Loot Rascals (Review)
By: ThunderheavyarmWell, it's finally happened everyone, all these space games have given me the space madness. So what better way to give in than with the most fun space based game I've played in quite a while: Loot Rascals. Developed and published by Hollow Ponds, this rogue-like certainly came out of nowhere.
The basic story of the game is this, you're being sent deep into the reaches of not yet colonized space. As informed by your blue faced...teapot helmeted...program...friend, yeah that's what we'll call him. You're being sent to a future resort planet to check up on Big Barry. A ship carrying a super chemical used in fabricating the resort domes of the planet, that has been out of communication for some time. You are to repair the aerial and make any necessary repairs before leaving. Unfortunately, you crash on the planet and are now forced to fight your way to Barry through hordes of enemies. Then escape the planet before the mysterious pink giant alien finds out you're leaving. I'm honestly not making any of this up.
So now that we've gotten through the space madness of the story, let's move on to the gameplay itself. The game as previously mentioned is a rogue-like, so once you're dead the game resets. The map is built out of procedurally generated hexes. Some of them have random effects such as ice or magical space goo that recharges your abilities. Some can even be used by the enemies to give them reinforcements. Each space you move your character advances the turn counter by one. It also advances the time of day, causing some enemies to defend first and others to attackfirst. Meaning that you'll need to calculate your moves carefully or take unnecessary damage.
The game also has a built-in item system. Each card will either give a bonus to attack, defense or a random special ability. The cards also have abilities that interact based on their placement in your equipped inventory. Requiring strategy in even your item placement. Upon death, should you die from the space aliens, the space madness or something else space like, you will lose your entire inventory except for one item that will go as droppable loot for another monster on someone else's game? The coolest part of this feature is that if another player finds it, the game will prompt hem to return it. Ultimately, you're looking for the exit point of each level, and once you find it take it! The game has a built-in timer until literal Death appears on the field and begins to hunt you down. 
To wrap things up, this is a great game. It's got great dry humor and pokes at itself. The art style makes it seem like it's for a younger audience, but once you can get past that and play the game you can see it's made with all audiences in mind. The game is set to release on March 7th on Steam and Playstation. So if you've got a case of the space madness like I do you'll be interested in this game. [yasr_multiset setid=2]