Grid Slayer
Replayability allert!
Please let the look not mislead you. This game should be played by every player who likes card battles.
This game hits all the right buttons to be fun to play.
You are dropped on a gridfield and you get to choose where. Weather and environment are part of the things you need to keep in mind.
You start with a small number of assets (cards) and it is up to you how to use and manipulate (mods)those.
If you win, you gain cards and mods. If you lose, you sometimes get money to buy certain upgrades.
– Real player with 16.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Perma Death Tabletop Games.
I just started this game and I already love it. If you are into strategy games that are easy to pick up but take a while to master, then this is the game for you. I like the characters and the different challenges that are put on the field, Only thing I would like to see is a fun animation when you kill one of the bad guys, I will edit my review as I get more into this game. Thanks for your time and happy gaming : )
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
Xenomarine
I love rouguelikes i am not very good at them but it’s all i really play now. Been waiting for a new sci-fi graphical roguelike since SOTSTP which i spent hours on.
This game is tough and unforgiving but has that need another try factor that is always a winner for a game in my opinion.
Xenomarine is turn based has randomly generated levels that get really tough fast. Shall i scrap that plasma pistol in order to create a new medi pack? It leaves you with choices to make and keeps you thinking.
– Real player with 98.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Perma Death Roguelike Games.
I enjoy challenging dungeon generally and played this one just a few hours and already like it. You start out with almost nothing and try to survive as long as you can going ever deeper into a random generated alien-infested space station. You’ll find equipment and spend experience points on skills to fight the increasingly powerful enemies. It is turn based and permadeath is the default but there is also an adventure mode.
Pros
-
Challenging dungeon crawler
-
Nice futuristic and Aliens like vibe (spacestation, facehuggers, scanners, …)
– Real player with 84.8 hrs in game
Fractalis
I rarely write superlatives, but this game is the worst thing happened to me since I’ve lost a degree to Angband 20 years ago. I’m hooked. Yes, controls could be more polished, but I do not mind. I love it.
– Real player with 10.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Perma Death Roguelike Games.
While fun at a very reasonable price, I found myself wanting a bit more in the world above the dungeon. The world seems like a small cross section or single screen of what at first feels like a larger continent or Island. It was disappointing to walk to the edg and find out that there was no continuation to this forest or path as it is simply a jarring invisible edge to the ‘world’. A minor thing, but it did make the game seem smaller and restrictive to be sure.
My main concern (and maybe I missed something) was this: Each type of item/weapon/etc has its own store NPCs vendors and they will not purchase equipment that is not part of their store. For example, you cant sell pole arms to a sword store. Even the ‘general’ store has very specific items that they deal in and will not buy anything from you that is not specifically tied to that store. Not a thing. While this seems completely reasonable at first glance, the problem I found was that there is no guarantees as to which NPCs will be generated in the town each time a world is generated. You could end up with 3 vendors in the generated town and 2 of them are swords only and one general vendor. Good luck looting anything of value that you can make any profit off of. So I either end up with a bag full of equipment that I cant sell at all, or I just end up with piles of items laying on the ground because they’re of no use what so ever. A more fleshed out town/world would go a long way and help alleviate the feeling of the game feeling smaller than it is.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Crypt of the NecroDancer
Over the past several months, I’ve had the pleasure of testing an alpha of Crypt of the NecroDancer , a retro styled rhythm based roguelike.
A what?
Crypt of the NecroDancer is a procedural dungeon crawler where the player and enemies movie on the beats of the game’s music tracks. That may sound like an eclectic mix, but it works. It works really well.
You play as Cadence, a firey young woman who, against the better judgement of her elders, descends into the NecoDancer’s crypt in search of answers. The intro cinematic shows Cadence prone, her head against a blood smeared rock whilst her narration says, “I don’t know how I survived that fall.”
– Real player with 415.3 hrs in game
Crypt of the Necrodancer is a timeless masterpiece of an Indie game that never seems to bore me. I have bought this game on 3 separate platforms, and I don’t believe that I wasted a single bit of time spent in it.
Crypt is a very interesting and fun fusion of both rhythm and puzzle, while presenting itself as a dungeon-crawler. The controls are simple, but the skill ceiling is so insanely high for something so surface-level in appearance. Missing a button press on a note resets a stacking “Coin Multiplier” which rewards you for treating this game with precision, taking damage also does this. There is no such thing as “Mandatory Damage” in this game, you are perfectly able to control yourself in order to avoid haphazard conditions, and every single enemy has a pattern or “Tell” that indicates their movements, attack patterns, and the sort.
– Real player with 191.6 hrs in game
Stay Safe: Labyrinth of the Mad
MANY OF THE CRASHES HAVE BEEN FIXED.
YOU DON’T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT THE OLDER REVIEWS.
The developer of the game actually tries to fix the bugs and crashes in this game (check the games update history). If your game crashes it (usually) sends a crash report to the developer automatically or you can simply make a post about it and you’ll likely get a response.
Anyways, actual review.
It’s a fun game. It’s a pretty simple rogue-like that is easy to get into but difficult enough that it’s actually fun. It doesn’t have tons of game mechanics you need to learn to enjoy it (I beat the game on my second try). It’s basically just your HP, Mana and positioning. No need to worry about breaking all your bones and being hungry or tired every 5 minutes. :) It’s actually pretty fair to the player and doesn’t feel like constant waves of RNG trying to make you lose. You get quite a bit of content for the price. There are a lot of spells/items to try and the enemies actually feel unique (they each have different spells/speeds/resistances). It takes about 1-3 hours to complete a run.
