I’m not above being lured in by aesthetic. Draft of Darkness hooked me in with its grainy, pixelated photo manipulation. It looks like a tacky game that followed in the wake of Mortal Kombat. In fact, it would fit right in alongside titles that pushed the limits of tastefulness back in the ‘90s. It’s hypnotic.

In my experience, a well-executed aesthetic can be indicative not necessarily of a game’s quality, but of its inventiveness. Not always, but sometimes. My favorite type of game is one where the developers fucked around and found out. However, that methodology doesn’t always result in an appealing game.

Draft of Darkness is so well-executed in its mechanics that it makes them seem accidental. Aesthetics aside, everything I’ve seen surrounding the game makes it out to be this quiet little project by a solo developer. But when you get into it, you find a well-tuned machine. Yet, while I find myself captivated by it, there is one unavoidable flaw that I think is going to be very divisive for a lot of people: its roguelite backbone.

[caption id="attachment_398531" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Draft of Darkness (PC)
Developer: Crawly Games
Publisher: Crawly Games
Released: August 23, 2023
MSRP: $14.99

Dungeons and daggers

In Draft of Darkness, you pick a survivor from an ever-growing list of them. Each one is proficient with their own type of combat, from the knife-wielding Cara to the Chainsaw-swinging Rene. Each one plays extremely differently.

Draft of Darkness is a deckbuilder roguelite, but it plays a lot like a tabletop RPG. Or rather, it plays like a TTRPG if the GM had lost the will to live and was holding you hostage in a ‘90s metal music video. While your abilities in combat are controlled by the hand of cards you’re dealt, it’s backed by an abilities stat system and heavily reliant on resources you gather. If you’re carrying a chainsaw, you need fuel. If you’re carrying a shotgun, you need shotgun food.

Beyond that, the exploration system feels like something a dungeon master would draw out on grid paper. Each one is randomly generated upon entry and filled with a variety of encounters. They take place in an apartment building, in a factory, or on the streets, but they’re all very much dungeons. Your goal in each on is to try and gather power and resources for your party, then find the boss and escape to the next dungeon.

https://youtu.be/9sZE1xr7wvI

Smack the deck

Despite relying on the luck of the draw to give you a good hand, the combat is extremely deep and nuanced. While characters rely on sparse resources to use their strongest attacks, they always have a weaker alternative. The chainsaw maniac, for example, can deal an incredible amount of damage very quickly but is reliant on gasoline. She can still pull off some powerful attacks without starting her engine, which is best to do on weaker opponents.

Usually, you just want to start eating into your resources when the cards start looking stacked against you, like on bosses. However, there are characters who don’t require resources, like the knife wielders. For them, they can focus on critical hits and combos, but with Cara I liked to rely heavily on the bleeding status effect.

There are a lot of nuanced status effects, and playing certain cards in sequence can give you a huge advantage. There is a tonne of strategy from building your deck carefully so you can exploit even the most unfavorable of hand.

[caption id="attachment_398532" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Feed the TV

To progress through the actual story, however, you need to trigger various encounters. It can take multiple playthroughs and attempts before you gain any ground in the narrative. This is where I think Draft of Darkness is going to miss the connection with a lot of people. It is, at heart, a very slow and methodical game, and that doesn’t really click with the roguelite mentality.

It’s a game that asks you to be very careful about your strategy and resources, and then even when you do so, it’s possible to hit the jagged rocks of a difficult encounter. Since so much of the game is random and there’s very little wiggle room, it’s very easy to get your bones crushed between a rock and a hard place. And that can mean losing hours of progress with very little to show for it.

Specifically, a “complete” run can take three hours. If I wasn’t dying at the beginning from resource starvation, I was dying at the end from sheer blunt-force boss trauma. You’re always given tokens to spend at a store that allows you to unlock additional perks. Otherwise, you'll make progress through the various encounters that unlock characters. The store can allow you to customize your starter deck, but you’re largely starting from square one each time you start over. There are few advantages to be had.

[caption id="attachment_398533" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

It's time for plan B

To be fair, Draft of Darkness has an easy mode to help reduce the likelihood of sudden death. If it was such a big problem for me, I don’t know why I didn’t use it. Pride, I guess.

I feel like this is a game that doesn’t benefit from its roguelite trappings. I feel like a more round-based dungeon approach would have suited it better. Complete a map, and move on to the next one.

The mysterious narrative does make good use of the repeated playthroughs, however. The story involves the spread of something called “Darkness” which is used rather nebulously. Sometimes it sounds like a technology, other times a disease, and then others it just sounds like an abstract concept. It goes into a lot of detail without ever being clear on what it’s talking about. The Darkness really just seems to be all of the worst qualities of humanity lumped together. Good intentions marred by greed and paranoia. The inescapable need for progress and prestige. The disgusting aesthetics certainly suit the theme.

[caption id="attachment_398534" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Let the fists speak!

Despite the heartbreak from lost progress, I found myself glued each time I picked up Draft of Darkness. To be clear, you can always quit whenever you want and pick up where you left off. Throughout the review period, I preferred to sit down at the start of the evening and let myself get absorbed in the tacky, rusty visuals. Preferably with a nice greasy slice of pizza to really make things feel like living in the ‘90s.

I say that its successes feel almost accidental, but I know that it’s not true. Draft of Darkness is the result of a lot of careful prototyping and development, as well as inspiration from games like Slay the Spire. Crawly is clearly a developer who knows how to use feedback to create a tighter product.

While I think that the roguelite format is a hindrance on Draft of Darkness overall and will probably be the breaking point for a lot of people, I can’t get past my fascination for the game. While writing this review, I made the mistake of starting the game to make sure I had a few facts straight and started a new run. One hour later, I realized I was supposed to be writing, and had to quite painfully tear myself away. Even right now, Draft of Darkness is just minimized onto my taskbar, lurking and waiting for me to finish my job so it can capture my attention again.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Draft of Darkness appeared first on Destructoid.

Die. Mutate. Repeat.

Acclaimed roguelite Dead Cells is getting set to bring its compelling and amorphous adventure to your local coffee table, courtesy of a brand new board game currently in production at Le Scorpion Masque.

The Montreal-based studio, which has previously produced board games such as Decrypto, Zombie Kidz, and Stay Cool, launched a Kickstarter for Dead Cells, which will be the company's first licensed title. While the crowdfunding kicked off with a modest target of around $30,000 USD, the campaign has, at the writing of writing, surpassed a staggering $250,000, with 15 days still to go. As such, the game will now go into production. A release window is yet to be announced.

https://youtu.be/rfl-gb3M520

The Dead Cells board game will look to retain both the visual aesthetic, immersive atmosphere, and general gameplay of Motion Twin's 2018 release, as 1-4 players pick their way through ever-shifting dungeons in co-operative action, as they battle through High Peak Castle en route to a confrontation with the nefarious Hand of The King. One of four uniquely skilled Beheaded can be chosen, and the board will retain the Die/Repeat nature of its roguelike origins.

You can check out a breakdown of a pre-production copy in the video below, courtesy of the board game fans at Good Time Society.

https://youtu.be/qny-UMI4y1Q

Explore biomes, level up your character, defeat enemies, conquer challenges, and lose it all on the turn of a card. Level up your Beheaded, earn permanent upgrades, and work with your fellow team members to defeat what seems, at first glance, a near-insurmountable challenge. But strategy, synergy, and persistence can pay off in the end, or you'll simply die, and die, and die, and die trying.

You can check out a full breakdown of Dead Cells on the official Kickstarter.

Dead Cells is available now on PS4, PC, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and iOS/Android platforms.

The post Dead Cells smashes its Kickstarter for board game adaptation appeared first on Destructoid.

All versions will be pushed back a bit

Amplitude Studios is pushing back the date for its dungeon crawler. Previously set for May, Endless Dungeon will now be launching on October 19, 2023.

The roguelite action game was set to arrive in just about a month's time, on May 18. However, it sounds like Amplitude Studios is going to need a little more time to work on its dungeons.

"We want to provide the best roguelite experience possible for our community, and we think there's still more work for us to do to make sure we get there," reads today's announcement on social media. The PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One versions are now moved to this date, while the Switch version will have a release date announced later.

https://twitter.com/EndlessUniverse/status/1646152463227969538

Building the dungeon

Over on the Amplitude forums, producer Antoine Serena shares some extra information on what the team will be working on. This includes polish and bug fixing, but also incorporating feedback from past OpenDev sessions. This includes tweaks to economy, balancing, variety, and onboarding.

Serena also shared a message from Amplitude general manager Romain de Waubert:

"We’re grateful and honoured that players are looking forward to playing Endless Dungeon. The feedback we’ve received across our OpenDev sessions so far has proved to us that we truly have something special on our hands and we want to ensure we have time for the game to reach its full potential.

Players have always been at the heart of our studio’s philosophy and releasing Endless Dungeon in October will allow us the extra time to keep working with the community and polishing the game for an amazing day one experience."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxutXveT88A

Though it's a notably lengthy delay, hopefully this gives Amplitude a bit more time to fine-tune Endless Dungeon. I'm a bit more familiar with Amplitude's strategy titles, and was a big fan of Endless Legend in particular, but I'm curious to see how this tactical action roguelite turns out. A little extra time for the studio to breathe and polish can be a good thing.

Endless Dungeon now arrives for PC, PlayStation, and Xbox on October 19.

The post Endless Dungeon has been delayed to October 19 appeared first on Destructoid.

Once upon a time...

As part of this afternoon's Nacon Connect 2023 live stream, the publisher showed off a new gameplay overview for its artistic fantasy roguelite Ravenswatch, which will be entering Early Access on Steam on April 6

Developed by French studio Passtech Games, (the team behind the highly acclaimed Curse of the Dead Gods) Ravenswatch sees a roster of familiar characters of legend, including Beowulf, The Snow Queen, The Pied Piper, and Little Red Riding Hood, come together to save a fantasy kingdom from an army of dark corruption, manifesting in the form of a platoon of monsters and demons.

https://youtu.be/bmzNnZZOsxY

Each of the heroes has their own plethora of skills and abilities, with further talents unlocked as you level up and progress the world and, as a roguelite, the player will be pushed to perform better and better as they grow the party of heroes to face

Ravenswatch will enter Steam Early Access on April 6. You can register your interest over on the official Steam page.

