Eternal Step

Eternal Step is a challenging roguelike action-adventure game set in a dark fantasy world. Players must ascend a randomly generated tower through intense, top-down combat, facing permadeath and high difficulty in a quest for the summit, with elements of hack-and-slash, loot, and survival that encourage replayability.

Eternal Step: A Tower of Frustration and Fascination – An Archaeological Review

1. Introduction: The Allure of the Endless Ascent

In the crowded landscape of mid-2010s indie gaming, where the “roguelike” label became both a badge of honor and a weary cliché, Eternal Step arrived with a quiet, unassuming confidence. Released in October 2015 by the small UK studio Once More With Gusto and published by Green Man Gaming, it was a game that understood its lineage—the punchy, pixel-perfect combat of Secret of Mana, the endurance test of Dark Souls, the chaotic item synergy of The Binding of Isaac—and attempted to weld these elements into a singular, focused experience: an endless, vertically-scrolling tower of pain. This review argues that Eternal Step is a fascinating, deeply flawed artifact of its time. It is not a forgotten masterpiece, but a compelling case study in ambition constrained by budget and execution, a game whose核心 appeal lies in its punishing, addictive loop despite—and often because of—its myriad irritations. Its legacy is that of a cult footnote, a game spoken of in hushed, frustrated tones by a small cadre of players who succumbed to its siren song of “just one more floor.”

2. Development History & Context: The Small Studio, Big Dreams

Once More With Gusto was, and remains, a tiny independent operation. The game was built in Construct 2, a HTML5-based game engine popular with small teams for its accessibility but often criticized for performance limitations in more complex 2D action games. This technical choice is fundamental to understanding Eternal Step‘s visual and mechanical character: the art is hand-drawn but simple, the animations functional, and the systems sometimes struggle under the weight of their own complexity, most notably in the infamous control sluggishness.

The game’s development was public and iterative. It ran a Kickstarter campaign in 2014 (though the exact funding goal and result aren’t detailed in the provided sources, its presence on platforms like Groupees and the active updates on IndieDB suggest a community-focused early access period). The developers were highly responsive, issuing multiple post-launch updates (noted on IndieDB and Steam) that added content like a Christmas boss and addressed bugs, sometimes even naming the player who found a bug in the patch notes—a rare and community-friendly touch. This places Eternal Step firmly in the era of the “living game,” where post-launch support was a necessity for indie survival.

It released into a gaming landscape dominated by the roguelike renaissance. 2015 saw the continued popularity of Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, the rise of Enter the Gungeon, and the looming shadow of Dark Souls II. Eternal Step‘s pitch—”deviously difficult, rogue-like action adventure” with “endless” floors—placed it in direct competition with these titans. Its unique selling proposition was its “loot card” system and its focus on a single, massive vertical climb rather than dungeon runs, but it lacked the narrative environmental storytelling of Dark Souls or the insane item interaction comedy of Isaac. It was a pure, mechanics-first challenge in an era storytelling was becoming increasingly sophisticated even in indies.

3. Narrative & Thematic Deep Dive: The Story of No Story

Eternal Step’s narrative approach is its most stark and controversial design decision: there is none. As the review from The Mental Attic bluntly states, “There is no explanation for why your character is in the tower, no story or characterisation. You’re simply there to fight your way through.” This is not a Dark Souls-style environmental narrative; there are no item descriptions, no subtle clues in the architecture. The protagonist is explicitly nameless, faceless, and genderless, a deliberate void meant for player projection.

This vacuum has profound thematic implications. The tower becomes a pure abstraction of challenge, a Skinner box of combat. The themes are therefore not explored but enacted: perpetual struggle, incremental progress, and the futility/glory of repetition. The “ending” (mentioned as existent by some reviewers) is less a narrative conclusion and more a symbolic trophy, a number on a screen proving endurance. The Jack-O’-Lantern boss, with its seasonal theme and phase-change mechanic, represents the only thematic flicker—a holiday horror motif that feels tacked on rather than integrated. In the pantheon of roguelikes, Eternal Step stands as an almost nihilistic counterpoint. While The Binding of Isaac uses its basement to explore trauma, and Dead Cells weaves a sci-fi mystery, Eternal Step offers only the climb. Its story is the player’s personal journey of frustration and eventual (maybe) mastery. For some, this purity is liberating; for others, it’s a glaring lack of substance that makes the arduous journey feel hollow.

4. Gameplay Mechanics & Systems: The Card-Sharped Gauntlet

The core loop is brutally simple: enter a floor, clear all enemies, claim loot cards, proceed. The genius and frustration reside in the systems layered atop this.

• Combat & Controls: The combat is “twitch-based” and stamina-managed. Every attack, dodge (roll), and block consumes a green stamina bar, forcing pacing. The core tools are a basic attack, a dodge/roll (often mapped to the same button, a point of contention), two equippable skills, and potions. The “sluggish controls” cited in multiple reviews (The Mental Attic, Steam community) are the game’s most significant flaw. The “facing delay” after an attack or roll—where the character takes precious frames to orient correctly—is fatal in the tight, hitbox-heavy encounters. This transforms potential skill-based counter-play into a lottery of whether your character will face the boss’s newly exposed weak point in time. It creates a persistent friction that feels unfair rather than challenging.

• The Loot Card System: This is Eternal Step‘s most innovative and defining feature. Instead of instantly equipping dropped items, you receive face-down cards only after clearing the floor. You can then equip, discard, or “siphon” a special skill from the card into your current weapon (destroying the card). This creates a fascinating risk-reward and meta-progression loop. You might find a powerful but slow weapon; do you equip it now, or siphon its “Charged” or “Rushed” skill for your fast dagger? The “storage” mechanic allows you to bank items for future runs. Crucially, death is not a total wipe: you lose your run’s levels and temporary buffs, but you keep your stored cards and any skills you siphoned before your death (as you can access your corpse). This “roguelite” element (permanent meta-progression) softens the brutal difficulty and is key to its addictive quality. The ability to dismantle cards to create specific stored items adds a crafting layer that rewards completionism.

