Solomon's Boneyard: Hideous Retro Edition

I have been playing this game for over a decade. It has evolved to a better game over the years. This is different from the current mobile game but the best 8 bucks you can spend on a game on Steam Store

Genuinely surprised this game got a pc port nearly 15 years after the release of the original mobile version, who knew how well it would control with a keyboard and mouse? There are some very much needed quality of life updates. Two of my favorite additions are the ability to recruit wizards with specific spells, and the fact you dont need to use the perk "everweld" to keep welded spells upgraded at the same rate as their single element counterparts. There are a couple new bosses which adds some much needed variety, and there is a fun "story" to follow if you actually pay attention to the dialogue between runs as the wizards begin to take solomon as more of a serious threat. At first I wasn't fond of the random wizards, but it ended up being a big positive in the end, since it got me to experiment with spells I normally wouldnt use. On the old version, I only ran morth. But since every wizard is unique and dies a permanent death, I ended up going on some runs that were very memorable, like the time I rolled a wizard that didn't have any primary attacking spells and had to rely on secondary spells to do damage. I was surprised that the archancellor even commented on his unorthodox build, there is a surprising amount of new dialogue written for this game. There are plenty of unique rings that change the way you play as well, which the only downside to that is it gets hard to justify unwelding them to make the scavengers price go down since I'm not sure they drop more than once. In fact, there is a lot of uncertainty when playing this game, as there doesnt seem to even be a wiki. It reminds me of playing a game when I was a kid before having access to the internet, discovering things for myself. Is it possible to kill solomon? Not sure, there seems to be a steam achievement for beating him, but as of writing this review, nobody has unlocked it yet. One final praise I'd like to layer on here, I love how seamless the new content blends with the old, there are new enemies and ui elements that look right at home with the old sprites. It really feels like this could have been an update that came out in 2011 for the mobile version. They even recorded new voicelines for solomon. Some downsides to keep in mind: I havent been able to get a controller to work very well, it controls the character just fine, but when navigating the menu's it seems like I can scroll to the right, but not to the left. I tried on two different computers and faced the same issue. On one of my computers, I cant get any sound to come out of the game. There is also a very serious problem with the death animation of the crows that spawn from one of the bosses. It tanks the framerate so poorly that the game grinds to a halt for a couple seconds. I'm really hoping these issues are addressed at some point, there seems to be so much love poured into this port that I would really love to be able to say it's perfect. For now, if i want to use a controller, I need to navigate the menus with my mouse. And I'll keep strategically positioning myself in an area where I can afford to stand still for a bit while I lose control of my character as dozens of crow feathers destroy the framerate.

This game offers pure wizard-shaped chaos in the best possible way! This "Retro" version actually add a lot compared with the classic mobile game so if you've enjoyed that in the past, I cannot recommend this version enough. The trailer also slaps! The enormous spell variety, relentless hordes and constant progression makes Boneyard endlessly replayable and every defeat immediately turns into “just one more run.”. YOU WON'T SURVIVE THIS but have fun trying!