The post Ravenswatch brings fairy tale dungeon-crawling to Early Access April 6 appeared first on Destructoid.

Noisy Head Games’ indie-charmer Beyond the Long Night will be floating to PC on April 13, 2023.

Beyond the Long Night is a dual-stick side-scroller featuring rogue-lite elements and adventure puzzle-solving. If dual-stick side-scroller strikes you as a bit odd, the explanation is that you float around with a cluster of balloons. I still have a lot of balloon-related trauma stemming from Mario Kart and Balloon Kid, but even despite all the agonizing flashbacks, Beyond the Long Night looks like charming fun.

[embed]https://youtu.be/M_0UbzhIDhI[/embed]

In Beyond the Long Night, you will explore the monster-filled Dark Mountain to discover the secrets of a corrupting force. Not unlike many roguelites, you find yourself stuck in a time-loop, but the game’s cast of colorful characters remember you throughout each one. The level is built of a randomized assortment of hand-crafted rooms, some containing puzzles.

I find the graphics to be charming in a Downwell or Cave Story sort of way. I’m not sure what it is about the gameplay, but watching through some of it was enough to put Beyond the Long Night firmly on my radar, even if I’m not necessarily a lover of roguelites.

Beyond the Long Night is coming to PC on April 13. If you’d like to get airborne before then, a demo is available on Steam.

The post Balloon-powered roguelite Beyond the Long Night inflates April 13 appeared first on Destructoid.

Collaboratively writing a dungeon crawl

In 2020, developer Shiny Shoe solidified its status in the roguelite genre with Monster Train. The locomotive deckbuilder has been very well received, and it would've been easy to fall back into another one. And true enough, Shiny Shoe is making a roguelite again with Inkbound. But its tackling a different style combat, a fresh setting, and altogether interesting new challenge: a co-op rogue game.

I recently got the chance to run through a chunk of Inkbound, both in solo play and in co-op with the developers at Shiny Shoe. Over the course of a couple hours, I got a decent look at some of what the team is planning, from a seasonal structure to how its thinking about co-op options. And after all that, Inkbound has become one to watch moving into the new year.

The basic premise of Shiny Shoe's new rogue title is that you are a Binder, who works with other Binders to maintain infinite stories against an inky malevolence. Tackling new levels involves jumping into stories, like Mario jumping into paintings. You can pick up some quests and meta-progression from the hub, establish your co-op crew if you're playing with pals, and set off for a fresh run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMzkN45lsyU

Taking it in turns

Inkbound's most apparent difference from Monster Train is in how combat plays out. While it's still quite strategic, battles are played out in a turn-based manner with single characters (Binders) moving around in an arena. Each Binder has an arsenal of items and abilities, as well as movement options, metered out by an energy counter.

As the circular arena appears for battle, the players get to take their turn. Though your whole squad acts in one turn, you play out your turn in real time. It's a bit of an adjustment at first; everyone starts using their abilities, flinging attacks and spells across the field at the enemies that have emerged. Once everyone's spent their energy, you can pass and let the enemies take their turn. It's a little bit of Transistor, and a little bit of Into the Breach, with abilities feeling inspired by MOBA games.

Normally, co-op might seem a little difficult, especially in a turn-based sense. But I found it was pretty easy to take things a step at a time with my developer pal, working through our potential damage abilities. I'd draw the aggro of an enemy about to hit them, so they wouldn't take the damage while I sidestepped away. Or we'd coordinate which pockets we were focusing, or I could drop an energy-conferring flower on the field and we'd debate over when it was best to pop it for some extra actions.

I do think Inkbound's co-op structure will lend itself better to organized, voice chat-enabled groups that random players online, at least from what I've seen. But even just the concept of a co-op strategic roguelite playing out well in front of me was pretty cool. Plus, everyone gets a say in what we do, using a simple voting system to determine which roads to take at a fork. And while some items can be dropped and swapped, everyone gets to draft and upgrade abilities when they can.

Arming up

The ability drafting is where the Monster Train and deckbuilding influence seeps in, and it seeps in well. Throughout a run, the player is often presented with choices to pick up new abilities or enhance current ones. A Binder can only have a limited number of skills at a time, so it's crucial to maximize what you're holding.

Where it gets interesting is how these skills can link up together. My chosen class was a threadweaver, who could tie strings to enemies and connect them for different effects. I decided to focus my efforts into spreading strings around as much as possible, and then enhancing my skills based on the number of strings. The more enemies that showed up, the more powerful my moves could be.

Suffice to say, I was annihilating groups near the end of our run. My cohort, meanwhile, played a nimble and deadly rogue-type, who relied on critical chance. When items dropped that could enhance their critical strike capabilities, I immediately offloaded them. There's a ton of room for developing your own playstyle, while also working as a unit to build an unstoppable party.

Better together

Even though I've had the option to do a bit of solo-running, I've honestly got to admit, it's the co-op that's got me keen on Inkbound. I love theorycrafting and building up builds over the course of a run, but don't often have the chance to do that in a social setting.

What Shiny Shoe is building really does feel like a step towards having a roguelite that a Discord group could play together, and that's pretty nifty. It' still a work-in-progress, with an Early Access launch slated for sometime in 2023.  Plans are currently in place to look at a seasonal model, with a pass that could grant additional cosmetics. No selling power, however. What's here is here, and what Inkbound is looking like right now is a co-op roguelite worth keeping an eye on.

The post Hands-on: Inkbound makes for some solid co-op rogue strategy appeared first on Destructoid.

Dig dig dig from early morn till night

Shovel Knight may never die — and I'd be completely okay with that! The franchise, born in 2014 with the original entry, created a cottage industry for Yacht Club Games, who incorporated the series into multiple projects and has spawned an empire of sorts. While we wait for Mina the Hollower to arrive, there's more Shovel Knight coming your way this month.

Shovel Knight Dig, a roguelite platformer, is the latest attempt to mix things up. Thankfully, it's very close to the spirit of the original game.

Shovel Knight Dig (iOS [Apple Arcade], PC [reviewed], Nintendo Switch)
Developer: Nitrome, Yacht Club Games
Publisher: Yacht Club Games
Released: September 23, 2022
MSRP: $24.99

Ingeniously, Shovel Knight Dig slots nicely into the lore as a theoretical side story. Since the events of Dig are kicked off when Drill Knight steals your stuff at a campsite (between any given level in the main entry), it simultaneously explains why Shovel Knight has to start over with no powers, and answers when it can possibly take place. None of this truly matters as Dig is a standalone project, but it's nice to see a bit of continuity here, including returning bits and pieces (like character models and designs) that worked in the past. "Nostalgia for Shovel Knight" is a weird concept indeed, but it has been eight years after all.

While Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon was a bigger departure for the series, Dig mostly maintains the platforming angle of the first entry with a new spin. Your job is to get to the bottom of the titular "dig," and put a stop to Drill Knight's shenanigans. To do that, you'll burrow through "stages" (with fixed themes, and three distinct parts per stage), accompanied by randomly generated layouts. "Roguelite" really rings true here, as you do get some carryover items, and there's a way to unlock/buy shortcuts so you aren't starting over from square one every time.

After just one run, the ethos of Shovel Knight Dig became crystal clear. It's addictive, and it does have that Spelunky-esque well-intentioned design foundation where if a run goes wrong, it's usually your fault. From there you'll regroup, re-assess, and pick up on strategies to keep going a little further — a little better — until you reach the apex (or in this case, the bottom). Every run will be wildly different, but there is a consistent framework.

There's three gears to collect in each section, which provide bonuses at the very end of that same section before making your way to a new level. Most of your cumulative gems (the main currency of the game) are stashed after a failed run, which let you purchase a small selection of permanent upgrades from the hub zone (like extra slots to carry items, or armor that can change your playstyle). You'll continue on this loop until you reach the end. Cutely, the hub will slowly build up over time and add more NPCs and shops (including some fun in-universe cameos). You can choose to go for daily (a limit of once per day) or weekly (unlimited attempts) runs, and check out the global leaderboards.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MEmAmabHe84

You do have a degree of control over your run, too. Shops periodically offer temporary upgrades/relics that can provide menial bonuses like extra max health, or higher jumps. At the very end of each section, there's typically a forked path of two options to dig into, with vague signposts that serve as warnings or guides as to what the next part entails (such as the abundance of a certain type of enemy). If you collected all three gears in that section, you can also heal to full or gain a random upgrade. One gear provides bonus gems, and two gears will reward you with gems/a small healing item. Getting the trio of gears in each section consistently is really satisfying, like you earned your little treat. It's a clever way to add more control to the generally chaotic genre.

All of this also creates an interesting meta of push/pull and pressing your luck. If you spend your entire run taking damage, you could heal to full (provided that you earned the right to do so), but you'd miss out on more upgrades that could, in turn, save you from getting hit as much. Some gear placements are dastardly, and force you to make snap decisions that may only offer up one small window of opportunity to snatch them. The more you play, the more you'll pick up on these little tricks and subvert them. You can't spend forever and a day trying to hit that perfect jump to get any given gem, gear, or item either: lingering for too long will cue a one-hit-kill drill that slowly attempts to take you out.

Those shortcuts I mentioned help alleviate a lot of frustration of the unevenness of the genre, but it's still present. In some runs, I noticed repeating layouts (albeit with different item/enemy placements), and there are select maps that are outright easier than others (the same goes for random shopkeep wares). I also have a bone to pick with some enemies that are off-screen and zoom into your hitbox. It can lead to a cheapness of sorts where some runs are more fruitful than others through no fault of your own. But again, this is where the tightness of the platforming comes into play, as you can directly counter a lot of what Shovel Knight Dig throws at you through raw skill and game knowledge.

The theming of each zone also really sold me on continuing with the game in a marathon fashion. Now, some will probably be championed over others, but the distinct musical choices and enemy variety for all of the themes are top-notch. I can recall all of the nuances of every area in my head even after just a few runs, which contributes to how fresh Shovel Knight Dig is attempt after attempt.

