Try it Tuesday: December 13, 2022

Tonight featured FOUR different games, all with the loose theme of “rogue” – whether or not it’s roguelite, roguelike… well, that was a heated topic of discussion for the chat to figure out. The differences are indeed kind of hard to discern, especially with the names sounding and looking so similar. It’s easy to get confused! There is an apparent International Roguelike Development Conference that has outlined eight high-value factors that all roguelikes must adhere to, which include random generation, permadeath, turn-based combat, non-modal, emergent gameplay, resource management, hack-and-slash gameplay, and map exploration. There are some lower value factors as well, but those are really making the issue granular and aren’t, I feel, needed for a base definition. It seems to me that the differentiating factor between roguelikes and roguelites is that the “lite” ones tend to incorporate some kind of progression system that sticks beyond your death, thus lightening up the gameplay loop. Therefore, a lite. I guess that should be the mnemonic.

ANYWHO, all of these games had an aspect of a rogue game. Whether or not the retained anything in their mechanical configurations is really… dependent upon the game, but I think most of them if not all fell on the “lite” side of things. Here’s the menu, in order of presentation!

Osiris is bills itself as an action roguelike with hack and slash and permadeath mechanics, so I guess that solves where it lies in the rogue debate. The game has an isometric perspective, and the general feel of the gameplay honestly felt a bit like Path of Exile in terms of mouse and keyboard use, and only in that way – nothing else about this game fits an ARPG, to be clear. It claims full controller support, but it wasn’t really working for me. I could, however, see a benefit over KBM – it was kind of rough to play it with what is admittedly my preferred method of gaming. Osiris takes place in a mythologically Greek setting, putting you in the shoes of a demigod who wants to save the woman he loves and escape the underworld. Chat was quick to jump on the train of comparing the game to Hades, and in a lot of ways… I cannot disagree. I haven’t played through the entirety of Hades, but the loop, the themes, and the idea are all clearly taking some influence. The plot also kind of reminds me of Dante’s Inferno, and the dark setting definitely also draws me closer to that comparison. The developer was kind enough to allow me to see this game in an early preview state, therefore it’s hard to fault the game for feeling rough and incomplete. However, with a release date of late February, I definitely hope that they have some more to add to the game. There wasn’t really a lot of instruction on what different items did, how to make upgrades or what those even meant, the UI and the look of it felt a little copy/pasted, and I wanted something that felt more individual then just another game reminiscent of a very successful game like Hades. All in all, I think Osiris needs a lot of work for it to stand out on its own. I just hope the developers can give the game more of a polish, and a better plan for content rollout.

? out of 5 slabs

Osiris is currently not out yet, but you can view more information and wishlist the game on Steam at this link.

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Usurper: Soulbound says it’s a rogue-lite action RPG, and it also considers itself a Souls-like – a claim backed up by a lot of mechanics, and graphics, and overall influence. When you start out, you’re battling a few skeleton enemies, which immediately sets the tone for the whole Souls-like thing: there’s a light attack, a heavy attack, a lot of dodging, and if you die you even get that YOU DIED screen, except it says something like YOU PERISHED. When you eventually do die to the first boss, as is tradition, you’re banished to the nether realm where you meet a shopkeeper who sells you items in exchange for gold to go with each run. The interesting part of Usurper: Soulbound is how each run ends and begins, at least from my experience: when you die, you’re in a “soul” form that you can traverse with. You have a sword called “The Usurper Blade” that has a low attack, but a unique mechanic in its ability to allow you to possess the bodies of weakened victims. This mechanic feels inspired by Mortal Shell in a slight way, which isn’t a bad thing: you can swap bodies while you’re crawling dungeons, and you’ll often have to, so long as you have the “stamina” or whatever to do so – I cannot remember the name of that statistic, but it comes from attacking enemies with The Usurper Blade. Your primary goal is to activate these different poitns within each dungeon, in order to open the next area. I love the loop, and the general concept. Where I think Usurper: Soulbound suffers is all based in the gear and the loot of the game, which is all but absent. The main hub where the shopkeeper is: you get gold on each run, which you have to spend in the hub on scrolls and weapons to start off your run with. This game is in early access, so I can forgive to some extent that there’s nothing in the shop to really spend the gold on that is worth it. It seems that’s the plan too, because you lose the gold when you go back into the dungeon. Why have it, if everything you can buy with it sucks? I also want the loot in the dungeon to be better – you don’t really seem to get anything from the chests besides gold, and the enemy types that I encountered weren’t much different from one another, so their loot wasn’t really good either. I feel Usurper: Soulbound could be a really good loot-driven dungeon crawler if it has that in its plan for development. It does boast PVP and PVE elements, which I suppose could be cool. I may check back in on this game in a year or two, to see if anything has improved. It’s got a great start, but it needs a bit more depth for it to really be good.

