A few more 7DRLs I played! This year has brought us a number of very lovely games.
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| Me as I arrived on the final floor... |
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| ...and me as I'm about to get killed, while the boss has a single hit point left. :( |
You are a precog sent on a mission to exterminate the source of slimes infesting the sewers. The game is quick, short and fun. You are given just the right amount of special abilities and unique enemies to test your tactical prowess.
What is different about it, though? It offers an interesting take on combat with no random rolls, making your every action a consumable resource. You see how much damage will each of your attacks deal and they are expended with use, so you need to collect new attacks to stay effective in a fight. You see how many defensive moves (Armour, Teleport or Revenge) you have left, so you can plan on when to take a hit and when to run away to find a new defense. You also see how many hit points the enemies have and what move will they take next, so you can consider your every step with complete knowledge.
As you delve deeper, you even get special commands for managing your resources - you will be able to stash powerful attacks for later, discard unwanted techniques or swap defensive moves depending on which you want. This gives you great control over the flow of combat, and you need to use these abilities cleverly to have a good shot at winning the boss fight.
Preparing for the boss is very important. Trying to fight all the slimes on the upper floors is nothing but a slow death of attrition. You need to build up some reserves, not spend all your resources before you even get to the final floor. I eventually ended up running through the five floors of the dungeon avoiding as many fights as I could, collecting some attacks, defenses and special techniques along the way, and conserving my powers for the final floor.
Once there, the real challenge begins. You have to combine all of your moves in a way that will get rid of the boss before it can flood you with the newly spawned slimes. All the tools are at your disposal, and it's great fun trying to figure out your next, most effective action.
What is different about it, though? It offers an interesting take on combat with no random rolls, making your every action a consumable resource. You see how much damage will each of your attacks deal and they are expended with use, so you need to collect new attacks to stay effective in a fight. You see how many defensive moves (Armour, Teleport or Revenge) you have left, so you can plan on when to take a hit and when to run away to find a new defense. You also see how many hit points the enemies have and what move will they take next, so you can consider your every step with complete knowledge.
As you delve deeper, you even get special commands for managing your resources - you will be able to stash powerful attacks for later, discard unwanted techniques or swap defensive moves depending on which you want. This gives you great control over the flow of combat, and you need to use these abilities cleverly to have a good shot at winning the boss fight.
Preparing for the boss is very important. Trying to fight all the slimes on the upper floors is nothing but a slow death of attrition. You need to build up some reserves, not spend all your resources before you even get to the final floor. I eventually ended up running through the five floors of the dungeon avoiding as many fights as I could, collecting some attacks, defenses and special techniques along the way, and conserving my powers for the final floor.
Once there, the real challenge begins. You have to combine all of your moves in a way that will get rid of the boss before it can flood you with the newly spawned slimes. All the tools are at your disposal, and it's great fun trying to figure out your next, most effective action.
You are a droid prospecting for gold in a monster-ridden cavern. You will find various types of guns and equip up to four of them to fight nicely distinct enemies in a turn-based bullet hell. You have unlimited ammo, but can only move and shoot in cardinal directions, which makes positioning interesting when combating some of the more tricky monsters or navigating the deviously designed treasure rooms. You will also be constantly low on fuel, which can only be replenished by pushing further. The game captures the edge-of-your-seat gameplay of many shoot 'em ups quite well, despite being turn-based.
I don't have anything more to say except that you should try this one. It's good and short enough you can't even complain about wasting your time.
Super Normal 7 Day Roguelike
A very traditional Broughlike that seems to be intended as a mobile game, given its dimensions and mouse/touch controls. It may be ASCII, but it looks very nice and even has a soundtrack and sound effects.
Everything dies in a single hit, you included, so the game consist of figuring out how to survive the small floors using the limited abilities you are given. Even though there are only three types of enemies, it can get quite challenging with fireballs flying around and hordes of kobolds chasing you. Hilariously, the enemies are extremely prone to friendly fire, so you can bait them to slaughter themselves.
It could probably make a good coffee-break game, or something to play when you need to clear your mind.
Catacombs
Simple but well-polished dungeon crawler with a nice old-school feel.
You start as a skeleton who reclaimed its humanity with a potion of resurrection, and delve into the catacombs below your cemetery. You collect food, coins and extra hearts from defeated enemies and destroyed furniture. You have fun.
A few floors down, food started to become a problem for me, though you can stay ahead of the damage starving deals with hearts and healing potions for a while. And even if you die to starvation, you only return to your skeleton form and can eventually find another potion of resurrection. Skeleton doesn't need to eat, but I don't think it cannot have more than a single heart, which would be a big problem against some of the later, sturdier enemies.