– Real player with 155.4 hrs in game
I totally adore this game, but the crashes! Still very painful, even after the various updates. I don’t mind having paid for this game, even if I may end up shelving it, because it has the potential to become unplayable. I’d just consider the payment a charitable donation to the devs. They deserve it, regardless. This is a super fun little game. I can see myself putting in over 100 hours into it. I grew up on ASCII rpgs. I said, ASCII, y’all. Haha. This game scratches that itch for me. I really do love it, but the crashes coupled with the current save mechanism makes for some very painful experiences.
– Real player with 29.0 hrs in game
Everblood Arena
Everblood Arena is a turn-based roguelite tactics arena battler with a heavy focus on procedural generated items and character builds. Get your team of fantasy warriors and take part in 5v5 tactical turn based battles. Rise your way up the ranks and claim the greatest prize, the Everblood Cup!
item randomization
Item randomization is a huge part of Everblood’s design philosophy. A huge array of spells & modifiers exist and items through a myriad of algorithms will mix and match these so that each piece of gear comes with it’s own skill tree & modifiers. Make tactical choices between leveling up your character’s Strength, or leveling up his Fiery Sword of the Helmsplitter to unlock it’s epic quality rank 3 spell.
This doesn’t just stop at items though! Character’s will also be randomly generated, with a small variety of races, each containing their own smaller skill tree’s with lots of attribute randomization.
Our hope is that this focus on randomization and creating a rogue-lite atmosphere will add lots of replay-ability and create dynamically changing character builds.
a Roguelite?
We intend to add roguelite elements to Everblood, with characters sustaining meaningful injuries (and potential death!) from getting knocked out in combat, we expect players to have to recruit new hero’s as theirs die, slowly adapting their tactics and equipment to fit the strength’s of their randomly generated character team. Our hope is that each run of Everblood will be a multi-hour affair, with difficulty changing drastically based on your starting roster & the generated teams you come up against
Conglomerate 451
Hey guys,
TLDR: If you like dungeon crawlers, especially futuristic (ala Starcrawlers) there is a good chance you will like this game too.
Conglomerate 451 is set in and under (water) a cyberpunk style city. Actually my favourite map is the ‘entry’ cityscape. I love the look and the rain/water effects are pretty nice. Would liked to have had missions based in an offshoot of the outdoor area but currently all missions are enclosed. After the tutorial mission you can skip this part and head straight to the mission, which i do not recommend as buffs and map hacks and shopping can be done in the city and can make the mission itself more rewarding and easier.
– Real player with 114.7 hrs in game
*** this Review has been updated after the developer addressed some of the issues. It’s good to see that they are listening to feedback and including suggestions in their process****
This game. . . First off, I haven’t played as much as it shows. I leave games on overnight etc. so. . . I’ve played a little over four hours. . . too long to get my money back and just long enough for this game’s deep flaws to become unbearable for me. I can’t recommend this game to picky gamers. Here’s how it broke down for me:
– Real player with 83.1 hrs in game
Dose Response
Dose Response is an open world roguelike where you play an addict. Instead of dungeons, orks and spells you explore the world looking for the next fix, facing the demons of your mind.
Traditional roguelike with minimalist design on the opposite end compared to games like Nethack, Adom or Tales of Maj’Eyal. You can learn it quicly and it is accessible to new players who are not familiar with the genre or bounced off it.
Features:
-
8-directional keyboard movement (keypad, vi keys, arrows)
-
mouse support
-
each run takes 5-10 minutes
-
graphical tiles and ASCII mode
-
colour-blind accessible modes
Dungeon Deathball
Fun tactics game. It plays like into-the-breach-lite.
What this game does better than into the breach:
-
Every turn is more connected. Enemies can only move a small amount and won’t jump across the map and target something else unlike ITB.
-
Enemies can be manipulated easily; A big part of mastering the game involves manipulating enemies which is really fun
-
The orange monsters and goalies chases the ball
-
Cyan monsters that chases players.
-
You can stand in an enemies attack range to make them attack you the next turn
– Real player with 102.7 hrs in game
Quick note: My actual playtime at the time of writing this is closer to 8-10 hours, as I’ve been playing it since the first public demo on itch, months before Early Access release.
Dungeon Deathball is a compact, turn-based strategy game, in part inspired by Into the Breach - it shows you exactly what enemies are going to do next turn and also allows you to turn them against each other by pushing them around. Unlike ItB, it’s a very easy game to pick up and play a quick round or two while on a short break.
– Real player with 45.2 hrs in game
Necken
This is a rogue-like… a genre I am quite keen on… but what prevents each game from being the same as the last, and enables you to choose one over another, can often be their ‘identity’ … their atmosphere.
Necken is different to many of these games as it is not set in a dark dungeon, but a thick, verdant Swedish Forest, with dappled sunlight and mysteries behind each pixel tree. Accompanying this aesthetic is a peaceful yet somehow foreboding soundtrack … It’s a coupling which truly makes the game unique… but there are also many gameplay choices quite different to the usual dungeon crawlers I’ve played.
– Real player with 24.0 hrs in game
Great roguelike with hard but rewarding gameplay and looks like a swedish 8bit fairy tale.
The game is set in swedish folklore and will have you running around in a panic looking for wood and dodging gnomes in no-time.
It does a great job of never letting you feel safe and rich on resources and its a constant scramble for materials and survival. Once you’ve chopped all the wood on the level, thats what you have to work with, so inventory management is key. And, as with all roguelikes, once you die, youre back to (almost) square one.
– Real player with 11.5 hrs in game