It’s a busy time for roguelite deckbuilders. We had the cool thing a few weeks ago Roguebook discussed and we also worked on the beta of Rogue Lords, an upcoming deckbuilder where you go out with all kinds of iconic sidekicks of the devil. We give you our first impression.
The beta we were allowed to play was quite short, so we can’t go into too much depth. What immediately stands out about Rogue Lords is that it is quite atmospheric and it also has a strong graphic style that fits well with the theme.
You play as the devil and thus have several villains at your disposal. In the beta we could play with Bloody Mary, the Headless Horseman and Dracula. They all have their strengths and weaknesses. Bloody Mary does a lot of damage, but she also goes down very easily, the Headless Horseman can take a lot of hits, but does less and Dracula is somewhere in the middle, while he uses his vampire powers to steal life points from enemies.
This creates a certain sense of strategy very organically. As befits a roguelite deckbuilder, at the beginning of a turn you see which actions your enemies will perform, so you know which of your heroes is in danger, who to take out first and if you might even have to go for defense . The most unique element on Rogue Lords is that you are the devil and the devil cheats when it suits him… and when you have enough Diabolic Essence.
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You can activate Devil Mode with the push of a button, which allows you to change the rules of the game for a certain price (Diabolic Essence, a currency). Does an enemy have an effect that makes them stronger for a few turns? Give it to one of your characters. Is an opponent close to death, but can’t you finish him off before he makes a strong attack? Just drag his life bar to the 0. We’ll have to see further into the game how unique it remains and how it changes the strategy of such a game, but for the initial phase it was a cool feeling that really made you feel like a mighty supreme being.
For the rest it seems Rogue Lords some little things here and there to do something different from other games in the genre, like how you walk from fight to fight and you can also cheat here and change your path halfway through. In addition, you often encounter small events, where you can choose how you approach things. Are you helping someone, or are you stealing their soul? It’s similar to how you in Slay the Spire you can choose different options with different rewards as a result, but a lot more thought has gone into its storytelling here, with small cutscenes and spoken dialogue.
The demo only lasted about 45 minutes, so it’s far too difficult to say how the game will develop. In any case, it was an interesting start and we are curious to see if Rogue Lords retains its unique sides as you progress through the game, when it comes out later this year.
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