In that same vein, bosses feel straight up like Shovel Knight bosses. Enemies, even when squeezed into smaller, vertical-oriented levels, come across as deliberately placed. Even with some vexation and anger that comes with the territory, I found myself mashing that "another run" button constantly. It's so easy to get into a groove where you're just going for run after run, and since gems are banked, you don't feel like you're losing anything massive after death. Optional accessibility toggles (extra health, more food, more gems, additional attack power, and lowering the game speed) assist in ironing out some personal wrinkles.

Shovel Knight Dig manages to marry a lot of the best parts of the roguelite genre with the quirks of the Shovel Knight series, and I really enjoyed my time with it. Because of the charm involved and the intuitive nature of many of its puzzles and layouts, I can see myself returning periodically to start a brand new run, likely discovering new things along the way.

The post Review: Shovel Knight Dig appeared first on Destructoid.

September 5 is the deadline

Immortal Redneck might not ring a bell, but it's free on PC, and it's worth checking out. You've got until 6:00 a.m. Pacific on Monday, September 5 to add it to your GOG library. There's a "claim" button on GOG's front page, and you'll need to sign into your account.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VGyvt1Vk5bs

This is an ancient-Egypt-themed FPS that's aiming for the old-school, fast-paced Doom crowd while also working in a modern roguelite progression system like Rogue Legacy.

Expect mythological shootouts in pyramids, plenty of verticality in the level design, a buuunch of weapons, big bosses, unlockable alternate starting classes, and an unavoidable stat-boosting grind as you upgrade your skill tree from run to run.

In some ways, I feel like Immortal Redneck is speaking to two very different (and in some cases incompatible) crowds, but with so many "standard" throwback shooters popping up these days, the run-based structure helps it stand out. Above all, it feels good.

[caption id="attachment_342891" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Gold is a crucial part of the progression loop.}[/caption]

Arena shooter flair

In his 2017 review, Chris Carter was pretty high on Immortal Redneck, in large part due to its shooter fundamentals. The key quote: "While many studios have attempted to recreate the magic of the original Unreal Tournament or the arena shooters of old and failed, developer Crema managed to get it right. [...] While the roguelike setup will no doubt scare some people off (you do you, reader), anyone looking to temporarily transport themselves back through the ages of FPS-dom without making concessions should give it a chance."

It's not necessarily a game you'll want to fully finish — less-than-friendly roguelite tuning is one of the issues — but for free, Immortal Redneck is an easy game to dabble in.

GOG is also hosting a sale right now, hence this foot-in-the-door giveaway. Games like Deux Ex GOTY Edition ($0.97), Tomb Raider: Anniversary ($0.98), and Heroes of Might and Magic 3: Complete ($2.49) are charting as best-sellers. A few bucks can take you far.

The post Immortal Redneck, a wacky roguelite FPS, is free-to-keep on GOG appeared first on Destructoid.

At long last, it's tunneling time

Even though I've failed to keep up with the Shovel Knight extended universe, as a fan of the action-platformer debut, Shovel Knight's ensuing cameos, and Mr. Driller-style games in general, I've been looking forward to Shovel Knight Dig. Nitrome and Yacht Club Games finally announced a release date today — Shovel Knight Dig is coming to Nintendo Switch, PC (via Steam), and Apple Arcade on September 23, 2022. No news about PlayStation.

Here's a YouTube skit with gameplay footage beginning at the 1:09 mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPTYNjnfYEc

Frantic, right? It looks great to me — better than I remember.

The concept for Shovel Knight Dig may be about descending, but there are a lot of familiar action elements here beyond just "digging" in hopes of catching up with Drill Knight. And with more of those hard-hitting boss fights, it looks true to Shovel Knight's roots.

The old "one more run" allure

As for the roguelite gameplay twist, Yacht Club says to expect permanent items and upgrades as you progress. "There are thousands of pixel-perfect level chunks, which are procedurally stitched together to create infinite adventurous combinations. Each trip down the well will bring you closer to discovering the secrets lying at the bottom."

In a blog post today, the developers shared a bit more about Tinker Knight and Mole Knight, who are up to no good with the Hexcavators.

[caption id="attachment_342304" align="alignnone" width="1536"] _{I'm digging the biome variety.}[/caption]

If you're attending PAX West later this week (whoa, we blew past August), Shovel Knight Dig will be at Booth #217 on the fourth floor of the Seattle Convention Center.

At launch on September 23, Shovel Knight Dig will cost $24.99 on Nintendo Switch and Steam, though the latter will have a 10 percent off promo if you're early enough. If you've got Apple Arcade, the game will be included in your $4.99-per-month subscription.

The post Shovel Knight Dig hits Switch, Steam, and Apple Arcade in September appeared first on Destructoid.

You only need one button

Ninja or Die is a peculiar name for a game, but I took a look at the ninja-slaying roguelite on Steam and I'm intrigued by... all of this. It's so fast and flashy, I can hardly keep up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94IVbgfT0p0

I've watched the trailer for Ninja or Die a few times now, and I'm still piecing it together; slow-mo helps, but I doubt it will fully click until we've tried playing it.

Nao Games and Marvelous Europe are hoping to blend "hardcore action" with "simple controls," and I'm curious to see how that will pan out once the training wheels are off. Specifically, Ninja or Die uses one-button controls. "Jump to where you point, eviscerate the enemy by dashing through them, and hold to attack with greater power."

The setup is that you're a secret agent in a "ninja-eat-ninja world" with bosses to bring down and hordes of smaller creeps to cut through. As a roguelite experience, death is a part of the deal and you'll accumulate perma-upgrades as well as alternate characters. You can power up your stats back at the village or "pay the back-alley doctor."

[caption id="attachment_340023" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Those pesky Big Kite Ninjas.}[/caption]

As opposed to some recent roguelites, Ninja or Die seems to emphasize high scores and replayability over a loop-based format that's servicing a larger story. On that note, levels are "a mix" of procedural and hand-crafted, and there's an Infinite Watchtower to run.

The pieces might not all add up in the end, but the strangeness appeals to me. I just hope that when I'm the one leaping around Japan like a madman, I have a better sense of my busy surroundings. From the outside looking in, readability is a concern.

As luck would have it, there's a browser-based demo to get a feel for it.

Another one for the wait-and-see wishlist? I think so.

The post Ninja or Die is a blisteringly fast roguelite action game with minimalist controls appeared first on Destructoid.

Launching November 22 on PC and consoles

Ship of Fools is the latest co-op game to catch my eye, and if you liked Lovers in a Dangerous Spacetime, this "aquapocalypse"-canceling adventure might speak to you too. Sailing alone or with a mate, you'll fire off cannons and swat creatures on deck.

Team17 and Fika Productions released a new trailer and announced the big day. Ship of Fools lands on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch on November 22, 2022.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARAJ7UJtZ3w

This is a roguelite game, so the stakes are high if (when?) your ship goes down. You'll need to make repairs as you go and smartly chart your course on a shifting map screen.

There are "100+ trinkets and artifacts to collect and combo for winning strategies," according to the developers, and different Fools — "the only creatures fool enough to brave the sea" — have different abilities. Some of the items I caught in the trailer were dynamite, harpoons, and a snow cone that grants a "10 percent chance of Ice" for cannon projectiles. I also think that sand dollars are a particularly cute, on-brand form of currency.

With teamwork, good fundamentals, and likely a bit of luck, you'll take down leviathans like a laser-firing colossal crab. Positioning yourself and your cannons seems to be key.

It's my deck now, buddy boy

[caption id="attachment_339805" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{You can pick up and reposition cannons as needed.}
[/caption]

If things get too heated, I might start dropping Captain Lee quotes.

I've played plenty of games that fall under this umbrella, but not that many roguelites with co-op at the forefront. My tolerance for repetition is much higher when there's another player in the mix, and this seems like an approachable amount of chaos.

Ship of Fools is the first big game from Quebec City-based Fika Productions.

You can wishlist it on Steam if you've got a foggy memory like me, and if you're attending Gamescom, Ship of Fools will be playable at Team17's consumer booth (Hall 7.1/B-040).

The post Ship of Fools is a cannon-firing co-op roguelite game out this November appeared first on Destructoid.

You can take another crack

Most of the achievements and trophies in Cult of the Lamb are only a matter of time, but I was nervous about needing to topple the main bosses without taking any damage to unlock "Order," "Sate," "Cure," and "Peace." After trading blows with every bishop in my original playthrough, I figured there had to be some way to initiate a rematch — the notion of needing to start a new save seemed out of whack with the rest of the game's player-friendly tendencies. Thankfully, there is a way to replay bosses, and it's quick.

Early on, you might've destroyed many of the bishop statues that appear in dungeons since 1) other breakable objects can give you resources for your base and 2) it's inherently fun to smash shit. At a certain point, I stopped doing this — that was my mistake.

To replay the bishop bosses in Cult of the Lamb, you just need to break a statue in their dungeon. Normally, you'd absorb some devotion and move on. You can destroy the first one you see, or you can hold off to potentially power yourself up and break a later statue.

Look for a statue like this and smashy smashy

[caption id="attachment_339699" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Bust open a bishop statue.}[/caption]

A few good hits will do the job, at which point a red teleporter will appear. Hitch a ride and you'll be whisked away to the boss room, complete with the transformation cutscene.

[caption id="attachment_339697" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{And then take the teleporter.}[/caption]

In other words, if you're a completionist, you absolutely do not need to try and beat the bishops without getting hit on your first attempt. Phew.

If needed, here's a quick video guide from Realm Space Gaming:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dpkIrbyB-WQ

To improve your odds, equip the Golden Fleece

By completing side quests with specific NPCs (not cultists) in Cult of the Lamb, you can unlock alternate fleeces at your altar using the "Crown" option. It's up to you on which outfits you unlock first — and if you're thorough, you can eventually get them all.

As soon as I got the white fleece, which grants four tarot cards at the start of a run (but prevents you from getting any more), I rolled with that all the way to the end of Cult of the Lamb. That said, another — the golden fleece — is ideal for these take-no-damage boss fight achievements/trophies. With slight prep, it'll make the fights as short as possible.

