God of Weapons is a top-down, auto-attacking roguelite where you ascend the Tower of Zhor, reclaiming the world’s last light one floor at a time. Developed by Archmage Labs and published by Ultimate Games S.A., it launched on Xbox on June 12, 2025, bringing a “move-only” combat loop wrapped around buildcrafting and meta progression.
- The premise: survive each floor’s swarms, climb the tower, and bring the light back. It’s a thin story, but it gives shape to the loop.
The hook: Auto-battling combat, tactile inventory decisions
- Weapons fire automatically and orbit your character; you steer, kite, and dodge. The core tension isn’t “aiming,” it’s “how clean is your build?”
- A constrained, expandable inventory creates a puzzle layer every round—do you re-slot gear to fit that new spear, or trash a favorite to preserve synergy? That Escape-from-Tarkov-adjacent “pack your bag just right” friction is the game’s identity.
- A standard run spans 20 levels and culminates in a boss fight; at launch, only two bosses rotate in. Between runs, an armoury offers permanent upgrades, nudging you toward stronger openers and faster climbs.
This blend works because your moment-to-moment attention is split: footwork in the arena, optimization in the menu. It scratches both the “flow” and “fiddle” parts of the brain.
Structure and progression
- You start with two heroes and expand to 12 classes and 36 subclasses, each with unique passives and routes to power. The breadth invites experimentation and niche synergies.
- Onboarding is blunt: there’s no tutorial. The game expects you to learn via failure, and some critics found this friction notable. The flip side is a gratifying sense of self-taught mastery as systems click.
- Community sentiment and early reviews highlight a wide spread—some praising variety and value, others flagging repetition and grind—reflecting a loop-first design that lives or dies on whether its systems “stick” for you.
Combat feel, visuals, and sound
- Presentation leans clean and readable: an isometric camera, 3D characters, and vibrant color against darker backdrops. Weapons you equip are visually represented, and the camera largely keeps pace with the chaos.
- Audio is utilitarian but satisfying—swishes, whooshes, twangs—that reinforce feedback in a genre where clarity matters more than spectacle.
It won’t wow on a 4K showcase reel, but the legibility supports the design: you can parse threats while tracking orbits and pickups.
Performance and platform notes
- On Series S|X, the simple visuals serve stability; reviews praise how readable the action remains and how the camera keeps the field coherent as intensity ramps up.
- The overall package is described as modest but tuned for pace—easy to pick up, hard to put down if the buildcraft loop hooks you.
Difficulty, onboarding, and friction
- The “no tutorial” approach means early stumbles. Expect trial-and-error to understand weapon synergies, storage upgrades, and how to route floors efficiently. That’s part of the intended arc, but it’s an avoidable pain point for some.
- Grinding for meta upgrades mitigates rough starts, but repetition creeps in if your personal chase (new classes, perfect build) isn’t intrinsically motivating.
Who will love it — and who won’
Priced as a budget title, it’s positioned as a compelling time-killer rather than a tentpole release. Several reviews call out the fair/bargain pricing and mobile-like pick‑up‑and‑play cadence—compliment and critique in one breath.
- You’ll vibe with it if you:
- Enjoy “one more run” loops where optimization is the game.
- Like the puzzle of inventory Tetris as much as the dodge-and-scoop dance.
- Want variety in classes/subclasses with meta progression to smooth future runs.
- You might bounce off if you:
- Need a guided tutorial or a deeper narrative spine.
- Dislike grind-forward unlock economies and repetition over long sessions.
Tips for your first hour
- Prioritize storage upgrades early; more slots widen your build options later.
- Commit to a damage identity by mid-run (e.g., projectiles vs. AoE) to avoid diluted DPS.
- Sell or discard with intent—deadweight gear taxes your ceiling more than it helps.
- Bank gold for key armoury unlocks that improve your starts over chasing every shiny epic mid-run.
Verdict
God of Weapons understands the compulsion loop: survive, slot, power spike, repeat. Its restrained presentation is a feature, not a flaw; clarity serves the buildcraft. The lack of onboarding and limited boss variety dull the sheen, and the grind can turn meditative into mechanical. But if you love tinkering—trading micro-optimizations for macro payoffs—the inventory twist meaningfully freshens the bullet‑heaven formula. On Series S|X, it’s an easy recommendation at its price point for genre fans.
- Score: 7.5/10
- Critical reception at launch ranged from solid to enthusiastic, reflecting that fit matters: it’s not universal, but it’s sticky for the right player.
- Pros
- Clever inventory layer that changes how you plan builds
- Broad class/subclass variety encourages experimentation
- Clean readability and snappy pace; audio feedback fits the action
- Fair price for the content and loop
- Cons
- No tutorial; onboarding is “learn by bruises”
- Repetition and grind set in over longer sessions
- Limited boss variety at launch constrains late-run excitement
