Recent reviews by Rognard

Stellar Interface is one of the most underrated indie games from the last decade. Developed by ImaginationOverflow, a studio based on Portugal, this shoot ‘em up is full of surprises, some great ideas, satisfying gameplay and lots of humor.


Unlike traditional SHMUPS, Stellar Interface is a shooter with heavy random elements and a non-linear progression. The player only have one life to beat the game, or better put, to finish a run. I’m temped to say that this game is a roguelite, but it’s quite different from that genre, since there’s no meta-progression (you don’t get stronger between each playthrough) but there are some unlockables (new ships, power-ups, etc) that adds to the replay value. At the time of writing, I’m around 20 hours played and I’m still unlocking new stuff and seeing new levels.


After the first level (which is mostly always the same), you get to choose several other different levels, ranging from normal stages to special stages, shop points and boss levels. Apart from shops and bosses, the regular stages can be finished after a certain amount of time (indicated on the top right corner) and special stages require you to defeat a certain number of enemies to unlock more ships. You’ll spend most of your time on regular levels, and the amount of time you’ll need to finished them varies drastically, making Stellar Interface a game where you are always alert.


Master System was my first videogame. On that console, I got to play SHMUPS like R-Type, Astro-Warrior, Cloud Master, Fantasy Zone, etc. I never beat those games (even Fantasy Zone, which is on the easier side) and yet I can still finish many runs of Stellar Interface, so I can say that it’s an easy game in the shoot ‘em up genre. Until it isn’t. Some bosses are almost always a guarantee of defeat when you face them until you learn their pattern. But still, sometimes even after beating a certain boss a number of times, I get defeated when I’m feeling too confident with a great loadout. In the end, I feel the difficulty is just right.


You may be surprised, but you might own this game already, as it’s been part of several bundles in the past, so give it a try. This game brings a novel concept that I haven’t seen in any other shoot ‘em up, and it executes it well. It’s far from perfect, but it’s a worthy experience. I wish more people could play this game and get to know it, but with a name like that, I can understand why it got lost among other games. Seriously, “Stellar Interface” makes it look like a Windows Start Menu software or something like that. See you, space cowboy!

If you’re an avid gamer, you are most likely familiar with Slay the Spire, which popularized deckbuilding with roguelike elements. Peglin does to Peggle (a PopCap Games classic) what Slay the Spire did to Dominion (the card game). Peglin just reached 1.0 recently after a bit more than two years on Early Access, and now it’s a great time to join the fun you are a fan of games with randomized elements and high replayability.


I need to emphasize that this is a game that heavily relies on luck. Sure, there’s some strategy involved, but most of the time you’re at mercy of the RNG gods. If that doesn’t bother you, or you even like games like this (like I do), you’ll certainly enjoy Peglin. This is a game that is easy to discover if you will like it or not under two hours, so feel free to refund it if it ends up not being your cup of tea.


In total there are three different areas; each one with several levels. The main gameplay loop consists in basically throwing orbs and watching them collide with pegs while numbers increase and then the sum of those numbers are converted to the damage done to the monsters. It starts simple and straightforward, and as you progress you add different orbs that are wildly different - some can damage all enemies at once, while others are super bouncy, and there’s also orbs that heal you, increase your maximum health, etc. In each area there are levels with secrets, random events, shops and a final boss at the end. It feels like a different kind of dungeon crawler. Each successful run takes about one hour to complete when you are familiar with the game.


In total there are different areas (each one with their own theme, exclusive enemies and music) so far. Each area has a set of premade pegboards (the level layout) that rotates randomly on each playthrough. After some time you will start recognizing patterns, so when it comes to level layout, there’s little variety. In total there are only four classes, so not much variety there either. On the other hand, there are tons of different orbs (think of cards in Slay the Spire) and relics (trinkets), so discovering crazy combos that can even break the game is the driving factor of replaying Peglin. There are also New Game Plus modes too, called Cruciballs, that makes the game progressingly harder on each playthrough. What is super nice is that it’s also possible to create your own set of rules on Custom Mode.


Peglin is a great addition to the deckbuilding genre that certainly deserves your attention if you’re into games like Slay the Spire and/or games with heavy random elements. There’s also something super satisfying in how the game plays, which makes it super addictive.

The game is super fun, although it might need more levels and areas variety to spice things up for it to reach the category of indie classic. The developers have said that there are more updates to come, so that’s great news. Meanwhile, I hope you enjoy your time with Peglin as much as I do.

