I must admit: I haven’t played the first Lost Castle, despite being given it by Epic during one of their many giveaways. While I might have missed Hunter Studio’s beat ’em up the first time around, I was at least aware of it, and so when I was invited to take a closer look at its sequel, I was quick to accept.
My acceptance also came about because I’d seen some impressive gameplay footage earlier this year, wherein I saw Lost Castle 2’s fluid and reactive combat in action. Even though this is an Early Access game and therefore unfinished, it looks quite polished and a solid upgrade on the first game.
First look at Lost Castle 2
Despite that early optimism, my initial impression of the game took a hit when I started reading the Steam reviews while everything was downloading. The “mixed” reviews that the game has after launch are due to a bunch of technical problems encountered by day one players. The question was: would I also be affected?
I’ve got a solid graphics card and a bunch of RAM so I don’t usually have technical issues, at least while playing roguelites, but I discovered a couple during my time with this one. The first was some mild hitching during my time in camp. Luckily, this didn’t happen mid-game and the only stutters were at the start in the hub.
Lost Castle 2 is a co-op roguelite beat ’em up where you move your little avatar through a small arena, hit the enemies therein, and then choose from some loot. These types of games tend to be great when played with a friend or two, but less so alone. Alas, I couldn’t connect to an online game at all, and so I had no choice but to play solo/offline. The lack of couch co-op feels like an even bigger miss, though.
Hands-on time
Technical issues aside, I thought the game itself was actually pretty solid. The combat is reactive, and it didn’t take long before I was picking up barrels and crates and flinging them at enemies. There’s a nice ebb and flow to the combat and the dodge is responsive. There are heavy and light attacks, but also secondary, more powerful moves that you need to change up via your wanton violence. It felt like there was a good blend, and along with my dodge and jump, I had options.
You can choose from a range of weapon types, and these feel genuinely different from one another. Within the confines of a handful of classes, there seems to be a huge number of weapons to choose from, and this points to a fair degree of autonomy when picking your build. Some of them are quite inventive, such as a bow I had that gives you the ability to throw down bear traps. In some instances, your weapon choice also determines your jump attack, another nice touch that gives you interesting thing to consider when tooling up.
You can also equip trinkets that give you new abilities. If you’ve played a roguelite before, then you know the score already, but genre newcomers drawn to the game via the beat ’em up angle need to know that these items are numerous and oftentimes game-changing. Run diversity comes from having a large pool of items, and then finding different synergies from creative combinations. That seems to be possible here, although it’s hard to say to what extent after just a few hours playing.
Summing up
It’s early days for Lost Castle 2 so I don’t want to get too distracted by the negatives; there is time to fix the problems I’ve detailed. That said, I have to urge some caution given the current number of technical complaints. I do believe that this is a game with potential that has every chance to come good, so if it’s not an Early Access purchase, it’s definitely worth keeping track of and checking back at launch.
Beat ’em ups are not normally my cup of tea because I tend to get bored of the endless hacking and slashing, but the item and weapon variety here should more than compensate for the repetitious gameplay elements. You’re constantly given opportunities to swap your items out for new ones, with armour and weapon drops after most battles, or jewels that enhance your abilities. I’ve also already encountered two different big bads in the first world, which indicates depth in another key area; the Steam listing mentions 10+ bosses at launch, which isn’t too shabby.
Lost Castle 2 is a decent beat ’em up in-the-making and I’m already impressed by the visuals (mid-mission transmogrification for the win) and the gameplay is solid. That doesn’t change the fact that this EA launch has revealed some of the game’s technical flaws, and there’s some work to do to fix everything and then restore confidence among the game’s audience.
Lost Castle 2 is out now via Early Access on PC Steam. I played the game via a code provided by the game’s developer, Hunter Studio!