[caption id="attachment_339698" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{The golden fleece is the best bet for taking no damage in a boss fight.}[/caption]

The golden fleece raises your damage after every kill, but if you get hit, the effect resets. You'll also take double the normal damage. It's a classic glass-cannon setup.

With a hard-hitting axe and the golden fleece, I was able to comfortably bring down Leshy (the first boss) on my first no-hit attempt. If you're running with this sort of setup, you'll want to take out as many enemies as you can. It pays to play methodically before teleporting to the bishop. By the time you're ready for a rematch, you'll have a huge damage boost, which means a shorter fight and fewer opportunities for a stray projectile or creep to smack you. You can get in, take a swipe or two, and safely get out.

I'm glad I used a different fleece my first time through, in order to get a feel for every boss's full moveset — this one is almost too powerful. (Please don't nerf it.)

I wasn't sure I'd end up going for 100% completion in Cult of the Lamb, but knowing it's not that monotonous to replay the bishop bosses, I think I will. Now I just need to sacrifice more of my people (it feels bad!) and find one last hard-to-pin-down tarot card.

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A fascinating fusion of bite-sized roguelite action and cozy cult management

Cult of the Lamb is what happens when snappy roguelite dungeon-crawling action meets freaky animal cult base building and management, and it's a wild, intoxicating fusion.

It's challenging to combine two very different genres in a cohesive way, making sure each half feels satisfying on its own while also fitting into the bigger picture, but the risk is often worth taking. And the developers at Massive Monster sure pulled it off. Straight away, it's clear this is a tortured, sinister-yet-weirdly-cute world worth getting to know. But I was surprised by just how riveting the core "slice and build" loop ended up being.

We've played roguelites that wear out their welcome. We've sunk dozens of hours into town builders. Against the odds, Cult of the Lamb doesn't bite off more than it can chew.

Cult of the Lamb (PC [reviewed], PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S)
Developer: Massive Monster
Publisher: Devolver Digital
Released: August 11, 2022
MSRP: $24.99

If you're not careful, this is the kind of game that can make hours suddenly vanish. But on the flip side, Cult of the Lamb is also incredibly respectful of your time as a busy player.

After a short but impactful intro to set up the stakes and the four major bosses, you're off to start your very own cult. Playing as a literal sacrificial lamb who's brought back to life by an ominous figure known as The One Who Waits, you'll indoctrinate critters as a questionable yet committed leader. Biome by biome, bishop by bishop, you'll get revenge to help your mysterious benefactor. I like that the overall path is established so early.

The core loop is so sastifying

Starting from scratch at your new home base, you'll harvest natural resources, build, farm, cook, clean, bless individuals, give daily sermons to the group, and perform rituals, among other overseer duties. Early on, there's little to manage, but you will have to get your hands dirty chopping trees or mining; further along, with many more cultists at your disposal, they'll handle most of the cult's busywork while you focus on the big-picture expansion and seedy decision-making. Above all, just make sure they keep the faith.

Out in the roguelite dungeons — which you can venture to at any time — you'll fight through randomized rooms with plenty of fast sword slicing and dodge-rolling, culminating in a mini-boss. Each of these "runs" will typically take about 10 minutes.

Further breaking it down, Cult of the Lamb is split up into four different biomes, each led by a conspiring bishop, and you'll have to complete three (escalating) runs in each zone before you can embark on a final fourth run to dethrone the ruler of that land.

Action-wise, that's the basic progression loop. But base-building is how you ultimately grow powerful enough to stand a chance of facing these challenges head-on.

In other words, played flawlessly, you're looking at 16 runs, minimum (plus some endgame stuff). As weird as it feels to frame the game this way, I feel like it's worth stressing up front as a ballpark figure for anyone who's got roguelite fatigue. As much as I love games like Hades, Dead Cells, and Rogue Legacy 2, don't come in expecting that kind of run-after-run grind. Cult of the Lamb condenses everything to avoid repetition.

Out in the field, you'll naturally collect gold, food, and followers, all of which funnel into the cult-raising efforts back home. And every so often, you can stumble upon strange folks — some of them will open up areas on the world map for you to explore, and they're just a fast-travel click away. Whether it's a rapid-fire fishing mini-game, a dice-rolling competition against several NPCs, or a gold-obsessed maniac's lair, it's a colorful world.

Tending the flock isn't a hassle

Like any smart simulation game, Cult of the Lamb knows to keep things simple at first to avoid flooding you with too much info. That bit-by-bit rollout carries throughout the whole game, keeping things fresh without feeling overwhelming. You'll never be "on the hook" for a concept until it's properly introduced and explained. So while you'll eventually end up managing a dozen or two animal cultists, the process of getting there is smooth.

And when it's not — when a bishop curses your flock with sickness and they poop all over town while you're dungeon-running, or someone dies of old age and you forget to take care of the body, or a dissenting snake in the grass emerges and you neglect to imprison and "re-educate them" — well, misfortune is part of the fun. While I had all of those mishaps (and more), my cult never got too derailed. Expect some funny Tamagotchi vibes.

The in-game cycle is just daily (not weekly), and you don't have to eat or sleep like your followers. Generally, before leaving town, it's best to give a sermon, cook some food, clean up messes, fulfill little villager requests, order any construction you want to be done, and collect resources that the group has harvested or generated. (A good portion of them will spend their day praying.) Cult of the Lamb has a few different technology trees.

The main tech tree — the biggest one — is for the town, with lots of unlockable building blueprints fueled by your follower's devotion. This is how you'll increasingly automate your cult. There's also a skill tree for your lamb, opening up new types of randomized weapons and rechargeable combat abilities, as well as better starting weapon stats.

And then there are unlockable rituals (that run on a cooldown) and doctrines (that are permanent for the playthrough). Rituals can restore everyone's faith in you, raise the dead, or satisfy empty stomachs, among many other dark "miracles." You can even get married! Multiple times over! Doctrines present interesting conundrums — these are unlockable traits for your villagers, but it's an "either this or that" choice and they can be tough calls with wild pros and cons to consider that lead to memorable situations as the simulation unfolds. If you want to get selfish, you can; the game won't judge you. As I grew to really care for my cultists (which you can individually name), I tried not to be too vile.

Again, for all of the elements that come into play, Cult of the Lamb presents everything in a digestible way. Your screen won't bombard or prester you. And while you do need to pay attention to what your cult is up to on a more or less daily basis, if you get distracted by the roguelite side of the game — or you decide you want to catch every fish back to back for a whole day — you won't be overly punished. I never once found the base-building sim side to be stressful, even during "oh shit I should probably run home" moments of panic.

The roguelite dungeons have almost no downtime

Instead, the stress tends to manifest in the roguelite action. There are several difficulties — I went with "Medium" — and that's what I'd recommend. (The developers do too.) I made it halfway through Cult of the Lamb before I died on a run, and all told, I think I wiped four or five times. If you're a planner, you can really set yourself up for success.

Aside from gaining more raw attack power and weapon types in the randomized pool (my favorite is a massive slow-hitting hammer), you can preach to get a health boost or finish certain multi-part NPC quests to earn alternate fleeces that suit different playstyles. Instead of finding temporary tarot cards on runs (for things like a higher crit chance or better chests), I preferred to wear a tunic that gave me four random cards right at the start (and prevented me from finding any more). Other tunics are risky but powerful.

The game takes a few good cues from The Binding of Isaac, including permanent and non-permanent hearts, as well as optional AI "demons" that follow you into battle with various abilities, but don't expect snowballing item combos or anything crazy. The combat is simple, fast, and effective. If you're not actively attacking an enemy, you're probably dodge-rolling their swipes or projectiles. It's often a race to take out the highest-priority threats and clear some destructible bits of the environment so you have more room to work with; the skeletons, spiders, assassins, and other threats can easily overwhelm.

A careful approach is usually the way to go so you don't take too many papercuts along the way. The bosses are the hardest part of Cult of the Lamb, far more than the common foes or anything strategy-minded in the base-building gameplay. Even with each area's enemies warming you up to the mini-boss, and the mini-bosses telegraphing what to expect from the actual biome boss, the bishop fights require focus and fast reflexes.

Every single time I failed a run, it was while fighting a bishop. That said, the penalty on your collected resources isn't too strict, and there are ways to cheat death — would you trade a cultist's life for your own? It's a cruel world, and I honestly still felt guilty.

A dozen hours is just long enough

I appreciate how streamlined the action is, but by the end, especially factoring in extra runs for resources and optional cosmetic unlocks, I had my fill of the combat. It lasted just long enough. If you crave diverse character builds, this might not be your game. On the village simulation side, a constant rollout of new unlocks kept it fresh the entire way through for me. I spent 13 hours finishing the story, and a few more digging for secrets. Aside from general mop-up, there isn't much of an incentive to stick around after the credits, though you can — and it sounds like post-game content is in the works.

The roguelite action could've had a bit more complexity in terms of distinct enemy, weapon, and ability variety. That said, the design feels pretty intentional. Cult of the Lamb isn't a game meant to be played endlessly, and it is enjoyable as is, especially given how ridiculously fast the runs end up feeling. You can fly through rooms, which keeps the pacing tight. My only notable complaint with the cult-raising is that things can get a little crowded sometimes, which is a minor (always temporary) problem when you're trying to interact with a specific object or villager. Worst case, I would just hold the meditative fast-forward-time button for a few seconds and the crowd would quickly shuffle along.

I'm a big fan of roguelite action games and city builders, but even if you're on the mild side, Cult of the Lamb is a winning combo. It draws many of the best aspects of those genres, places them in a one-of-a-kind world, and charts its own condensed course. The result is hard to put down. Despite the morbid subject matter and potential for player fatigue, this is such an easy game to recommend to a wide audience. Go on, spread the good word.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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The super-secret news is a big new DLC

Brace Yourself Games is adding even more content to Crypt of the Necrodancer, in the form of a DLC update called Synchrony. The new update was revealed today and is available now in Early Access.