Terra Randoma is a turn-based dungeon crawler (and also a wilderness crawler) that can be played as a roguelike (with permanent death) or as an RPG (with no punishment or almost no punishment for dying), and it’s clearly a labor of love that deserves your attention if you’re into these genres.

The first thing that stands out in this game is that the whole world is procedurally generated, not just the dungeons. When starting a game you can even choose the kind of map you want (think Sid Meier’s Civilization), which adds to the replayability. The permadeath setting (called Ironman in the game) is also separate from the game’s difficulty, which is a nice touch. During the character creation process, you can mix several classes with different starting perks, leading to dozens of combinations.

As you might have noticed, the game’s graphics resemble tabletop games, and are very beautiful in my opinion. What’s not beautiful (yet, I hope) are the sound effects and soundtrack, which can be easily muted, thankfully. You can play using only the mouse (with optional keyboard commands) and the interface is very big (for better or worse), which makes Terra Randoma a great choice for playing on laptops.

The gameplay feels very strategic and tactical, constantly demanding from the player their full attention while dealing with the character’s resources, life, stamina and hunger. There’s also cooking and crafting, which usually are things I dismiss on roguelikes and RPGs, but in Terra Randoma they’re super handy and will literally save your life, especially since buying potions (already crafted) is super expensive and there are buffs you get from cooked food that you can’t buy anywhere, even if you have a lot of spare money, so it’s handy to invest some points (and time) in cooking and crafting.

I have beaten the game with permadeath and on Normal difficulty, and it was mostly a breeze (it took me about 16 hours, more or less). Now I’m playing on hard and permadeath, and suddenly Terra Randoma became a tough as hell roguelike, which is something I really appreciate. There are also difficulties that are easier than Normal, so I believe this is a game that can appeal to all kinds of players.

Overall, I’m having a great time, the developer is super active and communicative, and the gameplay feels very polished and satisfying. Yes, Terra Randoma it’s still tagged as Early Access, but it already feels like a complete game that will only get better from now on. Totally recommended!

May the tides bring you triumph!

Inspired by Vampire Survivors, but with its own twists on the formula, Brotato is one of the finest games to come out in the recent auto-shooter games trend. Despite being in Early Access, it feels more feature complete than many final released games, with many characters to unlock, dozens of different items to choose between waves, accessibility options, a mode to play it like a twin stick shooter, and much more, it’s an excellent value for the money.

The greatest achievement of this game, to me, it’s that it strikes a very good balance between the dopamine rush feel and a highly challenging game (with several extra difficulty options to unlock). Brotato is certainly one of the hardest games in this new wave of auto-shooters, and I love that.

There’s also a nice dose of risk versus reward that adds a lot of strategy and theorycrafting to the mix, constantly demanding from the player to choose what’s the best to do with the available level up perks and items that offer a good bonus alongside some handicaps, so this is a system that allows a lot of creativity. This also reflects on the visual of the character, that morphs into some creepily awesome creature with the combination of several items and perks (think Binding of Isaac).

If you like highly replayable games, you can’t go wrong with Brotato. It already feels great, very feature complete, super customizable to your liking and needs, it has a potato protagonist and it runs on a potato. What more could you ask for? Steam Deck support, of course! This game doesn’t have a native Linux version (yet, despite being made on the Godot engine which is very penguin-friendly), but it runs without any issue on the latest Proton, so you can enjoy being the bullet hell, while avoid a hell of bullets on the later waves, on Windows and Linux systems.

Overall, it's an awesome game! 100% recommended :)

Equin 2: The Warren Peace, developed by DXF Games, is a roguelike that brings the best of the genre without most of its obtuse characteristics (like super complicated controls and unidentified items). It feels very modern, despite the charming retro presentation, and it’s a great improvement over the first game – the field of view is bigger, there’s much more variety and the humor is sharper than ever.

If you’re at least a bit familiar with roguelikes, you might know that there are some games that people consider to be “Coffeebreak Roguelikes”, or titles that are quick to play a full run. The other side are of course roguelikes that feel massive in length. Equin 2 is sitting right in the middle: it isn’t super quick to finish, but it won’t take something like 10+ hours for a single run. It feels just right, with a nice difficulty level, which is not too hard but if you get too confident, you’ll die easily.

