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We’ve been following the story of Utopia Must Fall, a 2024 retro-inspired arcade shooter from developer Pixeljam, and last reported that a major update was set to release this month. Since then, we’ve played Utopia Must Fall for ourselves to try out the new additions to the core gameplay. The game is a mash-up of traditional arcade shooters such as Missile Command, Asteroids, and Space Invaders, with a huge side order of roguelite levelling up.
It sounds like a lot to be dealing with; however, all the mechanics have been blended in such a way that it is really only your own arcade skills and decision-making that you need to worry about. Utopia Must Fall is broken down into individual waves of enemies that must be destroyed before they blow up your base, or Utopia. Failing to beat a wave results in a game over and having to start again. After each run, you’ll have the chance to have some extra buffs added that should help you on the next run.
Successfully defeating a wave gives you the chance to make some upgrades that are called contracts in the game. The idea being that you’re the leader of the city and are making choices on how to defend your citizens. Surviving the battle also has an impact on your population. Just about surviving will see a huge number of citizens killed, and will affect how many upgrades you can make for the next round. Most of the upgrades fall into three main categories: upgrading your weapons, upgrading your shields, or bolstering your drones.
Utopia Must Fall gets very frantic the more you play, and you will eventually fall with your city exploding dramatically. It’s all about surviving as many days, or waves, as possible and doing your utmost to make the best decision on what to upgrade next. Focus too much on your guns, and your shields won’t hold out; focus too much on your drones, and your primary weapons will not be strong enough, as examples. It’s all about finding the right balance between attack, defence, and support.
During the battles, you control your main gun turret by moving the mouse left or right, and its rotation speed depends on its upgrades. You then use the left mouse button to launch missiles, which are targeted by moving the mouse up or down. The controls work very well, and after about half an hour of playing, we were moving the mouse around at a colossal rate trying to pick off every enemey. You can use a controller in Utopia Must Fall, but we found this a bit cumbersome as one analogue stick moved the turret while the other moved the missile crosshair; it didn’t work that well, so we recommend sticking to the mouse for this one.
Every so often, a boss will appear after a wave, and this is where Utopia Must Fall really shines as an arcade game. These battles are tough, and during our time with the game, we only ever got to the second boss twice and fell short both times. We also started to get better at choosing which upgrade to make next, and being careful to analyse all the information, as not all the upgrades are what they seem. One example is being offered a pack of rockets on the black market, only to find that some were dud rockets. Also, not all the choices have a completely positive effect on your build, with some depleting one area to improve another.
The presentation in Utopia Must Fall feels very retro with pseudo-vector-style graphics and a very 80s-sounding synthwave soundtrack. We really enjoyed watching the base slowly grow and new additions to the shields and drone emplacements changing shapes or getting bolt-ons. All the information on the HUD is also retro-looking with 80s fonts that flicker as if on an old CRT monitor. Utopia Must Fall certainly looks and sounds the part and feels like a great homage to the classic arcade games of times gone by. If we’re being hyper-critical, some of the bombs that head toward your city are hard to spot at times, but this didn’t spoil the overall game.
Overall, Utopia Must Fall is a good arcade game with modern roguelite elements added in without overtaking the main premise. It’s one of those games you just simply have to practice and experiment with to see real progress, and there is immediate satisfaction when you finally take down a boss. Our only real gripe is that some of the waves do start to feel a bit samey after a while, but there is a good variety of enemies so that feeling soon passes as you suddenly have a new attack pattern or type of enemey to fend off. This is recommended for fans of classic shooters who want to try one with a little more depth to the overall gameplay.
