Another day, another Demo Dive. Slowly but surely chipping at my extensive list of downloaded demos to give you fresh insights into as many games as possible! The harvest is bountiful, and it is such fun to try so many different games in such a short period. The good news is that as usual managed to find some absolute treasures - great games to look forward to. And so, without further ado, let's roll!
SOL CESTO
There are no words to describe how impressed I am with the demo. Thus, I will now try some words anyway to inform you about my state of awe. SOL CESTO, on paper, is a rudimentary roguelike. Dive into a dungeon, do some randomized stuff, try to get better, and die. Rinse and repeat. But everything about this game is far from ordinary. Before I even jump into the gameplay itself, I must address the obvious - its unique art style. It is gorgeous, positively stunning. I admit, at first, I thought the fidelity was a bit low, like, rudimentary, but when you see it all in action when you witness the animations, the wiggling, how it all melds together... Poetry. It all reminds me a bit of the supreme Felix Colgrave animations, how fluid and organic things feel. Even the user interface is heavily stylized yet maintains perfect clarity and function. It is a delight to witness.
But even all that eye candy wouldn't be enough to make the game good. What makes it is the idea behind the engagements. You enter a randomized 4x4 grid of dungeon chambers, each occupied by either a trap, treasure, or enemy. And you can pick which row your hero is going to enter... but not which room. That decision is given to the Fate - a random chance to enter any of the chambers. Sounds frustrating? Not at all, because you're given tools to mitigate the chances, to make them work for you. Items let you take risks or solve issues. Cursed Teeth alters the chances and probabilities, making real builds coalesce. Your ability - the Sun Power - lets you pick a column instead of a row. All this gives you plenty of options on what risks you want to take.
It's just excellent, on every front. I am so happy I tried it out because now it is one of the most desired games on the horizon, something I want to dig into right away.
MUNCH
Fun idea, with great visuals, and so-so execution. Might sound a little rough, but so is this game! The whole idea of an evolving monster with different abilities is pretty great. It is executed with some gusto as well - the animations for each evolution are great, hyping up the new possibilities. You do feel stronger thanks to gaining new abilities each time you grow into a new form. The roguelike powers offer some solid player input into shaping your hellish abomination. And going around smashing some Greco-Roman villages is always a bit of a pleasure.
So what's wrong, then? The roughness. Combat feels a bit stiff, stilted, and unresponsive. The delays between attacks, dashes, and actions are quite unforgiving. Dashes especially feel more a detriment than a helping tool, as your monster has enough recovery time after each dash that it feels like you never opened yourself a solid opportunity by utilizing them. Sure, the enemies tend to play by similar rules - they have some wind-up before landing their attacks. But that mix makes for a very stiff engagement, where we chase around each other only to stand in place for a second to land some hits. To add to that, the map, at least in the Demo, is very empty. You can stroll for a pretty long time - for an action game! - and encounter nothing to interact with. Would be nice if there were more things to do, maybe some altars, different pickups, minor events... Just... More flesh on these bones.
THE KING IS WATCHING
What a curious idea. The demo is rather rudimentary, and the full game definitely needs way more things to keep the engagement going. Fortunately, that seems to be the plan, as the screenshots on the Steam Store page do promise the roguelite elements to spice up each run and offer new challenges. But, putting the bareness of it aside, for now, the core concept is simply excellent.
You have your little castle and a few plots and you need to construct stuff that generates resources, train soldiers, and refine stuff. The entire city building basics, in compressed form. The twist is that NONE of the structures work automatically. They are always idling, lazying about, avoiding work at all costs - the ingrates! But you can put them to work by... Gazing at them! This is the unique feature of the game, the selling point. We have a saying in Polish - "Pańskie oko konia tuczy" - the eye of the master fattens the horse, which means that a lord should be invested actively in matters of his subjects to see their realm flourish. Here it's taken quite literally, as the structures only work under your gaze. It's a fun twist that works well, forcing you to place the buildings with some foresight and shift your gaze around to produce what you need at any given moment.
All the game needs are the aforementioned extras. More unlocks, more events, more tools. Things to keep each instance different enough to not get stale after one completed run. Seems they are indeed on the horizon, so I am looking forward to the full version.
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