With four classes (Warrior, Thief, Wizard, Cleric) and six different areas, the price is justified for the amount of content you get. The game isn’t perfect by any means – the lack of a fullscreen mode, the hit or miss procedural generation and a single save slot are the downsides – but overall it's a nice game for veterans of the genre and even better for those that want to start exploring the fantastic world of roguelikes. Also, the game keeps getting new content and updates, so that's another plus. By the way, there's also a demo, if you want to see how it plays - check the store page to download it.

Pros:
* Easy to play and hard to master
* Nice twist on the traditional roguelike formula
* Pleasant graphics and soundtrack
* Fair difficulty – challenging without being frustrating
* The humor is spot on and better than ever
* It gets constant updates, including new content
* It has that 'one more run' feel

Cons:
* No fullscreen mode
* Only a single save slot
* Procedural generation could be better. Be ready to face some dead ends

I'm an heretic when it comes to singleplayer FPS. I don’t care about level design or finding keys to proceed; I just want to shoot everything that moves. If you’re somewhat like me, there’s a high chance you’ll enjoy this game. On the other hand, if procedural generation annoys you and/or if you think that it’s better to play a game once and be done with it, stay away from Ziggurat 2. That being said, let’s get to the review:

The first Ziggurat game, heavily inspired by the classic 90’s FPS Heretic, were considered at its time as the best Roguelite FPS game, and I couldn’t agree more. It reunited the pleasure and madness of procedural generation and RNG with the wicked fantasy theme provided by Raven Software back then. For some, though, Ziggurat 1 lost his crown to Immortal Redneck, an Egyptian-themed game in the same genre that came out three years later, with meta-progression being the biggest feature that separated it from Ziggurat 1. Now we have Ziggurat 2, which brings the best of both: a meta-progression campaign and three classic games with no meta. And it even has Egyptian levels. The king is back to reclaim his crown.

Ziggurat 2 have five difficulty levels that you can change anytime on the fly, but here’s what’s great about it: you don’t get better rewards for playing on higher difficulty levels and you aren’t penalized for playing on lower difficulty levels. This is wonderful because it allows player from all skill levels to enjoy the game in its fullest without feeling bad about it.

It’s also worth mentioning that there’s a lot of accessibility options. You can turn off head bob, weapon recoil, the field of view slider is enormous, disable motion blur and ambient occlusion, change the item scale and choose the desired framerate. Or in other words, messing with these settings can prevent you for experiencing motion sickness and headaches, if you’re a person prone to have them in first person games. I know I am – for some reason, as I get older, I’m getting a bit intolerant for FPS games, and Ziggurat 2 is one of the very few in the genre that I can play for hours and hours while feeling perfectly fine. So huge props to the developers for making accessibility a priority in their game. On the top of that, this game runs smoothly on my 2015 PC gamer (which is considered entry-level nowadays).

The biggest mode of Ziggurat 2 is the campaign. It’s a mission-based mode with unlockables in which you can freely choose the length of your match and grind for currency and XP to level up your characters. Yes, I can hear the grognards of Ziggurat 1 complaining already – and I used to be one as well. Surprisingly, the campaign mode is so fun that I’ve barely played the classic modes (which are: Ziggurat Trail, Infinite Dungeon, and The Gauntlet). Despite being very grindy (keep that in mind! Enjoying the grind is essential in this game), the campaign is perfect for both short sessions and gaming marathons, and you can even save freely mid-game.

In campaign you have several side missions and the main quest, and you never run out of side missions, so you can grind as much as you like before proceeding on the main quest. Each chapter completed from the main quest unlocks new characters, new enemies and raise the threat level (which defines the toughness of your enemies), so don’t rush on the main quest. With each mission finished you earn a currency called Insight, that it's used for improving your skill tree (which applies to all characters). You also earn XP for each weapon, amulet and character – this encourages the player to try several loadouts to level up everything possible, since even the weapon you don’t like too much can be your last hope while finding some random loot during your runs.

Last, but not least, I must emphasize how polished and mostly bug-free this game is. It’s in Early Access but it feels like a complete game. I haven’t experienced any bugs yet, but I’ve said it’s mostly bug-free because sometimes I see a thread or another about a bug on the forums – which gets quickly fixed by the developers.

I’m writing this review now, and not waiting for 1.0, because I feel like I need to tell you: if you’re interested in Ziggurat 2, now it’s the best moment to get it. As I said, it already feels like a complete game, and keep in mind that the price will raise at anytime during Early Access and again on 1.0 release. So get it now if you want a better deal for your money. 20 dollars (or your local equivalent according to Steam’s regional pricing suggestion) is a steal for this wonderful game. Now let me get back to my current run.

Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing, released 10 years ago during the Playstation 3 / Xbox 360 era, is a kart game that still holds up today. While this PC port is miles behind of the PC ports that SEGA does today (mostly UI-wise and for the lack of Steam features), the game itself runs fine – even on a potato – and the experience is great for both single-player and split-screen for up to four players. There’s no online multiplayer, so keep that in mind. In my humble opinion, this is the second best Sonic racing title on Steam, getting behind of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, and one of my favorite kart racers, thanks to the great sense of speed.

While the graphics are showing its age, the gameplay is where is at, and there’s a lot of content, starting with the 20 characters from several SEGA IPs, like Alex Kidd, Fantasy Zone, Samba de Amigo, Super Monkey Ball, Space Channel 5, among others. There are four modes: Grand Prix (with six cups), Single Race (choose between 24 tracks), Time Trials (for trying to surpass you own high scores), Split-screen (local Multiplayer) and Missions (64 in total). You can also unlock more stuff using the SEGA Miles, which are the ingame currency – don’t worry; no microtransactions here. Also, it’s possible to have up to four racer profiles at once, so up to four people can have their separate profiles.

Like I said earlier, this port is far from perfect. There are ingame achievements, but no Steam achievements, there’s no cloud save support and the User Interface shows only keyboard keys on the screen, despite the game supporting officially Xbox controllers – with rumble functioning and the buttons mapped accordingly with the Xbox 360 version. There are also some bugs, like zombies shaking, some lighting glitches and a very rare bug (that I’ve experienced only once during my 20 hours of gameplay) that makes the power-ups take a lot longer to be randomly chosen. And there’s no online multiplayer, but there’s Steam Remote Play (a feature for playing local multiplayer games online), so it’s still possible to play with your friends from far away, but I haven’t tested this feature, so I don’t know how good it works.

Honestly, the 10 dollars base price is fine in my view, but if you’re not sure you’re gonna like this game, wait for a sale – it’s frequently discounted for 75% off, so it’s a steal at that price. Sonic and SEGA All Stars Racing is a great game, even if you started with Transformed, and it’s a blast - solo and with friends. Last, but not least: I haven’t experienced any technical issues, but if your game need some fixes and tweaks, check this forum thread for the solutions and workarounds.

Pros:
*Nice variety of tracks
*Great and fun gameplay
*A lot of content and unlockables
*Good soundtrack and sound effects
*It’s a game that stood the test of time

Cons:
*User Interface not adapted for Xbox gamepads
*No Steam achievements
*No cloud support
*Minor bugs and glitches
*Lack of official online multiplayer

Everybody knows that the roguelite of 2020 is Spelunky 2. While I agree with this statement, I must admit that Tallowmere 2 is a close second, even in Early Access. Tallowmere 2 feels like that awesome and underrated underground band, while Spelunky 2 is like a super produced rock stars band - both are great in their own ways. That being said, let’s get to the review

Tallowmere 2 is a roguelite that gives a lot of freedom to the players: your character have infinite jumps, a super overpowered shield that doesn’t break, and you can teleport anytime to your home base to be fully healed. In other words, the players have all tools necessary to do good, and when the death comes, it’s all their fault – and this is simply beautiful: no random BS or cheap deaths. It’s also worth mentioning that the combat is beyond satisfying and almost all weapons have an extra punch that makes your combos feel extremely good.

The goal of the game is to rescue all nine cursed kittens (that show up every five levels) – with each kitten rescued, you gain new abilities and a curse is cast upon your run – like making some enemies spawn in pairs, for instance. Like all roguelites, the levels are procedurally generated (meaning that no two runs are the same) and the death is permanent. There’s no meta-progression, which is very refreshing, given that roguelites (not -likes) and meta-progression are practically a synonym. You won’t grind to get better here; you'll level up as a player.

I wonder how great a multiplayer session of Tallowmere 2 must be, and I can’t wait to play it with my friends and relatives on local co-op when the outbreak is over (I don’t play online because my internet is crappy and unstable). The game supports up to fours players, making it the perfect party game for those who love total mayhem.

If you’re familiar with the first game, I need to tell you that right now this game feels more like Tallowmere 1.5. There’s a lot more to come during Early Access, like boss fights, suggestions from the community, and other goodies that have yet to be revealed.

The pricing is very fair, and I wholeheartedly recommend this game at any price – yes, even when it increases right before the full release. Overall, Tallowmere 2 is a great game to play in short bursts (which I appreciate, as I have a very limited gaming time), and it’s certainly a gem in the making – if you love challenging games and roguelites, don’t pass on it.

