It's January, and man already filled with ridiculously good games. What's this now? Yes, an FTL inspired deck-building roguelike games. And best thing about it, it's good fun. And has been probably filling the hole left by Inscryption too. In fact, if you're new to deck-building, this is a good start.
Now, this isn't by any sum, flavor of the month or probably the best game for this year. I want to talk about this, because it does more than the bare minimum of being a really fun game. It's basically a bounty hunting run where each next fights get difficult and more things get unlocked, it gets progressively interesting to play as the run goes.
And even for a roguelike, it's kind of forgiving, it does a good job of helping the player understand the game better with a simple tutorial, and is conceptually a neat bounty hunting game. Like a good mini-game per se, without too many wow factors.
Within the first minute of the game, everything was coming in pretty fast, a bit of world-building exposition, character introduction, and through written texts, I was shown a lot already, and as basic as it seems, I was already drawn into it.
Entering my first combat encounter, there was a tutorial explaining everything. Right before the fight, I had to choose the modules called Cores which can slot in energy numbers. Energy numbers are like random number of cards given to use.
Based on the core and the no. of slots they have, they factor in to how much firepower my side of the row can have. There are 3 different types of energy, Orange>Blue>White. Cores with white slot can have all the energy types, but if it's blue or orange, it's for those specifically. I start the game with only 6 energy resources to draw. None are orange.
Now, the other fancy concepts with the core is how they are designed. Early game, the core in the middle can double the damage if I insert two white energy types in pair numbers. I got another with both blue and green slots, and inserting either creates energy with an increased number.
Subsequently, through the game, after fighting each battles, from the reward pool, I would have to choose between two or more cores to pick. I got a support core which summons 1# energy every turn. Another one where if I insert less than 1#, damage output doubles.
Well, if the game still sounds confusing, no worries, it gets more confusing, but grasping the game gets much easier after 30 minutes in. After every battle, there's the vacation phase. Let's say you get 4 days of vacation, there are areas to explore before vacation days are used.
There's a radar, with various places, some have known rewards, others either suggestive or pretty unknown. I probably had good luck most of the time, thanks to that, my run in these work out well most of the time. Various rewards are given from health recovery, fuels, star points, new core modules, etc. Most of the time it's just a gamble. Riskier ones offer better rewards.
One time it gave me the option of switching my energy resources for something better. But I made bad choices, and have started to regret it in my run since. I played only in one run and somehow, I haven't died yet, so far. There's another reason for that, and I'll get to it.
Nothing to worry, I can dodge one row of attack from the enemy by moving by ship either up or down. Though, if it's a 5-row attack, that's different. At certain times I've managed to bigger numbers into my attacks, it paralyzed the enemy ships for one turn. Leaving them vulnerable.
Last bit I forgot to mention are passives, these are below the HUD. Bonus traits, like extra health points every battle or more fuel or increased damage. The star points are currency, used to going to the shop to buy either passive traits or new core modules. Often times there will be choices given and trade-offs being made. Some are good, others interesting, experimental to just bad.
Anytime I have too much to deal with, I can just go back to the tutorial and in text, would just help clear up the confusions that I've had. Including the part about how to paralyze enemy ships, something to do with going past their threshold.
And you bet your bottom dollar fights got tough, things got spicier, and I was being pushed to the edge even. Some of the vacation choices I made, result in my health depleted to its single digit. Even though I got a permanent upgrade, the next fight was a tough one.
This was the point I remembered that it is a roguelike, I make bad decisions here, it was all over for me. Now, there's a reason why I haven't died though, it's because there's this retreat button that just rewinds to the time before the battle even happened.
Sort of this weird cheat code, and I used it several times. I had a passive that would heal 3 HP at every fight, but with that much shield and some of the ridiculous trial and errors I've had to go through, changing my module units. I had a weight limit, and that didn't help either. It increased only after this next battle I had to go through.
And he knew how to push my buttons, this guy had the ability to target in 5 rows. Strong shield that made it near impossible to break his ship down before destroying him. And sometimes they tend to have special abilities that will cause serious damage if not taken out soon. Elite class foe.
I honestly couldn't believe I won. Even though, I retreated 5-6 times. All it took was making proper calculations, using the right support units, and replacing the one basic unit that I had the whole time. Surprisingly enough, it was possible to win without much of a damage even. Would I survive though?
Alas, the next few vacations didn't help. There's also like a support call, like you know, one of those Who Wants To Be A Millionaire kind of emergencies, where one of them fully healed my ship. It wasn't available till the next fight. Last one was a warm-up, the boss battle was next. I gave up.
So, to sum up, if you're looking for a challenging roguelike, that even if it's tame, manage to really create progressively fun and exciting battles. With so much to do and unlock even. It's not made for space immersion, though, and for 10 USD, it is a solid offering.
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