Making its jump from Steam, CloverPit arrives with an already established cult following. Promoted as the slot machine version of Balatro, the game is a roguelike built around the core concept of pulling a demonic leaver and trying to make enough money to survive to the next round.
In terms of aesthetic the game is minimalist but effective.
You start locked inside a small room. Inside you can see a locked door, the
fruit machine, a toilet, bin, a machine to buy charms from and the money
machine. There are also a couple of information boards that display the odds of
certain symbols showing up and the deal or no deal style phone which rings
between rounds.
The aim of each round is to reach a continually increasing set
number of coins. Spare coins can be put back into the coin machine to gain
interest. You get three turns in each round and early on you’ll realise it’s a
careful balance between getting coins and the tickets you need to get charms
which alter things like the likelihood of certain symbols showing up or giving
rewards for certain combinations.
All this said, the game still comes down to a lot of luck. Using
the right charms can change the value of symbols and make things show up more often
but if you get a bad run there isn’t much you can really do. This is frustrating
as even when you know the way you need to go with a build you can still play
every turn as well as is possible and still not get enough coins to get
through. It means, unlike games like Balatro, it can become tiring as decision making
is nowhere near as deep.
If you reach the end of a round without enough coins the
floor gives way and you fall to your death and need to start again from
scratch. The only permanent things you can add are when you gain a key to
unlock a draw. When draws are unlocked it means items can be placed inside them
to give options in late game or even carry certain things over to the next run.
At this point you at least get a bit more of an ability to plan ahead.
Achieving the gold needed for a round has the player set a new and higher coin target to reach. After a while you will also activate the ‘666’ numbers, which, if they come on the slot machine will see you lose all gained coins for the round. Of course, this can also be changed with charms to turn the so called ‘curse’ on its head. Between rounds the ominous phone also rings. Answering it allows you to pick from three further upgrades. Sometimes though you’ll get a cursed call which, if you can ignore, will grant greater upgrades later.
There is also a small DLC available at launch. The Unholy Fusion add on allows for players to forge various charms together to create new effects. However, it’s not available until you unlock all the draws in the game (which requires four completions). It’s both very cheap to purchase and also fairly non-essential unless you have really rung everything else out of the game.
Overall, CloverPit is an interesting game. It starts out a
bit confusing then you’ll start to work out how you are meant to play it.
However, if you don’t start seeing success in yuir runs due to the luck element
it’s hard to see players sticking with it as long term as over rogue style
games. What’s here works pretty well, it just feels a bit light weight at times
and may leave you looking for something with more depth.
Overall 7/10
