structures means you'll be exploring a wide variety of different, randomly-generated areas in search of the portal that will take you throughout the three levels that need to be cleared to make progress. This is obviously easier said than done, however. At the very least, there's an unlimited number of runs to accomplish this, seeing as Fallback is a roguelike. Players can select one of three characters when kicking off each run. This allows potential escapee to opt for different health-restoring abilities, passive moves, and different types of shields. Ultimately, players need to choose which character you want to use based on what play type works best for them.
Each level finds players exploring the area with uniquely-built two-dimensional paths. Characters consistently move as if they're in a regular side-scrolling game, but the world will twist and turn around to fit characters into where they're going next. The developers describe this type of level design as "Escher-inspired," and it really does appear that way, the way each area is transforming into different, impossible shapes on top of itself over and over again. In terms of visuals, it's nearly a doppelganger for the PlayStation classic Apocalypse, and movement feels somewhat identical to that game as well. Though there's a lack of color to be found here, which may put some players off, there's no shortage of challenging obstacles and enemies to fell, particularly the menacing, aforementioned robotic overlords.
Each character has several slots for ability upgrades. Players earn special currency while These can be purchased throughout each level's shop that sells a variety of passive, disposable bonuses. As soon as one run is failed (or completed), it goes away. They can be useful in a pinch, however, and there are other abilities that can be unlocked as additional human survivors are freed throughout each level.
These boosts are all-important when running through a level, no matter which character was chosen at the onset, but even with the augments and abilities available, the game can quickly turn into a race to find them during its later stages, making it less fun and unique than at the beginning.
Unfortunately, despite how great the other game's elements are and how finely-tuned the ever-changing environments are, combat is rather pedestrian. There aren't a wide variety of enemies or boss encounters, and while the enemies that are in-game do become more difficult to fell over time, they aren't nearly as interesting as the tangled corridors players must figure their way through. For anyone looking for a budget-priced yet satisfying roguelike, however, Fallback is hardly a bad decision. It may be a bit rough around the edges still, but it's still worth a weekend or two of gaming.
Fallback is available on PC. A digital PC code was provided to Screen Rant for purposes of review.
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