Unlike a lot of the team I'd imagine, my opinion is this: I thought the year was quite middling for games. Or at least, it was middling for my own personal taste, which is quite unsavoury at the best of times. Most of my best picks made it into the calendar proper, but a couple didn't. One I hadn't even played properly until after the vote, and the other? The other is a flawed pick, but one that I couldn't stop thinking about.
Anyway, hope you all have a restful Xmas folks and a cracking new year. I hope Santa bought you some nice warm socks or a chocolate orange so dense, you could tee it off at your local golf club.
]]>"We are a people who honour democracy," said the dog, scratching himself. "Per our custom, you may drink of our fresh water." The dog was called Senator Umeshefaat, and he was very civil, even if he was shedding his black and white fur everywhere. We spoke in his home village at dawn. Later, I examined the senator's personal history more thoroughly and discovered he was "hated by bears for cooking them a rancid meal." I suppose every politician has their enemies.
That Caves Of Qud creates fun anecdotes out of simple encounters shouldn't be a surprise. It has had 15 years of early access to establish itself as a small-but-mighty story generating roguelike of repute (there's a reason it sits deservedly side-by-side with Dwarf Fortress in the same publishing house). After creating many characters, and dying and dying and dying again, I understand why it grips the brain with such fierce glee. It is a machine of grand imagination and adventuresome comedy. A deceptively powerful RPG that isn't half as obtuse to newcomers as the screenshots make it out to be. Qud's low-res bark is just a complement to its bite.
]]>One of video game's greatest pleasures is being able to shoot bits off an enemy and then append them to yourself. TankHead gets it. It's about steering a tank through a desolate sci-fi landscape, blasting similar tank and mecha enemies to bits, then scavenging them for parts using a drone.
It's been in quiet development for years, but it got a big reveal during tonight's Day Of The Devs stream. It was also released during tonight's Day Of The Devs stream, so you can buy it from the Epic Games Store now.
]]>There's no perfect time to release a video game, but if I were deciding when to release one, do you know when I'd do it? Alongside the largest blockbusters of the year, at a time when everyone is broke from buying presents, and on the same day as a huge awards show is distracting the industry's media.
Ballionaire apparently shares my thinking. The pachinko-inspired roguelike is launching on December 10th.
]]>Open a door, then back here again, open a door, then back here again. It's as if we're caught in some infernal loop. Thankfully we get to talk to you, our attractive friends, in the moments between.
OK, ready to go again. Let's open the door.
]]>Tic-tac-toe, known to British people as noughts and crosses, is a famously boring game that is nonetheless often played by anybody with a sweet wrapper, a pencil and five minutes to burn while waiting for any form of public transport. It's boring because it's a "solved game" whose outcomes can be safely predicted regardless of where you place your first nought or cross, allowing the "perfect" player to at least draw their opponent. It gets played regardless because a lot of people don't know it's a solved game - specifically, young children you may wish to humiliate using your superior grown-up brain, because when you were a child somebody did the same to you.
How many twisted adults were born from the experience of being bullied via the medium of tic-tac-toe? We'd be better off without this game. But look! Here comes Tic Tactic to shake things up with a touch of Balatro.
]]>Slipways was the best grand strategy game I'd played in years, because it tossed out all the genre's micromanagement in favour of a strategy puzzle where all your exploiting, expanding, et ceteraing could be squeezed into an hour's play. That game began as a PICO-8 prototype by designer Jakub Wasilewski before being polished to a fine shine in its full release.
All of which is just lead-in to talking about Solitomb, a solitaire-based dungeon crawler in which you fight demons by building hands of playing cards. It's currently - heywaitaminute - a pay-what-you-want PICO-8 prototype by designer Jakub Wasilewski where "all money earned goes towards making the bigger version possible." Like Slipways, it already seems like a frightfully clever piece of design.
]]>The Hobbit movies are a mixed Baggins indeed - at once thunderous and thin, like butter scraped over too much bread - but one sequence I love from The Desolation of Smaug is Bilbo searching Erebor for the Arkenstone, while trying not to rouse the titular dragon from his slumber. Don't Wake The Beast is sort of that sequence plus Spelunkified procgen levels and Thief-esque stealth mechanics.
]]>Did last week's paranormal body-swapper Slitterhead leave you cold? Do you consider its brain-jacking of rando cityfolk for monster-hunting purposes a sad waste of potential? Perhaps you'll prefer RAM: Random Access Mayhem, out now in Steam early access, in which you're a fugitive AI hopping between warlike robot bodies in top-down view.
Yes, the subtitle involves both a colon and a dad joke, but the demo is entertaining - Nuclear Throne meets Ctrl Alt Ego, in short. The one major criticism I have after 20 minutes or so is that the flat pixelart perspective makes walls and walkable surfaces look interchangeable, and this feels more like a question of acclimatisation than a real complaint.
]]>Sin enjoyed the roguelike stylings of Dungeons of Blood and Dream when she played it in early access back in July, calling it a “baffling, bizarre thing that lives on the border of janky, retro, and punk”. As of yesterday, it’s now out for realsies, promising psychedelic dungeon crawling, the stabbing of assorted gribblies, and lots of little details that make you go “ooo, that’s nice. I’m glad they put that in there.”
]]>The developers who remade Half-Life as Black Mesa are working on a new roguelite co-op shooter. It will feature no physicists celebrating Bring Your Shotgun To Work Day, but instead let up to four players tactically breach oil rigs and airports occupied by corporate-sponsored mercenaries. In Rogue Point the richest CEO on earth has croaked it, causing various megacorps to compete in a violent bum rush for control of that wealth. Which is where your team of renegade shooterists come in. They don't want to win this contest, they just want everyone else to lose.
]]>Windblown looks rad. It's an action-roguelite for 1-3 players in which you dash-and-slash in rapid combat on floating islands, and I am extremely interested in feeling its game-feel for myself. Good news! I can get my game-feelers on it now because it's out in Early Access today.
If you watch its launch trailer below out of context however, you might be fooled into thinking it's actually the emo second half of an Isekai anime series.
]]>Update: Looks like the prophets were right. A press release today confirms that the game is getting a 1.0 release on December 5th. It'll cost $30 on Steam, Itch, and GOG.
