I’d had my eye on SpellRogue since it first rolled into Early Access, but given the tidal wave of games we’re having to wade through right now, it wasn’t until Guidelight’s dice-centric deckbuilder left EA that I decided to take a proper look. And so here we are…
Roll up, roll up
As I’ve already mentioned in the headline, SpellRogue’s core feature is the dice that you roll. Every round is a new chance to throw a handful of D6s into the mix and – hopefully – get the numbers you need to execute one or more attacks, as well as cast other beneficial spells.
It’s not the first game to play around with dice mechanics, but what SpellRogue does rather well, I think, is it pulls everything together with a high degree of polish. Guidelight’s newly released effort reminded me of Roguebook in terms of how carefully it has been put together from a technical standpoint, and I truly appreciated the effort that went into this aspect.
In terms of the game underneath all that polish, the setup here is a fairly straight-forward save-the-world fantasy narrative, but it does serve to reinforce the gameplay loop rather nicely. That loop involves you taking control of one of four different playable characters, each with their own book of spells, and then working through a trio of procedurally-arranged campaign maps that are filled with combat encounters and other curiosities.
The faces of SpellRogue
The game’s four playable characters all feel nice and distinct, with each one themed around an element. Not only does each one have its own overall style, but there are multiple builds within each one, so as you play and unlock new abilities, the range of options open to you expands considerably.
The four elements are fire (Azar), earth (Hazel), water (Lapis), and electricity. I’ve just finished my playthrough with Sefyra the Windcaller, the lightning-powered fourth character who was just added in April’s 1.0 update. After properly trying all four, I like how Guidelight has managed to differentiate them from each another.
To unlock one character you simply need to attempt two or three runs with the previous one, and then, once you’ve got Sefrya to level three, you unlock the leaderboards, too. Doing so will take you several hours and will give you a good overview of the game, but there are still some nuanced mechanics that will take much longer to truly understand.
Overall, SpellRogue boasts tons of depth and some impressive deck variety. However, one of my complaints is that this complexity isn’t always communicated very well to the player, and I was frequently left scratching my head about what exactly just happened. I’m sure this deeper knowledge will come if I keep playing, but I constantly wanted clearer icons and better explanations for the more complex spells.
Counting it up
SpellRogue’s finest moments came when I was working out how to make the most of the hand that had been dealt to me, both in terms of the dice I was rolling but also the powers I had at my disposal. Some of the spells felt a bit useless with certain builds, yet I still thought it was very possible to put together a competitive spell book and start having fun during each attempt.
Where I think SpellRogue gets really interesting is when you assemble a collection of spells filled with synergies. I quickly realised that it was possible to string together combos, recycle dice again and again, and even move the spells around in my hand to change how they affected those around them.
As I delved deeper, the stat-boosting artefacts also played a much bigger role, and I was obsessed with getting shards to upgrade my spells and open up new slots. There are even potions, which I would frequently forget until it was too late, but which can certainly come in handy, if you remember them, of course.
The world map is also quite interesting, and not just because it looks nice. It allows you to take easier routes through to the boss, adjusting the game’s overall difficulty accordingly (there’s another system for adding further challenge, although I didn’t interact with that).
Your journey through each of the game’s biomes is spiced with random text-based encounters, as well as the usual stores and upgrade opportunities. Thus each new map requires you to plot a course through, balancing your immediate needs with your confidence to deal with whatever you might encounter next.
Those encounters come against a range of fantastical creatures, and once again I’m back telling you about how great SpellRogue is in terms of its audio-visual presentation. There are loads of different beasts to battles, some with summons, and then there are tricky Elites with hefty health bars – this enemy variety does a good job of keeping things fresh. The monsters all look decent, the in-game animations are slick, the backgrounds are covered in detail, and the playable characters all look good.
All told, SpellRogue has exited Early Access in fine shape. The different characters look and feel good to play, and there is so much depth to explore across each of them. It’s not always clear what is going on, and not all magic abilities have been created equal, but with so many different playstyles facilitated thanks to the game’s impressive depth, I think it’s easy to forgive just a little bloat. Guidelight has rolled a good hand here, and I’m glad I made time for it.
SpellRogue is out now on PC (Win) and I played the game via access kindly provided by Ghost Ship Publishing and their PR friends.
