Now playing: SWORN
Roguelikes have a terrible thing about them: every few minutes you have to start from nothing, again and again. That's the appeal of roguelike systems after all — it's you who gets better, not your character. Yet, make the game too hardcore, and you lose potential players due to the unforgiving difficulty. A remedy for this conundrum is persistent progression, providing you with boons, or at least tradeoffs, for future runs. And therein lies the balancing act, how much do you let the character progress without ruining the sense of personal growth and skill sharpening.
I find that SWORN, an action roguelike from Windwalk Games, navigates this balance perfectly for me. The game is very tight, and thus quick to pick up. After a short onboarding it starts building around you a number of unlock and progression systems, without deviating too far from the base gameplay loop. Pick up one of four classes, each with four unique weapons and four special skills, and descend from your base of operations into a cartoonish Arthurian fantasy.
The choice is not superficial, though every selection leans on the same control scheme. You get one light and one heavy attack, a dash, and the aforementioned skill. With some class weapons you get basic combos, which are taught to you the moment you equip them. That's the first very neat thing about SWORN, it immediately puts me into the "Hey, try this" mood, and that extends into build-crafting.
You might find some similarities with Hades at this point, as you meet your first Fae. Not quite Greek gods, but still fantastical and expressive benefactor beings, they are dealing in blessings, which augment your moves and skills with a certain school of effect types. Oberon gives you fury and speed, Badb teaches you how to backstab, and Gogmagog provides means to build up stagger on your foes. There is nothing particularly novel, but the variety and the depth which you eventually explore with each Fae's school are pretty exciting.
There isn't just one note to these blessings. For instance, Lugh is all about luck, and his first perks provide you with critical strikes. Keep picking him through the run, and you'll find boons which play off of your riches too. I always appreciate when there is more than one layer to unlocks or level exploration. It keeps things interesting after a few dozen hours spent, and swerves the experience from becoming a grind over fun.
You are free to mix and match any blessing from any Fae, given a random selection as a reward for completing a room. I find that there is as much benefit from branching out, sometimes, as there is in being a one-effect perfectionist. Although, the nature of the genre means you aren't always given the choice. And the choice does matter a lot for build stability. You can pick only one augment for your light and heavy attacks, your dash, and your skill (4 slots in total). Your chosen weapon will synergize with some effects better than others, and it's fun to look for that perfect build for each character and weapon combo.
What doesn't depend on the weapon is your supporting pet, and your ultimate ability, giving you the power of one Fae for a brief period of time — to take a significant bite out of some boss' health bar. Those are only available through blessings, and believe me, you don't want to end up without such extra help by the final room. To top off the build, there are also general blessings, which improve and further energize augments, sometimes even bridging two Fae effects together, or creating a shared effect for the entire squad.
Oh yes, there is co-op! That's what I love the most about SWORN, because I'm always on the lookout for good cooperative experiences to enjoy with my friends in the evening. The game puts the element of choice even before you enter the next room, and you often know what kind of benefit you're going to get from completing it, or the ballpark at least. So when you play with a pal, you have to make a decision together, what would benefit you both or inconvenience one of you the least.
It works well, to provide extra challenge while you're getting help from another player. An element of balance inherent to the whole design, so it's seamless and organic. You will ultimately die during a run, and there are of course various ways to mitigate that. But at some point, your luck and your remedies will run out, leaving your mate to fend for themselves. You are not idle during that phase though! Instead, you turn into a manifestation of your own soul and are given access to two attacks again. Not fully free to move around the level, but you can still shoot and pound enemies around surviving players.
It's really a blessed idea in my book, as I often find it really discouraging to die in a cooperative game and just sit there and watch as your partner struggles. Offering a little active help is a sweet way to keep you engaged. And as a reward, the game doesn't punish you for dying by locking you out of upgrades. In fact, you can't leave the level until everyone is revived and gets their reward. So many runs in Risk of Rain 2 felt completely doomed when one of us died, even if the other managed to carry the run into the next area, simply because the balance of items necessary for future survivability was immediately off!
I haven't touched on the persistent progression yet, and it's fairly standard. The important part is that it provides extra opportunities, but doesn't replace the learning curve of weapons and skills, of build-crafting tactics, and of picking your battles during each run. I do find myself enjoying a certain weapon or a particular blessing path when they click. And they do click, and then they do flow nicely, and then you find yourself completing a run, built on your choices and your skills, and it's very satisfying.
I'm still playing through SWORN, and this is not a review. I just really like it, and thought I might share that and explain why. In fact, I believe I'll be sharing more about games which I like in the future.
Cheers!
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