Original story: The Caves Of Qud developer has posted a cryptic riddle that sounds a bit like a release date in disguise. A post on the game's Steam page yesterday reads: "{n} purple wardens beseech the Chair, What is death, if one rose is fair? How long from beetle moon to beetle moon?" That means absolutely nothing to me. But at least one fan in the comments knows their lore enough to have translated it, resulting in a specific date later this year. If their solution is correct, this could be a characteristically cryptic way for developer Freehold Games to announce the date for the roguelike's 1.0 release. So, let's double check those numbers.
]]>A trend of gambling-inspired games has surfaced in the wake of poker-like deckbuilding roguelike Balatro. The recipe? Take a standard game of chance you might find in any casino and mash an uncountable number of bells and whistles and gizmos and weirdnesses into it, then slather it in a "one more turn" roguelike dressing, and make it as tactile and punchy as humanly possible. The ongoing Steam Next Fest has no shortage of these gambley gimmickers, but here's one demo that stood out. Ballionaire is a colourful pachinko-inspired roguelike, but you choose where the wacky widgets will go.
]]>Ever been in a position where two people are really going at each other, hurling pointed jabs and insults back and forth, and you're stuck in the middle? Well then, perhaps you'll empathise with the enemies in Archons, a twin-stick Vampire Survivors-like where you control two characters at once, and attacks bounce between them automatically as they move about the arena. I gave the Steam Next Fest demo a quick whirl today, and after a couple of swift attempts (I died horribly fast), I realised this could become a bit of a danger to my free time, so I've put it away for now.
]]>Praise the gods, it's Hades 2 update day, and developers Supergiant are not mucking about. They have bolstered the nippy roguelike with a heap of shiny new things in this "Olympian Update", including a new weapon with homing attacks, a liver-pecking boss fight, two new animal familiars, and the home region of the Gods - mount Olympus. It's probably the biggest update they've made yet in terms of fresh sights. And by "fresh sights", I mean Dionysus sporting a leopard-print thong. Yikes.
]]>I punched a cultist in the face in Streets Of Rogue 2, just because. He started running away - something I would not allow. When another robed cultist spotted what was happening, he tried to intervene, and a kind of Benny Hill pursuit chain began. We ran across a beach, through public toilets, and into the surf. In the end I had to knock them both out. As they lay unconscious, I worried they might soon wake and tell someone what I had done. This can't happen, I hate accountability. I punched their unawake bodies toward the sea in an effort to float the evidence away. But after a few punches the first man exploded into chunks of flesh. I am a murderer now. I was supposed to be a chef.
Streets Of Rogue 2 has a demo out for Steam Next Fest, and while a lot of features are locked up behind the word "UNAVAILABLE" in red font, there's still quite a lot of mischief for you to get up to.
]]>My name is Edwinus Evans Thirlwellus, Commander of the News Writers of the North, General of a small lonely box of unpainted Warhammer 40,000 Orc figures I was given for my 21st birthday, and loyal servant to the true emperor, Timmy Mallett. FATHER TO NO MURDERED SONS. HUSBAND OF NO MURDERED WIVES. OWNER OF A BRONZE SWIMMING CERTIFICATE AND A WHITE BELT IN KARATE. Eater of pizza that has fallen on the floor, like a whole minute ago! And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next. Hah, it's much easier to make that last claim in a video game, rather than when standing in a literal circle of swords. The game in question is Dieseldome: Oil And Blood, and it is pretty good fun. There's a demo on Steam, for now is the time of Next Fest.
]]>After a hard day's editing articles about three Disco Elysium spiritual successors - each more politically outspoken than the last, in a kind of Sophisticated Pooh collage of escalating Marxism - I like to kick back with a nice chill game about Lovecraftian space monsters.
That game is Konafa Game's Starless Abyss - a roguelite tactical deckbuilder published by Descenders and Yes, Your Grace outfit No More Robots. It puts you in command of a fleet of upgradeable spaceships, who must chase away invading Eldritch aliens hex by hex... and also, hex by hex. This is both hex-based and a game in which you can cast hexes, you see. Oh, don't look at me like that. I had to distil several manifestos into an article half-an-hour ago. I need this.
]]>Windblown is an action roguelite much like Dead Cells, the previous game from developer Motion Twin, but it trades sidescrolling 'vania vibes for a 3D and more colourful world, and adds co-op for up to three pals. That sounds plenty appealing, and it now has a release date: October 24th.
Better still, on October 14th, it's getting a singleplayer demo as part of the Steam Next Fest.
]]>The beauty of cards is that they can be anything. You can slap together a working game with them in a couple of minutes. Take 12 blanks, doodle some faces and landscapes, and lo, you have a procedural narrative generator. Make some duplicates, invent a few rules and lo, you have systems.
Conversely, the great drawback of cards - especially in those roguelite deckbuilders people have been churning out since Slay The Spire - is that everything can be reduced to them. For example: last night, I played a round of Fungi with my partner, Fungi being a charming tabletop foraging sim in which you gather scrumptious chantarelles and boletus from the forest floor. This morning I resumed playing Breachway, out now in early access, in which you guide a starship through a series of wartorn solar systems, with battles unfolding as a turn-based exchange of cards corresponding to ship components.
]]>Like a samurai poised patiently for an opening in their opponent’s defences, Shogun Showdown understands that focus and finesse are the means to delivering an impactful blow. This rare roguelike distils the genre down to its purest components, all in favour of amplifying its dizzying combat that plays gracefully with the concepts of positioning and patience. Highly refined, stylish and complex, Shogun Showdown is a delight.
]]>This one’s a very simple build at the moment, but neat enough that I wanted to shout it out. Near Mint is a roguelike deckbuilder where you advance through a tower fighting slightly stronger iterations of the exact same skeleton. Ok, nothing too captivating so far. The twist comes from the cards: someone’s left them in their Oodie pouch, spilt BBQ sauce down it, then stuck it in the wash before taking the deck out. Now, all the cards have split apart into three pieces. It’s name-your-own-price on Itch here, and it’ll only take you a couple minutes to get acquainted, but I’ll explain the gist below. Gist is a good word. Satisfying to say. Gist.
]]>What are you LYMBUS? In what vat were you grown? I feel like I’ve sluggishly ambled my way down to the fridge and tried to scoop a gherkin from the jar, only to find a disconcertingly tasty sliver of my own brain - like a creature from Flatland trying to play 4D chess, and all the pieces are just tiny carvings of my face with “lol get a load of this prick” whittled into the forehead. I quite like it.
