Gloamvault

Very cool concept with an easy to pick up nd play gameplay loop. It's a fun, light dungeon crawler with some unique mechanics that make it stand out. My favorite feature is merging monsters. Seeing the pixel art and the names change is really satisfying. It reminds me of Impossible Creatures, although I wish the creatures actually inherited body parts and abilities from both monsters like they do in that game. The game could use some polishing and tutorial. Starting players with the Minion Maker makes things feel more overwhelming than they need to be, while the core gameplay itself is actually very simple. That first impression might put some people off. Right now, there also isn't much variety in playstyles. Only a few feel effective and one or two builds are simply overpowered, so the balance could definitely use some work. I also think the dungeons would benefit from puzzles, hidden secrets and more varied layouts or biomes. Charming monsters is a lot of fun and I'd love to see more ways to build around it, such as rings or abilities that increase charm chance instead of relying mostly on enemy health. Despite these, the game has a lot of charm and a really solid foundatio…

[h1]Short Review[/h1] Gloamvault is undoubtedly fun, but it's also inherently imbalanced in a way that flattens most of its own systems. Fireball is busted enough to carry entire runs on its own, which leaves poison, burning, necromancy, sacrifice, and most other spells feeling pointless by comparison. Merging monsters is still addictive, the atmosphere is great, and there's a ton of monster variety to chase down, but the balance issues and underused features hold it back from being something more. The achievement grind is also really rough. Recommended, but def needs more polish. [h1]Full Review[/h1] Gloamvault has you playing as a resurrected evil wizard charming monsters, merging them together, and descending through procedurally generated dungeons while trying not to die to your own creations. I went in expecting a dense monster-collecting roguelike with a lot of build variety, and while that's technically what's here, the actual balance of the game steers you toward one strategy far harder than it probably should. [b]The atmosphere.[/b] This is one of the game's strongest points. There's a good sense of atmosphere throughout, with fitting levels, background music, and ambien…

Originally I had written a massive multi paragraph review going over my gripes with various mechanics but just like how I felt playing Gloamvault I got bored and just wanted it to end. The review by hp_ban sums it best "The idea is interesting but execution is subpar." Shoutouts to the DCSS tileset though, looking great as always

Game Complexity: Roguelike RPG with team building. Game Difficulty: At the beginning it is easy but later it becomes harder. There are many monsters which you can tame and add them in your team and every monster has its own stats and abilities. Also, you can merge monsters together and your main monster will receive random stats and random abilities, by doing this you may create an op monster with some very good abilities or you may want to play with the spells but to do so you will need to find good rings and amulets. Achievements Complexity: Reach level 30, kill, encounter, tame, summon and deal damage to the monsters and do a x amount of steps. Achievements Difficulty: Reaching the level 30 is hard and the other achievements are very grindy while for some of them you need luck.

The concept is really interesting. Being able to charm almost any monster and fuse them together to make stronger ones is a lot of fun. [h1]Gameplay[/h1] My biggest problem is the balance. The further you get, the more the game pushes you toward using the strongest and most broken options, especially Fireball. At a certain point, my monsters just can't keep up with the enemies anymore, so instead of experimenting with different monsters and builds, it feels like I'm better off stacking Fireball upgrade that can actually deal with them. That's a shame because the monster system is the most interesting part of the game. I like trying different monsters and fusing them together, but when the enemies get this strong, a lot of that starts to feel pointless. [h1]Final Verdict[/h1] I do like the game and I've had fun with it. The monster collecting and fusing are great, and the art style fits really well. I just wish the balance didn't push you so hard toward the few things that actually work, because it takes away from what makes the game interesting in the first place.

What did I just play?