It's time for another Demo Dive! This time around we are looking into roguelikes of three different flavors, from brutal and oppressive to lighthearted and energetic. If you missed the previous Demo Dive and still want to read some first impressions, check'em here - and hopefully you can find a game that will catch your attention!
SULFUR
At first, I admit, I was not sold. The visual style didn't click with me, had a hard time adjusting to its stark simplicity. But as I kept playing, there was a lot of polish shown in a lot of ways. The dying goblins show wounds on their bodies, and the animations for weapons are fluid and detailed. It became less of a grey, rudimentary landscape, and more of a focusing lens for the important bit of the gameplay. The game feels unique... And very unforgiving. I am not sure if it was my fault, not finding out a way or a system hidden there, but a death in a run strips you of everything. There's no soft progression that keeps anything between failed runs, no upgrade systems I could find. On one hand, it's very immersive - want to keep a piece of equipment? Want to use that gold? Well, then you'll have to go back using your one-way ticket to the hub (a church, in this case) to spend it or put it into the safety of your chest.
This creates a rather unforgiving loop, where every failure feels like a waste of time. Unless you'll count learning about what might lurk ahead in your runs a currency of enough value to keep going. This, unfortunately, can create a situation where a couple of good runs kitted you out well for the coming dangers, but you might lose all your good items in an unfortunate run, pretty much resetting your progress. Ouch. Nonetheless, once the gameplay clicked with me I had fun and despite frustrations, I kept trying again and again... So there's something to the formula that works well.
MAGICRAFT
How a game feels when it's made by an engineer and a mathematician first. At least for me, because the game is not very pretty to look at. Don't get me wrong, the style is functional, and clear enough (for the most part!) to not frustrate. But it won't win awards for its beauty or uniqueness. The sounds as well are rudimentary and the best that can be said about them is that they are unobtrusive. At face value, there was very little to this title to make me want to try it, but one thing managed to pull me in - the freedom to experiment with your weaponry.
MAGICRAFT promises extraordinary freedom in making your spells and by Jove, it does deliver. It feels like Noita went on a saucy date with Binding of Isaac and came back with a new game. Each 'wand' you have offers multiple stats and slots for your spells - spells can be direct as well as modifiers you can put in to interact with the spells following the sockets order. It might sound complex, but it is very intuitive and straightforward in-game. Even the demo allowed me to craft some truly outrageous combinations, sending elemental changing snakes of pure energy that chased targets, poisoned them, and then stood in place like mines for enemies to stumble over. Add to that relics, that modify your character or spells and you get yourself quite a mixing pot to play with.
Despite its lack of audiovisual flourish, I can see myself sinking tons of hours into this game. Chasing that everlasting dragon of finding out a combo so broken, that it lets me break the game with a smile.
RUNGORE
This is awesome. Simple as. This game managed to grip me in the first ten seconds of gameplay and it is a riveting experience. Everything just works. The animations are very lively and bouncy and give out this sensation of high energy. But I am running ahead of myself - what's RUNGORE? It's an auto-battler which isn't that auto to begin with; The core of it is exactly that - you pick a character who runs and fights without your input. But it doesn't mean you have nothing to do, far from it, as each character comes with a deck of cards and cards you burn through use, only to keep replenishing them between each encounter. It all cuts down to timing and the many enemies in the game respond to that in their design. Sometimes you must rush your cards hard due to a short time limit before you're obliterated. Some other times you must show restraint, as activating cards too early might lead to your doom. It's all very clever and done in such an easy-to-digest way that in the first couple of minutes, I felt like an expert - not because the game was easy, but because it teaches you its loop oh so effortlessly.
I hope the final product will be packed to the brim with content. I want many characters with unique traits and decks. I want an unreasonable amount of items to make each run vary. I need to see many biomes with countless different enemy types. If this game can deliver on its content, then it should be an absolute winner.
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