“We combined your favorite genres into one grotesque piece of software! You're welcome, game journalists,” reads the Steam page for the demo. That is a very polite way to kick me in the head and call me a bitch, LYMBUS.
]]>You can't travel back to the 1980s. But what if I told you it was possible to gently warp your memories of that time? UFO 50 is a kart of 50 games that once existed for an old computer system, all lovingly restored by a gang of coders. The old console, of course, is a fiction. The LX-I never existed. But it's a fun pseudo-history against which to create a grab bag of small games (some throwaway, others mighty) all designed with a distinct 80s look. It's an exercise in adhering to an aesthetic. Like an oil painter working with a limited range of colours, the developers of this bundle have stuck to a 32-colour equivalent of the Zorn palette. Yet play a little of each game, and you start to sense the smirk of chronos. These games aren't stuck in the past, but they are enjoying a holiday there.
]]>I am sure gladiator roguelike RPG We Who Are About To Die’s latest update is very nice, and its accompanying 30% celebratory discount even nicer. You can find the full patch notes here, and I’d be interested to hear how significant they are from the more fascina-pilled among you. They mean nothing to me, however, because We Who Are About To Die has been taunting me from my wishlist since it launched in early access a few years back. Well, no more. Throw me to the lions! Oh, this one has a Steam demo in its mouth. Great stuff.
]]>To survive in looter-booter Pacific Drive you have to keep the paranormal station wagon you drive around in good nick. You're constantly repairing corroded doors and swapping out busted engine parts with cobbled-together technology. But maybe this tinkering was a little too much. Our review praised the game for its "trunk loads of atmosphere" but called the constant need to craft stuff "laborious". If you also felt this, then good news. An update now lets you fiddle the difficulty options a generous amount, say developers Ironwood Studios, making the game easier and bringing crafting needs right down.
Buuut... if you thought the opposite - that the game wasn't hard enough - you can now tick a box that makes hitting yourself with the trunk door kill you stone dead.
]]>There are cold opens and there are freezing ones. Sci-fi roguelike shooter Wild Bastards doesn't start on its strongest cowboy boot. You are dumped into the middle of an interstellar chase and summarily shown the ropes. The guns feel simplistic, the arenas bare, the loot vanilla, and the entire loop of beaming down to a planet and getting into small-scale "showdowns" threatens to become stale within the first hour or so. But then you find an outlaw buddy who offers a new way to shoot human dirtbags. Then another fellow bandit. And another. By the time your spaceship is half-filled with scoundrels and weirdoes shouting at each other, the game has warmed up enough to reveal its central idea. This ain't no grand FPS campaign, nor is it quick as roguelikes go. It's a snacky shootout sim with tumbleweed towns that feels best when you savour the pre-fight suspense.
]]>Earlier today, Nic did me a great injustice by waving aside my suggestion that he write about Shroom And Gloom, because "I want to read you describing mushrooms in interesting ways". Nic, I have no interesting ways to describe mushrooms right now. I used up all the mushroom lore I've ever gleaned from real-life foraging when I wrote about Morels 2, and I spent most of that article whining about unicorns. The best I can do as regards Shroom And Gloom is to say that these Shrooms do indeed look very Gloomy, possibly because some mad human has wandered into their warren and is now stabbing and eating them.
]]>The Gearbox developers working on Risk Of Rain 2 have released a patch for its poorly received expansion, Seekers Of The Storm. The recent DLC for the action roguelike came out of the oven a little doughy, with enough game-breaking bugs to thoroughly upset some fans. Including one bug that sometimes made the game's final boss accidentally invincible. Ah. Yesterday's patch seems to target the worst of these bugs, and the dev team promise there are more fixes are to come.
]]>Hopoo Games, the studio who made chewy roguelike Risk Of Rain and its moreish 3D sequel Risk Of Rain 2, are shutting up shop and taking jobs at Valve. They're no longer working on a previously unannounced game called "Snail", say the developers on Xitter. Instead, the studio co-founders Paul Morse and Duncan Drummond (plus "many other talented members") are taking up game development roles with the Steam owners.
]]>I took a longer lunch break today, and must now Pay The Reaper by staying after work. Fortunately, I've spent my penance playing the demo for Witching Stone, which applies the magic of shape-matching to the magic of, well, magic. Out on 16th September, it's a pixelart charmer that "combines elements of puzzle games, roguelites and deckbuilders", much as you'd combine a red circle and two golden triangles to spark a lightning bolt.
]]>A few months back, I enjoyed lurking a conversation on the RPS Discord about the proliferation of cyberpunk/steampunk/atompunk/what-have-you-punk variants and how most of them in fact lack the rebelliousness and counter-counter elements that punk actually entails. That discussion was back on my mind as I sat down to play Reignbreaker, a new action-roguelike from Studio Fizbin, at Gamescom 2024 – slightly wary of its self-described medievalpunk styling. However! Turns out you’re trying to kill the queen. Yep, that’s, uh, that’s pretty punk.
]]>If you've been necromantically dreaming of a Callisto Protocol sequel, I'm afraid the monkey paw finger hasn't just curled - it's jammed itself right up your nose and scratched an FU on your hypothalamus. Developers Striking Distance and publishers Krafton have revealed [REDACTED], a scifi roguelike dungeon crawler set in the same universe.
The square brackets are part of the title, yes, and they're also calling it "punk rock" - a combination of factors that fills me with a rage so obliterating, I can barely perceive the announcement trailer, below. It's a machinegun montage of comicbook panels and sizzling melee arcs and quips like "there's a lot of wankers between you and the sweet taste of freedom". I didn't even like The Callisto Protocol that much but still, what have they done to you, boy? Where did all the horror game go?
]]>Gamescom is exploding all around us, but there is still time to lower a pincer into the pile of Steam indie game announcements and reel up the occasional treasure. In this case, it's the demo for Cupiclaw, which is possibly the first ever "roguelike deckbuilding claw machine game". You know how Balatro made you feel about Joker cards? Well, this game wants to make you feel the same about claw machines. It's a terrible turn of events, frankly. I'm sorry for inflicting yet another potential bingeplay upon you. Here's a trailer.
