FORWARD: Escape the Fold - Ultimate Edition

So here's the pitch: it's a solitaire card game wearing a dungeon-crawler costume. And before anyone groans, no, that's the good bit. You shuffle your way through a dungeon one card at a time, keeping your little hero alive while monsters, loot, and the occasional bit of corruption turn up in whatever order the game fancies. It's quick, it's turn-based, and it's the sort of thing you can play with a cup of tea going cold next to you while you tell yourself "just one more run." The clever part isn't the route you pick through the dungeon, which is what it looks like the game's about. It's the inventory. You synergise your items, get the right combo of swords and gear lined up and combat sings; get the wrong draw and you're flailing about like a man swatting a wasp with a newspaper. When it works it's genuinely satisfying. When it doesn't, well, that's roguelikes for you, isn't it. The game giveth and the game taketh away, mostly the latter. It looks like pixel art, because of course it does - every indie game from the last fifteen years is legally required to. But it's sharp pixel art, the kind that grows on you, and there's a surprisingly lovely little soundtrack doing the heavy …

Look, I get it. Some items are so weak they might as well not exist. Some runs are 100% doomed due to RNG, and could not have been won regardless of what choices you made. Shields being the strongest card in the game will never sit right with me. BUT - with all that said, this game is just *so cool* man. Happy 100%

One of the better roguelikes I've played. Perfect for a 10 minute sessions. You are at the mercy of the RNG sometimes, but its completely fine as the runs are so quick. Has become my go to for a quick game.

It's not fun.

I got no audio on Linux (most games don't have this problem), and the startup was weird, just a small grey bar until it's clicked. Other than that the game ran okay, but it also just wasn't very good. The decisions aren't interesting. Slightly better than Ring of Pain, but much worse than Pyrene, to compare it to games approximately the same genre. And it's not really a very good genre. This one lacks any semblance of a story, has few choices each turn (though more than Ring of Pain) and seems to be pretty close to just random. Maybe some later characters make something more interesting happen, but after winning with two characters and unlocking a third without having enjoyed it, I'm not going to keep trying just in case it gets fun later, when there's no sign that it will.

Casual games, enough permutations, still haven't figured out everything yet.