Most enemies die in a single hit, but you should take care of your rather limited health. A little trick - you can walk into wall to skip a turn, letting the monsters come to you. Many creatures also have little quirks that distinguish them from other monsters - bats move randomly and unpredictably, zombies knock you back, etc. The rare 2 HP monsters can be a real problem, as they will always get a hit on you unless you can lure them through some trap first, softening them up.
Certain floors also have special effects - there is one where all monsters leave behind little flames when killed, forcing you to wait or take damage; another where invulnerable ghosts will appear and chase you for a little while before disappearing. There is also the occasional shop floor.
Though obviously based on pre-made rooms, the dungeon generation is quite fun. Some treasure rooms require that you find a key, some have a trap in the entrance to make you pay with blood for anything gained. With the way you move between screens, you can often see where you are going and what waits for you in a room before finding the entrance, letting you make an informed choice to take it or leave it. You will also soon learn the general pattern of level generation, allowing you to make rather accurate guesses where the downstairs should be, so you can skip most of the level and just go down.
Which brings me to the only downside of the game - it's too big. It's really fun for a while, but eventually the monsters and rooms are all the same over and over again. I reached level 67 before the game unfortunately crashed on me, and I would have loved to see some final boss around level 50, if not a bit sooner. I'm not sure if there even is a boss, but all that said, the game is good and is worth a try.
Edit: Apparently, Catacombs are endless. I would still like to see a boss instead.
I don't have anything more to say except that you should try this one. It's good and short enough you can't even complain about wasting your time.
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| Yup, no way to survive this. |
Super Normal 7 Day Roguelike
A very traditional Broughlike that seems to be intended as a mobile game, given its dimensions and mouse/touch controls. It may be ASCII, but it looks very nice and even has a soundtrack and sound effects.
Everything dies in a single hit, you included, so the game consist of figuring out how to survive the small floors using the limited abilities you are given. Even though there are only three types of enemies, it can get quite challenging with fireballs flying around and hordes of kobolds chasing you. Hilariously, the enemies are extremely prone to friendly fire, so you can bait them to slaughter themselves.
It could probably make a good coffee-break game, or something to play when you need to clear your mind.
 |
| Is that chest worth walking over the spikes? |
Catacombs
Simple but well-polished dungeon crawler with a nice old-school feel.
You start as a skeleton who reclaimed its humanity with a potion of resurrection, and delve into the catacombs below your cemetery. You collect food, coins and extra hearts from defeated enemies and destroyed furniture. You have fun.
A few floors down, food started to become a problem for me, though you can stay ahead of the damage starving deals with hearts and healing potions for a while. And even if you die to starvation, you only return to your skeleton form and can eventually find another potion of resurrection. Skeleton doesn't need to eat, but I don't think it cannot have more than a single heart, which would be a big problem against some of the later, sturdier enemies.
 |
| I had to return to an early shop to buy the potion of resurrection. |
Most enemies die in a single hit, but you should take care of your rather limited health. A little trick - you can walk into wall to skip a turn, letting the monsters come to you. Many creatures also have little quirks that distinguish them from other monsters - bats move randomly and unpredictably, zombies knock you back, etc. The rare 2 HP monsters can be a real problem, as they will always get a hit on you unless you can lure them through some trap first, softening them up.
Certain floors also have special effects - there is one where all monsters leave behind little flames when killed, forcing you to wait or take damage; another where invulnerable ghosts will appear and chase you for a little while before disappearing. There is also the occasional shop floor.
 |
| I like how you can skip some floors with a key, or take a peek at a treasure room before you even know how to get there. |
Though obviously based on pre-made rooms, the dungeon generation is quite fun. Some treasure rooms require that you find a key, some have a trap in the entrance to make you pay with blood for anything gained. With the way you move between screens, you can often see where you are going and what waits for you in a room before finding the entrance, letting you make an informed choice to take it or leave it. You will also soon learn the general pattern of level generation, allowing you to make rather accurate guesses where the downstairs should be, so you can skip most of the level and just go down.
Which brings me to the only downside of the game - it's too big. It's really fun for a while, but eventually the monsters and rooms are all the same over and over again. I reached level 67 before the game unfortunately crashed on me, and I would have loved to see some final boss around level 50, if not a bit sooner. I'm not sure if there even is a boss, but all that said, the game is good and is worth a try.
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| This golem tried to knock me out of the map, killing the game itself! |
Edit: Apparently, Catacombs are endless. I would still like to see a boss instead.
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