There are very few games that can entice me to purchase them at launch or even within the first few months. I have a stupidly long backlog of games to play and properly experience, and an Humble Bundle subscription that regularly drops me a new batch of interesting new games! However, I had heard about this latest indie breakout hit called Loop Hero which is developed by Four Quarters and published by Devolver Digital.

How to describe this game, a visually retro pixel look, a rogue-like, a card battler, a management, an RPG, an auto battler... it seems like one of those games that just has picked out all of the latest gaming trends and mushed it all together to tick the boxes for a quick launch that will ultimately disappoint!

However, indie studios aren't like Triple A studios with their box ticking (mostly...)... and judging by the incredibly enthusiastic user and critic acclaim, it appears that Loop Hero might just be more than a confused sum of it's parts!

So, I'm hooked... It was 15% off on the Steam Store, and cheap enough for an impulse buy with the Binance Debit Card!

The Setup

Among the whole swathe of tropes that Loop Hero already incorporates... there is the amnesiac hero trope! The world is destroyed, but for some reason, the world starts to take form when our hero comes in contact with part of it... only to fade out and away from existence again. However, with each run, our hero brings a little bit more of the world into permanence... allowing for a slow and steady progression of world building that aids in future runs.

As for story... there is a Lich, that is your big bad... why you are fighting him, and why he seems to be the only other character in the world that appears to have an ongoing permanence... who knows?

The Game

Each dungeon run throws you into a closed loop with pretty much nothing in it. Your hero starts out from the camp tile and just goes round and round until the Lich appears or you succumb to the various monsters that spawn from tiles that you have placed. Simple concept so far...

As you traverse the closed loop, you will encounter spawned monsters. With each loop, they get stronger so you will need to grind to keep up with them. These battles play out in an auto battler style. Your skills and attributes are set, as are the attributes of the monsters... and they just slug away at each other with no input from the player until one side is defeated.

When you defeat a mob of monsters, you will be rewarded with equipment and/or world tiles from the selection that you defined at the start of the run.

You use these world tiles to slowly build up the pixelated world around you. Some tiles belong ON the path, others on the side of the path and others even further back. All of them affect the difficulty and rewards of the loop. Too hard, and your hero will fall... too easy, and your hero gets underpowered for the next loop.

Equipment also drops with which you can buff your character abilities and stats to help survive another loop. Also, little drops of building materials for the base management metagame... which are precious and slow drops, and you risk losing a large amount of it if you don't retreat back to your base but are instead killed in the loop.

At the end of each run, you are returned (or resurrected) back at your camp. Here, you will have built and upgraded buildings that will aid you on subsequent runs. Oddly enough, the upgrading is done from this screen and not the build screen. Strange choice, and one that I find counter-intuitive... but it works.

Over time, your little collection of hovels will turn into a proper little village!

The main building page which is the glorified menu page for the metagame upgrades that accompany you into the loop runs. From here, you can unlock little bonuses that will help you survive just that little bit longer... or extra classes to toy around with!

Setting off on the expedition away from the base is the page that starts you upon your loop journey. From this menu, you can choose your class and the overall starting difficulty of the loop. As always, it is a tough risk/reward balance at play here... you want it to be more difficult, to get the better loot and resources. However, you need to actually survive long enough to bring it home!

What I did find interesting here is the actual difference in classes. Each class really does bring a different play style to the game... it is best to keep an eye on what each class really is good at, and try to maximise the abilities that complement that. Otherwise, you will be in for a pretty frustrating time!

Before heading out, you should check that you have a good set of world tiles that you can construct your loop from. There are quite a selection to choose from, and it is impossible to take them all... so, you are going to have to choose quite carefully and experiment with different card loadouts to see what fits your playstyle and character class!

You will lose... or run away! Many times, it is actually preferable to run away and not suffer the loss of precious resources. You keep everything if you retreat on your camp tile, you lose 30% if you retreat anywhere else... and you LOSE 60% if you are killed! It stings... especially as each major resource is composed of 10-14 little individual drops!

Visuals, Sound and Performance

The music, sound and visuals are completely retro! I remember playing similar styles of games when I was a child... about 30 years ago! In fact, if I didn't know better... I would say that the character models and the sounds are actually the SAME!

So, I suspect that this game will run on anything that has been built this century. Probably even phones and watches... maybe even a Kindle!

My Thoughts

There is something deceivingly simple about this game... the concept is simple, the mechanics are simple... but it is so addictive! Just going on that loop run one more time... I hate auto-battlers... but somehow, it doesn't bother me too much here! I've managed to sink some decent time into this between studying, and it is that perfect 20 minute break game! Nothing in-depth and somehow satisfying at the same time!

I do wonder how long the appeal will last though... when the upgrade tree is maxed out and the character classes are fully unlocked, when there is very little new left to do. How much more of the story can they possibly reveal?

But for now... it's my perfect study companion!

Review Specs

Played at 1080p (144Hz) on:

XMG Fusion 15

CPU: Intel Core i7-9750H
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: SSD (SATA/Nvme)
GPU: Nvidia GTX 2070 Max-Q

Intel BX80662I76700 Core i7-6700 Prozessor (3,4GHz)
6GB EVGA GeForce GTX 1060 SC GAMING
GIGABYTE Z170N-WIFI
Ballistix Sport LT 16GB DDR4
Samsung 960 EVO M.2 512GB
S4 Mini Case (NFC Systems)

Splinterlands (aka the best blockchain game out there!)

Humble Bundle

Have you heard of Humble Bundle? It's a place to get some really great deals on Games, e-books and comic bundles. However, if you sign up for a Humble Bundle Subscription (12 USD per month) you get some really nice bonuses!

1. A 100+ USD bundle of games delivered direct to you each month, redeemable on Steam, Uplay or direct download (depending on the game). This includes recent Triple A games!
2. Access to the Humble Bundle "Trove", a list of 60 games (and growing...) which are free to play as long as you remain a subscriber!
3. Additional Discounts on the Humble Bundle store, with the choice of supporting charities, Humble Bundle or developers in whatever percentage that you wish!

Humble Bundle Subscriptions, it's a no brainer for the dedicated gamer!