I have not long finished playing Clover Pit, and so when I saw Slots & Daggers waiting in the wings and ready to follow so soon after, I really didn’t pay it quite as much attention as I should have. Silly me.
While both games follow in the footsteps of Luck be a Landlord, they take the slot machine idea in entirely different directions. In Slots & Daggers, there’s a more traditional deckbuilder feel as you get to see your enemy on screen and your options are more limited.
It’s not just that, though, as the game’s short-form presentation and its elegant execution make this feel very much like its own thing, too.
What is Slots & Daggers?
This slot machine roguelite is an immersive little experience, I think, in large part because it is so tactile. The slot machine is a thing you interact with; it’s not just an abstract user interface. Coins spit out of it, there are frequent mini-games, and your enemies are visualised on a faux LED screen.
In terms of gameplay, Slots & Daggers strips things back to the very basics, but I reckon this was a great decision at a time when everyone else is going the other way and is layering in complexity.
You start off each new run with a mere three symbols. Then, every round has you pull your lever push the button to spin the wheels and see what comes up. Next, your opponent fires back damage of their own, and this goes on until one of you is no more. It really is that simple – at least for a time – but then when the new mechanics are layered in, they’re introduced at a nice pace.
Your symbols relate to damage (physical and magic), health, shield, and economy. As your pool of symbols grows throughout your time with the game, your tactical options are subsequently evolving. While some of the symbols just won’t work together effectively, there are plenty of opportunities for clever thinking and smart synergies.
Within a few hours, I had worked out a number of ways to assemble a build. In fact, I continued experimenting right up to my final attempt before writing this, as new symbols were frequently added to the starting pool (with an even more diverse pool available mid-run).
Simple but effective
It might keep things reasonably simple, but the gameplay loop and overall progression feel great as a result. There is an infinite mode for added longevity, but if we just focus on the more deliberate campaign for a moment, Slots & Daggers feels like a great palette cleanser.
The meta-progression side of things is quite by-the-book, in the sense that you’ve got a series of fairly mundane stats to boost between runs. You can at least quickly refund any spent funds and then reinvest them, so you can support a specific build type with, let’s say, added magic damage or a focus on your economy.
The audio-visual experience is much like everything else in the game; lean but built with purpose. I love the atmosphere and sense of place that has been built into the game’s retro aesthetic.
In fact, as I write up this review I think my overriding feeling is that Slots & Daggers is a clever and well-designed video game that makes excellent use of its component parts. It might be quite fleeting in the grand scheme of things, but Friedemann’s little slot machine roguelite is well worth a closer look, especially if you’re a fan of this burgeoning sub-genre.
Slots & Daggers is out now on PC (Mac, Win) and I played via access kindly provided by publisher Future Friends Games and their PR buds.