]]>One of the best roguelikes on PC is getting a farewell of sorts this week. Twitchy slashfest Dead Cells received its final major update, introducing new enemies, fresh weapons, and a few mutations. Unfortunately, all this new stuff is very cursed. In other words, it all toys with the game's "curse" status effect, a hex that causes you to be killed if you take even a single hit. You'll probably die a few times as a result of this update, which in some ways is a fitting finalé for this fast-paced jar smasher of a game. You can see the new features in the trailer below.
]]>I'm no shoot 'em up nutter - or "shmutter", as I understand they prefer to be called - but some of the first games I remember playing are shmups. Games like Maelstrom, Ambrosia's Macintosh clone of Asteroids, and the proto-shmup Crystal Quest from Patrick Buckland, who would go on to make Carmageddon. Little did I know that the humble premise of a small 2D spacecraft shooting baddies on a wrap-around screen would reach the glittering heights of Nova Drift. Had you shown me this game back in 1995, I dare say I'd have shmupped myself.
]]>Hm. Hmmmm. Right. So, what have we got here? There’s my Blood Donor card, which reduces the value of the hearts I play, but also heals me. That’s fine, actually. Reduced score means I can squeeze in another card for more healing. If I can pull my Tarot card, I'll deal damage with each heal, and I’ve already pulled two scratch cards for yet more quick damage. Now, if I can just pull a Jack, I can plonk down the King Of Space And Time for a brutal finisher. That’ll transfer everything on my side over to my opponent’s, forcing a bust for a nice final chunk of hurt and…
]]>In his Vampire Survivors review, Matt Cox described the game as something he could play with "one hand in a packet of crisps". I think about this quite often, actually, as someone whose largely offline friends (or Fortnite/FIFA pals) ask me to recommend them a game that's good or interesting. Show them something popular like Elden Ring and, despite its grandeur, it might prove too much in all facets. But Vampire Survivors? It's an easy sell: simple, digestible, ridiculous value.
All of this is to say, One BTN Bosses is from the same school of the easy sell. You can fight bosses with one hand in a packet of pickled onion Space Raiders, after all.
]]>Edwin spotted this game called Beta Decay that's not got a release date yet or anything, but looks very cool. It's being developed by Rotoscope Studios and it's a low-poly, 90s-inspired mix of dystopian RPG, survival, third and first-person shooter, with some roguelike bits slapped in there, as well. Whew, that's a lot. Potentially too much. But hey, I am here for something ambitious and interesting, of which it ticks both boxes.
]]>In Cleanfall you essentially play a Roomba that is trying to reverse the apocalypse because the apocalypse is messy. A Roomba capable of tunnelling through miles of procedurally generated, monster-infested crust so as to reorganise the Earth's core and bring about its ultimate objective - a sparkling living room. I enjoy the militant reductiveness of this character motivation. There are sprawling underground ecosystems to discover, yes, weird plants to harvest, fractious clumps of tentacles to appraise, avoid or slaughter. But all of these things are contemptible details to be swept up and bagged and thrown in the dumpster.
]]>Grit And Valor 1949 certainly evokes the tactics of Into The Breach, with its stompy machinery and floating tile battlegrounds. But, despite all appearances, this one isn’t actually turn-based at all. A tiley, tiny real time strategy then? Aye, and one that’s actually pretty frantic as it happens. Missions are snappy, intense skirmishes. You’ll fight off waves while trying to protect your useless, freeloading command vehicle. This threat, combined with on-the-fly tactical consider-me-do's like utilising cover and keeping rock-paper-scissors matchups in your favour ends up spawning something quite distinct. Please, do stomp on, preferably with less hypens for all our sakes.
]]>Crow Country, Conscript, and now Vultures - Scavengers Of Death. We really do seem to be living through a craze for PS1-style horror games. Vultures is different to the others, though, in that it's turn-based zombie crunching combined with roguelike scavenging to survive and get more powerful. It's arriving on Steam sometime soon and it's probably worth a looksy if you're after biohazard disposal with a tactical twist.
]]>Back in 2011, Robot Entertainment released tower defender Orcs Must Die!, adding an exclamation mark to spark some urgency and also, irritate anybody who has to write about video games for a living, though not as much as the absolute maniacs behind Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. Evidently, players did not sufficiently meet their demand for wanton Orc-massacring, for Robot were forced to release two sequels, which I personally would have titled Orcs Must Die!! and Orcs Must Die!!! or perhaps Orcs Must Die!!?, to indicate a mounting existential crisis.
Now, Robot have stepped things up by announcing Orcs Must Die! Deathtrap, a newly roguelite, four-player spin on the goblin-farming formula, whose subheading throws bumbling Orc murderers a bone by specifying that you might try building a trap of some kind, a deathtrap possibly. Please find below a suspiciously innocent trailer, which I promise you isn't covering a wall of arrow launchers or similar.
]]>In theory I'm down to review Breachway, a roguelike deck-building space sim which is sort of FTL but 3D and with cards. The second I wrested this privilege from Ed Thorn's resentful fingers, however, developers Edgeflow Studio and publishers Hooded Horse delayed the early access release. Perhaps this reflects Hooded Horse's atypically forgiving, when-it's-ready approach to game publishing. Or perhaps they just hate me and wish to deny me things that might bring me pleasure. It matters not, because the game now has a new early access release date - 30th August 2024 via Steam, GOG, and the Epic Games Store. Catch a celebratory trailer below.
]]>We've all seen it. The little spinning symbol cautioning players against impatient acts of powering down. "Don't turn off your system when this symbol is displayed," goes the message seen often while booting up a game (or some other version of these words). The implication is clear. The saving process is delicate and if you interrupt this invisible ritual the data that's being written to some folder deep in your PC's innards will become corrupted, wrecked, banjaxed. You will lose all your progress, all your precious swords and accomplishments.
But is this true? How likely are you to really suffer a catastrophic loss of shotgun shells? To find out, I decided to spend a very annoying afternoon of turning my gaming rig off and on again during multiple games. Was this a good idea? I don't know. I'm a gamer, not an ideas man.
]]>Hades 2's third early access patch is of the gargantuan variety. It improves Olympian Boons, adds lots of new UI icons, reworking Keepsakes, and basically touches every aspect of the game you could possibly think of. One thing it doesn't change is how sexy the gods are, but because they're so sexy anyway, I don't think that's an issue moving forwards.
