Shackled
Shackled is the type of game that is entirely driven by the player’s willingness dive deeper into the world and uncover its mysteries. If you want to try and speed run the game without learning much about the world around you, you can with much greater difficulty than if you were to involve yourself in all of the side quests, strategic resetting, and world exploration to beef up your character.
Speaking of involving yourself, Shackled has tens of hours of content for a player who is looking to get the full experience per storyline (good, neutral, evil). The multitude of character interactions, environments, and quests questions your character’s intended purpose in the world and how much choice you truly have. Further lore tidbits are scattered around the world and require effort to both find and decode to understand the full story.
– Real player with 7.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Multiple Endings Games.
Shackled has a lot to offer and is meant to be played several times to find all of the secrets and follow each path of the story. The game is tough and encourages you to find new ways to speed up and improve your character before continuing on to the next level. There are plenty of spells to use, each help out and allow you to adapt a run to a certain play style.
I tested this game during its development which is why I received a free copy
– Real player with 6.1 hrs in game
Griftlands
Updated for Flourish & Mettle Update
My opinion of Griftlands is largely unchanged from my original review (below). The combat is tight and you’re frequently just a misplay or two away from losing a big fight, but the RPG elements get increasingly gimmicky the more you play. It’s sort of sad that choosing whether to help someone or not really depends on whether the passive bonus they give for loving or hating you is important or not. At higher prestige runs then you feel somewhat punished for taking an in-character action that ends up giving you a malus - I understand that’s a strategic trade off you have to make, but it highlights where the RPG and strategic aspects clash jarringly in Griftlands.
– Real player with 45.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter RPG Games.
TL;DR: Slay the Spire meets RPG. Production values are high but card gameplay is inferior to StS. Not a game I expect to play over and over again. Passable.
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Have you ever played Slay the Spire adn thought to yourself, “Man, this game could use more story”? Well, Griftlands is that game! Narrative, great writing, flavour, design, environment, Griftlands has all you’d want from a card battler rpg!
…Kind of.
I like Klei. I do! Their products, while not always for me, are usually quite innovative and interesting. So I’ve been keeping a close eye on whatever they produce. In this case, they borrowed the card battling mechanics VERY VERY heavily from Slay the Spire, and added in all the essential elements of RPGs and made it well. In these ways, the production value of Griftlands is significantly higher than Slay the Spire.
– Real player with 36.2 hrs in game
Loop Hero
A wonderful, clever and new take on the roguelike genre w elements of other genres that would seem contrary, yet it works perfectly as a whole. There are plenty of secrets and combinations to discover, and I would suggest a new player stay far away from any spoiler guides as a big part of the fun is discovering these hidden elements on your own. Graphics are good for the style they’re trying to emulate and there’s a definite minimalist aesthetic to the game that adds much to the overall story and themes of the game itself. Honestly, after all the time I’ve spent, I really just want more of everything and hope there’s an expansion or, at least, DLC coming. I’d take a sequel too, as long as it maintains the core of the first one. This is, of course, best for people who actively already love the genres this straddles, have an open mind and love experimental games, or, at least, are not slaves to the graphical arms race of the triple A field.
– Real player with 289.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Choices Matter Indie Games.
7/10
Loop Hero is a very impressive and creative indie game. However, the advantages of this game cannot hide the disadvantages.
Roguelike, Management, Tactical. Of course, this game has such rich elements, you might feel very interested in the first few hours. Keep playing this game, you will find it becomes a little boring. You also need to spend a lot of time on this game or you might not pass this game easily, even from my points of view, this game maybe not worth you to spend those time.
– Real player with 107.2 hrs in game
March of the Living
TL:DR at the end, scored 10 / 10 as of 20th April 2016
Borba Recommends
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- Genre - A 2D roguelike-like such as FTL and Convoy, this time in a zombie postapocalypse. It manages to capture the desperation of such event through excellent writing and a well balanced challenge, as players need to guide their survivors on a journey in a search for a safe haven while trying to prevent them from starving to death, becoming infected or getting killed by either zombies or humans.
– Real player with 14.1 hrs in game
March of the Living
is an isometric 2d game similar in presentation to Death Road to Canada (although much slower in pace) and other such pixelated roguelikes. I’d had it sitting in my library for a while and decided to play it on a whim. It was decent. I wouldn’t call it great, although I imagine it WOULD be great as a mobile title. No idea if that statement is actually true or not, but the game is well suited to that format. But…it was also well suited to this one.
Story
The story is more or less the same ultimate goal of getting to the city of Wellston on the coast and on a ship getting ready to set sail with whatever survivors were able to get to the safe zone at the docks. The specifics of the story vary based on which character you play, but all in all, those little snippets of story are more like splashes of color than any sort of painting. Still, it helps to keep the game fresh.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Tavern of Gods
Do you enjoy autobattlers but find more fun in longer-form, singleplayer experiences? This may scratch your itch.
A little rough around the edges but this has the potential to be a new genre-defining game.
If you enjoy roguelikes – Slay the Spire, Monster Train, etc - you most likely will enjoy this game
If you enjoy autobattlers – Teamfight Tactics, Dota Autochess – you will most likely enjoy this game
If you enjoy both of these genres – you will undoubtedly enjoy this game.
Just be warned – there is very little tutorial and no hand holding, so it may take you a run or two to understand the MANY systems at play here (and there are a lot of systems). While this makes for a steep ramp, this also makes for a ton of replayability.
