The Early Access launch for Into The Grid took place just two days ago, on November 10, and as it’s a game that I’ve been keeping tabs on for some time now, I was eager to take a closer look. Here are my first impressions of this promising new sci-fi rogue.
What is Into The Grid, then?
I’ve dropped a couple of attention-grabbing names in that headline, so let’s look at things from that perspective for a moment. Much like Slay the Spire, the enduring fantasy deckbuilder, you’re going to be drawing cards and then playing them during turn-based battles.
Then there’s Invisible, Inc., the superlative isometric turn-based strategy by Klei Entertainment. Both are great games, and both are baked into the DNA of this new effort from Flatline Studios.
The aim of Into The Grid is to hack your way through futuristic industrial environments filled with terminals, upgrades, and violent machines that are out to stop you dead in your tracks. Literally.
These sentinels guard the terminals that you must access, and they frequently block your path forward. You must destroy these enemies, keep as low a profile as possible (see the Trace meter top-left), and build your deck out using the resources available during that run.
Combat and cards
The deckbuilding is underpinned by a really cool combat system where cards represent your tactical UI, and your actions play out in real-time. Similarly, the enemy in front of you will attack, with slick animations depicting the damage they’re dealing, all taking place in front of detailed backgrounds that do a fine job of setting the scene.
Like StS, your fate is determined by the cards in your hand and the decisions you make with them. There are currently two characters in the game, with two more planned to drop during Early Access. Each one has its own deck and therefore requires a tactical rethink, and it’s good to know that there are plans to keep mixing up the meta with new characters, cards, and enemies on the horizon.
Based on my initial experience, it feels like what’s there already is quite cleverly balanced. On that front, there are several interesting systems to work with during combat. For example, on top of simple shield and damage dealing cards, you can also level up your so-called VIM (bottom right), and once you hit certain levels of VIM then new card conditions come into play, boosting your shield or damage output.
There are other gameplay systems to balance, including rage and overclock, which let you deal added damage and take more actions, respectively. There are always several things to consider, not least the defensive cards you play to mitigate any incoming damage. That said, it didn’t take me long to find a groove, and it seemed quite intuitive.
The interesting twists continue when your enemies start getting summons. These tend to be additional tech that you need to disable, like a pair of shield-wings, for example. Later on, the boss at the end of the first campaign had three floating orbs, each of which had its own health bar and individual tactical function.
I would also like to add that on top of great graphics and strong animations, the card designs are also really nice. Whoever is doing the art for this game is doing a good job so far.
Summing up, for now at least
Into The Grid is still only in Early Access, but I’m already looking forward to seeing more after playing through the first couple of campaigns. The presentation is fantastic, and the mixture of card-based combat and gentle isometric exploration makes for an engaging experience that takes place in an immersive futuristic world.
The setting is great, and it looks and feels good to interact with, apart from some fiddly menus that I think need refinement. All told, Into The Grid seems to be in fine shape for an Early Access game, and there is still a lot more content on the way. That being so, I’ll be hacking back into this one again as we prepare for version 1.0 to be uploaded to the mainframe in the months ahead.
Into The Grid is out now on PC (Lin, Mac, Win), and I played the game via access kindly provided by the developer and their PR droids.
