Demo Dive #1 - August

I swear to the Dark Gods of the many underworlds that sometimes a sheer coincidence makes for a theme. I didn't aim for it, but the 3 game demos I played recently were all very closely tied, thematically. They are all toned in blacks and reds. They are all about hellish spawn, darkness, undead, and that grim dungeon-coded fantasy. They fit together like a set of titles you'd see in a bundle. If not for the fact that I want to share my impression right now, I would save them for a bit closer to the incoming Halloween! They would be such a fit... But alas! So let's roll on a little bit of a preview of a trio of demonic games with me, dear reader.

GREED & DARKNESS

An honest-to-gods ancient Dungeon Crawler! By that, I mean it harkens back to the very old genre, or rather, root of the genres, where you - a drawing, unnamed adventurer! - start your miserable adventure locked in a foreboding dungeon, full of traps, dangers, and oppressively confined chambers. The vibe in such a game is crucial to nail, and I am happy to report that GREED & DARKNESS's biggest selling point is its atmosphere. It is as oppressive as you could only wish for, but also rendered in a pretty darn unique style. The hand-drawn sprites are superbly fluid, bouncing with life. Each sway, each flicker of flame, every swing of a weapon - be it yours or the dangerous threats lurking in the dungeon - feels superbly crafted.

But what sells it to me is the ingenious use of light. You have a torch - a classic item for anyone who wants to descend the maze. And you decide when to have it out to light the rooms or when to put it down to sneak through threats in the looming darkness. The beauty of the system lies in how perfect the chambers look whenever you dim the light or pull it out. It feels so... organic. Fluid. Spot on. Of course, you cannot wander in darkness, as without the light, various items won't glint their metallic sheen, making them impossible to spot and pick up. As well as various notes, of course, remain unreadable. And so, you will need your torch up as often as putting it down to sneak past enemies. In addition, the torch's light lets you sneak peek the rooms ahead, giving you some sense of what's lurking in the next chamber. It's a very neat, well-designed system.

There are some minor hiccups. Combat, for example, is completely unintuitive. I have no clue why my sword sometimes swings properly, sometimes wiggles in place with no effect. The many buttons with their functions might become second nature the more you play, but also feel strangely cumbersome to get used to. Nonetheless, it is such a well-crafted title! With great visuals, superb soundscapes to help you navigate the labyrinthine dungeon and the ever-looming threat of the Dungeon's horrific master, the demo showed that this game will be an immersive dive into the realm of dark fantasy.

DIE FOR THE LICH

I love it to no end. I am now giddy with excitement to get my hands on the full release. That is high praise, and I cannot overstate how much fun I had with it, because see... On the surface, I should be much more resistant to this title. It is a Roguelike, turn-based combat "deck-builder" with dice. That is, in today's world, hardly a novel idea. We have, quite literally, dozens of titles like this already out and about. Maybe even hundreds, if you dig deep enough. This particular subgenre of an already oversaturated genre should be explored and exhausted to hell and beyond!

And yet, DIE FOR THE LICH's combat system was crafted by a veritable genius. I never played anything like it, and it uses the dice to its extreme, with a purity of mathematical perfection. See, you can carry multiple items - weapons, shields, and so on. Each of these has a Counter Number, which you then toss your dice (and other various items) for to reach that Counter Number, but not cross it - think Blackjack rules. If you reach the Counter Number, you acquire a desirable Critical, and each item has its Critical effect, unique to it. But of course, you cannot always hope to bet against the random rolls to get it, so you can use the items with a lower number. To gain shield, deal damage, and so on.

It's s beautiful system due to its simplicity, which is then spiced up the wazoo thanks to additional modifiers! Other than dice, you'll have coins and trinkets that allow you to have tighter control over the numbers. The dice also come with a great variety of types, offering different powers, to help you alter the random nature of the rolls. And the enemies don't idle either, cursing your items or offering a variety of debuffs to mess with your numbers, effects, outcomes, and even your tray of dice. As sweet Todd once said - It Just Works.

Add to that fantastic visuals, a highly polished and well-functioning User Interface, and the usual trappings of a roguelike game - with multiple characters, enemies, items, and 'relics' in the form of powerful passive cards, and this one seems to be a banger in the making.

HELL BUILDER

I was so completely lost playing this. You have some hellscape buildings to place, you place them, and then nothing much happens. So I kept placing them, barely seeing the number on top going up, and at some point the game took mercy on my dumb butt, let me transmute the hell to start over with some bonus...? It was all very confusing - until it wasn't. See, it was a matter of misaligned expectations. I had no clue what to expect from this title, was hoping for some DUNGEON KEEPER'esque title, where I construct a functional hell, but this isn't it.

This is a puzzle game, through and through. It's not about any resources, any traps, or building efficient chains of demonic economies. It's all about Restoring Hell by unlocking more and more demanding structures when it comes to their soul cost and placement. The challenge is a purely mathematical one - how to keep scoring big, to earn enough souls, to create locations on the expanding grid for new structures to unlock and construct. It's all about adjacency bonuses, about smart planning and understanding the ever-increasing complexity of the chain of construction. One structure leads to another, so you're constantly in need to create specific nodes, with well-placed empty spaces for the new building to occupy.

It's strangely fun, too. Didn't expect it, but it clicked with me - it becomes a conundrum machine, which, to its benefit, is completely transparent. You can always check the requirements for the next structures you want to unlock and work your way towards it, while keeping tabs on your very singular economy of souls. The game also has a very neat progression, as whenever it feels like it becomes overwhelmingly hard to gain new souls or find spots for new locations, you can Transmute Hell to start over, but this time with a new, cumulative benefit. Redo after redo, it should become much easier and quicker to reach your previous border of capabilities and breach through it.

And so, even if it was completely different from what I was expecting, it still managed to worm its way into my brain. It might not be a game I will want to always play - I feel my brain needs to be particularly well rested to employ it here - but whenever I would itch for a bit of a brain-stimulating, casual, no-stress play, I can see myself rolling with HELL BUILDER.