Howler for an Hour Stream: Tangledeep
0http://store.steampowered.com/app/628770/Tangledeep/
I don't think I can describe this game in a non-biased format. It struck a perfect, familiar vibe with me that just resonated too much for me to be a properly critical of it. Still, I'll try.
Tangledeep is a dungeon crawler rougelike VERY much inspired by the Mystery Dungeon style of games. It has wonderfully-implemented pixel graphics; the details flow and pop with a level of professionalism that reminds me of Square's best efforts back on the SNES. The fidelity of the graphics more reminds of some wonderful pixel graphics on the PS1 as well, as the color depth is probably too advanced for 16-bit. It's hard to make a tile-based, randomly-generated game look pretty, but these graphics pull it off wonderfully.
The gameplay difficulty is selectable from the start. The recommended way is very rouge-like; you die, you lose the character; but, you keep certain things, such as the progress with your hub area. There is a hardcore mode that wipes EVERYTHING upon death, as well as a friendlier form that just makes you lose half of your items and money and sends you back to the hub.
Honestly to me, this game looks, sounds, feels and plays like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon...and I love it for this. (Specifically the original games in this series, Red and Blue, as well as the 'Explorers' games. Specifically I point these out for the lovely pixel graphics, as well as the fact these are the PMD games I played the most.) This is why I find it hard to give it a critical review; it plays so much like these older games that, for me, are some of the best games I've ever played. (The PMD games are the only video games to ever invest me enough to bring me to tears, so anything competently measuring up to them has done something very right in my eyes.)
I'm not blind though; I can tell if something is truly implementing mechanics well, or is just behaving as a cheap imitation. I'm happy to say that Tangledeep is not some lesser knock-off; it operates just as well with the classic Mystery Dungeon formula, if not better than it. Movement is clean, animations have just the right amount of detail, different attacks from both you and foes add a lovely element of strategy and positioning, and constant equipment drops and level ups means you can customize how you go about setting up your character a great deal - on top of the myriad of character classes that exist to begin with.
This is about $15 on Steam too. That's it. It's a full-release, not Early Access either, so that's its full price. And I totally think it's worth every penny.
This game is too lovely. I need to go play it some more, so I think I'm done writing about it. Sorry for the bias, if I have any; I couldn't find anything I really disliked about this game, haha. -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/charemplaysgames