Runers Review
Developer: Let’s Get Kraken Games
Publisher: Mastertronic
Platform: Steam Community
Release: Out Now
Reviewed By James Horan
My second Mastertronic game to review this week and I am beginning to see a pattern developing here. This time I get to enjoy my morning coffee with the Rogue-like, top-down shooter (of sorts), dungeon crawling Runers.
Indie Developers LGK Games are joining the scene with Runers as their debut title. LGK Games are the definition of an Indie studio. The two developers (yes two) are only part-time developers, balancing full-time work and game developing successfully. With that said it is understandable that a game with this amount of depth and complexity took around three years to complete.
Runners is among other things, a rogue-like top-down shoot-em-up with an unbelievably complex spell-crafting system. Everything about the game means there is no chance of playing the same game twice, a plus. Even if the levels weren’t procedurally generated, you still have the choice of over 350 combinations of character class and ability with over 250 unique spells to create from picking-up and collecting runes that drop as loot when you kill any of the large list of enemies.
The game does not have any controller support, at the moment. Not quite sure if it ever will or not, in my opinion, it is fine as is. You have your basic W,A,S,D keys to move your player around the the dungeon. Like every other top-down shooter you have left mouse to shoot. It triggers if you have the button pressed constantly so there is no mouse button bashing. Right mouse is used, as another shoot button, when you have crafted your first spell. If your class has an ability the trusty Q key can be used to activate it and escape brings up your only hope for survival, the inventory screen. This screen is where you create the hundreds of spells that will eventually be at your disposal.
The old-school graphics, while I am not a fan of in general, I must admit work well in this game. The audio does add to the fantasy, mystic feel of the game, although for the fast-pace of the game it seems to be very slow.
Any of the area’s where the game lacks polish you will forgive for being so complex in the core areas of the game-play. Although for those of you who have or will play Alien::Isolation, you will know what a difference the right audio can make to a game. I found some of the sound effects for spells become increasingly annoying, as you are button mashing and casting a spell every couple of seconds, you might want to turn the effects off. Call that a hint or common sense, it’ll do your ears a massive favour.
The game has an impressive amount of choice for the player to choose from. In total there are 361 different character combinations, 285 spells. Two game modes, Adventure and Challenge, Adventure being the main mode, with 5 difficulty levels. I died after five rooms, two of those rooms were empty but I’m counting them as a win. Challenge mode seems to be an extensive tutorial mode, from what I can see.
Overall: It could be just me, but I feel that good graphics and decent audio can add tremendously to any game. While this game is lacking slightly in these departments, for a two man team of indie developers this game is a real joy to play. I honestly think there are hours of enjoyment to be had from Runers. No two games will ever be the same, you will always learn something new. Be it the different enemies patterns, to the runes needed to make a certain spell(that you need to survive, not want because it sounds cool). From the moment you start your first game, if like me, you will be hell-bent on eventually beating what lies beneath,
Score: 3.5
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