It is set in a dieselpunk universe where humans live predominantly inside enormous mega towers to escape the pollution that rendered the rest of the planet uninhabitable. You control a team of three agents tasked with storming the titular Tower 57, whose unseen Supervisor had suddenly shut down Grutin Incorporated, the largest manufacturer in the world, whose continued output is critical to the stability of the society.
Notably, the player controls one agent from a team a time; if they die, you are down to selecting one of the remaining two. The game must be started over from the checkpoint if all three are killed.
Tower 57 contains examples of the following tropes:
- 1-Up: Played with Amber Balls, which will resurrect already fallen characters if brought to a fortune teller, and are the only way of doing so. However, they can also be sold for a hefty amount of cash instead, thus letting you buy more upgrades and creating a risk-vs-reward dynamic.
- All There in the Manual: Whatever backstory the male characters have is only known through the game's Kickstarter, although the fact that these are all fabricants created by "Mother" for her amusement may render them false.
- Artificial Limbs Are Stronger: Replacing agents' normal limbs with mechanical ones boosts their health and damage. However, these replacements can also be destroyed during combat in a way normal limbs cannot, leaving the agent crippled.
- Attack Drone: Flying drones are a frequent enemy, especially towards the end.
- Awesome, but Impractical:
- Most of the weapons sold at the "Weapon Stache" count as this; the Rocket launcher and Sawblade launcher risk killing the player character, and the others don't actually do any damage.
- The minigun may have the highest damage output, but runs through ammo very quickly and only has one clip of ammo unlike other weapons.
- Boring, but Practical: The Tommy gun; Its a automatic weapon like what one would expect and isn't particularly exciting, but it still serves as a good weapon and for crowd control when surrounded.
- Bottomless Magazines: The sidearm carried by all of the characters is a weak Emergency Weapon that'll never run out of ammo, unlike everything else.
- Cassandra Truth: What "The Supervisor" explains regarding the situation can ultimately become this if the player character chooses not to believe him.
- Checkpoint Starvation: Often, the only checkpoint on the level occurs right before the boss battle.
- Cutting Off the Branches: Downplayed; While there is no canon character choice, much of the dialogue from the player including the fact that they are an I.T.G agent suggests that they had the spy in mind.
- Damage Over Time: Shotguns can be upgraded with poisonous shells that do this.
- Decoy Antagonist: "The Supervisor"; seeing that I.T.G shut down years ago and the player is nothing but a programmed clone created by "Mother" for her amusement, its evident that he and the player were nothing but pawns in her games as well, and he was one of the few who realized this.
- Die, Chair, Die!: Most of the objects on the level are destructible.
- Expy: The "diplomat" character is essentially a spitting image of Abraham Lincoln.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Said diplomat also always carries a flamethrower.
- Four-Temperament Ensemble: Zig-zagged; it doesn't exactly fit due to there being six characters, but the temperaments to apply to them one way or another
- The spy counts as Sanguine; she's enthusiastic and often quips playfully when collecting weapons, ammunition, or healthkits. She also appears to be the youngest of all the characters.
- The don and the officer both count as Melancholic; the don is often subtly aggressive and aloof, while the officer is strait-laced and takes her job seriously. Both are middle-aged and appear to have experience as leaders.
- The scientist and diplomat are Phlegmatic; while the former isn't elderly like the latter, both are very cordial and the diplomat in particular is said to be the face of the team. They tend to be very collected, and often take things in a rather calm manner. Justified since their occupations most likely require them to be cool and collected instead of popping off.
- The beggar is Choleric; he is very hyper and loud, and often has fits of laughter whenever he collects items. Its also shown elsewhere that he only works for the I.T.G due to being paid since, as a beggar, he knows the layout of the tower but pledges his true loyalty to the "The Coin".
- Hollywood Hacking: A hacking minigame is activated whenever you deploy a hacking glove.
- Limited Loadout: The player can carry a maximum of two extra weapons in addition to their default gun and a secondary item slot.
- No OSHA Compliance: Played for laughs: there are work safety signs... which tell employees to stop reading signs and get back to work!
- Playful Hacker: The spy has a glove that serves as a hacking tool, makes quips whenever gaining ammo or health kits, and is one of the quirkiest characters in the game alongside the beggar.
- Point of No Return: Once you head for the laboratory level... better say goodbye to the hub area.
- Regenerating Health: Upgrading a character with a second torso will allow their health to recover on its own.
- Shock and Awe: The scientist character's default weapon is a lightning cannon.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: If the player is unable to kill "Mother" in 5 seconds, essentially what she says about the player being a clone meant for her amusement is true and the player will immediately die, rendering all their battles pointless and allowing her tyranny to continue for the foreseeable future.
- Simple, yet Awesome: The musket starts off as a slow semi-automatic weapon that fires a single shot that takes out most enemies with one or two shots, but when upgraded, gets a higher rate of fire and can fire 3 shots. This also applies to the revolver; a slower and more powerful version of the musket found in the third level.
- Spikes of Doom: Spike beds are a frequent trap on the Tower's floors.
- Surprisingly Happy Ending: If the player somehow manages to kill "Mother" before 5 seconds passes, the player will not die, declare "Mother" to be full of crap, and will instead end up ruling Tower 57 and beginning the possible cloning of pets.
- Suspiciously Cracked Wall: There are plenty of false walls on the tower's floors that'll crack when shot at, and reveal secret rooms with loot when blasted through.
- Token Evil Teammate: The Don, as the name suggests, is a member of "The Family"; a localized crime syndicate. He's also said to be short-tempered and duplicitous, and gets discounts in stores in the hopes that he doesn't vandalize their business.
- Token Good Teammate: In direct contrast to the Don, the Officer seems to have a strong sense of righteousness as indicated by her catchphrase when being selected in the beginning.The Officer: Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.
- Walking Shirtless Scene: The Beggar appears to be walking around only wearing shorts of some kind.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: Assuming that the Supervisor wasn't killed, he follows the player for a while but immediately disappears after they are imprisoned.
- Whole-Plot Reference: The game's premise of morally gray law enforcement agents of a dystopian state storming through a huge tower block full of hostiles is clearly inspired by Dredd.
- You Will Not Evade Me: The officer can grab enemies with her hook and pull them up close, so that they can then be blasted with her shotgun.