]]>Chaos and comedy. Death and rebirth. Luck and, uh, running out of luck. A good roguelike doesn't treat the player like other games do. Roguelikes won't guide you helpfully along a path, or let you cinematically snatch victory from the jaws of defeat. They're more likely to dangle you deep between the jaws of defeat and fumble the rope until you go sliding down defeat's hungry gullet. This is their beauty, and it's a part of why we keep coming back for another go. Next time everything will go right. Next time you'll find the right pair of poison-proof loafers, the perfect co-pilot for your spaceship, a stash of stronger, better ropes. Next time.
Here's our list of the 19 best roguelikes on PC you can play in 2024.
]]>League Of Geeks are going "into hibernation". The Australian developers behind fantasy strategy games such as the animal-themed Armello and hellish remake Solium Infernum said that their remaining staff are going to take an extended break, and they're not sure "when (or if)" they will revive the studio.
]]>"Deus Ex but tiny and hilarious" is how I pitch the first Streets of Rogue to people in elevators. Then I kick the elevator control panel to pieces, climb out the hatch, and cut the cord with a buzzsaw I smuggled in earlier. "It's also total chaos!" I yell, as the elevator plummets. "Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" Streets of Rogue 2 is looking similarly chaotic. But one thing has been brought to order: its release date. It's coming to early access on August 14th, while a new trailer (below) shows horse riding, flame throwing, and speed boating. My favourite moment is when a man pumps magic gas into a room full of people doing zumba, and it turns them all into giants, and they freak out and start smashing the walls in a panic.
]]>Pow! Biff! Dead! Cells! Catch that plate I just threw you! And this one! Oh no, there’s another plate coming toward you, also thrown by me! And look, you don’t have any free hands left to catch this one! Eat plate! You have been well and truly beaten up, but that’s fine. Here’s something nice to take your mind off the pain. Tenjutsu is a new fluid and frenetic punchy-dudey action game from Dead Cells designer Sébastien Benard.
]]>A goat or a lamb - which makes the better sacrifice? Trick question, it's neither. The best sacrifices are old rich people. In Cult of the Lamb's next update, Unholy Alliance, you can sacrifice folks with a pal. The upcoming free update will add a co-op goat character so a friend can indoctrinate and stab alongside you. The developers have shown off the two-player update amid the summer news plague that is threatening to tear entire branches off the RPS treehouse this week. "Summoned by blood and born in corruption, this wicked new ally can join the holy Lamb in local co-op," say publishers Devolver. Ah, local co-op. Not online then. I guess this is for real-life people with real-life friends and a proper real-life sofa. Well. Good for them. I'm happy for them. Couldn't be happier. Happy happy happy.
]]>Oh, this one looks nice, doesn’t it? Tears Of Metal is a rousing medieval stabathon that sees you retaking your Scottish island from a bunch of bad lads who’ve decided to come have a go, which was a bit silly of them, honestly. It’s a hack n’ slash co-op roguelike with some nifty looking strategy elements and a striking art style, but you can tell most of that from the trailer below:
]]>In my eternal quest to describe games concisely enough that you don’t feel robbed of time you could have just watched a trailer with, I am compelled to use many of the same words and word combinations ad nauseam. So, when a game like horror tower defence Bella Wants Blood comes along and uses some odd nouns, I get all excited. Here, that’s because I get to recklessly spaff out terms like ‘Blood Gutters’, ‘The Rattler’, and your friend and mine, ‘The Stabber’. Barely an atom quivers in Bella Wants Blood that hasn’t been stylised or made odd and alluring in some way.
]]>Roguelike FPS Wild Bastards is the space western follow up to 2019’s Void Bastards. It takes some of that game’s ideas, mainly those related to shooty and looty, and reforms them into a largely different can o’ campfire beans. This time, it’s less focused on exploration, more on individual, tense shoot-outs. You collect a cast of weirdos, each with different guns and abilities, and form the deadliest dang posse this side of the last tactical overworld map you descision'd your way through. I like what I've played so far, although I think a lot is going to hinge on how much evolution the mid-game offers. As always, here’s a Steam demo, if you want to be all contrary and 'form your own opinions'. Pah.
]]>Witchy roguelike Hades 2 got a fresh update yesterday that sees a bunch of weapons getting stompier, thumpier, and, yes, whompier. It's like the hammer of Hephaestus himself was put to work on the entire armory. The Moonstone Axe's heavier attacks now channel faster, for one thing, which could make the most sluggish of the weapons a little more viable. I haven't had a go at the re-jigged bashing yet myself but I trust from these patch notes it will be subtly noticeable.
]]>As you might’ve heard, Hades 2 is out in early access, offering up the much-anticipated sequel to Supergiant’s mythical (and delightfully thirsty) roguelite. Though the sheer amount of polish and Stuff in even its pre-release form might have you thinking that a full 1.0 release can’t be too far down the line, the game’s creative director reckons we’ve still got around a year to wait before it’s considered all finished up.
]]>Hell-wandering roguelike Hades 2 has received its first proper patch, and it does everything the developers said it would. You now sprint faster and, significantly, you can gather more than one type of crafting resource per run (as long you've unlocked the tool that lets you gather that resource). This means Melinoë can now go fishing, dig up seeds, mine silver, and gain the trust of errant shades, all in a single night's work. There is a catch though.
]]>Greek god pulverizing simulator Hades 2 is getting its first patch "later this month", say the developers. Two things are on their to-tweak list. First, something might change about the way resource gathering tools are used (the pickaxe you use to mine silver during a run, for example). Second, and perhaps more significant, is an upcoming change to the way Melinoë's dash and sprint work. We don't know exactly what that change is but, according to Supergiant, it has something to do with your witchy batterer's "distinct style".
]]>Mullets aren't just coming back into fashion, they're everywhere at the moment, adopted largely by lads who love draft beer and The Football. And seemingly by Mullet Mad Jack, the protagonist of a single-player roguelike FPS who would shove draft beers into the skull of a billionaire robot, then shoot him in the gonads. What I'm trying to say is, Mullet Mad Jack is fashionable and no-nonsense, which makes for a great hang if you'd like to burn some aggression once in a while.
