There has been a load of new dungeon based games recently,
each with their own take on searching castles and dank caves for loot. Rogue
Legacy takes much of its inspiration from the castle based Castlevania games
and uses this as a template to build another randomly generating and highly
difficult game of exploration, loot and beasties.
Right from the start it’s clear that Rogue Legacy has much more
going on than many of the other Rogue-like games of recent times. You start off
with your hero entering a castle from a 2D, side on perspective and then
proceed to hunt around for treasure and the boss monsters that guard each area.
When you die your offspring must then take up the reigns and continue the
search.
The continual line of offspring randomly generate into a
number of predetermined classes. There are mages, paladins, thieves and others
which can then be expanded out into more specialist explorers such as the shinobi
and miner. Each class has its own strengths and weaknesses and different weapons
and traits that it uses. For instance – the shinobi deals high damage but can’t
create a critical hit, while the paladin is a good all-rounder and has the use
of a shield.
You get to pick from three randomly created characters at
the start of each adventure and these can be in any of the classes you have unlocked
so far. Each individual then also has traits which give them their own strengths
and weaknesses. There are a massive amount of different traits and these range
from things like Gigantism (makes your character bigger), to dyslexia (can’t
read signs) and things such as having an affinity with magic or boosting your
speed. There’s no real way to know what you’re going to get so you need to
adjust your play style accordingly.
Everything in terms of unlocking or levelling is done with
the gold you find around the castle. This can be used to up your stats, buy new
equipment or unlock the specialist classes. Upon your death any money or
equipment you have is passed onto your next character to use and spend. The kicker
is that any money left over after upgrading then needs to be given to the gate
guard in order to be let back in. This can create a cycle of not getting very
far as you don’t quite find enough to upgrade while being out matched by the
difficulty.
Rogue Legacy is certainly not here to treat players with kid
gloves. It takes a good few hours to get to grips with and to actually feel
like you making progress. As gold is the only way to level up you will often
find you need to very cautiously go on expeditions just to gather enough of the
stuff to get you to the next piece of equipment or upgrade and this can be time
consuming.
Though the castle is randomly generated you can use the architect
to lock it down. For the price of a percentage of your gold this keeps the room
layout the same and allows you to use the teleport squares you may have found
to get you right back into the action. The main benefit of this is when you
discover a boss. Bosses are fierce and difficult and will require a number of
goes to get the better of. If you decide you character is strong enough then
getting the castle locked down allows for repeated characters to simply
teleport right to them for another go. Once a boss is downed they stay dead for
good and once the initial four bosses are defeated this allows access to the
final area of the castle.
It’s fair to say this isn’t going to be a game for everyone.
It very tough, especially at the beginning and you will need to sink a load of
time into it to get you to a point where you feel safe to explore properly. The
fact the rooms move around all the time makes it seem a slightly odd decision
to base it on the Castelvania template and it can be very frustrating to realise
you’ve just wandered into the castle without locking it down, especially if you
were heading off to fight one of the bosses. That said, it does carry the same
sort of risk reward scenario as games like Dark Souls and every victory feels
that much sweeter when you’ve been trying to take the monster down for hours.
Once you level up a bit and get used to the game it really does start to get
going and you’ll be continually drawn back for more. However, many gamers might
not make it that far and that’s a shame as this is probably one of the more
inventive indie style games to come out recently.
Approach it patiently and with the knowledge that you are going
to die and it offers an experience not really offered elsewhere. It’s a must for
fans of the genre but the more casual gamer should probably get their kicks
with something a little easier to handle, much like Dark Souls or other Rogue-likes
like Spelunky.
8/10
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