Space Grunts
Pros:
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+1: Sounds and animations. Howling monsters and thundering explosions make the dungeon crawling feels like a rock show.
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+1: Secrets and clues. Beware of special walls and containers.
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+2: Unforgiving combat. It takes me 45 hours to beat the game for the first time. I really enjoys to solve in-game problems one after another.
Cons:
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-1: Annoying glitches.
- The mouse pointer moves to the center of the screen every time I start the game. I play the game by keyboard or X-Box controller, so I have to move the mouse pointer out of game window when running in window mode.
– Real player with 51.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Roguelike Top-Down Games.
Bought it pre-release from the developers website.
I just like rogue-likes (or -lites, or likelikes or whatever floats your boat), and this one is plain fun to play.
Visually it reminds me of Nuclear Throne, only with turn-based movement and combat.
You can move and shoot in the 4 cardinal directions, aiming costs nothing but as soon as you take a step everything else does as well. Deliberately without a skip turn function, it changes smoothly between just going for it and taking another second to ponder about what to do next.
– Real player with 40.6 hrs in game
Ruin Raiders
EN: If you like rogelikes, this game is a must for you. The aesthetics are beautiful and controls feel smooth. I love raider’s interactions between them. The main mechanic of the Game is well executed, alongside with the RNG, which feels fair, though sometimes you would like to smash your keyboard because you’ve failed an 87% shot chance. I cannot wait to reach the goal of the game and unravel its secrets, alongside with its easter eggs. Thank you so much, again, OP Team. Looking forward to know what else you are capable of doing :)
– Real player with 22.5 hrs in game
Great game, if you just like the combat in turn based tactical games, minus the over world and doing research.
Instead upgrades are droped, looted or crafted and permanent upgrades are made before the start of each run, making up for the rogue-light side of the game even when you die, you can use the currencey you made while playing to make meaningful upgrades.
Each biome has 3 levels on the 3rd level is a boss fight, as many other rogue-like/lights each biome has a theme and adjusting your gear and playstyle for each biome can make or break a run.
– Real player with 17.1 hrs in game
Roundguard
Full disclosure: I beta tested this game a lot because it’s THAT fun. Day 1 purchase for me.
TL;DR:
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Peggle + Rogue-like + dungeon crawler
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Fun, highly addictive gameplay
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Super charming and endearing aesthetic
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Delicious mix of adrenaline wrapped in a cocoon of accessible, easy controls
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Victory music feels like a dance party in your heart
Longer notes:
This game is freaking awesome. I’ve sunk hours into it! It’s so easy to pick up and play. I can get satisfying sessions out of sneaking 15 minutes or going for 1.5 hours straight. It’s Peggle, but with monsters you have to defeat. And you get to use skills mid-turn after you’ve fired your shot. The loot and upgrades are interesting and fun to engage with, and that’s coming from someone who usually thinks of loot management or skill comparison as cumbersome. It’s in the goldilocks zone of loot mechanics.
– Real player with 84.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Action Roguelike Puzzle Games.
This is it, folks! The next casual game you’ve been waiting for. It’s like Peggle and Diablo/Torchlight had a baby, and Slay the Spire came over to babysit. It’s a Peggle/rogue-like, but instead of a shiny ball, YOU’RE a “round guard” - a literal spherical hero bouncing your colorful and humorous way through three acts of a dungeon(crawl) to the big baddie at the end. You bounce just like a Peggle ball, but you also smash health and mana potions, level up your hero, upgrade your gear, obtain rare relics, throw on spell-imbued trinkets, and honestly, in general, have a blast! MAN, I love this game! It’s gorgeous, completely replayable, and it has that “just one more round” quality you so desire in a game such as this. I mean, honestly, highlights:
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
Torgar’s Quest
The game has nice classic feel to it., it’s old school hack and slash, but with tactics. The graphics ar simple and funny and the spoken commentary is dwarfish-hammy. The masonry is amazing, of course.
– Real player with 143.9 hrs in game
What’s the best way to start an adventure to find 7 shards that will grant Torgar the ultimate power? Armed with nothing but clean underwear and a lunch, of course!
This is a rogue-like dungeon crawl, questing ever downward in search of the seven shards. It has three difficulty levels, and anyone with a decent sense for this type of game will probably win in “Normal” mode after a handful of games. Hard mode is considerably more difficult, and nightmare mode is just that - swarms of baddies following you through the dungeon and trying to trap you in corners.
– Real player with 63.0 hrs in game
Nova-111
I think this is possibly the most underrated game in my Steam library. The gimmick of fusing turn-based and real time play is an excellent one, and I think they did a really good job of exploring ways to mix the two.
Often it can be played akin to a turn based dungeon crawler, but the enemies, bullets and environmental hazards that move in real time add a bit of pressure and force you to move quickly. It’s not dissimilar to Crypt of the NecroDancer in that sense; enemies have attack patterns that aren’t too hard to learn, but the gimmick means you can’t always take your time and can be forced into mistakes. The time pressure is lower here though and combat is quite tactical as you use the environment or other enemies' attacks against your foes. Individual enemies are easy to handle once you know how, but in varied combinations they’re more interesting to fight.