Crypt of the Necrodancer: Synchrony is a brand new content pack, adding a wealth of new features to 2015's rhythm roguelite classic Crypt of the Necrodancer. It's currently only available on PC, though Brace Yourself says it would like to port to other consoles once Synchrony is out of Early Access.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX9JlggiCHo

So what's in the update? Well, a big portion is online multiplayer support. Synchrony adds support for up to eight players, in online co-op and versus modes. That's a whole lot of hoppin' and bouncin' to the beat.

Three new characters are also part of the content pack. Chaunter can possess enemies and use their powers against others. Suzu is a speedy rhythm-fighter, with an invincible dash. And Klarinetta has a giant two-handed sword.

Full mod support and an integrated mod portal are also part of the pack. So not only can you mess with most aspects of Crypt of the Necrodancer, but you can also load multiple mods at the same time.

Plus, there are new weapons, spells, items, and more. Brace Yourself says more features are expected to arrive in the course of Early Access for Synchrony as well.

Playing in synch

Brace Yourself had teased this super-secret news beforehand, though the scope of it is still pretty surprising. Crypt of the Necrodancer has now received two pretty significant updates this year, which rules for everyone who still likes to boot up this rhythmic dungeon crawler.

And Brace Yourself has more on the way too. Today's trailer closes out with a tease of another game to come. Rift of the Necrodancer just has a title for now, but it will be a new standalone game in the Necrodancer universe. Hopefully we'll hear more soon. But for now, it seems like a really good time to head back down into the crypt.

The post Crypt of the Necrodancer’s huge new Synchrony DLC hits Early Access today appeared first on Destructoid.

So many new ways to save or doom the future

The massive free content update Into the Breach: Advanced Edition is live on all platforms today. It adds not only some new squads and enemies, but missions, weapons, music, and even a new difficulty mode.

This new update from Subset Games is pretty big, perhaps even more than you might have anticipated. Thankfully, Subset has posted a patch notes breakdown of what's new for Into the Breach in the Advanced Edition.

If you haven't played Into the Breach before, well, you should probably fix that. It's a turn-based strategy game from the makers of FTL: Faster Than Light, and it blends roguelite loops and careful, strategic decision-making with massive kaiju battles. It rules.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ptYwMwxP7ho

The Into the Breach: Advanced Edition adds a ton of new content. Five new squads, with 15 new squad achievements, can take the field to stop the apocalypse. Four new pilots and 10 random new abilities for them can also hop into the cockpit. Plus, 39 new weapons and pieces of equipment will give players' squads new tools for splattering enemies.

It's not like the Vek forces will just let that go, though. Seven new Vek and three new Psions, as well as 10 new boss battles, are all added in the Advanced Edition. There's also a new difficulty mode, Unfair Mode.

The impending apocalypse

As Subset notes, Unfair Mode is for veterans and a bit more challenging than normal. There will be more situations where damage is inevitable, so you might need to make more decisions about taking grid damage or sacrificing a pilot, or possibly failing a mission objective. Grid power gains are thankfully doubled, so it's easier to pull back from defeat.

There are some larger changes too. Requirements for reactor power usage on weapons have been lowered, so players are more encouraged to try out equipment they find. In exchange, the cost to purchase weapons has gone up by 1 and store options on the first two islands will be limited.

A new weapon mechanic, KO effect, has been added. This will let weapons trigger an additional effect if the target is killed by an attack. The Boost status is also new, increasing the affected unit's next attack by 1 (which sounds really good for big area attacks). And a new tile mechanic, Cracking, will literally crack the ground. Once a tile has been cracked, a second hit will destroy the tile and anything standing on it.

The cost of unlocking squads with coins has also been lowered, to account for all the extra squads joining in Into the Breach: Advanced Edition. And all of the new content, like enemies and pilots, can be toggled off if you'd rather play the base game experience. Balance changes won't change, however.

Add in seven new languages and two new tracks from composer Ben Prunty as well, and this is a frankly huge update for Into the Breach. It's wild that this is rolling out for free, but if you have Into the Breach on PC, mobile, or Switch, it's available right now.

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Next year will be the "most exciting" in Dead Cells' history

Time rolls on, and so does Dead Cells. Today, the team at Motion Twin shared an updated roadmap for the future of Dead Cells, which is set to carry into 2023 and contains some big things.

The team says this update is specifically to combat the belief that, after the latest DLC, Dead Cells is at or near the end of its lifespan.

Currently planned for 2022 is the panchaku update and flame head outfit, as well as some rebalancing and reworking. Then this fall, Motion Twin plans to launch a Boss Rush mode for Dead Cells.

More updates are set for winter as well. Keep in mind these are all rough estimates, and nothing's quite set in stone.

Then, in 2023, the team is advertising the "most exciting year" in Dead Cells' history. Motion Twin says it will be the biggest year since the Dead Cells 1.0 launch.

"What we're getting at here is that we're very much in the mid-life of Dead Cells. We're not sneaking out at night to get drunk on street corners anymore, but we've still got plenty of life in us before our knees start to give in, so prepare yourselves for more Dead Cells content."

Not quite dead after all

To its credit, the Dead Cells team has been steadily rolling out update after update over the years. Even though the action roguelike is roughly four years old at this point, Motion Twin and its spin-off studio Evil Empire have kept on delivering new content.

So, even though The Queen and The Sea DLC went live earlier this year, rumors of Dead Cells fading out of the picture seem to be greatly exaggerated. As for what Motion Twin and Evil Empire have planned for 2023, we'll have to see in the new year.

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Don't fear the reaper in patch 0.8.0

Patch 0.8.0 is out today for Vampire Survivors, and it hits the mark. With limit breaks further fueling the power fantasy — and the ability to auto-pick coin bags or floor chickens when leveling up — the horde-mowing action feels non-stop.

Wait, limit breaks? Yeah. With the new relic, Great Gospel, you'll be able to boost weapons to a ridiculous degree once everything else is maxed out. So instead of the normal money-or-food choice when you level up toward the end of a run, you'll be able to crank up stats like Area, Speed, and Might (with a percentage boost) on your favorite weapons.

Limit breaks are a toggle in Vampire Survivors, and to use them (they reset every run), you'll first need to pry the Great Gospel from a new boss's cold, skeletal hands. For a nudge in the right direction, head to Capella Magna and survive until the 30-minute mark.

**Spoilers below for the boss**

[caption id="attachment_333798" align="alignnone" width="1532"] _{Voltron vibes.}[/caption]

Unlike the usual end-of-run reapers, this is a proper "boss fight" with area-of-effect attacks to dodge. But don't be too intimidated. If you play it safe, you'll come out on top.

After besting the final (for now?) reaper boss in Vampire Survivors, you'll earn a new Arcana called Game Killer — it halts XP gains and turns XP gems into exploding projectiles while also guaranteeing that all treasure chests contain at least three items.

Don't forget to manually pick up the Great Gospel item drop!

There's also an unlockable bestiary in 0.8.0 that's worth a quick glance if you love Castlevania, though the developer, poncle, says it's "largely incomplete" right now. The enemy list "will be updated with more data and details as we get closer to v1.0."

[caption id="attachment_333831" align="alignnone" width="1231"] _{You can unlock the bestiary by finding the Ars Gouda relic in the Dairy Plant.}[/caption]

A couple more quality-of-life features

With patch 0.8.0, any items you've banished will be visible at the bottom of the level-up selection screen. Another change I like: it's now possible to filter out the achievements you've already earned, so you don't have to scroll through 100+ completed listings.

That feeling when you catch up with the latest Vampire Survivors update and raise your achievement completion rate back to 100% — bliss! Until next time, anyway. I do still have secret characters to unlock, including a new one who can be found in the Bone Zone.

In terms of the roadmap, Vampire Survivors still has room for more weapons, Arcanas, and a new challenge stage, plus whatever other surprises are in store. As someone who tends to wait for Early Access games to reach 1.0 status, I have to say, this has been a blast.

This new patch has made me feel even more powerful with limit breaks, and I have to imagine there will be some wild new challenge to put us back in our place.

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With a new relic, you can now see the weapon evolution pairings right in the pause menu

Patch 0.7.3 for Vampire Survivors is out today, and you know what that means: more characters, weapons, relics, Arcanas, and achievements to unlock. I've never fought so hard to maintain 100 percent completion in a game, but that just goes to show how quickly these updates are coming. I grind and grind, and the developers grind right back.

This trailer is a nice hazy attention-grabber, and I've got specifics below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBeUURT-5Mo

Here's a spoiler-filled rundown of what's in patch 0.7.3, including the new secret character

Characters

• Sir Ambrojoe, who starts with the furniture-raining La Robba weapon.
  • How to unlock: Kill 6,000 Stage Killer enemies on Cappella Magna.
• Peppino, a slow-moving, area-of-effect-dealing tree. Yes, a tree.
  • How to unlock: Heal plants for 100,000 health on Ill Molise using O'Sole.

Relics

• Grim Grimoire — shows all currently known evolutions/unions in the pause menu.
  • How to unlock: Pick it up in the Inlaid Library near your spawn point.
• Mindbender — lets you change the appearance of characters in the selection menu, and lets you limit your active weapon slots (which pairs well with a new Arcana).
  • How to unlock: Complete 100 entries in the Collection.

Arcanas

• Tragic Princess (III) — reduces the cooldown of weapons while moving, including Garlic, Soul Eater, Santa Water, La Borra, Lightning Ring, Thunder Loop, and Carréllo.
  • How to unlock: Reach level 99 with Porta.
• Silent Old Sanctuary (XX) — grants +3 Reroll, Skip, and Banish, and provides +20% Might and -8% Cooldown for each of your empty active weapon slots.
  • How to unlock: Reach minute 31 in the Dairy Plant.

Tweaks and fixes

• Improved stats of Vento Sacro's early levels.
• Added extra area coverage to Fuwalafuwaloo.
• Moved Magic Banger relic to Green Acres.
• Hurry mode also gives a 25% XP bonus.
• Added support for German and Brazilian-Portuguese.
• Tentative fix for standard saves not working on Steam Deck for some users.

After highlighting a fan-made evolution chart, it's nice to see that in the game proper. I'm about 50 hours into Vampire Survivors and I still need to double-check some of them.

