When you think of three dollars, what’s the first thing that comes to mind? A cup of coffee, a movie rental, or maybe a gallon of gas? Any way you look at it, it’s not a lot of money. When Vampire Survivors was in Early Access, you could purchase the game for that amount. As a truly insane bargain for the entertainment value, it’s rare that a great game costs less than five dollars. Thankfully, there’s another one for your radar if you’re into first-person shooters and roguelikes: Impaler.

The premise of Impaler is simple. You’re stuck in a room with a bunch of demonic baddies, and you have to dispose of waves of them, and then a boss. You start with an SMG and can unlock five other guns with wildly-different playstyles. You can also impale enemies to recover some health. There are a handful of enemy types. Some may leap at you, others fire back while flying. While there’s no tutorial, it’s easy enough to grasp after a few minutes of diving in.

Between each round of Impaler, if you earn 50 coins, you can pick between two upgrades, whether it be something like a 20% movement speed boost, life-stealing with every kill, etc. There are tons of situational benefits to these and plenty to unlock over several runs, boosting Impaler‘s replayability to a massive extent. You can earn extra coins by pushing a vase to its destination, which is a fun task to juggle while fighting enemies that deserve your attention.

The entirety of my time with Impaler was spent on a Steam Deck, despite it not being verified after release. It ran flawlessly thanks to its non-demanding aesthetic and with the hardware’s adaptability. While I always prefer playing shooters with a mouse and keyboard, I was able to get the hang of Impaler within my first run. I was actually able to make it all ten rounds and defeat the boss, from a combination of genre knowledge and smart upgrade pathing.

Impaler‘s difficulty is fine-tuned perfectly. It’s enough to keep you on your toes as you prioritize enemies, warrants the use of the game’s namesake to recover health when needed in a fasion that’s satisfying for the player, and the deaths are never cheap. I will say that it becomes troublesome with a shotgun trying to reach flying enemies that are quite accurate from far away when you to be up-close to dispatch them. However, you’ll know ahead of time that the shotgun excels at close range, so you’ll have to take the pros with the cons of each unlockable weapon.

Developer Apptivus, whose past is having made toy trebuchets and a rubber band guns, has truly flourished in their efforts with Impaler. Guns feel tight, the retro presentation is succinct, and the short grind is a breeze while being fun all the way. It’s positively within the “must-play” range for fans of boomer shooters, FPS roguelikes, and anyone who has touched the original DOOM. Pick this up for the same price as a gallon of gas, movie rental, or cup of coffee today!

A PC review copy of Impaler was provided by Retrovibe for this review.

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Impaler

2.99

9

Score

9.0/10

Pros

• Satisfying Difficulty
• Perfect Retro Presentation
• Cheap As Hell

Cons

• Some Guns Aren't Great