– Real player with 26.4 hrs in game
As usual steam needs a neutral option.
Auto battler where I don’t have to worry about other people draining the pool of the unit type I want to play is a huge plus. As w/ most of these game it has plenty of types, plenty of items, and this one seems to have an excessive amnt of reroll options.
The bad part of course is the boss system. You have fixed bosses over several regions which you can challenge in any order so you can attempt to avoid bosses that would be a bad matchup for your build type early on. Though I don’t like fixed bosses there is at least some strategy factored into your order of fights.
– Real player with 25.1 hrs in game
Monster Legend
The game is fun but unpolished. I can’t any of the options in the top menu
– Real player with 2.0 hrs in game
DEADHUNTERS
A cooperative rogueplaying game.
Choose your hero, embark on missions and make decisions together.
Loot, level up and die again and again in an ever changing world of darkness.
Conquer the damned and earn your rightful place in the Guild of Deadhunters!
SKILL BASED HACK’N’SLASH COMBAT
In DEADHUNTERS every hit counts. You need to aim all of your attacks and make sure that you dodge those of your enemies! If you are skilled enough you can make your enemies hit each-other, helping you get rid of them all!
EXTENSIVE PROGRESSION SYSTEM
Collect a wide variety of weapons and magical artifacts to inflict as much damage on your foes as you can. Level up your characters and unlock their unique traits to help you defeat the Dead Plague!
CHOICE BASED NARRATIVE
Whether you play with others or alone you will have to make decisions on every mission you take on. On the way you need to choose where to go, who to fight and what to discover!
GRIM ATMOSPHERE IN A UNIQUE STYLE
Immerse yourself in this cursed world filled various intriguing characters. Enjoy their banter and get to know their stories as you progress in the game!
PROCEDURAL ENVIRONMENTS
Along with the changing narrative your surroundings change as well. The world of DEADHUNTERS is unforgiving and you will suffer ceaselessly but never in the same place!
Heroes of Book & Paper
HB&P s an old-school RPG game that uses an 80s/90s style of design and concept. Your decisions will determine the ending of each adventure you take. Every story has different and random components. This means that the stories will vary from game to game.
Even though HB&P is an 80s/90s style game, we have taken the liberty of saving you from having to read the boring endless story paragraphs.
Here is how we begin. You, the player, will generate a character from a series of available classes which enters a medieval fantasy world. During the initial launch of the game, three classes will be available: Warrior, Sorcerer and Rogue. In addition to this, there are five more classes to chose from, such as, Paladin, Cleric, Bard and Necromancer.
This world is based on stories, and although in the beginning you will see only four stories available, the goal is to reach fifteen. These stories are completely replayable, since it’s based on player’s decisions, their character, their skills and objects. All of which can be modified. To add to this, all the stories have a procedural component that generates different places, characters, traps, combats, objects, etc. Even if you replay the same story with the same character. You will not play two identical adventures.
The adventures all have a certain level of difficulty, but they can be completed in the order you chose.
The character will be able to level up as he passes stories and earns experience points. So, in the next adventure your character will be stronger. There is no proper level system, so your character will improve the characteristics that you want, to the limit that you desire. This will allow you to configure your character to your liking. For example, it is possible to get a Warrior-Wizard if you manage to obtain enough value in a certain characteristic, and you find the appropriate spells or items.
Although there is a road map, this game is open to any suggestions from the players and the community in hopes of making improvements wherever needed.
As you progress in the game, new characters and stories will be added. The old stories that you have played will also receive new items and options as they appear in the game.
Thank you for reading. - HEROES OF BOOK & PAPER -
Little Dungeon Stories
Starts off with a good concept but far too short and the events are random so sometimes useless events show up. There is also not much variability in the types of events. Character stats are random and unable to be customised except a one-off buff choice at the start. Boss rewards are not unique, just giving you a refill of resources.The game ends at floor 150 (if you get there that far with rng. I’ve played 7 hours and got there 4 or 5 times) and replayability is limited. I feel a bit disappointed as this is basically completed on release and not in early access where much of the content could be improved. Would need a moderate amount of improvement for me to recommend it.
– Real player with 8.4 hrs in game
The Little Dungeon Stories game process is entirely built on cards that entail a certain outcome. In fact, the game about the dungeon works - you get various situations, which are presented in the format of cards with inscriptions, and you can react to them with one of four options. Your actions have certain consequences that naturally affect the gaming process. If you are wrong and make the wrong decisions, the dungeon will sooner or later destroy you, after which you will have to start the game again. This is the whole essence of the game process - you have to pretend where a decision will lead you to, after which you will take it and move on. Sometimes questions are really complex and even logical thinking does not help, and sometimes developers provide quite a simple choice. That ’s the whole point of the game.
– Real player with 7.3 hrs in game
Mischance
One of the most unique indie games out there!
The amount of anxiety this game inflicts on the player is insane, clever concept which will keep you occupied for a good amount of time.
This is not your average survival game, literally anything can kill you.
The weak point of the game is the gameplay which is very simple but still good enough to support the narrative & concept.
Definitely enjoyed my playthrough and i will come back for those last achievements one day.
Not recommended to people with heart rate problems ;)
– Real player with 4.0 hrs in game
Unique and intriguing, this game is a soon-to-be classic indie gem!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game