[caption id="attachment_331548" align="alignnone" width="1530"] _{The Grim Grimoire shows weapon evolutions right in the game.}[/caption]

The Vampire Survivors team is growing

In a Steam post, the creator of Vampire Survivors, poncle, spoke about the growing team.

"We had a team for some time now, but I'm taking the opportunity to talk about it only now that one more developer, David, is finally joining me in working full time on the current version of the game. This doesn't mean we're going to reach version 1.0 of the game faster than expected, but it means we'll be putting in the game even more features and be faster in polishing rough edges. One of the new relics from this patch, the Grim Grimoire, is a good example of what kind of extras to expect!"

There are also a few developers working on porting Vampire Survivors to an "industry-standard engine" without losing the game's very particular look and feel.

They're aiming to have "a version of Vampire Survivors that plays just like the current one, but that is free of hardware and controller compatibility issues and that performs well even when there is an unreasonable amount of projectiles and enemies on screen."

If all goes well, that'll be done this summer, but it's ultimately "ready when it's ready."

[caption id="attachment_331551" align="alignnone" width="1532"] _{Peppino reporting for duty.}[/caption]

"We might be getting close to the conclusion of Vampire Survivors, but for poncle that's just the beginning." On that note, I'm rooting so hard for a Nintendo Switch port.

I'm not joking around when I say that Vampire Survivors is one of my favorite games of 2022. No, really! It's just so satisfying to cleave through hordes of pixelated baddies, and I love the sense of micro and macro progression. Individual game runs are inherently fun, as are the achievements/unlockables that push you to keep playing again and again.

It might not look like much, but that's part of the charm.

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Death isn't the end with the Breaking Barriers update (unless you want it to be)

With its new Breaking Barriers update, Dead Cells has added a long list of granular accessibility options — including an Assist Mode — to help struggling players pummel the Hand of the King and ultimately rise the (Boss Cells) ranks. It's been a long time coming, and for anyone who feels like they've peaked in the game, it's time to circle back.

Using Assist Mode toggles, it's now possible to reveal the biome's map, auto-hit enemies with your primary melee weapon, auto-destroy nearby doors, give yourself more wiggle room to land parries, and make traps slower. Similar to Rogue Legacy 2's House Rules, there are also sliders — you can lower trap damage, enemy health, and enemy damage.

Bigger yet, Dead Cells now has a resurrection option, meaning death isn't the end of your run. With revives toggled on, when you die, you'll resurrect at the start of the current biome in the same condition you originally entered it in. There are options for one, three, seven, or infinite resurrections. Also worth stressing: Achievements won't be locked out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joDnuQaGXsg

"Dead Cells is intended to be tough but fair," Evil Empire marketing manager Matt Houghton explained in the Breaking Barriers update overview video. "However, we realize that this tough-but-fair experience is just unattainable for some players, for a whole range of reasons. The new options that we're introducing here should allow these players to make specific, tailored adjustments to the game to remove the barriers preventing them from having that experience, rather than introducing arbitrary difficulty options. We hope that these changes can let more players enjoy Dead Cells as we intended."

New accessibility features, too

As for accessibility options, the list keeps going: you can customize certain inputs like jumping and rolling, change the HUD size, visually outline elements like the protagonist and enemies so they don't get lost in the chaos, disable blood, reduce particles, and change up the sound effects. The video up top is an extensive recap, but if you want to skim the Breaking Barriers patch notes, they're over here. More updates are coming, too.

"If you're a Dead Cells player who doesn’t need any of the content that we’re introducing in this update, don't worry," said the team. "We have plenty of shiny new things to introduce to Dead Cells this year."

As someone who hasn't fully cleared Dead Cells' rising difficulty tiers and never will, I am all about this Assist Mode. I'm not sure which features I'll use, exactly, but the idea of defining my own granular ideal experience, and adjusting it as needed to keep the game challenging but not overly so, sounds great. I absolutely flipped on some of the House Rules in New Game+ runs of Rogue Legacy 2, and I don't regret it. Brick walls be damned. I am fine being stuck for a while — hours; sometimes even days — but I've got my limits.

The conversation around video game difficulty is always a lot, but I hope this grows the Dead Cells fandom and helps existing players reach new heights.

The post Dead Cells’ new Assist Mode has revives and much more appeared first on Destructoid.

It'll be made with player feedback in mind

We've seen a few games so far at the PC Gaming Show, and while a few were old, Endless Dungeon looks intriguing, as the name literally just tells us what we need to know about it: dungeons are the focus. Duh!

It's from the development team Amplitude, published by Sega. Here's a quick roundup of what to expect from PC Gamer:

"Despite being known as a 4X developer, Humankind and Endless Space's Amplitude Studios also knows its way around a tactical roguelite. 2014's Dungeon of the Endless zoomed in on the Endless sci-fi universe, creating random adventures through monster-infested dungeons instead of tales of galactic-scale conquest and intrigue. And while Amplitude isn't calling it a direct sequel [it] has that same spirit."

Yep! It seems to be a loose follow-up of sorts to Dungeon of the Endless, which some of you folks may have heard about. Note that this one is hero-based, and there's a preview of Zed and Bunker now on the company's YouTube channel. While "open development" is typically something I don't really pay too much attention to until the thing is actually out: I can add this one to my endless list of "things I will probably try eventually."

If you're interested, there's signups here.

Endless Dungeon reveal trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Q64DOg13KM

The post Sega is publishing Endless Dungeon, a tactical roguelite now in open development appeared first on Destructoid.

"Atropos" and "Helios" were spotted on a code-named SteamDB page that fits the bill

It feels like a matter of time before Sony and Housemarque bring Returnal over to PC, and today, we're one step closer to that port becoming a reality. As spotted by @Nibellion, a listing on SteamDB contains references to the adrenaline-pumping PS5 exclusive.

While the SteamDB page uses the codename "Oregon," it includes specific words and phrases related to Returnal including "Atropos" (the alien planet), "Helios" (Selene's ship), and the "Tower of Sisyphus" (an endless mode recently added to Returnal on PS5).

Additionally, this presumed Returnal PC build has on-brand Steam tags like "Third-Person Shooter," "Bullet Hell," "Sci-fi," "Rogue-lite," and "Female Protagonist."

[Update: Screenshots of the PC version of Returnal (and also Sackboy: A Big Adventure) have seemingly leaked from Reddit user EmpressofSony. The images show off the games' graphics settings which, in Returnal's case, includes a toggle for ray-traced reflections.

Curiously, neither of these PC ports were confirmed at yesterday's State of Play, but Sony did announce PC versions of Spider-Man (August 12) and Miles Morales (Fall 2022).

So while nothing is confirmed yet, we do know that Sony is expecting "significant year-over-year growth" in its PC game sales for fiscal year 2022. (Check out page 32 of the report.) As of March 4, 2022, the PC version of Horizon Zero Dawn has brought in $60 million to date, Days Gone has cleared $22.7 million, and God of War is at $26.2 million.

To reach the sort of PC net sales that Sony is suggesting, it'll need to ramp up its porting efforts with more of PlayStation's big-hitters, which sounds great to me.

Who's next in line?

There's also the matter of the Great Nvidia Leak of 2021, which continues to pan out, slowly but surely. On the PlayStation front, the leak suggested PC ports of Demon's Souls, Ghost of Tsushima, Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Forbidden West, Ratchet & Clank, and yes, Returnal, among others. Any and all of these games could bring in big bucks on Steam.

When, and in what order? That's what I'm wondering. I'd say that many of these PlayStation exclusives can afford to take their time without losing their relevance, but the sooner, the better for players, of course. We'll see what the grand plan ends up being.

As for Returnal specifically, I think fans are really rooting for a PC version — they want this game (and Housemarque) to succeed and get the wider audience it deserves.

The post SteamDB listing and leaked images point to a Returnal PC port (Update) appeared first on Destructoid.

It's got more going on under the hood than you'd expect

When a game has some unforeseen breakout success, it's not uncommon to see imitators. And that might be what you think 20 Minutes Till Dawn and its demo, 10 Minutes Till Dawn, are at first glance. The good news is that they're a fair bit more than imitations of another game. They're surprisingly in-depth, with their own spins and ideas, and certainly one to keep an eye on.

Vampire Survivors managed to reach a pretty incredible level of success for a Steam indie project earlier this year. Its mix of careful movement, idle weapon blasting, and upgrading weapons made for an excellent break-time game. I burned many, many lunch breaks on unlocking all the upgrades. And as a cursory look at Steam tells me, there are already a few imitators on the block.

That was how I discovered 10 Minutes Till Dawn, the demo version of upcoming game 20 Minutes Till Dawn. (It's a little confusing but basically, 10=demo and 20=full launch game.) It looks like a Vampire Survivors-alike from the get-go, and there is fair reason to draw a line between the two. From the ever-increasing level bar at the top to the chest-opening bonanza you receive after felling a boss, there's some Vampire DNA in there for sure.

Quick draw

The art style drew me in for sure, though. The character art in the menus is extremely good, as is the pixelated art once you've started a run. But the immediate difference, that might seem small but ends up playing a huge role in why 10 Minutes Till Dawn feels unique, is that you have a gun. And partner, you have to click the fire button in this one.

Rather than building an auto-firing behemoth of clockwork weapons, like Vampire Survivors, your gun is the core of your gameplay in 10 Minutes Till Dawn. Starting out with the revolver, I had six shots and a reload bar. The amount and speed of that change over time with upgrades, which we'll get to in a moment, but the gun is the focal point. And also key: your character slows down when they are firing. It's a simple touch at first, but as the enemies grow denser and denser, every pull of the trigger becomes more calculated.

Where Vampire Survivors had the general movement and flow nailed down into a zen state, 10 Minutes Till Dawn made me think about whether it's safe to plant my feet and shoot. Making that decision, to clear enemies or put distance between me and them, meant constant small decisions were being made.

