Ziggurat

Awesome rogue-like FPS where you play as a wizard. Everything is random generated so prepare for surprise combat battle royal. Many different types of weapons, enemies and traps. You will encounter many type of rooms some of them will have monsters, secret power ups and challenges. On each run you power up your character selecting one of random skills as you level up you gain more useful abilities. Gameplay is fluid and visuals holds good. Soundtrack is more on ambient side but it sets the atmosphere just right.
Over 10 years still playing to this day...

It's fun! Graphics are pretty good for how old it is. Lots of enemies with different kinds of attacks. I like it

challenging, but very fun. i wasn't sure if i'd like ziggurat since i'm not usually into these sort of games revolving around magic, but ziggurat literally just feels like a boomer shooter game with magic instead of bullets.
awesome stuff, highly recommend.

It's fun! Graphics are pretty good for how old it is. Lots of enemies with different kinds of attacks and ways to counter them. Boss fights are pretty engaging. Many different characters to select from, with various perks to help out in your runs. Combat & perk systems are pretty good.

Hidden gem, but snag this off of a sale. Old game but plays like a modern fps/rpg game and has elements akin to binding of isaac due to the incremental upgrades you get when you level up. Very fun, if I get bored I'll play it. 9/10.

If I had a nickel for every $15 game that I played in Spring 2025 that has a sequel worth $25, I’d have two nickels, which isn’t a lot…
Jokes aside, Ziggurat 2 looks better, but Ziggurat still makes a decent case for being a budget option, starting with a pretty solid progression system. In each run, you select level-up perks to manage your personal stats and three special weapons that use different reserves of mana. Upon failing or completing a run, you unlock more characters, weapons, and level-up perks to experiment with in future runs.
Aesthetically, it hasn’t aged too much, and it’s lit very well, but it is pretty generic, with your typical lava mines, temple dungeons, and courtyards. The enemy variety is also underwhelming, with a lizard thing, a plant thing, a witch thing, a mushroom thing, a few skeletons, way too many faceless armored creatures, and living carrots just to evoke the otherwise-lacking magician theme. The interstitial graphics feel like they could be used for a mobile game, and I don’t remember a single bit of lore from any of the scrolls I picked up.
The difficulty is pretty high. You can’t run around wands blazing in normal mode, as you need to preserve your mana and health while watching for projectiles. It helps to keep moving and stick to high ground, but the damage adding up can really sneak up on you. I struggled on normal, and even switching to easy felt only bearable, and I only hit my stride when I unlocked the first character, who is very good with the default weapon. I made it to the final boss once, but was completely outmatched. Then I had a run where I stacked experience gain and enemy drop rate increases with the extra level-up perk option, propelling me to level 29. This gave me big mana pools and pre-fight recovery bonuses, along with post-hit invincibility and the Trader perk that allows any mana type to refill any weapon. I blasted the boss away without even dodging any attacks. This feels like an appropriate “easy” run, but it was helped a lot by good RNG.
Calling back to my opening sentence, there’s not really any point in comparing Ziggurat to 911 Operator, since the games have pretty much nothing to do with each other. That said, I did find it interesting how both felt like solid concepts that falter a bit due to repetitive content and under-immersion. I don’t want to reduce the difference in opinion to third-party price points, though I do admit it factored into my decision. Still, the trickle of unlocks, procedural generation, and more hands-on gameplay do make Ziggurat more replayable, which I feel is the more important distinction.
I wish that I felt a bit more enthusiastic about Ziggurat. It starts slow, it’s not a fave, and I think some players will experience the same initial difficulties and misgivings as I did, but while it’s not current nor especially innovative, it’s solid enough at its core. Not a strong recommend, but competent and a bit fun.

ZIGGURAT is probably the best roguelite dungeon crawler I've played in a long time, this game has everything you need in such specific genre. The sheer amount of variations you can play with is absolutely over the top, so many different engaging combinations and arenas that can be extremely challenging. For the fans of the genre this will be definitely something that will draw them back to the game once they get tired of it - so many playable characters, so many interesting spells, weapons, amulets and more! After around 5 hours I finally managed to beat the game on normal, but even after I won I still felt like I could go on and on with it. The game has a way to reel you in with such unique concept that it's actually commendable. On the downside graphics are a bit outdated but the game runs very smoothly and I'd say that the gameplay makes up for it.

I'm definitely wishlisting the 2nd installment, this one is criminally underrated
8/10