Failure can be Fun

So the great Steam Summer Sale has come and gone for this year, with its slew of discounts and marketable trading cards. I bought a couple of things I'd had my eye on for a while, but one of my best purchases was a new game one of my friends recommended to me. It's called Rogue Legacy, and the basic idea is that you are playing a dynasty of adventurers trying to uncover the secrets of this one castle. Your character can actually die on their adventure, but that's where your offspring come in. Every time you die you get a choice from one of three possible children to avenge you. The only catch is their class is randomly chosen and they may come with a few...interesting genetic traits. For example, I was recently Lady Henrietta III, a gay paladin with ADHD (which makes you move really fast). You can also be colorblind or near-sighted, among many other traits.

The fun doesn't stop there, however. The castle itself is randomly generated each time a new adventurer enters it, which means your descendants won't be able to rely on your prior knowledge of the castle's layout. And speaking of entering, be prepared to give your friendly local gatekeeper Charon all of the gold you currently have as a toll. He never charges more or less; the price is always however much happens to be on your person at the time. Because of this it's best to spend as much as possible of your hard-earned wealth on equipment, runes, and improvements to your family's ancestral manor, which is how you raise stats and unlock new classes. Every time you buy an improvement in a new area, it unlocks more of the manor with further upgrades. Tip: Health and Carry Weight are pretty important. Some of the items weigh a surprising amount.

All in all, a very solid, challenging game that's already provided me with several hours of entertainment. I defeated the first boss at about 3.5 hours of gameplay in a fight that cost me eight generations of champions, giving a very rewarding feeling when he at last succumbed to Sir Harold, a giant shinobi. Point of frustration: Dying several times without getting enough gold to buy anything. Usually this works itself out after a few heroes, but it really made me hate Charon's toll even more. On a scale of ten, I give Rogue Legacy a 9 for taking a simple concept and convincing me to come back for more. Check it out on Steam if you haven't already.

-Arcthos

A Journey of a Thousand Miles...

So as I was checking the Steam store the other night, I noticed a new casual indie game had been published. Having had a lot of good experiences with indie games throughout the past two years, I decided to check out its page. The game is called 7 Grand Steps, and I was immediately intrigued by its unique atmosphere. After watching the trailer and reading through the description, my interest only grew, and for $13.49 (normally $15, but it was on sale for 10% off) I decided it was worth looking into more.

The game is set up in the style of a board game. The board is circular, and you only ever see a quarter of it at a time. You control up to two pawns at a time, a husband and wife that you can spend tokens to move around. Each token has a symbol on it and moves the chosen pawn to the next available tile with that symbol when you put it in the slot below the pawn's picture. If you ever need more tokens, you can take the ingot located at the top of the sidebar and place it in either of your pawns' slots. Depending on their skills, they will have a higher or lower chance to make a given token. And it's important to keep a healthy stock of tokens, as at the other end of the board wait four hungry crocodiles determined to put a quick end to your family's history. Every time you complete a turn (when all of your pawns have used up their action), the entire board rotates, usually by one tile, though  I've seen it do two or three towards the end of a "round", bringing you closer to their snapping jaws of death.