Thin the horde

What makes clearing those enemies a little easier are all the upgrades. There are randomly dropped upgrades, and they're fairly simple. Each characteristic has a basic upgrade, like increasing reload speed or giving bullets a chance to freeze enemies. Then they branch out into two different mid-stage abilities, and finally one top-tier skill. Where the first health skill might just give you one extra Max HP, the top-shelf one gives you gradual regeneration.

Some of these abilities are boosts to characteristics, like movement speed or the power of bullets. Others add elemental properties and can start to stack up. One of my favorite builds was a shotgun setup where I had frost magic; everyone in my blast cone had a chance of being frozen, and if they died under that effect, they splintered, sending shards everywhere. Mixed with some bullet piercing and additional bullets, I had a wall of frozen power that could shred through hordes.

Yet I eventually fell, because I was just too darn slow and a boss constantly hounded me, ramming into me with its far superior speed. Little choices add up, in good and bad ways. So I took my meta-progression points, and went right back in.

The night is long

What's in 10 Minutes Till Dawn right now is, I'd expect, about an hour to two hours' worth of content, just to unlock all the weapons and characters. Different characters offer some bonus abilities, ranging from a larger starting HP pool to making a clone of yourself. And when 20 Minutes Till Dawn launches, developer Flanne expects to have more character and weapon options.

With excellently concise runs and some solid ideas behind its shooting, 20 Minutes Till Dawn is certainly much more than a clone or look-alike. This new horde survival game feels like it's shaping up to be a good time-killer. No word on when that will be, but if you want to wishlist 20 Minutes Till Dawn on Steam so you can find out when, the store page is here.

The post 20 Minutes Till Dawn is poised to be my next lunch break game appeared first on Destructoid.

They're super out of the way

You can go through hundreds of runs in Rogue Legacy 2 without ever spotting an eggplant person. But just know that they're out there hiding, off-screen, waiting to be discovered.

What do they do? Well, they look cute. They liven up the place! Do you strictly need them? Not unless you're a completionist looking to befriend every NPC in Rogue Legacy 2.

After hearing about these silly hidden characters, I knew I had to find them and bring them back to my home base — you know, just for the heck of it. You might want to, too. Thanks to a video demonstration by YouTube user Teelore, I was able to reach all four eggplants, and given how obscure their locations are, a guide is definitely recommended.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0CkWuVyUjl8

As shown in the video, there are four hidden sentient eggplants to find — and interact with — to bring them to your base with the rest of the NPCs. You'll preferably want to have teleporters to the Sun Tower and Kerguelen Plateau unlocked to shorten the trip(s).

To make things easier, it's best to turn on House Rules in the pause menu — specifically, toggle the ability to fly (which, on a controller, is done by clicking in the right stick by default). The eggplants are high up, and while it's technically possible to reach them with certain classes like the Astromancer, who can fly with its Comet ability, it's not ideal.

The four eggplant locations in Rogue Legacy 2

One eggplant is in the tutorial of all places (which you can replay on New Game+).

[caption id="attachment_321359" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{At the start of the tutorial, fly straight up and look in the left-hand corner of the screen.}[/caption]

Another is at the end of the red teleporter challenge rooms that appear randomly.

[caption id="attachment_321354" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{After finishing a challenge room, fly up above the treasure chest prize.}[/caption]

There's an eggplant up high in the snowy Kerguelen Plateau biome.

[caption id="attachment_321358" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{In the snow biome's recurring room with water, look for a rock and fly up, then smack the off-screen eggplant.}[/caption]

And one more is at the top of the Sun Tower.

[caption id="attachment_321360" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{From the Sun Tower boss entrance, fly up and left.}[/caption]

The tutorial secret is absurdly easy to miss, and given the nature of randomized room layouts, it can take a while to find a challenge arena, too. So, if you care to find Easter Eggplant, Easter English Breakfast, Easter Ham 'N Eggplant, and Easter Omeletteplant, you'll need to keep an eye out and grind the good Rogue Legacy 2 grind like normal.

Once you interact with the eggplants, you'll find them back home, under the Soul Shop.

The post How to find Rogue Legacy 2’s eggplant people appeared first on Destructoid.

No more upside-down antics as of update 1.01

Every death in Rogue Legacy 2 is a chance to pick out a new, hopefully incrementally better protagonist from a fresh lineup. Like in the original game, heirs have various backgrounds, class playstyles, and traits. Some traits, like Puritan — which "censors" enemies in a shroud of blurry pixels — and Nostalgic — which turns the screen all "old-timey" — aren't too disruptive. You might tolerate them for a gold-earning bonus. But other traits can be too much to handle. I skip Vertigo in Rogue Legacy 2 for that exact reason.

Vertigo flips the screen upside down, and in a game with lots of split-second action-platforming decisions, it's a lot to try and process. I wouldn't say the effect makes me ill, but it's uncomfortable, for sure. And now, as of update 1.01, it's out. Cellar Door Games removed Vertigo from Rogue Legacy 2 after receiving "a bunch of reports of nausea."

"While Vertigo was a cool blast from the past, it doesn't really fit the sequel," the developers said. It joins other now-retired traits like Tunnel Vision and Glaucoma.

As someone who would outright skip any character with Vertigo, no exceptions, I'll have more options going forward. And I might even choose the Dragon Lancer more often, too.

The Dragon Lancer class got some extra love

In update 1.01, the developers reworked the Dragon Lancer class since it, "in particular," was "being left by the wayside" by players. The cool-looking class lets you joust mid-air, but it's tricky to find the right rhythm compared to most other Rogue Legacy 2 classes.

[caption id="attachment_320668" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{The Dragon Lancer got a "minor" redesign in update 1.01.}[/caption]

With the Dragon Lancer's redesign, "Tap Attack now acts more as a reposition, forcing enemies back, so that you can do Dash attacks more often. Bastion has been buffed, and is now a 'go crazy mode ability.' Activate it, block everything, and wail on your foes."

In this economy...

If you've hit some rough patches with your rate of unlocks in Rogue Legacy 2, update 1.01 changed the economy — "basically, a bunch of stuff is now cheaper." A few highlights:

• Ore Update (Buff) — Ore scaling increased (speed at which ore drops go up as room level raises).
• Skill Tree Update (Buff) — Lowering the cost of all of the "base stat" skills to help speed up the early, mid, and late game for players (NG0, NG1-4, NG5+), and to also reduce the punishment for players who like to spread out early.
• Living Safe Changes (Buff) — Living safe is our way of helping new players if they’re struggling to collect large amounts of gold in a single run. We're reducing the cost significantly so that people will be more willing to invest points into it and can reap the benefits earlier on.

Cellar Door also did some more work to make the game "even more responsive than before" with a "comprehensive anti-joystick flick system." Some players had reported an issue with "turning direction when the controller joystick snaps back."

It's nice to see an awesome game get even better. I didn't think that class changes were still on the table, so that's a pleasant surprise. And better progression pacing? Yes, please!

I'm on New Game+3 and it's getting sweaty.

_{[Image Source: Sifd]}

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Valve's new PC game promo covers roguelikes, roguelites, soulslikes, and metroidvanias

Valve is hosting a big Going Rogue sale on Steam this week, and if you're into roguelike games, roguelite games, and everything in between, there are deals to check out by May 9.

Curiously, Steam's digital "festival" is also highlighting a whole bunch of games that were inspired by the Souls, Metroid, and Castlevania series, so the lines are even more blurred than normal. Valve broke down the genre differences in an explainer video, and as someone who tries not to get cranky about ever-shifting game genres, I'll stay out of it.

The main link: "They're all rooted in elements of RPG fantasy or action, and persistence means success." That sums up a lot of my favorite video games, especially lately.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3POUi1Imy0k

Whether or not you agree with the organizers' exact terminology, it's still a cute, well-meaning, personable video, and I hope Valve does more of these in the future.

One more caveat: not every Going Rogue game is on sale, so this spotlight is about getting Steam users' attention focused on cool games they might've missed.

The best of the best

Speaking of, it's neat to see the "top-rated" list, which spans Dead Cells, Hades, The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, Slay the Spire, Rogue Legacy 2, Risk of Rain 2, and even Vampire Survivors. I've been meaning to check out that last one — it's three bucks. What am I waiting for???

You really can't go wrong with any of those well-reviewed picks. I'd also strongly recommend Death's Door for $11.99 — it's suitable for a really wide audience, and I hope it gets the legacy it deserves. What an awesome game; I loved 100%ing it.

As for me, I've got a lot more Rogue Legacy 2 grinding ahead of me. In case you missed it, the 1.0 version is out and it's fantastic. And better yet, it's 20 percent off right now.

The post Steam’s Going Rogue sale is full of great time sinks appeared first on Destructoid.

The more XP you earn as different classes, the more passive bonuses you'll accumulate

A big part of Rogue Legacy 2 is figuring out which permanent upgrades best fit your individual playstyle, and there are a ton of directions to go on the Manor upgrade path. That said, there's an early purchase — the Sage Totem, which unlocks Mastery bonuses for all of your classes — that you should prioritize before you get too far along.

This upgrade lets you "learn from your ancestors' past mistakes and gain permanent bonuses for dying," which might not sound fun, exactly, but it's worth it.

Here's our guide to Mastery levels and why they matter in Rogue Legacy 2.

First off, unlock the Sage Totem

[caption id="attachment_319436" align="alignnone" width="783"] _{Where to unlock the Sage Totem.}[/caption]

With the Sage Totem unlocked, you'll find the character chilling in your home base, slightly above and left of Charon's boat. Now it's time to get some big XP gains, not just gold.

When you slay enemies in Rogue Legacy 2, you'll earn experience points, and XP funnels into Mastery. You'll keep playing like normal, but when you die — it's more a "when" than an "if," isn't it? — you'll see the XP pile up on the end-of-run recap screen.

[caption id="attachment_319450" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Ranking up a Knight at the end of a Rogue Legacy 2 run.}[/caption]

Don't play as the same few classes forever

Here's the cool part: every class has its own Mastery rank, and every time they level up, they'll unlock a passive bonus. In the example above, my Knight earned +10 Equip Weight.

There will be classes you click with and others you don't quite get. It's worth making the rounds in Rogue Legacy 2, though. The permanent bonuses earned from Mastery levels affect everyone, so it pays to be a Bard or a Ranger at least some of the time.

