Rogue Legacy

I made the terrible mistake of purchasing this the week before my university finals. Suffice to say, I've done next to no study for exams... This is a Rogue-like game, with a randomly generated castle (which can also be locked down by an upgrade to stop it changing for that play-through). The game is challenging, addictive, has fantastic music and art direction. It rewards the player constantly and consistently with many types of upgrades for your chosen hero - heroes themselves are varied enough that that no two plays are quite the same.

This game feels completely nonsensical. Playing it for the first time feels like i've somehow started playing on somebody else's savefile. There's very little disposition for what's going on. A game doesn't necessarily need an explanation if the things in the game don't need that much of a backstory or explanation. But in this case, the game feels unfinished. You're thrown into a new game with an extremely brief "tutorial" (which doesn't explain the controls until you've already figured them out, so what's the point of the tutorial). This gives the smallest amount of a backstory and explains a little bit of the characters' backstory but hardly explains why you're there. There's an unnecessary amount of enemies that you'll run into straight away, literally within the first 2-3 rooms, which makes no sense for the structure. There's absolutely no reason for this, it's not even explained why the enemies are there- they just are. The game has GBA style music and a pixellated art aesthetic (which feels oddly higher quality than the style the music is going for). It doesn't feel like this aesthetic is needed to improve the atmosphere of the game in any way. Controls are floaty and it feels like a bad PC port with the layout of the controls being all over the place. I like the tower upgrading system and how it actually effects the design of the tower in the upgrade screen. The attributes system is interesting and it seems okay but underdeveloped.

...and all the "UPGRADE COMPLETE" grinding, too ;) Basically, you have the heart of a nice sword-swinging platformer in randomized levels (I liked the map generation a lot, and the enemies are pretty varied), and then a shell of spending hard-earned gold on unlocking new classes, upgrades to your health, damage etc., and buying items to equip. With decently decked-out character you can now breeze through the starting areas feeling all-powerful, letting spikeballs bounce on your head with barely any impact (and destroying them, thanks to Retribution runes). There are hard choices to make - every character class has some cool powers, and there are only so many equipment pieces and runes you can wield at once. You are not going to waste Siphon runes on a Spellsword, for example, but they could make sense on an Archmage - up to a point when every spell you cast yields net positive mana if it hits at least one enemy. If you have enough dexterity, you can jump into a room with Hokage and clear out the enemies with just a few sword swings. To play defensively and survive longer, choose a Barbarian with tons of health. And if you want to switch gears and just collect gold for that spell discount, get a Spelunker. I got more than 20 hours of fun out of the game, beaten it and toyed for a while with NewGame+. All in all, good entertainment.

This game focuses purely on the gameplay and the controls, as the story is just limited to the generic "hey there is something-something in this castle" sorta deal, however dont let that scare you away for this game have some of the greatest controls yet. With its pixel perfect controls, and fluent gameplay you feel that you get better as you go through, not because of some fancy upgrades but as a player just get better as it goes on. The gimmicks og this game is a random-generated dungeon that mixes up every playthrough, and not only the dungeons but every "life" you have is also random as your decendants take up the sword after you to follow your footsteps. I recommend this game wholeheartedly, and even if the story might fall a bit short the gameplay and the progression will carry this game into the indie-gems of 2013.

Get it if you like old games, but the controls, responsiveness of new games.