Cryptical Path

Very meh game. It's just boring, and makes such poor use of the roguelike system. The "upgrades" you get are so bland and uninspired, and anything remotely interesting comes with downsides. It's like the devs are scared an upgrade might actually make you capable of killing something in fewer than 8 hits. This doesn't seem like it should be a roguelike game, and instead you should just acquire upgrades as you go. But replaying the same boring levels over and over is not exciting. I can play Slay the Spire, Hades, Binding of Isaac, or Balatro for days. I could barely stomach 3 hours of this game.

Cryptical Path is an action roguelite developed by Old Skull Games and published by Old Skull Games together with Game Seer that combines dungeon crawling, strategic planning, and fast-paced combat into a formula that feels both recognizable and refreshingly different. While many games in the genre rely heavily on random generation and adaptation, Cryptical Path introduces mechanics that place more control directly into the player's hands. The result is an experience that rewards not only combat skill but also thoughtful decision-making, creating a roguelite adventure where planning ahead becomes just as important as surviving the next encounter. Set within a dangerous prison known as the Hexium, players step into the role of the Architect, an entity connected to the labyrinth itself and tasked with reclaiming control over a world that has fallen into chaos. Once designed as a containment structure for dark and powerful forces, the prison has become unstable, corrupted by the very dangers it was built to suppress. Ancient threats move freely through its halls, hidden dangers wait behind forgotten pathways, and the deeper players travel, the more they uncover about both the prison …

This game is a lot of fun, and it seems to be getting better as I play. I HIGHLY recommend watching the video which explains gameplay and concept on the store page!

I'm going to go ahead and give this one a cautious yes. The gameplay TLDR; The pro: After losing to the first boss I did find that I enjoyed the experience and want to face her again. So that's a positive. The con: Although I don't mind the dungeon building part, I'm not super looking forward to all of the minor room battles along the way. They are kind of easy, and it feels like a bit of a chore to just get through them so I can get to the boss fight I want to have. Graphically it is beautiful. Looks amazing in 4k. Solid marks there. Audio design is... a bit lacking for my taste. Obviously very subjective but I just don't feel enough oomph in the combat, I didn't feel the music was anything stellar, and in general the sound effects were just ok. The story is great. Writing is well done, the English grammar is good. Simple little story so far, but there's nothing wrong with that. It's well told, doesn't get in the way too much, and lends a lighthearted feel to the game that I think adds value to the experience. Good job there. The menu and games UI's are very slick. Everything works great. I played with a gamepad the entire time and never had issues with where I wan…

Its a somewhat unique concept for the genre, I'll give it that. It falls short in just about everything else. There is not enough variation to keep the gameplay loop engaging and I found the game fizzled out quickly. They should have taken a cue from games like Spiritfall and incorporated different weapons at minimum. Each act ends in the same boss every run. The artifacts found are dull, unexciting and lack synergy. The talent tree is 1-dimensional and predictable. I found the value would have been more appropriate at 10-15$ and could probably be relegated to a mobile game.

Quite fun roguelike