From developer Abrakam, the studio behind Faeria, and co-designer Richard Garfield, the card gaming legend and creator of Magic: The Gathering, comes Roguebook – a challenging roguelike deckbuilding game that combines an evolution of Slay the Spire-style turn-based card combat with interesting map exploration mechanics.
In Roguebook, you take control of a team of two heroes, and can mix and match your lineup from a total of four recruitable heroes, each of which has different stats, abilities, and unique cards. When you enter a chapter in the “Roguebook,” there’s a portal on the far side of the screen that takes you to a boss battle, and a few revealed items or fight locations scattered across the map. The rest of the map’s terrain and various items are hidden, and need to be uncovered by the player. Along the way, you’ll collect gold that will allow you to buy powerful cards and items, and encounter narrative events that can help shape your strategy for a given run.
Combat in Roguebook looks similar to Slay the Spire on the surface, but the gameplay benefits greatly from the dual hero system, which emphasizes the importance of positioning and combo-play. The hero standing closest to the enemies will be the one to receive attacks, so you’ll need to be rotating your two heroes constantly to make sure one of them doesn’t take too much damage. Just as in Magic: The Gathering, the order you play your cards in is paramount, and Roguebook provides a similar Magic-esque thrill of trying to read your opponent’s next move and respond accordingly with your cards at hand.
After a run, if you’ve collected any of the hidden pages throughout the maps, you can add “embellishments to your story,” which are permanent stat upgrades for your heroes. This means that even casual players should gradually progress through the game and make it a bit further with each run, but Roguebook has built in a Diablo-like difficulty progression system to satisfy the hardcore audience. There are three “chapters” within Roguebook, and after you’ve cleared the three boss fights for the first time, you’ll unlock “Epilogues” that allow you to augment the gameplay modifiers for greater rewards. There are 15 levels of epilogues – and even the options unlocked after the first clear make the game significantly more challenging – so I can’t imagine how difficult the game could be with all the modifiers selected.
I’ve never been a big fan of roguelike games, which can often feel overly punishing, but the character progression from run to run in Roguebook kept me coming back to see if I could clear the next boss. For Slay the Spire or Darkest Dungeon fans looking for a fresh experience, Roguebook is a excellent choice.
Roguebook releases on PC on June 17th.
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