Loot Rascals
Hex appeal
Developer Hollow Ponds publisher Hollow Ponds price Us$ 15 Available At steam, Humble, Itch. Io lootrascals.com
Loot Rascals combines the strategy of deck building, the blind luck of random drops, and the constant tension of a Roguelike. On paper it looks like a really solid set of gameplay mechanics, and in practice it mostly delivers, but it never quite managed to hook me in the way I initially thought it might.
There’s a silly premise about travelling to an alien planet that is possibly also a theme park to rescue someone called Barry who is possibly a robot with your friends who include another robot and a giant pink baby man. A British man narrated all this at me during the opening cutscene but it was clearly all utter gibberish so I forgot it immediately, and I advise you do the same.
All you need to know is: there are rascals and you loot them. And you also fight them. If they die, you carry on; if you die, you restart from the beginning.
All this fighting and looting plays out on a hex grid that sprawls off in all directions and is only revealed as you move and the algorithms make their procedurally generated magic. Somewhere in this labyrinth of hexes, among the branching, looping and dead-end paths, is an exit. Reach it and you move on to the next level.
It’s turn-based in the sense that time (and indeed your enemies) stand still until you move into a new hex. Enter the same hex as an enemy and you fight, the outcome determined in moments based on your respective stats. There’s a short day/night cycle every few turns, which is important because some enemies will get the vital first attack
it was clearly all utter gibberish so I forgot it immediately
in if you encounter them at night, and vice versa. Juggling when to attack is just about the most significant tactical consideration Loot Rascals demands of you.
The most significant is building your deck to determine your stats and special abilities. You set out with six cards consisting of the most basic attack and defence stats. Defeated enemies can drop new cards that you can add to your deck to a total of ten, arranged in two rows of five. Some cards grant bonuses, say, to the cards to its immediate left and right or only if placed in an even numbered column or if its the only one of its type in your deck or for what feels like an endless number of reasons.
I enjoyed tweaking my deck to get the most out of the cards at my disposal. There’s plenty of variety, too, particularly when the drops mean your deck is heavily weighted to either attack or defence, and you have to adjust your approach accordingly. But it can feel too random at times, and your prospects of progress too heavily reliant on finding good cards. Overall Loot Rascals feels like it lacks the depth and high skill ceiling of a truly great Roguelike like Spelunky. DAVID WILDGOOSE