Cobalt Core
I’ve found a new favourite deckbuilder.
Cobalt Core is full of triumphant moments. It’s a series of wonderfully tense turn-based spaceship standoffs. You’ve got your little ship, a handful of cards that let you move, fire, shield, and more, plus a limited pool of energy that refreshes every turn. This will all feel familiar to anyone who’s lost a lifetime or two to Slay the Spire. What sets Cobalt apart is the focus on movement. Each turn you’ll see the enemy ship’s intentions, which are usually ‘shoot you’. You could build up your shields, but wouldn’t it be more satisfying to strike before they even know what hit them? One ship can shift to the left or right if you use the leftmost or rightmost card in your hand respectively.
It captures the thrill of a dogfight where you’re constantly barrel-rolling in and out of cover brilliantly, despite being entirely turn-based.You start with a crew of three, each with unique cards and approaches. Finding a trio that works is nearly as fun as hitting ‘randomise’ and finding success with a group that on paper shouldn’t work at all. After each successful battle you get to choose between three new cards. The basic core of shield, dodge and attack is built upon with fireable drones, missiles, debuffs and much more. After every battle you decide which route you take through the starmap, with each one leading either to a standard battle, a question mark, a chance to heal/upgrade/remove cards, or an elite enemy. Victory against elites is rewarded with an artefact, incredibly helpful talismans that do things like starting your ship off with more shield and movement. A successful run is rewarded with a flashback to events just before the timeloop.
Each character has a trio of memories to unlock, and once you’ve done that, you’re ready to finish the game. For a good 40 hours, this is FTL meets Into the Breach meets Slay the Spire, and I loved it all.
VERDICT
Delightful deckbuilding that uses starship travel to build on the Slay the Spire formula instead of merely imitating it.
Abbie Stone
PRICE Free PLATFORM PC WEB grimhook.com
GRIMHOOK
PLAYING HOOKY WITH FANTASY FREE-RUNNING GAME.
There’s nothing grim about firstperson action adventure Grimhook:a delightful game about movement, and unleashing mayhem on a horde of cute little robots. It feels a lot like
Titanfall 2, a game that was surely a massive inspiration. The protagonist has the same ‘earnest everyman’ quality as Cooper from TF2, and while you don’t buddy up with a mech, you have a similar relationship with your magical sidekick, who lives in a jewel and bestows your movement powers. Waking up beside a shipwreck with only a big hook for company, you have to leap around a system of caves, find your way out, and learn what’s happened to the world.
The biggest wrinkle is combat, which I wasn’t expecting to make an appearance, as the focus seemed to be purely on the jumping. You can use your hook to bash robots and fling them into the air, where you can finish them off or use them as a temporary platform.
Grimhook comes close to Titanfall
2 – an astounding feat for a free indie game.
VERDICT
An accomplished slice of free-running platforming and frantic robo-combat, but you’ll be left wanting more.
Tom Sykes