– Real player with 16.0 hrs in game
Very cool game. At first it felt like a Roguelike, a beautiful one I most add. Mixes turn based with real time mechanics. Your in some kind of cybernetic world and you meet characters on your journey. There’s also exploration which you find hidden chambers and try to find new powers.
As you play new mechanics appear. Which later on you start to remember section you could get to before but with theses new power you earn, you can now get to new places.
The levels aren’t random generated, there’s no perma-death, so it’s not what I thought it was, a roguelike. Almost all deterministic which makes it more of a puzzle-like but you have mechanics that makes it tactical like unit dodging, lasers, time shifting, grid jump, etc… I love how you dodge and the unit’s mouth that snaps at you and misses, so cool. But still it does look like a roguelike so it should appeal to some roguelike fans. Let’s call it a roguelite, which has some roguelike elements.
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
Skilltree Saga
IN A WORD: MAYBE
IN SHORT:
WHAT TO EXPECT:
Set in the world of The Dark Eye. Ample campaign content. Colourful side-on 2D graphics. Basic audio. Well-designed, somewhat deep combat RPG mechanics. Slow, turn-based, repetitive gameplay. Focused enemy A.I. Very grindy. Lots of dying and restarting. Single-player only.
ACHIEVEMENTS: VERY GRINDY. A BEAST OF A FINAL ONE.
STATUS: COMPLETE.
WHEN TO BUY: DISCOUNTED. Depending on your preferences for this genre.
– Real player with 50.9 hrs in game
WARNING!!! Make a profile first thing, or try exiting the game after the tutorial. Whatever you do, DO NOT click on “Options” and then “Profiles” if you have NOT made a profile yet. See the picture below:
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=435057768
You might be able to “Exit” the game from the “Options” menu and it might ask you to save, but if you accidentally go into the “Profiles” menu without first making a profile, you are out of luck! Now that I made a new character profile, the game boots directly into the “Profiles” menu so you can either create a new profile or load an existing one. This should have been the default for the very first time you play!
– Real player with 27.8 hrs in game
❂ Heroes of Hexaluga ❂
Interesting tactical turn based strategy-rpg game where you roam maps, survive, and fight.
There are a lot of different heroes you can buy as warriors, lots of different items both magic and weapons, 3 types of resources: money, food and mana that you need constantly take care of.
Very interesting project, though in early access, “70% ready”
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Tactical turn based strategy-rpg game.
Looks good and plays very well.
The game is so very satisfying to play, it has so much charms there and there.
Some ideas are very interesting.
The game features a excellent combat system that’s more tactical and satisfying than in most games but without getting too quirky for its own good.
Game still have bugs, and they still need work.
Minuses are - graphics are not the greatest.
Wish the game and developer all the success and look forward to even more.
– Real player with 4.8 hrs in game
SanctuaryRPG: Black Edition
ASCII game, you ask? Many modern age games are noteworthy accomplishments of graphic design. (And, as the technology evolves, tomorrow’s development will make today’s games simply look primitive and stupid.) This leaves us with the questions of what makes a “good game” great? What are the most essential features? How can you evaluate whether a game is worth your time?
Answer: Opinions will certainly vary on this. Fundamentally, I think the quality of the game is simply how much you enjoy playing it. For me, it’s based on the story/writing, game balance, creativity, music, and tactics/strategy. Sure, graphics are important, but without these other features, the game is just eye candy, and it won’t keep my attention.
– Real player with 239.7 hrs in game
I had picked up SanctuaryRPG during a Steam sale a few years back. To be real: It was less than a dollar and I was feeling frisky. But after 70+ hours of playing this game, my thought is that the sale price is an insane steal. For the hours of entertainment and enjoyment that I’ve received from this game, I think the full price tag is worth it and I feel almost guilty for paying so little for a game I love so much. But hey, if you see it for 90% off (like it is RIGHT NOW… at least at the time of writing this) I fully recommend picking it up. That’s value.
– Real player with 78.6 hrs in game
Stoneshard: Prologue
I seriously wish I’d never started playing this. What I presumed was going to be a sample showcasing a game’s potential over the course of an hour or so, turned into a five-hour grind through damn near impenetrable, unfair, procedurally generated dungeons and infuriating gameplay.
In this 2D, old-school, top-down RPG adventure prologue (essentially a demo of things to come), you’ll guide a middle-aged man out from his prison cell, into his vampire captors, and through a dungeon to freedom. But right from the off you’ll hit a barrier. Everything is incredibly clunky and fiddly - whether it’s accessing menus, using items, interacting with objects or even just moving around, nothing is immediately intuitive or flawless, and everything is a learning process.
– Real player with 8.8 hrs in game
Stoneshard: Prologue, a free alpha version of the still to be released (at the time of writing this review) full version called Stoneshard. The prologue gives the player a great idea of what the main game will feel like, most likely and hopefully the finished product will be even better. Thanks to Ink Stains for this try-out version.
Only one character is playable, Verren the Seeker, who is locked away in a prison cell and has to escape his fate, in order to eventually retrieve the Stoneshard.
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game