]]>Back in the late 90s when all of you NORMIES were playing Diablo, I was playing a little-known Konami ARPG called Azure Dreams, which has alas never escaped PlayStation prison. It's a grid-based, upwardly mobile roguelitey dungeon crawler set in a big tower, each floor a semi-randomised maze of monsters (which you can capture), traps and pick-ups, where player and creature actions happen simultaneously.
Effort Star's Enter The Chronosphere doesn't have grids or monster capturing, that I know of, but it taps into a comparable vein of diorama-sized frantic-yet-laidback challenge, with characters, foes and projectiles frozen in time till you give a command. There's a demo on Steam as part of the platform's Endless Replayability Fest, which I encourage you to try, whether you are one of the COOL KIDS who played Azure Dreams or not.
]]>Looking for Hades 2 romance options? Like its predecessor, Hades 2 offers romance for those who wish to have a reprieve from the Underworld and its legions of enemies.
Whilst the game is in early access there is no overt romance, but there are specific characters whom you can pass the time with and unlock unique dialogue with. We've listed these below along with the gifts they like and the Incantations you can unlock to improve your romantic relationships in Hades 2.
]]>The Rogue Prince of Persia, a game that is pleasingly candid in choosing its name for a roguelite Prince of Persia spin-off, has been delayed. It turns out that developers Evil Empire - they of very good roguelite platformer Dead Cells - saw the Hades 2 train steaming down the tracks, and decided to sensibly dodge-roll out of its way.
]]>Looking for Moon Dust in Hades 2? Moon Dust is a rare Reagent in Hades 2, needed for Insight. Insight is essentially the system in which you can upgrade Arcana Cards and make their active effects more powerful.
As such, it is a somewhat later-game feature but one of vital importance if you want to advance towards the final boss of Hades 2. See below for all methods of getting Moon Dust in the game.
]]>Looking for Bath Salts in Hades 2? Bath Salts are essential for using the Crossroads Hot Springs, an area of the Crossroads that allows you to sit and bathe with a character of your choice for a while, and get to know them a little better. Hades 2 isn't just a roguelite, it's a story about characters and relationships. And what better way to learn about the backstory of Doom himself than by inviting him for a soak?
In this quick guide we'll walk you through how to get more Bath Salts for use at the Hot Springs in Hades 2.
]]>Looking for Animal Familiars in Hades 2? Animal Familiars in Hades 2 are adorable companions that you can take with you on your travels through Erebus and beyond.
These critters not only look cute but provide additional buffs and can help you gather Reagents. Below we'll tell you how to get Familiars in Hades 2 and what buffs each Familiar comes with.
]]>Looking for Hades 2 weapon Aspects? Weapon Aspects are needed to upgrade weapons in Hades 2. There are a few different Aspects to choose from for all five weapons in Hades 2, and they vary in recipe and buffs.
Below we've gathered a list of all Aspects for each weapon, how they rank and also listed how to initially unlock Aspects in your game.
]]>In the grand tradition established by one (1) prior release, Supergiant dropped Hades 2 over the weekend and we at the Electronic Wireless show podcast have all been playing and enjoying it bunches! So we wanted to talk about the game, why we're enjoying it, some of the new aspects over Hades the first, and just generally go 'Ooh, this game is fun, innit?'. Not a complex podcast this week.
]]>Wondering where to get G Rock in Hades 2? There are many recipes in Hades 2 that require different Reagents. G Rock is listed as a main ingredient to forge the fifth Hades 2 weapon, the Argent Skull.
Although the game doesn't tell you where to find G Rock, or Glassrock as it's properly known, we've listed the location for you below to save frustration.
]]>Wondering where to get Garlic in Hades 2? Garlic is one of many Reagents required to perform Incantations in Hades 2. Although the game doesn't explicitly tell you where to get Garlic, as you progress through the story you'll uncover Incantation recipes that require it.
In particular, you need Garlic to expand your garden and grow more plants. You also need Garlic to unlock the Crossroads Taverna, a place of respite where you can increase your romantic connections with the various NPC in Hades 2. Join us as we tell you where and how to get Garlic in the game.
]]>Looking to find a Lotus in Hades 2? Lotus is a specific Reagent in Hades 2 that is used in numerous Incantations. You'll need a supply of Lotuses if you want to unlock things like the Crossroads Hot Springs (which progresses romance with certain NPCs) and Animal Familiars like Frinos.
Join us as we go through the most important Lotus recipes and exactly where you can gather Lotuses in Hades 2 for yourself.
]]>Looking for Thalamus in Hades 2? Thalamus only has one important use so far in Hades 2, but it's still one of the most important resources in the game. That's because Thalamus is essential for making your way through the Surface realm.
Thalamus is one of the first really confusing crafting materials you'll come across, beccause you're unlikely to know where to get Thalamus when you first see it listed as an ingredient in your cauldron. In this quick guide, we'll reveal how to get Thalamus in Hades 2, and how exactly it can be used to progress the storyline and allow Melinoë to survive above the Surface.
]]>Looking for Bronze in Hades 2? Bronze is one of the most confusing early-game resources in Hades 2, because you unlock recipes that require it long before you unlock the ability to gather Bronze itself. Bronze can only be found on the Surface above the Underworld, and to get there you'll need to progress the story until you can dispel the wards barring you from the Surface.
In this guide, we'll walk you through everything you need in order to get Bronze in Hades 2. We'll go over how to reach the Surface, where to find Bronze, and how to stay on the Surface long enough to farm as much Bronze as you need.
]]>Looking for Shadow in Hades 2? As its name might suggest, Shadow is a nebulous resource in Hades 2, used only for the most potent incantations at your cauldron back in the Crossroads. Unlike most incantation materials, Shadow can't be found during your runs, but must be crafted by hand.
Follow this guide to learn how to get Shadow for the all-important Permeation Of Witching-Wards incantation in Hades 2, which will allow you to dispel the magical seal on the stairway leading up from your home in the Crossroads.
]]>Want to start fishing in Hades 2? You may on your runs have already seen fishing spots dotted about the Underworld in Hades 2. But if you try to interact with it, all you'll get is a "Tool Required" notification popup. In Hades 2, not only must you choose a weapon before each run, but you must also pick a Gathering Tool so you can gather specific resources when they appear. And of these tools, the hardest to get is the Fishing Rod.
