There are some recreation worlds so magical gamers would need to transfer there full-time, and others grim sufficient to make even dwelling via the current day appear fascinating by comparability. Assume Darkish Souls’ Lordran — it’s a pleasant place to go to (digitally), however you wouldn’t need to reside there. Not that you just’d survive lengthy anyway. Surprisingly, the newest recreation to nail the tone of its bleak world so effectively that it’s equally fascinating and terrifying isn’t a hard-as-nails motion recreation, however a puzzle-based roguelike.
Kaamos first caught my eye after I performed a demo throughout a current Steam Subsequent Fest. The sport is about in a post-apocalyptic world the place you trudge forth from one battle to a different, gaining new loot after each victory and at calmer relaxation spots alongside the way in which. In battle, you rely not on fast reflexes, however on ability in a tile-matching puzzle that in the first place resembles a match-3 recreation like Puzzle Quest, however works a lot in another way in apply.
You are attempting to match three symbols of the identical coloration in Kaamos, however the way in which you obtain that’s novel. Moderately than swapping the locations of two symbols, you rotate a whole row or column at a time. Like within the current Arranger, any tiles that slide off the aspect of the puzzle board will pop again up on the other aspect. When you’re a match-3 sicko like me, you could have a better time grabbing the mechanic instantly, nevertheless it’s a a lot totally different means of fixing puzzles in apply. There are an enormous variety of potentialities for the way you align your tiles in every flip, and discovering the precise place the place you can also make a number of matches without delay is extraordinarily satisfying.
Whenever you begin Kaamos, your board shall be largely grey tiles, which might’t be used to make a match. The crimson, yellow, blue, and inexperienced tiles you utilize to assault, dodge, or acquire armor and block stats are added by what tools you’re holding, in order you collect higher loot, your board will slowly fill with helpful tiles. Some additionally enhance the utmost quantity of armor or energy you possibly can acquire, add bonus harm, or allow you to assault twice per flip. Managing your tools to ensure they’re supplying you with a useful mixture of tiles and stats is simply as essential as making the fitting matches in fight. In actual fact, it’s arguably extra necessary to select your gear proper than to hone your expertise, since heading right into a struggle with the incorrect setup can fully tank your possibilities of successful.
Establishing your gear is easy in comparison with conventional deckbuilders, however each choice counts.
Pepperbox Studios
As a result of a lot is determined by your tools, it’s attainable to primarily lose a struggle earlier than you even begin it by getting ready poorly. Kaamos does run into some bother right here, since simply not discovering the fitting gear can imply you don’t have the power to dish out or block sufficient harm to win, irrespective of how effectively you play. In a number of cases, I got here to a close to impasse when neither my character nor the enemy I used to be combating was sturdy sufficient to interrupt the opposite’s guard. Kaamos is a slow-paced recreation at the very best of instances, however it could practically grind to a halt in case you don’t have nice tools. The outcomes generally really feel extra like the results of luck than planning.
Developer Pepperbox Studios boasts that Kaamos has greater than 180 gadgets to select from, however that presents much less selection than you may count on. Kaamos has a small pool of stats to select from within the first place, so most gadgets solely supply minor tweaks. The identical goes for its characters. There are seven to select from, and whereas I nonetheless have two to unlock, those I’ve supply little in the way in which of selection, largely simply granting bonus harm to your assaults for utilizing totally different sorts of defensive expertise.
Kaamos isn’t as versatile or replayable as different roguelike video games like Slay the Spire or Witching Stone, however even when it’s extra restricted, it nails the sensation of clutching to survival in a lightless world. The place tracing spells in Witching Stone makes you’re feeling like a mage and constructing a deck in Slay the Spire makes you’re feeling like an adventurer pulling from a bag of tips, Kaamos convincingly portrays a bare-bones journey aided with little greater than a sword and defend. Even the feeling of slamming a row of tiles collectively has a pleasingly bodily high quality that evokes throwing up your defend and shortly swinging your mace again at your opponent. It’s a harsh world in Kaamos, and struggling via it’s simply as satisfying as it’s tough.
