EARLY SCOOP - January 2026

I decided for 2026 not to give Early Access games full reviews. Simply because it is not fair to the games and I did burn myself like that a few times in the past entries. I put on my impressions only to realise that the game isn't even halfway baked yet, and that is not proper! So this time around, instead of full blast reviews, every now and then I'll be posting this kind of update - EARLY SCOOP! - a look into games I like that are still undergoing open surgeries by the devs on the early access operating table. Today I have three titles for you to look into and a bit of ponder where they are standing as of now. Let's roll!

FUNGUYS SWARM

Now this is a title I can already vehemently recommend to everyone who is a fan of the bullet heaven, horde-smashing genre. It might be just in version 0.4, but the content density is already gobsmacking. Countless skills, passives, pets, and a hefty selection of weapons and upgrades to play with. Multiple fun systems for meta-progression are set in place, a selection of biomes and bosses; you name it. This title has it all, and if the numbers tell you the real story, the devs aren't even halfway done cooking this dish. That's more than promising.

There are a lot of great additions to the core game. New progression and difficulty overhauls make the game a bit more challenging while giving ample goals to reach towards. New Dash skills modify your basic dodge action with new, fancy behaviours - always nice to see!

But if you have never heard of FUNGUYS SWARM before, let me draw you a brief sketch - it is a survivor-like game with all the usual trappings. Hordes of relentless enemies. You dash around them doing map objectives, levelling up your wacky skills and passives to make a deadly build. The usual. What sets this game apart, aside from its cartoony, cutesy style and setting, are interesting side systems. First, mutations - your skills and weapons can have multiple interesting modifiers that change their functionality quite a bit! It's worthy of notice that other skills triggering off your weapons' attacks take that into consideration, too. So the potential for crazy, screen-clearing combos is very much here. Then there is the persistent fire curse of the Fire King - you can ramp up difficulty while in a run to obtain more powerful upgrades earlier on in the run or temporary boosts. Then, once back in the hub, feel free to use some of your dew to douse the Fire King's face and remove the curse! Or not, up to you.

Also, there's potato mech to pilot. That's the best part, really.

DIE FOR THE LICH

A game I waxed lyrical about in an old Demo Dive, a treasured roguelike with great style and superior combat flow. I love DIE FOR THE LICH and I want all of you to love it too! Now, the game is in 0.9 state, with 0.10 being tested at this moment. I am not going to lie, the title had a bit of a rough start when it entered Early Access in November of last year. Not that it was broken or shoddy, just... a bit barren. Short, with a very limited amount of enemies and weapons, it needs way more meat on its skeleton to truly shine. I believe in this project because every core component of it is so well made. The key is Blackjack-like combat; you can carry up to 3 items - weapons or shields - and each has a target number to reach with your dice and trinkets. Reaching that number lets you land a crit, which also triggers the item's unique power. But you can also use them freely before hitting that threshold - just cannot go over the number.

Since launch, we have got some new weapons - which is excellent; this is what the game needs in great plenty. New weapons, new relics, even new dice types would be greatly appreciated. We also have got a new holiday boss in the form of Krampus. And on the 0.10 beta version, you can challenge a new ACT 2 boss - the Ifrit. This is also something this game needs to do for each act, to have alternative bosses so each run feels different, to add that much-needed variety to the encounters. Crafting a real build is getting easier and easier, and that is a welcome change, as player agency is key to roguelikes being a fun experience.

I am, like many others, still not a fan of Act 3 forcing Abyss Dice as a key mechanic. It feels counterintuitive to the whole experience of making your own build. They are not as detrimental as some reviewers would like you to believe, but they are still an element that hinders you in a way that is hardly engaging or entertaining. It's a difficulty spike in wrong direction, and I sure do hope that the devs will take a look into that particular mechanic and rework it... or replace it.

CONQUEST DARK

CONQUEST DARK is still one of the best survivor-likes out there. Nothing has changed here. If you're a fan of Diablo'esque aesthetics, if works of Frank Frazetta speaks to you, and Conan is always in your heart... Well, you can't pick a better game to enjoy. It's packed with gore, heavy on the grimdark fantasy, and it has a selection of naked barbarians to toss into hordes of the undead to bash their skulls in. Delightful.

The game is currently in version 0.19.6 - and a lot of juicy additions have landed since I first talked about it in my way too early review! My only consolation is that even the earliest version of this game still slapped hard, and so the rating of being goddamn great didn't change. But since launch, a lot of things changed. Majorly, a new character selection screen. The devs realised that everyone was just rerolling stuff until they got the combination of skills and characteristics they wanted anyway, and so decided to cut the random nonsense out. Now when starting each run, you'll get full access to every option, letting you craft the base of your future build pretty freely. Then, of course, content dropped - new dark rituals, more events during runs, even more items to level up and play with. In fact, the game now has a staggering selection of weapons and skills, opening up a humongous variety of builds! That's what we want to see.

The second biggest drop was the introduction of Eldritch Scrolls and Gear. Those are the 'broken' bits, the end-game chase items that can transform any build that barely chugs along the increasing difficulty into engines of unspeakable destruction. Unlocking them will need some work, some proper grind and understanding of the game mechanics to be able to defeat higher tiers of rituals, but the rewards are well worth the effort. In addition, the new Orrathorium system allows the player to freely control the tier level of rituals, ramping up the difficulty and length of each run to their heart's content. I am always a fan of giving players all the knobs and switches to adjust the game as they wish, and this is the right way to do it. Can't wait for even more content down the line and some new end-game challenges!