Kaamos oozes style like your mother's old PC oozes an upwards-flowing black liquid from its floppy drive. You can see, hear, and adore the sights and sounds in the trailer - what's less obvious are the lovely and economically written descriptions of the setting and gear. The writer's love and respect for historical arms shows. You get to beat people with a goedendag and dark irony abounds. All of it together does a fantastic job of keeping you in its world. The world itself is low on substance. In spite of the obvious influences, don't expect a wealth of random encounters like in FTL or even Slay the Spire. Every encounter is either a duel followed by a reward, or just the reward. Your character is always framed as defending themself, with no moral greyness about their violent actions. You can't even choose between a safer path or a more dangerous one for greater rewards. There are no events with choices to select from. A missed opportunity for the attribute system already in the game! The combat is also low on protein. With the exception of the four boss fights that are the same in every run, duels play out the same because your build dictates playstyle. Normal enemies don-t vary enough to force changes. It does become repetitive before your first run ends. There are three different defense mechanics, and two viable ways to attack, but they are not deeply developed and don't interact with each other outside class abilities, which feel minor. Moves never influence the board itself. There is no inventory, and you only carry equipped gear. Found a ring that would work with something later, but don't want to replace one yet? Nope. Pockets don't exist and your character only has one finger per hand. Both are middle fingers. This lack of encounter diversity and flexibility makes individual runs feel too long and it falls short of the "byte-sized" promise. Still, given the low price, it's worth trying out and appreciating the vibes.
