Posted on: August 14, 2023
Early Access review
ryanjbury
Verified ownerGames: Reviews: 7
One-dimensional Chess?
Despite the buzzwords in the blurb, this is really nothing like a roguelike or a deckbuilder. I'm not sure I can think of anything quite like it, but I find that it tickles some of the same synapses as Chess: gameplay is turn-based, and you'll need to plan a few moves ahead and calculate enemy positions and attacks in advance when choosing your next action. Each stage is a one-dimensional combat arena and dives straight into the action. The aesthetic is sharp, the gameplay is addictive, and it doesn't make the mistake of weighing itself down with any unnecessary filler or pointless storyline clichés. The difficulty curve feels very good too: gently challenging, but with gradually increasing complexity and harder conditions unlocked as you play. Bosses have well thought-out attack patterns and don't add annoying bottlenecks to progression. There's still plenty of space for more content at time of writing, but already plenty of variety, with different combinations of character abilities, items and upgrades producing interesting new synergies in each run. Easily one of the best new games I've played for a while. 🙂
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