Rack and Slay

Rack and Slay is.... alright. Which is somewhat unfortunate, as the base gameplay is really fun at it's core, but it's just not that fun to replay, you've seen all the game has to offer on your first run basically, there's a few items which make each run a cakewalk, and the rest is forgettable, and not to mention, the runs are just way too short, with not much variety between them (i.e. room layouts, enemies, items etc.). Now all of these negatives have to be kept in mind with it's pretty low price, which is a huge counterweight to most of these issue, but at the end of the day, it doesn't solve them, and unfortunately just leaves you with a really fun gameplay concept that has rather shallow execution. Mild recommend.

Very good concept, but this inplementation relies too heavily on RNG. Whilst you have cotrol over your ball when shooting, that is the only control you have, as pretty much all items being active on the gameplay layer are RNG "20% chance to do X AFTER shooting". As such, you get to very little actually plan your playstyle. Add in obstacles/pit being placed randomly on the map and you can simply stumble upon unbeatable, as in not within your limited number of shots, set-ups. Likely because the game doesn't very if any cimbination of set obstacles, pits and enemies is beatable with X shots or not. As such, this isn't a very good roguelike. Sure, you unlock stuff through playing (as in, additional items to randomly get offered or to [b]randomly[/b] buy) but you don't get blanket "X more health" or "X more Shot power" stuff or something along those lines. Also, the way runs are set to only be around 15 stages really shows the "smalltime" balancing and scope the game has. Yes, you can play Endless up unti the 500s of stages or so, but honestly, the game isn't getting any more challenging after a certain point. Adding "You take x times damage" doesn't equal difficutly, but then agai…

disclaimer: Got this game from a bundle but it goes as low as 3.50€ during sales Fun game, gets you coming back for more and clearing the challenges, could use some extra chains/strategy but perhaps if you are looking for a simpler roguelike and not something made to be broken on unlimited levels.. it's a chill experience. nice touch the achievements and challenges not requiring any particular difficulty so you could theoretically beat it all on easy if you wanted or leave it at normal for that extra tought process.

There's no depth here, but it offers some enjoyable throwaway fun and pulling off shots is satisfying. The different challenges provide little tweaks to gameplay, but some more meaningful variety would be appreciated. Still, if you want to switch your mind off and smash some monstrous balls, this is a fun little timekiller. I enjoyed it enough to get to 100% achievements, and to push the endless delve mode to breaking point!

If you enjoy the geometry of pool, you might like adding more mechanics to it for some entertaining and interesting twists. This has become one of my favorite chill games to play while watching TV. It's just strategic enough to be fun but not so difficult to be frustrating. Easily worth the price!

Cool game, unfortunately I'm ♥♥♥♥ at pool. Might be hard, or maybe I'm just really ♥♥♥♥ at pool. 7/10.