In this guide, we'll show you how to unlock the Fishing Rod in Hades 2, including how to get all of the resources needed to access it. We'll also go over how to fish at any fishing spot.
]]>Looking for a list of all Hades 2 Keepsakes? Keepsakes in Hades 2 are little gifts you can get from various companions after giving them Nectar.
Other than a cosy reminder of your friendship with a Greek God, Keepsakes also provide handy buffs that should make your traversal into Erebus and beyond a little easier. Join us as list all Keepsakes in Hades 2, their unique buffs and highlight the best Keepsakes in Hades 2 to prioritise.
]]>Looking for a list of all Arcana Cards in Hades 2? Arcana Cards are a new mechanic to arrive with Hades 2 which allow Melinoe to apply certain buffs to her build. These Arcana Cards require Ashes to unlock and vary in rarity.
To apply more cards at once, you need to upgrade your Grasp meter with Psyche. Both of these resources can be gathered in Erebus from clearing locations or from the Wrecthed Broker's shop.
For a full list of all Arcana Cards available in Hades 2 as well as our recommendations for the best Arcana Cards in the game and ways to upgrade them, read on.
]]>Looking for the best Boons in Hades 2? Like its predecessor, Boons play a major role in Hades 2. They're essentially blessings from Gods that give you added perks in and out of combat and can mean life or death on a run in Erebus and beyond.
With returning faces as well as some new ones, each God in the Pantheon of Hades 2 offers unique Boons and specialities (or Curses). We'll go through these as well as the best Boons for each major God. If you're interested in seeing a full list of all Boons in the game we have that too.
]]>A bunch of us at RPS have been blattering our way through the underworld of Hades 2, which came out in early access yesterday. Naturally, our favourite gods and goddesses are emerging from our evenings of hacking and/or slashing. For me, Nemesis provides a lot of chuckles. Not because she's bright and jokey (she is frownier than a wet bulldog). But because she's determined to put the player in their place and to beat you at your own roguelike. Narratively, she fulfills a role similar to Meg in the first Hades, that of closest frenemy. But in gameplay terms, Nemesis won't stoop to something as trite as a boss battle. Oh no. She's out to mess with your build.
]]>Looking for a list of all Boon and door symbols in Hades 2? As you travel through Erebus in Hades 2, you'll be offered a choice of doors leading to different pathways. These doors will usually have a unique symbol which represents the level's reward.
If you're unfamiliar with Hades, these symbols can be confusing at first as you don't know which reward you're agreeing to. Below we've cultivated a full list of all door and Boon symbols in Hades 2, so you can make an informed choice when forging your path through Erebus.
]]>Looking for Hades 2 top tips for beginners? Hades 2 can be a bit of a minefield, especially if you haven't played the first Hades or are unfamiliar with rogue-like dungeon crawlers.
It isn't necessary to play Hades before Hades 2. In fact, there are many new systems the sequel introduces with a new protagonist, Melinoe. Whether you're a returning fan looking for tips to tackle the new systems or it's your first time playing a Hades game, we have you covered with a list of top tips to help you through your first few runs.
]]>Looking for the best weapons in Hades 2? Hades 2 is a gruelling rogue-like dungeon crawler that puts you in the shoes of Melinoe, desperate to avenge her family against the tyrannical Kronos.
If you have any hope of even getting to Kronos, you'll need to have the best weapons possible. Join us as we go through each weapon currently availible via early access, judging the best and which Keepsakes, Arcana Cards and Boons we would pair with them for a successful run. We'll also tell you how you can unlock each one.
]]>I’ve been sampling Hades 2’s early access build on the Steam Deck, and my only complaint – besides the smooching frog having eluded me for hours – is that it’s giving me very little to write about, performance analysis-wise. Honestly, it fits the dinky PC so well you’d have thought Supergiant had decided to make this roguelike sequel a Steam Deck game that just happened to run on desktops by accident.
Hades the first was much the same, taking to the Deck like Hercules to Augean shit, but Hades 2 barely even gives away that fact that it’s unfinished. It doesn’t crash, stutter, or hang, and there’s no point in talking about settings when it runs at a practically perfect 60fps on max quality. Make that 90fps on the Steam Deck OLED, too. It’s just a fabulous game for handhelds, even in its earliest of early access days.
]]>Scylla and the Sirens are a rock band of mythical boat wreckers who insist they have tons of fans. (They do not.) As a boss battle in Hades 2 they are a deadly trio that has bested me more times in the last few hours than I care to admit. But as a sign of things to come for this early access roguelike sequel, they are an encouraging bunch of characterful malcontents. The harbingers of a confident, slash-happy action game, and another poppy adaptation of classic Greek japes.
]]>I haven't ever raided in an MMORPG like World Of Warcraft for several reasons, one of which is the time commitment. I've never put in the many, many hours needed to earn the requisite gear nor partied up with the many, many people necessary to slay a big dragon. If only raiding was possible without these things… well, my saviour seems to have arrived in a form I wasn't expecting: 2D anime bunny girls. Rabbit And Steel is a co-op action roguelike that's raiding without the pre-grind and it looks rather wonderful.
]]>Manor Lords is obviously this week's big survival-citybuilder game release, but I suspect Diluvian Winds is more my pace. It's a "relaxing management game" about building a town for anthropomorphic animals around the foot of a lighthouse, although exactly how relaxing will depend on your ability to prepare for tsunamis and other weather emergencies which can strike and destroy your buildings. It's out now.
]]>Were we to pluck up a passing stoat, or wandering pigeon, and inspect their entrails for omens as regards the quality of mythical roguelike Hades 2, we would find ourselves covered in blood and perhaps a little wiser. But I have been given strict editorial directions not to kill any more small creatures for gambling purposes. So let us instead use the semi-public "technical test" as a portentous looking glass from which to discern whether this hell-hopping sequel seems promising. Fine by me, the approach is no less stabby.
]]>Is waiting for Hades 2 to release starting to feel like a sisyphean endeavor? If so, push that boulder no longer. Supergiant announced yesterday that fans of the action roguelite can sign up now to be considered for an upcoming technical test, via Hades 2’s Steam page.
