Loop Hero

A mid-game review: I bought LH on steam after playing the demo. Perhaps I shouldn't have. Steam assumes you don't want to start from scratch in the full game and gives all trophies that you (unknowingly) got in the demo. So much for the "fresh feel of a new game". Anyway... About LH, the demo was a pleasant surprise. I'm a sucker for a combo of idle, rpg and strategy. The few cards, you were allowed to play with in the demo, have a lot and interesting synergies. The game communicates these through conversations, like a vampire talking about a village. Or through mechanics like rocks and mountains provide additional bonuses when placed together. I was more or less expecting the full game to explosion in an orgy of wild synergies. At least, the building tree at the camp seems enormous, and when you can already do so much with the few buildings available in the demo? Sadly, in a day of play most buildings are in my camp, and I found surprisingly little new synergies. Maybe the games opens up again when all buildings are upgraded? If so, I give LH the well deserved 4 stars it gets from me for the demo / 1st chapter. To give a clear example - if you don't want any spoilers, even a small one stop reading - you can build a library. It works like an encyclopedia were you can unlock little bits of lore. In the spirit of the demo I expected these bits would at least hint at more synergies. Instead they seem little more than funny scribbles from the dev-author: "[..] The slime was ready for the first adventurer." For some reason I was not expecting a meadow to blossom near a desert... maybe I have more luck with placing a river tile inside a desert ... ?

I have managed to lose track of time playing this game, probably more so than any other game I've played this year so far. Aesthetically I don't think there's anything I can add that has already been said, art style and UI reminds me of the early PC RPG with a more gothic flair. Don't be fooled by it's simplicity at face value, in but a few hours, you'll be surprised with how much you can do with these cards and what will be expected of you to beat a loop. If you're still unsure, try out the demo and see for yourself.

A gem. The graphics using something like the Commodore 64 palette are gorgious... impecable pixel art... The music is deep and rich while being a good tribute to oldschool era. The gamedesign is astonishing, how to make something so complex out of simple rules requires so much design time and love. It's worderfull. This game is crack, I put 60hours in it without even noticing. There're several secrets, not so hard to discover by accident. The story writing is so Dark and so well written it's mocking of plot clichés and brings a lot of deepness to the content. EVERYTHING IS COHESIVE. It's very rare to see that level of cohesion between all the elements stated before. To me it's a 5. I can't wait to see what Four Quarters is going to produce next... they are amazing.

I shouldn't like this game at all. If somebody described the game to me, it would sound terrible. In fact, it's superb, and the first game I've rated 5/5 on GOG. A lot of tile-based adventure/dungeon-crawler type games have quite fun strategic combat and exploration, but get weighed down by constant repetetive grinding, inventory management and stat-shuffling. Loop Hero makes the bold decision to remove all of the fun strategic combat and exploration, and leave *only* the grindy stat-shuffling and inventory management part of the game. Your character walks round and round in circles fighting things, while you just watch and level up their skills and equipment. You don't even get to choose where they go or what they do in combat. Sounds awful, right? Actually, as it turns out, all that stat-management is way more fun when it's not weighed down by all the exploration and strategic decision-making. What's left is super-addictive, charming one-handed gameplay that'll keep you gently occupied for hours on end finding the optimal ways to utilise tiles, abilities and equipment to buff your hero enough to beat the game's bosses, progress the story and unlock shiny new things. Best of all, the whole game has clearly been made with love and care. The graphics and music are pleasant, the interface is complete, and even the writing is surprisingly good. I've never played another game like Loop Hero, so it's hard to know what to compare it with. It has stripped-down elements from several different genres while not quite falling neatly into any particular category. I'm sure that other games will copy it in due time, but for now, it's quite unique to the best of my knowledge, which is an impressive feat in itself. On its own terms though, it succeeds beautifully. It could be expanded, but it's hard to imagine any significant ways that it could be improved. If you think it might be something you'd enjoy, then you probably will. Recommended whole-heartedly. :)

Hsving played over 1400 hours, I can say this game is not ffor everyone, Do you hate repetition and RNG mercy? Move along. However, if you like doing similar things for hours in the hopes of advancing your character, this is it.