Noita is a roguelite platformer game which every pixel is simulated - but you probably know about this already. What it isn't clear is that this game is more like a sandbox experience where you combine spells like mad and end up killing yourself accidentaly. Or in other words, it's more of a toy than a game - at least that's the mentality you need to have if you're looking for a great time with this game. Every level is procedurally generated (no two runs are the same), you only have one life and the physics are very wild, so expect to experience a lot of insane - and sometimes even unfair - scenarios. This is a game more about the journey than the destination.


The thing I appreciate the most in this game is that it's one of the rare roguelites that doesn't have a meta-progression. You carry nothing between runs, so you can't grind to get better, only your knowldege by the game (that you acquire after several deaths) and skill (with much practice) can help you. Honestly, I think it's better this way. While I can enjoy some grind-heavy roguelites (like Heroes of Hammerwatch), it feels good to see that I'm improving by myself instead of amassing upgrades and buffs.


Being a roguelike (and roguelite) fan, I can say that I'm a huge appreciator of procedural generation in games - but it's not always it works fine. In my view, the perfect procedurally generated game would be a game that actually throws surprises at you and don't feel safe all the time (like the one seen in The Curse of Yendor), and Noita has the almost perfect procedurally generated content. You really won't play the same run twice - in fact, the procedural generation is so perfectly made here that sometimes I focus in exploring the whole level instead of trying to win - yep, it's that enjoyable. And, of course, the icing on the cake is that this game is moddable and have Steam Workshop support.


Noita is a great addition to your library if you're the kind of player that can have fun with a game even when you don't win. The game is still in Early Access and it feels very polished already. I can't wait to see it develop even more. I have a feeling that this game will stand the test of time, just like many gaming classics.

Pros:
*Easy to learn, insanely hard to master
*Top-notch procedural generation
*Interesting dynamic soundtrack
*Cloud saves and Steam Workshop support

Cons:
*You can't rebind the buttons of your controller - only keyboard
*This game could use more than one achievement, and they could be very creative

Din's Legacy is an ARPG (action RPG) focused on replayability and generating crazy situations. Almost everything in this game is procedurally generated[en.wikipedia.org], so you'll never play the same scenario twice. If you're familiar with roguelikes (like NetHack, Angband, ADOM, Tales of Maj'Eyal, etc), I could describe this game as the "rogueiest" of the ARPGs, with a brutal difficulty curve, high randomization, unidentified items and unpredictable moments - but the permanent death is optional here.

If you're familiar with Soldak Games and/or have played Din's Curse you may be wondering what are the differences. And it's simple to explain: Din's Curse is just like Diablo 1 (a single giant dungeon, slower paced), while Din's Legacy is like Diablo 2 (open world, faster paced and with more features). Both are good in their own way, but if you never played a Soldak game before, I recommend you to start with Din's Curse to have an idea about how the "dinamic, living world" of their games work, since that game is not so hectic and complex as this one. And if you fancy something more complicated, give Drox Operative a try.

Each scenario (which is some kind of mini campaign) will last you a few hours. You can choose between escape a huge dungeon, save the town, survive a zombie invasion, among others. Keep in mind that, being a heavily procedurally generated game, this game will sometimes throw you in an almost unwinnable situation, and when this happens, go ahead and generate another scenario. The gameplay loop is basically winning (or losing) scenarios and levelling up your character (level cap 100), who mutates as you play according to several situations related to what's happening right now. And when you're done with some character, you can manually choose to mutate to other class (you can even make hybrid classes!) and let your creativity go wild.

Overall, Din's Legacy is a great game if you don't mind weird graphics, a slightly dated User Interface and some performance issues here and there - remember to let your graphical options at the standard setting, as this game is badly optimized (which is its major flaw IMO). If you end up liking it so much as I do, you'll wonder why you never found a game like this before, as this is the evolution of the ARPG genre that will provide you endless amount of entertainment.

Pros:

*Super deep and fun
*Addictive game loop
*Combat is extremely satisfying
*Loot is almost always interesting
*Several classes combinations
*It feels like a roguelike ARPG
*Achievements and cloud saves

Mixed: (may or may not bother you)

*The procedural generation is very wild, for the better or worse
*The mutation mechanic is a hit or miss. I like it, but I know plenty who don't

Cons:

*Slighlty dated UI
*Poorly optimized. Turn off dinamic shadows for a smoother experience