Indie Slasher's Keep - first person roguelite

[Makabb]

http://www.slasherskeep.info

Spoiler

Daggerfall meets Dark Messiah meets Doom?

 

[Makabb]

 

[Filthy Sauce]

YEEEAAAH

 

[Siveon]

Well, it looks like two of those things (Diablo and Daggerfall). And Doom and Dark Messiah shit on this game's combat in the sense of speed and impact.

Also it's another randomly generated roguelite. Shame.

 

[LESS T_T]

Out now on Early Access:

It's a first-person roguelite with a focus on melee combat and loot. Now for some vague copy followed by a list of features:

You have been imprisoned and left to rot in the depths of Slasher's Keep, a frightful construct towering above the forgotten forest in the remotest wilds of Ool. As rulers came and went the keep remained the final destination for the nation's most undesirable elements. Many a scoundrel has tried and failed to escape its dungeons, perilous as they are. Will you share their fate, or will you overcome the challenges ahead involving the features below?

• randomly generated levels
  
• various traps to trigger and secrets to find
  
• randomly generated items granting you stats and abilities
  
• dynamic melee combat with different swings and thrusts, as well as precise parrying
  
• smacking of enemies into spikes and chasms using your inventory sack
  
• various types of enemies with different abilities
  
• various types of magic wands for a bit of ranged combat
  
• two playable characters to choose from with more to unlock
  
• a drag-and-drop based crafting system
  
• cartoon graphics made up of cel-shaded models, hand-drawn sprites and even some procedural animation

 

[Makabb]

Great little game, playing it and love it already, think Dungeons of Dredmor but in FPS, the combat is probably already better than what will be in Kingdom Come, it's fun to whack and dev is actualy smart because when you double click mouse and hold the button the player character automaticaly whacks his sword without you having to press the button constantly which is a godsend with many mobs.

 

[Makabb]

Yep I will be seeing this screen a lot

 

[Unkillable Cat]

On one hand this looks and sounds really cool.

On the other hand it already has the Makabb Seal of Approval.

 

[MuscleSpark]

So is this the Ultima Underworld of roguelites?

 

[Abu Antar]

EDIT:

 

[d1nolore]

Oh man those fugly hipster graphics are giving me a headache.

 

[Zombra]

Released!



I haven't tried it yet but am looking forward to it. I'm hoping that the developer took my advice and added options to turn off UI elements. Too many flying numbers annoy me very quickly.

 

[Narushima]

That trailer is a turn-off. Why would you want that horror to be the first thing your prospective buyers see and hear?

 

[Eisen]

This art style didn't click on me

 

[Mastermind]

This art style didn't click on me

 

[Eisen]

This art style didn't click on me

That's Tong Nou

 

[Narushima]

Hi Tong Nou.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Did Underworld Ascendant get an upgrade?

 

[Infinitron]

 

[Zombra]

Why would you want that horror to be the first thing your prospective buyers see and hear?

Both trailers lean heavily on the "not being able to understand a fucking word the narrator says" draw. Interesting choice.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Well, he is a molerat or something mutant.

 

[Farewell into the night]

Anybody played it? Is it better than Underworld Ascendant? lol

 

[luj1]

Cel shading can fuck off.

 

[PrettyDeadman]

I played it and remember it being rather shallow.

 

[ShaggyMoose]

I picked this up randomly yesterday and hadn't seen much mention of it (but apparently the search here failed me) so thought I would give some details. It's a rogue-lite, room-based dungeon crawler with meaningful deaths and a neat mechanism for meta-progression.

• Game is cell-shaded and ranges from well-drawn (the equipment in particular looks great) to meh.
• When you die, you lose levels, stats and gold as well as all of your equipment. However, scattered over the dungeon are "loot chutes" which you can use to post equipment back to your restart point like a vacuum tube system. It works quite well, because you have to decide whether to try and use equipment now or use it to boost your next attempt. You also get permanent perks that persist through deaths. I find this to be a thoughtful way of introducing progression, but the first few runs are very shaky until you get the idea and the increase in enemy difficulty between floors is very steep. I suspect I may be grinding the first few levels a lot...
• Has the usual random loot generator as well as some interesting non-standard equipment, such as use of your loot sack to smack enemies into spikes and pits, ala Dark Messiah.
• Room-based because each floor is basically a serious of procedurally generated traps and challenge rooms, some of which seal as you enter and can quickly put you in a very difficult situation. Getting careless or running into a awkward combination of enemies can end in YASD at any time...
• Has a heavy emphasis on melee combat and parrying in particular. Actually works quite well, meaning combat is not just a spam-fest. You can still stun-lock some enemies if you weapon is fast enough, but I didn't find it reliable.
• Has a crafting system that uses junk you find around the dungeon to assemble weapons with specific stats and capabilities. As a general rule, the equipment you can buy in stores is better, but only if you have the gold...
• Has a bare-bones story that is revealed as you climb the tower.

Now for the jank part...

• Navigating the world is painful. You get caught on every little piece of the environment; stairs, doorframes, tables, decapitated heads... I almost gave up in the first hour because movment felt so clunky and your starting character is basically a soap bubble. Seems like the developer also decided throwing jumping puzzles into this mix was a good idea; it was not...
• Side stepping and back peddling are painfully slow and getting surrounded by more than a couple of enemies is usually a death sentence. Basically, you are forced to play methodically and constantly aware of your surroundings. Anyone who wants to run and gun through levels will not enjoy this at all.
• Basic QoL features like highlighting the appropriate equipment slot on your paperdoll or comparing shop equipment are inexplicably missing.
• On the plus side, I have played for ten hours and not had a single crash or game-ending bug. Worst problem I have encountered is sometimes you swing at an enemy and it just doesn't register, then you immediately get smacked in return.

Overall, a cautious recommendation if you are prepared for the jank and appreciate the game loop.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/598060/Slashers_Keep/

EDIT: Search fail...