The latest game to take aim and fire slime at Vampire Survivors‘ crown is none other than Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot, the new auto-shooter from Konfa Games and publisher tinyBuild.
It’s actually the latest game in the Despotism series, so there will already be those who know the series well. I remember playing one of the earlier games on mobile a few years back, so when I saw Slime 3K’s lovely pixel-art graphics, I was fully up for seeing more.
Beyond gallons of oozing slime, Konfa Games has built the gameplay loop around obtaining new abilities and deck-building. Basically, if you add an ability to your deck, they’ll appear in the shop in your next run.
As you can see from the screens, we’re going to be splatting a whole bunch of puny human-things, but the silliness doesn’t stop there. There are currently 10 levels, bosses to battle, and a selection of different play-styles are catered for via the game’s various classes.
Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot’s release date
Of course, the game is out now on PC in Early Access on Steam, but what of the game’s plans beyond November 2, 2023?
The developer has confirmed that the current plan is to stay in Early Access for around six months. That should mean that Slime 3K’s release date is likely to be during Q2, 2024.
If you’re prepared to play the game before it’s fully finished, the devs claim that there’s a very solid and playable build already in place. I’ve played for a short while and experienced no issues – there was even controller support (just not in the menus yet).
While the team acknowledges that there’s a lot of content still to go into the game, they have plans to add more of everything before we get to version 1.0. They have given themselves a good head start, though, as it looks like a few assets have been recycled from other games in the franchise.
Auto-shooting slime with a handful of cards
As mentioned, I’ve had a quick look at the game this evening, and I’m actually really intrigued to see how this one develops in the weeks and months ahead. It’s a proper “early access” game, with placeholder text all over the place, but the core of what’s here has real potential.
Perhaps the most interesting gameplay wrinkle here is the deck building aspect. Between rounds, you have access to a book where you can pick out different abilities, and those abilities are the ones that you’ll find in vending machines in-game.
Then, when you’re playing, there’s a neat system where you’ve got a limited inventory for abilities, however, you can stack them to level them up. That means you’re always looking to stack your abilities and increase their potency. It’s a step beyond the usual limited decision making you get in other games in the survivor-like sub-genre.
In between all of that, your giant slime is firing pistols, slinging eyeballs, and rescuing zombies to fight alongside it. It’s proper crazy, especially if you’re coming in cold and don’t know the series.
Because Slime 3K comes from an existing franchise, everything feels really cohesive, which I think gives the game a good chance at success. The blending of different mechanics also suggests a more engaging meta-layer than most other auto-shooters are able to muster.
This isn’t a review so I’m going to leave it there. I’ll definitely be covering the game at launch, and I’m looking forward to playing more and seeing just how silly things get.
Platforms: Slime 3K is currently out on PC, but I think the plan is to release the game on
