My son absolutely loves BoI and plays it constantly, he was super jazzed for the new expansion so I bought it for him, though recently most of his time was spent on the Switch version. I bought myself the bundle as well - it seems like another good game to play while I watch TV on the other screen - so I’ll put some time into it and provide my thoughts later.
I liked the movement in Streets of Rogue, but hated how you “aimed” with some items, like weapons. I never clicked with that.
I really like the action in BoI, and the critter design and theming is both unique and cool. As I mentioned, everything’s been changed a lot for this DLC, particularly in hard mode. I forwarded my thorough critiques of the BoI design to the mod developer-turned dev and we had a good discussion about them. BoI has never had a designer who really cares about balance before, so this DLC brings a massive change in gameplay quality.
preach!
Any opinions on Heroes of Hammerwatch? I noticed it was the one game I didn’t know on the Steam best rated roguelite games.
if you liked Nuclear Throne, meet Voidigo (in EA):
“Voidigo is a chaotic and colorful roguelite shooter with a focus on dynamic boss fights.”
People seem to like it but to me it really doesn’t stand out in this suddenly very crowded genre. Controls are a little wonky, and no local multiplayer, when the original Hammerwatch was known for its local multi, is really annoying. There’s a massive thread on steam begging the devs for local multi, but they’ve just ignored it.
I started Heroes of Hammerwatch, and I’m not liking it a lot.
It’s a dungeon crawler in the vein of Gauntlet, where they have added on top of it a fuckton of grindy metaprogression.
The issue for me is the combat, which isn’t as active as I’d like. There is no dash, roll, or jump. Not even sprint. There is no parry. Hell, the movement is kinda slow. You have a series of classes, and each one has a primary fire and a pair of active skills that use mana. There is no alternative skills or different weapons for each class, as I say, it’s similar to Gauntlet simplicity. Most enemies are of simple behavior, too.
The combat can be a bit more fun when your character has all 3 active abilities unlocked (you only start with one), but in that sense, the game gives priority to fans of grind to fans of… you know, fun, because classes need some hours of grind too to unlock all their abilities and passives. You need to level up your character enough and level up the town center to be able to unlock the shop that unlocks the abilities.
But seriously… the game is geared towards grind. The 1-3 pieces of ore you find on the mines in a single run? Well, you need hundreds and hundreds of them in the end to unlock all the bonuses.
There is at least, a way to skip all that and play it like a normal dungeon crawler, an official trainer mod.
edit: strangely, there is no local coop in this game, which should be super obvious to make, given the type of game itt is.
I’ve gone through the change list for Binding of Isaac Repentance DLC (I dug very deep into analyzing BoI on my blog), and I say without hyperbole that this game has finally reached its true potential. It’s now one of the best action rogue-lites ever made, and it’s the only one AFAIK that will let you add infinite item combos. The game also has more items than every other rogue-lite out there, meaning that almost every run will end up different. This is the first time I can wholeheartedly recommend it. The only downside is that you have to buy all the expansions to be able to use Repentance, so you’ll want to get the Complete Bundle before the sale ends.
I have never played any flavor of BoI and never really been tempted, but maybe I will.
Taking a look at the thread I don’t see anything as fun aa Hades yet. As ij the same perfect pacing. I really like Hand of Fate 2, but its pacing is all over the place. Sometimes it’s a light resource management between action sequences, someone you have to solve a complex puzzle over the course of campaign using pen and paper. It’s not a game you launch knowing you’re into 30 minites of action-choice-action-choice rythm.
I actually think the first Hand of Fate is the better game. The action is less complex, and that means it never bogs down the game too much; you get a nice balance of turn-based and actiony parts.
If I had to list the best examples of the genre I’m familiar with, I’d say Spelunky HD, Binding of Isaac Rebirth with all DLCs, Crypt of the Necrodancer, Hades and Streets of Rogue are my top ones. They each star as best in their sub-niche. If you allow for non-action rogue-lites, I’d add FTL, Invisible Inc and Slay the Spire to that list. But there are so many rogue-lites nowadays it’s really hard to get far enough in each one to judge it.
As you’ve said all of those are quite different. Like Streets of Rogue is the kinda same type of action as Hitman games. Spelunky less so. It’s a game that keeps you on the edge of your seat, but it’s not really a constant action. Hades has that perfect blend of action, strategy and narrative. Most roguelikes have no narrative to speak of. When action comes it’s not that intense, and you make strategic decisions in the heat of the moment usually. There’s no real change of pace, you’re constantly slightly in danger.
FTL is kinda like that too. Binding of Isaac probably counts as what I describe, but I can’t play it cause I find it extremely repulsive.
Man, Risk of Rain 2 is harder than I remembered! I played a bunch of games today and only in two I got to the second-to-last map. Maybe I lost my skills, maybe it got harder with the update, maybe I’m misremembering my own skills at the game.
You know what, I had forgotten how swingy and RNG dependent was RoR2. Not only because the obvious reason, how random is the item acquisition, but also because how random can be the teleport exit placement. Even after playing dozen hours and knowing what to search for, there are a few times where I don’t see it after a pair of complete loops exploring the place because bad luck, and that’s a difference in time wasted that can be pretty big in comparison with other times where the teleporter is in front of you. Given how the time limit works in the game, a run where it happens in a pair of levels can be make the run to go to the trash, as the last level will be too hard.
I strongly dislike the time mechanics in the RoR games. They completely turn me off of the games.
Looking for a new roguelike. I bounced back of Dead Cells. I didn’t feel a clear goal. Finished Slay the Spire with the 1st two classes, Gods will fall (yeah loved it), Spelunky was great, but never finished it.
Where next? I have my eyes on Risk Of Rain 2. Does it actually has an end? Recommended?
It does have an end and I think Risk of Rain 2 is brilliant, solo and with friends. There’s a fair bit of randomness in it, but there are also systems to help you steer your character’s build somewhat. A large part of the appeal for me is the friction or risk/reward between the timer and exploring/gearing up for the teleporter fights. The item stacks and synergies can be pretty damn spectacular too.
Even forgetting the roguelike aspects, it’s a solid 3rd person shooter, with enemies with proper telegraphed attacks, where your aiming and avoidance skils are important, etc. And it has a very good variety of classes, 11 and each one has its own thing going on, they don’t feel like reskins.
I wish there was a difficulty setting in between the first and the second one, though. I’m using a cheat mod to ‘fix’ it.
I’ll just throw in my opinion that Risk of Rain 2 is brilliant. This is coming from someone who loves the idea of roguelites, but very rarely gets hooked by them. This is one that got me hooked, plus it is fantastic fun as co-op.
thanks, got it. I like it, I started the game and switched to “easy” mode to learn the systems… Could get to the snow world (3rd world). Then I switched back to normal, the intended way to play.
So you lose all your money when teleporting to a new level? I guess then there is no point in hording money…