Rogue-likes have been influencing video games for quite some time now, but until recently, they had fallen out of the limelight. A slew of new indie games have decided to try and bring at least some of the attention back to this beloved genre with the likes of FTL: Faster Than Light, Rogue Legacy, The Binding of Isaac, and most recently, Eldritch.
Eldritch is an interesting game to describe. It has a Voxel-based art style, made popular by the massive indie hit Minecraft, and it is played in the first person perspective, something rare in a rogue-like. You start off like games of a time long past: no equipment, no directions, and no idea of what to do. In fact, it is never really explained what your end goal is. Sure, you’ll get extremely vague hints from the library that you spawn in, but other than that, there’s not much to go off of. That generally wouldn’t bug any veteran to the genre, but it may be off-putting to newcomers.
While the graphics may be simplistic, everything is still appealing to the eye. The color scheme consists of softer, more washed out colors, such as blue or green while still managing to have the occasional red or purple thrown into the mix. Also, the sound design is well done, in my opinion. The ambient noises that the monsters inhabiting the dungeon you are in make are appropriately unnerving, especially in the lower levels, and while they may seem slightly underwhelming, the gun and dynamite noises are appropriate given the context.
The gameplay is an odd thing, struck with a slight case of identity crisis. In the beginning, it is fairly straightforward: you get two weapon slots, with the coice of a gun, a knife, rocks, bottles, and dynamite. Also, you can use magic, found from randomly generating totems. You can’t just freely use this, however; each use costs a certain amount of artifacts, the currency of Eldritch. Using these powers, you fight the enemies roaming around, while collecting artifacts, bullets, and items that ake you stronger, all the while progressing deeper and deeper. However, once you reach the second area, this one with a desert theme, the gamepay is changed up. Now, there are three seemingly unkillable enemies. Suddenly, Eldritch has gone from shooty stabby explodey to OH CRAP THAT THING WON’T DIE RUN. This hurts the pacing overall, since progression is much more slow due to this odd and unpredictable jump in difficulty. Also, the stealth mechanics aren’t done very well, since there’s no way to know if an enemy sees you or not.
Overall, Eldritch is a fairly decent game, one that I would recommend for a playthrough or two. While it is fun in the beginning, after a while, the repetition in environments and enemies will bore you, and you’ll be looking for another game. But for a short little dungeon-crawling rogue-like romp, Eldritch certainly doesn’t disappoint.
Images via Eldritchgame.com for review purposes
0 responses to “Descending into the world of Eldritch”
Sounds like a nice game, though I didn’t really see you mention how the game is based on the HP Lovecraft Mythos. I also noticed a great deal of spelling errors, you also didn’t really get into much detail of the game. Not trying to be a downer , just trying to give some advice. I suggest next time re-reading your article before submitting it or having some edit it for you to make corrections .
I totally understand; this was my first article, and actually the first review I’ve written. I guess I misunderstood, and thought I’d get to proofread before it was published. But thanks for taking the time to read it and comment!
For a first article it is pretty reasonable then, I’ll await your next one to see if I can catch improvements.
Seems like a fun game. Hadn’t heard of it, perhaps I’ll give it a look.
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