FORWARD: Escape the Fold - Ultimate Edition

It makes you want to play another run, its fun. Unfortunately, it could have been so much better. As it stands its purely rng. I feel like it could be improved by introducing a mechanic that lets you define builds more concisely, instead of everything being rng.

So here's the pitch: it's a solitaire card game wearing a dungeon-crawler costume. And before anyone groans, no, that's the good bit. You shuffle your way through a dungeon one card at a time, keeping your little hero alive while monsters, loot, and the occasional bit of corruption turn up in whatever order the game fancies. It's quick, it's turn-based, and it's the sort of thing you can play with a cup of tea going cold next to you while you tell yourself "just one more run." The clever part isn't the route you pick through the dungeon, which is what it looks like the game's about. It's the inventory. You synergise your items, get the right combo of swords and gear lined up and combat sings; get the wrong draw and you're flailing about like a man swatting a wasp with a newspaper. When it works it's genuinely satisfying. When it doesn't, well, that's roguelikes for you, isn't it. The game giveth and the game taketh away, mostly the latter. It looks like pixel art, because of course it does - every indie game from the last fifteen years is legally required to. But it's sharp pixel art, the kind that grows on you, and there's a surprisingly lovely little soundtrack doing the heavy lifting on the atmosphere. Punching above its budget, that one. Now, the gripes. There's no levelling up, which is a bit odd. The only way to make your hero tougher is to hoard health cards, and there's nothing equivalent for armour, so your character improvement strategy amounts to "find more hearts." Mana's a threshold rather than a pool, stealth's a great idea that's been given about three cards to work with, and there's no infinite mode, which is the one thing a game built entirely around short, repeatable runs is crying out for. Let me see how deep I can go before I die, you cowards. But here's the thing. It's a tenner's worth of clever design, it's polished, there's a roadmap promising more heroes and more synergies, and it does the one job a game like this needs to do: it makes you want another go. For fans of casual card games with a bit of strategy lurking underneath, and anyone who's ever lost an afternoon to solitaire and felt vaguely ashamed about it. Worthwhile. There you go. A dungeon-crawler that's really a card game pretending to be an adventure, and somehow better for the lie.

One of the better roguelikes I've played. Perfect for a 10 minute sessions. You are at the mercy of the RNG sometimes, but its completely fine as the runs are so quick. Has become my go to for a quick game.