Unusually difficult and punishing
Tower 57 isn't a terrible game, but it has a lot of faults.
The basic game design is sound, but the extreme difficulty (even on easy) often feels unfair and very unforgiving. There are also plenty of in-game bugs, such as your character's special ability firing without your input. This did come in handy once, but most of the time it's an annoyance because it uses it up when you'd probably rather save. Add in that ammo and health packs are used immediately (even if you have full health or ammo) and only save points are used, and you have a game that almost seems like it strives to be difficult over fun.
I know some people will love the idea of a game that's hard and punishing, and that's fine; however, if you're on easy, you don't expect it to be as difficult as many other games' hard modes.
So what's good about Tower 57? Well, it's a lot of fun in co-op (both online and local) so long as you expect an extreme challenge. Tower 57 also offers numerous characters to play — three male and three female — each with their own weapons, tools, and special abilities.
An interesting game dynamic is the ability to replace and upgrade body parts, each doing something different. You'll need that too, as certain enemies can tear off limbs, and even the tutorial goes so far as to force it on you.
All in all, Tower 57 is a decent co-op title, but I'd only recommend getting it while on sale, and I'd suggest staying away if you're planning on playing single player. Something else to note is that Tower 57 is truly DRM-free, so you don't need Galaxy to play online co-op. I have no idea if the GOG version of Tower 57 plays nice with the Steam version, but I imagine it probably would. You might want to check the Steam boards for that; unfortunately, the boards for this game are sparsely population on GOG, so you're not likely to receive an answer.
3 gamers found this review helpful