?? out of 5 slabs

You can check out Usurper: Soulbound in early access on Steam at this link.

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* This game was part of a paid promotion. My thoughts and opinions were not a part of the promotion, merely my time spent on the game

I threw SYNCED into the list because it, too, bills itself as a rogue looter shooter that feels like it shares a lot of DNA with games like Tom Clancy’s The Division or Outriders. You’re thrown into a “techno-apocalyptic future” where humanity is at war with creatures called Nanos that you have to fight off within an exclusion zone. Not only that, but after defeating one, you’re able to “tame” it to do your bidding! That brings a squad size up to 6, and with different gameplay styles ranging from all-purpose fighter, sniper or short-range gunner, and trauma/medic, along with Nanos that can tank, do recon, and quickly dispatch of enemies… well, it makes for some interesting matches depending on each run. SYNCED boasts PVP and PVE gameplay modes, and I only tried the PVE. But what was there, I actually really enjoyed. After a general tutorial, which introduced me to the idea of the Nanos, I felt more comfortable with what my objective was, which was to progress through each stage as quickly as possible to dispatch of enemies and clear zones of cataclysmic threat. As you go through each zone to clear the nano corruption, you’re given currency to spend on upgrades – I couldn’t tell if some of those upgrades applied to your character immediately, or if you got them after the run to tack on, though I think it was the latter. You also get armor, med kits, and throughout the map there are also different weapons you can equip and swap between. Very much like a battle royale-style game, but within a cooperative experience. I think there are 3-4 stages, and though you should probably stick with your team, you don’t necessarily have to in order to complete each objective. During one of my last runs, I just quickly went to each place to clear out as fast as I could. We made it to the last stage with a big boss during that particular run, but in trying to revive a teammate – a poor judgement call on my part, because of the window I had – we ended up wiping. But I was pleasantly surprised overall with what SYNCED had to offer. Were I to offer any negative feedback, it’s that the game, while familiar and fun, wasn’t necessarily anything catchy enough to make me necessarily return to it – though it is one that I would consider keeping in mind down the road, especially given its current beta state. The game has really good bones, and could be a success if they play the cards right. SYNCED is currently in a beta stage for a limited time, though release is “coming soon” and it will be free to play when it is finally out.

??? out of 5 slabs

Check out SYNCED in beta, or wishlist it for a future release date, on the Steam page.

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We Who Are About To Die calls itself an action roguelike, as well as a strategy RPG. Both of these are accurate given my experience with the game, and if I had to crown a winner in tonight’s lineup, this was definitely it. We Who Are About To Die brings the interesting feel of combat in a game like Chivalry, Kingdom Come: Deliverance, or Mount & Blade to an isometric perspective and makes it difficult to master, rewarding to achieve, and hilarious to fuck up… all in one fell swoop. Combat works on a directional swipe mechanic, and no two weapons are really the same. Furthermore, you’re given different gladiators that you’re going to burn through at an astounding rate, and each opportunity to fight is a uniquely different one with a lot of stuff to contend with. First off, the audience is going to either love you, or hate you. And if they hate you, they’re going to throw stuff at you. And boo you. But also, the strategy part of the game comes in the success of your gladiator. You’re able to bet on yourself to complete challenges, sway favor of different nobles, buy fame and renown to influence potential outcomes, weapon drops… all kinds of things. After several failures with several gladiators that I had high hopes for, I was able to excel more steadily with a guy that I referred to as “Crixus” Crinklecut… something like that, I don’t know. He has an extravagant name, and most of it was generated by the game, not me. I actually wasn’t able to get into the meat and potatoes of WWAATD as deeply as I could have, if only because of my waning energy level – but there is a LOT of depth to the game, and I found that refreshing to say the least. We Who Are About To Die is actually one of the most interesting games I’ve ever played, because of this unique mash-up of styles. It has a “one more turn” quality to it that has me up about an hour later then I expected to be. Also, this is buy a SOLO DEV! EXTRA WIN!! We Who Are About To Die is definitely a game I intend to return to, and because it’s in early access, I have a feeling it can only get better from its current state… which, given a release date that is a month prior to today, means this game has incredible footing, and even more incredible potential.

???? out of 5 slabs

Check out We Who Are About To Die on Steam at this link.