The format of Early Access It is gaining more and more strength when it comes to the launch of PC games in particular. Although it’s not as popular on consoles (and that makes sense due to the different user base), more and more studios are releasing their work in Early Access via Steam to, little by little, refine the formula and listen to your community. of players. Today we are talking to you about one of these cases, Hell mapof which the final version launched on February 1 after being in early access for almost a year. The game was developed by Thing Trunk, the same ones who brought us works like Undying (of which we leave you an analysis here) and published by Skystone Games and Surefire Games.
Defined as a cooperative roguelike card gamewe will explain our feelings and what we thought after several hours in this analysis of Hell map for PC.
Kill the shadow of the arrow is long
Without a doubt, when we talk about “terrace builders“we need to talk about Kill the arrow and how different or similar they are to this one. The game really rests on very solid foundations: completely valid and varied builds, clear game rules and a clear and visually clean user interface
All the work, yes, will be “infused” with the tone of the previous title game”Book of the Demons”, only in the previous case we were talking about an Action RPG and here we are talking about a totally different genre. Borrow elements from the game since, like in Book of Demons, your enemies will be hordes rather than very powerful and few enemies. SO, emphasis will be placed on “crowd control” and know how to choose the specific objective among all those available.
But there will also be differences
This mentioned fact is a differential point, the other is the great online co-op addition. But don’t worry since the game can be played perfectly alone since the AI will be the one that will accompany us with other characters, each with their deck, their passive abilities and their own resources and health. In addition, these companions will work very well and will give us the feeling of being almost autonomous since they will improve their own deck and choose their path.
Playable, an adventure awaits us throughout 12 levels in hell in which, to begin with, you can choose between a magician, an archer or a barbarian. We can improve our character and its characteristics as we use it in combat. These fights, as happens in Kill the arrowwill be a mix of, both, trying to do as much damage to the enemy as possible, but, on the other hand, trying to mitigate the damage they can do to you.
If one of our heroes dies, you can only revive him in a special room. Throughout the 12 plants (each of them procedurally generated) we will have an armory to improve our deck, a camp to heal ourselves and even a treasure room to obtain new cards.
In the middle of the battle, you can play with their cards as if they were yoursYes, limited to choosing one from two and not freely from the whole game. And if you are not convinced by the companions assigned by the AI, don’t worry because halfway through the game you will find more of characters that you can recruit and get rid of all your companions who will not convince you.
Hellcard analysis: always think about strategy
This fact opens a wide range of possibilities since you can “use” them for more aggressive/defensive tasks and then switch their roles to others if necessary. It will also be used to play with the different health levels of your companions, since new members will join the health bar at full capacity and it can be used to micro-manage the health of the group.
And believe me, you won’t need it anymore Hell map it’s a difficult game. You will have several tactics and options, but they will also be “multiple” because you will face several enemies. We emphasize in the section we mentioned previously that Hellcard places much more importance on the number of enemies than on their strength.
The importance of your party will be vital since it will not only be a battle of power versus power, but the importance of the team is seen, for example, in the fact that the most powerful cards usually have negative effects on your teammates and you should always be aware of this. think about the group and not just your character. The common good will be what wins a battle and the team will always be preferable to individualism.
Like a good roguelikeeven if we lose and find that we have no way of winning, the feeling of progress in defeat It is latent and will make us want to embark on a new journey with which, surely, we will go further.
As for the audiovisual section, zero complaints and I think that the tone used in the color palette corresponds very well to the proposal proposed. The tone of the board game is clearly implemented and combines very well with what we will be playing for hours and hours.
Hellcard analysis: conclusions
If you like deckbuilders and liked Kill the arrowyou will definitely like it Hell map. Of course, oriented more towards multiplayer, there are slight differences that may please you more than the masterpiece of the genre or, on the contrary, you may miss in this one. Anyway, recommended to anyone who likes roguelikes and card games
Pro.
- The importance of your party and its management
- Like any roguelike, the feeling of progress even in defeat
Contra.
- If you play it alone, you probably won’t get 100% of its benefits.
- Kill the shadow of the arrow is long
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