]]>We first learned of Spiritfarer studio Thunder Lotus' latest endeavour 33 Immortals at last year's Summer Geoff Fest. They showed off some brief snippets of its 33-player cooperative roguelike-ing, where you'd beat up hellish monsters in a miniature take on MMO raids. If you were intrigued by it back then, I have good news. The Triple-i Initiative gave us more of a glimpse at how the game would look in the hands, with precious UI markers and the promise we'll uncover new "Torture Chambers". Lovely. No seriously, it does look quite lovely, if a touch predictable.
]]>In news that will come as a complete shock to all of you, Ubisoft is partnering with Evil Empire to bring the world a new Prince Of Persia roguelite - though according to Matthew Houghton, Evil Empire's marketing manager, this has been in the works since a post-conference meeting conversation in 2021. Called The Rogue Prince Of Persia, a name choice that makes it sound a bit like an illegal knockoff being sold out of the back of Evil Empire's Peugeot, I got to have a go of about 45 minutes of it last week. It's 2D, side on platforming, and super colourful. Think Dead Cells skinned as a kids cartoon with a branded cereal tie-in, extremely cool music, and an emphasis on wall running. It's mobile even by the standards of a platformer, in fact, and is entering Steam early access on May the 14th.
]]>Action roguelike UnderMine is getting a numbered sequel. That number is two. The follow-up to 2020’s action roguelike is UnderMine 2. It was announced today as part of the Triple-i Initiative, which is a silly name that I’m writing with the correct stylisation out of respect to UnderMine 2’s slimes.
]]>Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by first-person stunt-o-shooting, retro-styled adventure games, an impressively unpleasant spider, and heaps more. Check out all these attractive and interesting indie games!
]]>Goblin Stone released almost a month ago, but we haven't written about it yet, and it feels like you should know about it. It's a turn-based RPG, it's a roguelike with permadeath, it's got XCOM-style base-building, its got card-based combat; it is extremely your sort of thing, if you're the exact statistical average of Rock Paper Shotgun readers.
]]>A terrible confession: I almost fell asleep during the presentation for Motion Twin's Windblown. This wasn't really Motion Twin's fault. It was the afternoon of day four at GDC, my adrenaline reserves were spent, and there I was, in a warm, shuttered hotel room, with two men gently bombarding me with French-accented details of synergies, stackable trinkets and i-frames (I'm aware that the scenario I've just described is probably somebody's kink - let's move swiftly on).
Windblown itself is an airy, bright fusillade of Saturday morning cartoon vibes, a series of breakneck arena fights waged on procedurally generated island chains floating against a whirlpool sky. It's all shaping up very nicely, and if I'd been playing the demo, I'm sure it would have woken me up better than any emergency deluge of instant coffee. But watching somebody else tear through this stratospheric world simply overloaded my depleted senses, and I came perilously close to nodding off.
]]>Evil Empire, the studio responsible for the previous five or so years of updates to Motion Twin’s roguelite metroidvania game Dead Cells, are set to release a new roguelite set in the Prince of Persia universe “later this year.”
That’s according to Insider Gaming, who were told by sources that ‘The Rogue Prince of Persia’, as the game is rumoured to be named, will first release in Steam early access. It’s reckoned to have been in development for the last four years or so, and supposedly came about after a talk between Evil Empire and Ubisoft at GDC 2019.
]]>Last time you decided—by a margin of a mere three votes—that drawing Frog Detective's magnifying glass is better than drawing Blade Runner's gun. That might be the closest result yet. Now if only Frog Detective could become a Blade Runner charged with helping attend a big dance party. Onwards! This week, I ask you to pick between a thing that skips frustration and a thing that is always, always there for you. What's better: a button to unlock all unlocks or the spell Fireball?
]]>Every weekend, indie devs show off current work on Twitter's #screenshotsaturday tag. And every Monday, I bring you a selection of these snaps and clips. This week, my eye has been caught by the feature every single video game on this green Earth should have (a grappling hook), along with waterparks, a plant knight, a chunky shotgun, a kitbashed hovercarrier, and heaps more. Check out all these attractive and interesting indie games!
]]>Before a month of my life vanished into customising cards and rigging decks in Balatro, my desire to conquer dungeons by fixing gambling tools came from playing Slice & Dice. First released in 2020, it's a gauntlet of fantasy turn-based battles where most attacks, abilities, buffs, debuffs, and items are very cleverly handled by mapping them onto the faces of dice. Oh, you're going to make your dice so much better! Now Slice & Dice has finally arrived on Steam in search of a wider audience, accompanied by an update adding oodles of new heroes, enemies, items, and more. For newcomers, hey, it has a demo.
]]>Back in 2014, KeeperRL had a handful of alpha releases and a successful IndieGogo funding campaign, and was due to be finished that year. Then the ambitious Dwarf Fortress-lite or Dungeon Keeper-heavy made its way through the player-voted Steam Greenlgiht process, at which point its developer decided, hey, why not work on this game for longer.
Ten years and several dozen more updates later, KeeperRL has just hit 1.0.
]]>There's a particular boss encounter in Balatro that always feels like it's cheating a bit. In this mesmerising poker roguelike, each stage is made up of three blinds - small, big and boss - with the blind essentially being a high score you have to hit by playing different kinds of poker hands - your traditional flushes, straights, pairs and so on. Each hand has its own number of chips and multiplier bonuses associated with it, and Balatro's whole deal is about shuffling closer to victory by making the most of the cards you're dealt. While some blinds are tiny, stretching to just 300 or 450 early on in a run, they quickly start ramping up into the tens of thousands as each successfully defeated boss blind ups the ante and the accompanying stakes. Reach an ante of eight, and bingo, you've won a run of Balatro.
The boss blind I keep coming a cropper with, though, is The Flint. This sucker not only halves a hand's chip score, but it also cuts its multiplier in two as well, and I've yet to figure out exactly how to defeat it. Sometimes it appears with a blind of just 600, but other times it's been an enormous 22,000. In fairness, all bosses have little tricks like this. Some will debuff certain card suites, making them useless in your overall score count. Others may only let you play one hand type the entire match, while the cheeky Tooth will deduct you $1 for every card used. But Balatro isn't simply about beating the odds with smart and intelligent card plays. It's about bending, twisting and abusing those odds to your will - also through smart and intelligent card plays. Cheating isn't just encouraged in Balatro. It's damn near mandatory, and it's all thanks to the brilliantly conceived joker cards that give the game its Latin-based name.
]]>
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