Oaken

At the time of writing this game is in early access, so bear that in mind if reading this review in the future. With that being said I really did enjoyed the heck out of it despite it not being feature complete yet. I know Early Access can be a mixed bag and may put some people off but I have to stress it is a completely functional game as of now and the devs have not cut corners; it has 3 maps, a final boss and 3 champions to choose from (although they have to be unlocked through playing). The game play is a Slay The Spire / Into the Breach love child with battles on a hex grid. Not only do you have to move around the board, but you have to rotate your units too. Everything has a frontal arc, and getting flanked means you or the enemy doesn't get to counter attack. The tutorial will explain this and a few other key concepts very well so don't worry if this is starting to sound complex - the combat is actually quite straight forward in terms of the basics, but there's some really nice hidden depth to it. And while StS and ItB may be the 'meat and potatoes' of the game; the visual design, music and atmosphere seem to draw inspiration from Super Giant (Bastion, Pyre) which personally ticks all the right boxes for me. Here are the negatives as of now; some items have place holder art, the UI can have bugs on the map screen and there needs to be a little more balancing done - which you would probably expect for a strategy roguelike at this stage. I'm crossing my fingers however that these can all be ironed out because this really is a potentially great game in the making.

Take: 1) the hero/minion/spell mechanics from Hearthstone, 2) turn-based combat on a hex grid not unlike that of HoMM3, 3) roguelike elements in the form of relics, random events, permadeath, random rewards and a level tree all of which seem strongly inspired by Slay The Spire, 4) aesthetics and world-building that kind of looks like Ori & The Blind Forest; - and voila! You get Oaken - an eclectic roguelike deckbuilder that fuses all these seemingly incohesive elements into an experience that I found overall rather fun. The mechanics are slick and not excessively reliant on RNG. Success or failure hinges more on how you handle the combat and the deckbuilding than on what you roll, in spite of the roguelike elements. I know roguelike deckbuilders are a genre that's been so overused by game devs that the creative potential remaining therein can be seemingly exhausted, but even if you feel like you've played enough of those, this one could as well be worth a try. The graphics, sounds, mechanics, possible interactions - I can't really name anything clearly bad about the game, which is pretty impressive.

Oaken is a turn based roguelite which reminds me of cooperative boardgames. I certainly felt like I was playing Legends of Andor at some points. The goal of the game is to descend to the Oak Core and find out why the Song, the magic that gives spirits form and purpose, has faded away. In order to accomplish this, you need to gather resources enough in your way down so you can overcome the last obstacles in your way. I didn't find it particularly challenging to reach the end of each chapter in low to medium difficulties, but overcoming each chapter's boss will put your build to the test. Did you manage to combine the resources you found along the way to build a heroic squad tough enough? If not, your trip ends here. Oaken is one of those games that pander to munchkins who love to create overpowered combinations of skills and abilities. You won't be able to take every item you run into, so you need to pick which powerups to take and which ones to leave. The plot is paper-thin and the world-building and character development could have been much better. It is a pity because you can tell an opportunity was wasted here. The game has so much atmosphere for so little background. There are two playable characters, and you may pick among a number of guides. Each guide comes with a set of goodies and skills that change how the game is played. This makes it so even if you play many runs one after the other, you can keep the game fresh by trying different combinations. Each new hero-guide pair makes you re-learn the game and reconsider your new strategies. The main downside is that in the end of the day you are just playing the main quest once and again and again, even if there is variety to make it look like you aren't. Music ranges from serviceable to good. Graphics are fine for what they are, but it is sometimes hard to differentiate units on the board. The UI feels to busy too. Overall, a solid pick with no deal breaking flaws.

This was actually a very pleasant surprise - did not know much about it, received for free and it turned out to be a satysfying, mind-bending tactical puzzler.