Your future heirs will thank you!

Stat bonuses when you level up a class

• Knight and Valkyrie: +10 Equip Weight
• Barbarian and Boxer: +1% Vitality
• Ranger and Ronin: +1% Strength
• Duelist and Assassin: +1% Dexterity
• Mage and Gunslinger: +1% Intelligence
• Chef and Astromancer: +1% Focus
• Dragon Lancer and Pirate: +1% Armor
• Bard: +1.5% Spin Kick Damage
• All classes: +2 Rune Weight

There is a cap on Mastery rank, but you can increase it in New Game+.

How to see your Mastery levels for all classes

[caption id="attachment_319439" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Don't forget to check in with the Sage Totem from time to time.}[/caption]

It took me way too long to realize this (I must've done it super early in my playthrough and then completely forgot to look again until, umm, New Game+2...), but you can chat with the Sage Totem at your camp to see all of the classes' Mastery levels all in one place.

[caption id="attachment_319442" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{Mastery bonuses really stack up to become meaningful.}[/caption]

Raising the Mastery level cap

This might be getting ahead of things, but it's worth knowing early on that if you do max out your Mastery rank for a certain class, you'll eventually be able to bump it back up and continue the grind. Without spoiling too much, you can unlock the Soul Shop in town (in the building next to the Sage Totem) and spend Soul Stones on even more permanent upgrades. One unlock, Limitless Potential, increases the Mastery cap for all classes.

[caption id="attachment_319468" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{You'll regularly visit the Soul Shop once you start getting into New Game+ and beyond.}[/caption]

If you're in need of more blue orbs, play the Scars of Erebus challenges to earn Bronze/Silver/Gold medals (here's a fantastic guide on unlocking Scars), or beat bosses on higher New Game+ difficulties. Rogue Legacy 2 is a grind in the best way.

The post Play every Rogue Legacy 2 class for Mastery stat bonuses appeared first on Destructoid.

All it takes is one dedicated little lamb

It's dark and dreary as you, a tiny lamb, take a long walk. Hooded figures press in behind you, poking and prodding with weapons to keep you moving towards the sacrificial circle. Elder gods appear and demand your life, in exchange for staving off some prophecy. And that's how Cult of the Lamb starts its demo off: your death.

Well, your almost-death. At the last moment, the little lamb is whisked away to another world. A being, potentially evil, makes it an offer it simply can't refuse: keep your life, by dedicating it to theirs. Return to the world and form a cult under The One Who Waits. So you zap back, with a nifty new hat, sword, and strong side of demonic possession, and wreak havoc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlwimDp1eqw

Lamb chop, slice, and dice

I wasn't quite sure what to make of Cult of the Lamb when I first saw it. It's a top-down action game, with a touch of roguelite. As a former patron of your current master shows up to explain, you'll need to head out into the land and share the good word. This means taking down acolytes of those other elder gods, and converting new followers to your cult.

On a base level, there's dodge-rolling and slashing. Special moves and upgraded weapons can be picked up, as you progress through room after room. It feels familiar, and not in a bad way. The combat feels solid and kept me engaged. Enemy types also help, as soon different variants start to switch things up. Bats and worm-like creatures start to hound you, beyond just the angry zealots.

It's important to note just how well the art style developer Massive Monster has crafted works, too. The almost-papercraft, 2D-meets-3D looks great, in screenshots and in motion. Cult of the Lamb has just the right mix of cute and grim. It's both dark-natured and lighthearted. It's very Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, but with animals who engage in ritual sacrifice and indoctrination.

Pulling the wool over their eyes

Indoctrination is actually pretty crucial, and leads into the area of Cult of the Lamb I enjoyed the most. In between ventures out into the world, after finding more wayward souls to join your cult, you can head back to a "home base" of sorts and start putting it all into motion. Things start simple: take a follower and tell them to gather some lumber.

But followers need food, so I had to build up a cooking pit to get them fed. This is where the base-building, management side started to form, and it really grabbed ahold.

Now, when I was venturing down paths, I wasn't just looking for personal boons. A node might offer me some food, or an item that could increase my followers' abilities. At one point, I got a necklace that could make a follower never have to sleep. Finally, no more pesky rest. The follower would be a 100-percent uptime devotion machine.

My quick demo at PAX East took me from curious to very interested in Cult of the Lamb. The art style and atmosphere are obvious draws, and the action is solid. The base-building and follower management add a really intriguing layer though, one that had me making some cool choices I wasn't always accustomed to making in a roguelite. I couldn't just wipe out heretics and zealots to build my following. I needed to build a lasting, stable, efficient cult to truly keep moving up in the world.

Cult of the Lamb might seem like other games of this kind you've played before, as a vaguely Zelda-style action-adventure roguelite. But it's deceptive. Dig a bit better, and its art, dark humor, and management meta-systems make for a pretty neat combination. Keep an eye out as it gears up for launch sometime in 2022 on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Switch.

https://www.tiktok.com/@destructoid/video/7091025969418489094

The post PAX: Cult of the Lamb puts an adorable spin on starting your own cult appeared first on Destructoid.

Putting the "light" in "roguelight"

Gearbox is best known for creating the Borderlands games, but it has also published some of the most well-loved indie games of recent years, including Risk of Rain 2, Astroneer, The Banner Saga Trilogy, and even Subnautica. Gearbox Publishing's newest project, Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom, looks like it's shaping up to be yet another charming indie project (and it has an amazing title, too).

Gearbox Publishing dropped the announcement trailer today at PAX East 2022, showing off the gothic "roguelight" gameplay from developer Under the Stairs. In the game, players take on the role of the titular Victoria Bloom, who is searching for her lost grandfather in their dark, eerie mansion. Of course, it's not as simple as it sounds, because the ever-changing hallways are filled with obstacles and adversaries. The idea is that you're fighting off the dark forces in the mansion with light, which you'll be able to do with a host of different light-themed weapons, from Matches to a Shotgun Bulb.

https://youtu.be/_Zb4dCWHtZs

One of the game's designers Filip Neduk said in a press release:

“Eyes in the Dark creates an atmosphere of loneliness and isolation, all while giving you the tools to ultimately come out of the experience as a stronger person. Victoria’s trial — going through the mansion alone and facing her fears — mirrors the player’s need to learn and master the mechanics of the game to progress; you both go through this adventure together.”

In terms of its style, tone, and gameplay, Eyes in the Dark reminds me a lot of Hollow Knight at first glance — although from the looks of it, this game won't be a rehash of anything we've seen before. I'm excited to see a new game in this genre that gives us something fresh, which is what I'm expecting based on the trailer.

Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Care of One Victoria Bloom is set to release on Steam and the Epic Games Store on July 14.

The post Gearbox releases trailer for Eyes in the Dark, a new gothic roguelight appeared first on Destructoid.

Early Access kicks off April 20

Those of you old enough to hold golden memories of Saturday morning television might want to take a gander at MythForce, a brand new roguelite adventure that hopes to capture the looks, sounds, and vibes of the action-adventure 'toons of the late 1980s.

Developed by Canadian outfit (and newly adopted member of Embracer Group), Beamdog, MythForce promises colorful dungeon crawling action for parties of one-to-four players, each kitted out with their own skills, weapons, spells, and abilities. As our heroes pick their way through each procedurally-generated zone, they will battle an army of ruthless villains, topple bosses, adapt and improve their abilities, and gather oodles of juicy loot, all presented in nostalgic, animated fashion.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1HtOKSSuY0

"I’m beyond excited to finally show off our team’s original work," said Beamdog CEO Trent Oster in a press release. "MythForce is pure, unadulterated fun — right out of the Saturday mornings of my childhood. With a simple yet satisfying game loop, it’s a big departure from the RPG classics we’re known for, but the Beamdog DNA is evident if you know where to look."

If you're interested in checking out MythForce for yourself, then you won't have to wait too long to do so, as Early Access is scheduled to kick off on PC (via Epic Game Store) as soon as April 20, just one short week from now, priced at $29.99 The first episode, Bastion of the Beastlord, will be immediately available for your perusal, with further updates, features, and episodes planned for the coming months as the development team pushes ever closes to the game's official launch.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DCvHre1NVE

The post MythForce is a new roguelite with a Saturday Morning Show vibe appeared first on Destructoid.

Platform fighter to return with new 2.5D stylee

It was a double whammy of news from Team Aether this weekend as the studio not only announced an official release date for its incoming dungeon crawler Dungeons of Aether, but it even dropped word of an entirely new sequel to its Smash-like platform fighter Rivals of Aether, scheduled to launch in 2024.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxp6LpkIEPw

From the team's amusingly irreverent write-up, it appears that Rivals of Aether 2 will retain the typical hard-hitting, platform-bouncing, multiplayer chaos of the original release, but will be transitioning from a 2D to a 3D style, (or 2.5D, strictly speaking). The sequel news will no doubt comes as a delight to fans of the elemental-based slugfest.

Rivals 2 will see the return of mechanics such as Parries and Hitfalling, but will also shake up close encounters with the addition of Shields and Throws. The sequel is still in its very early stages, but you can check out all of the details, some early screenshots,  and sign up for a newsletter over on the official Rivals 2 website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyOPt3iH1Mg

In addition to the Rivals 2 announcement, Team Aether announced that dungeon crawling adventure Dungeons of Aether will finally hit PC (via Steam) on October 25. The new game, set within the Rivals of Aether universe, will allow players to choose from one of four heroes before venturing into monster-filled labyrinths located below the steampunk town of Julesvale.

Story Mode is a roguelite adventure that will have the player battle beasties, bag gold and gear, and hone their skills, spells, and fighting abilities, progressing ever further into the subterranean caverns with each and every new attempt. For those looking for an even meatier challenge, then the Challenge Dungeon mode will provide with a single, procedurally generated to be conquered in a single run.

So whether you're looking to explore worlds, interact with characters, and build your fortune, or whether you just want to fight it out against insurmountable odds, it sounds like Dungeons of Aether will have you covered. Ready your will and check it out for yourself when Dungeons of Aether drops on PC October 25.

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