Okay I gave it a run over lunch. 

HOLY FUCK GUYS. 

This is like Slay the Spire crossed with Darkest Dungeon, not sure where the X-Com comparison comes in, I guess a little bit in how the turn resolves. 

It's very similar to Spire in terms of how the cards and the energy pool works. You also pick your route through the levels. 

The combat is quite interesting because you summon multiple units, cast spells and then when you end the turn the combats between your and the enemy units resolve. 

I guess there's a tower defence element as well, because the enemy is trying to work it's way up the floors on your train carriage to reach the crystal at the top and destroy it, if they destroy it the game ends, the crystal has it's own life pool though, and you can also restore health to at it rest stops a bit like spire. 

It seems like there's a lot of depth to the combat, as your characters have a lot of different synergies. I'll probably stream at some point over the weekend so if you're curious you can check it out!

Tl;dr - I'm getting the same vibes I had from Slay the Spire when I started playing that, which is hopefully a very good sign.

One evening in and this is deffo good. It feels as good as Spire, it's early days with the game, but based on what's in it, it looks like I may possibly end up preferring it to Spire, which is crazy because Spire is best deckbuilder. 

This game is just slay the spire, but with more stuff to do during a fight. It's a bit less reliant on knowing the attack patterns of enemies, and more about how many ways you can be a dirty fucking cheater with how you order your characters and what buffs you give them. Very appealing to the bit of me that will always love Binding of Isaac, the greatest roguelike to ever be like Rogue. 

Managed to clear my first run after a few goes trying to find my feet and watching a couple of vids.

Oh yeah and it's 20% off on steam now.

Oops, forget that I came in here to say that Darkest Dungeon is Steam ftp weekend and under £5 right now.

Oh dear, this game has it's hooks in.

What have I done? This'll be another 500 hrs of my rapidly decreasing lifespan.

Roujin wrote:

Can't find the twitch thread right now, but I'll give this a stream this evening for anyone who wants to escape the current news cycle for a bit. Will start around 19:00-20:00.

am still working then so can tune in

I inevitably end up going back to Unreal World.  This will not be for everyone.

Yeah Hades is good but I've not had a lot of time on it yet. Can I just saw that Enter The Gungeon's soundtrack is orgasmic? Yes, I can! It's sublime.

Blocks100 wrote:

With the news that Void Bastards is coming out on PS4 and Switch next month, do you think M$oft is likely to do a sale on their store before it releases on other formats? It currently stands at £25 which is a bit rich for my blood. I know the general consensus around these parts was that it lacked that 'one more go' factor, but would anyone else recommend it?

Void Bastards is awesome; it's not quite a "restart right now" rogue like, but it's brilliantly repayable in the sense of being able to just smash out another ship.

Roujin wrote:

RedDave2 wrote:

Roujin wrote:

Can't find the twitch thread right now, but I'll give this a stream this evening for anyone who wants to escape the current news cycle for a bit. Will start around 19:00-20:00.

Now that you've had it for a week, does it hold up - I havent bought a game in ages and this is the one winking like crazy at me. Does it get the Rouj seal of approval?

I'm enjoying it as much as Spire. It gets the Rouj seal of approval for roguelikes.

Awesome, I'm in. Just waiting for the Train to download...

It's not as balanced as StS but it's probably more fun. It's StS - SEGA Blue Sky Edition.

SpaceGazelle wrote:

It's not as balanced as StS but it's probably more fun. It's StS - SEGA Blue Sky Edition.

Possibly true. I found my simple set up worked for all levels except the final one, and a lot of the cards I haven't used yet.

Slay the Spire just landed on iOS

Nice one Jon. I nabbed that ages ago from epic. From raw fury who I dig a lot, from memory. (kingdom, dandara and a few others I'm forgetting.)

I am 8 achievements (of 403) away from completing my first save file in Isaac.  I didn't realise it was going to be like this, but I can't stop playing.  

Realistically, it's just 4 achievements; beat The Lamb without any pickups, increase in size 5 times in a run, finish the Ultra Hard challenge, and complete a 5-win streak in Daily Challenges, which will then cause the other 4 to pop, but heck what a great little game.  I must be nearly 900 hours in.