• Skill Badges & Progression: Level-ups come from killing special “blessed” enemies or via loot, granting Skill Badges that provide flat, stackable bonuses (e.g., “+10% Attack,” “+15% Dodge Distance”). These can be reallocated before each run, allowing tactical builds—prioritizing dodge for a trap-heavy floor, or health for a boss rush. This system is praised for its strategic depth but can feel bland compared to skill trees.

• Boss Design & The Hidden Health Bar: Bosses are pattern-based, multi-phase, and brutally hard. The infamous design choice of having no visible health bar means players must learn phase transitions by feel—a classic “old-school” move that many modern players find frustrating. The Jack-O’-Lantern fight exemplifies this: a second phase that floods the floor with fireball indicators, followed by a timed maze section where failure resets the boss. This creates “drag”—long fights where uncertainty breeds anxiety rather than mastery.

5. World-Building, Art & Sound: Acidic Atmosphere

Eternal Step presents a top-down, 2D scrolling fantasy tower. The visual style is hand-drawn and intentionally rough-hewn. Character and monster designs are simple, sometimes criticized as looking like “flash game” assets (Steam reviews). However, the environmental art receives more praise: the tower floors have a clean, readable layout, and specific set-pieces—like the pumpkin-themed altar floors during the Jack-O’-Lantern fight—are highlighted as memorable and atmospheric. The art prioritizes clarity and readability over aesthetic polish, a pragmatic choice for a bullet-hell-adjacent game where seeing attack telegraphs is paramount.

Where the game achieves true excellence is in its sound design and music. The review from The Mental Attic is emphatic: “The music is outstanding. The main theme begins with a somber tune… it builds up to powerful piece with beautiful melodies.” The soundtrack, composed by an uncredited artist (based on sources), is a driving, melodic force that contrasts with the grim visuals, creating a compelling dissonance. Sound effects for attacks, dodges, and enemy cues are crisp and necessary for survival. Together, the audio creates a persistent, tense atmosphere that the visuals only intermittently achieve. It’s the game’s emotional core—a haunting, motivating score that plays as you face yet another swarm.

6. Reception & Legacy: A Polarized Cult Classic

Eternal Step‘s reception was mixed and niche. Critic scores were modestly positive but not effusive: 84% from Gamer’s Palace, 70/100 from Hardcore Gamer, 65/100 from COGconnected, and a dissenting 50/100 from God is a Geek. The consensus among critics was that it was a “worthy” but flawed experience, with its loot system and challenge praised, but its controls, balance, and lack of story criticized.

User reviews on Steam are more telling: a “Mixed” rating (63% positive) from 33 reviews at the time of the store scrape, with analysis showing major pain points: “Frustrating Controls” (10% mention), “Unbalanced Gameplay” (8%), and “Poor Graphics” (5%). Yet, the positive reviews consistently cite “Challenging Gameplay” (11%), “Replayability” (7%), and “Addictive Gameplay” (7%). This polarizes the audience: players who can adapt to or overlook the control issues find a compelling, “one-more-run” addict; those who cannot see only a frustrating, dated product.

Its commercial performance was modest. Priced at $9.99 (later discounted to $0.99 on Steam), it found its audience but never broke out. Its legacy is that of a cult roguelike. It did not spawn a genre or a series (the studio’s later title, Jump, Step, Step, seems a distinct project). Instead, it stands as a curated example of a specific design philosophy: the “pure” skill-based tower climb. It is cited in discussions of “forgotten roguelikes” and serves as a cautionary tale about controls making or breaking a precision action game. Its influence is indirect, perhaps in the continued experimentation with “card-based” loot systems in games like Slay the Spire (though the timing and genre differ). It is a snapshot of 2015 indie ambition—a game that tried to synthesize beloved mechanics into a tight package but was ultimately held back by the technical and budgetary realities of its scale.

7. Conclusion: The Frustrating Ascent Worth Taking

Eternal Step is not a classic. It is not a hidden gem that will redefine your understanding of the roguelike. It is, however, a profoundly interesting and often infuriating experiment. Its legendary control stiffness is a fatal flaw that prevents it from achieving the fluid, emergent joy of its inspirations. You will die not just to learning patterns, but to the game’s own unresponsiveness. Yet, its loot card meta-game is brilliantly engaging, turning each successful floor clear into a mini-puzzle of optimization. Its soundtrack is a phenomenal emotional anchor. And its relentless, endless structure taps into a primal urge to conquer a single, monolithic challenge.

In the historical canon, Eternal Step belongs in the second tier of 2010s roguelikes: the games that pushed interesting ideas but failed to achieve polish or widespread acclaim. It is a game for historians of the genre and masochistic completionists. It demonstrates that a great “loop” can be undermined by poor “feel,” and that a compelling meta-progression system can’t fully compensate for a core combat loop that fights the player as much as the enemies do. To play Eternal Step is to engage in a dialogue with its design—a conversation often punctuated by shouts of frustration, but occasionally by the quiet satisfaction of a perfectly timed dodge and a card that clicks perfectly into your build. It is a tower built on shaky foundations, but for those who can climb it, the view has a strange, stubborn beauty.

Final Verdict: 6.5/10 – A Flawed Cult Artifact. Recommended only for patients of the highest order and students of roguelike design.