Going into this blind, I didn't really see what the hype was about. It was frustrating and I was overwhelmed with the amount of items you could buy in the shop. Nothing seemed to make sense and everything felt disconnected. I couldn't get any synergies going. That being said, I didn't give in and look up any guides. I kept my playthrough blind and went in, run after run, slowly improving my PB. This is a game that is the most enjoyable when you're figuring things out on your own.

I urge you to not give up on this game until you at least hit your first x20 board clear. The dopamine rush that comes along with crafting your first synergy is something I've craved in a roguelike since I finished The Binding of Isaac.

This game is a gem, it's a steal at the full price and I highly recommend trying it out if you like this genre. It's a very fun game with a TON to do if you're a completionist. I can only see this getting stale if you've unlocked it all and have no more achievements to work towards.

Don't let the wacky art style and funky vibe push you away, it'd be a disservice to not at least try this game.

It's just Peglin.

*sigh* I wish I didn't have to give this a negative review. The developer seems so earnest, and they clearly put their heart and soul into this game. And the dude looks like he's in his 20s; lord knows I didn't make something this impressive at that age. There's a lot to be proud of from this project, and I hope my criticism (which he likely won't read because of the overwhelming success of the game) isn't too harsh. But alas, I think I'm tapping out of my nubby journey; I can't be bothered to grind for 100% .. it's just too tedious. I've got to walk away from this one.

There are just too many problems to ignore. You will initially be overwhelmed by the unintuitive tooltips and the quirky mechanics (that neatly go with its also weird aesthetics), but with even a couple hours into this system you start parsing what this game is going for, and the cracks start to show. The biggest problem with the game is that the only way to die is in the early game where challenge/supervisor downsides are most relevant and you haven't had time to find the good items. Getting the good items puts you downhill due to the snowballing nature of the core mechanics. You get the good stuff early, and you will earn more gold per round, which then compounds to letting you buy more at your next shop. If you don't get the good stuff, especially with the later challenges and trials ... you just die. The amount of decision points is frustratingly low, with no core battle mechanics to speak of .. all you do is launch your ball (called nubby) and the unpredictable physics take it from there. The absolute best you can do is aim the ball for the highest scoring first peg available; other than that you really have no control of what happens. And boy does the physics not make sense sometimes; which you know, actually would be fine because the game lets you have multiple shots that regenerate in case you get a few bad bounces buuuut a few of the challenge levels actually take that ability away, which means you are at the absolute mercy of your ball's weird bounces? So now you're just in a spot where you need both the good items and some lucky bounces to clear these terrible hurdles and you're just wondering ... why am I doing this to myself? It's torturous.

OK so the in-game round mechanics are bad but how is the buildcraft? Uh, also pretty simplistic and bad. The item and perk pool is way too small, which means you can easily force certain synergies every time (like I said, as long as you survive the early game you basically auto win). Synergies are almost always 2 to 3 item combinations, which is way too few with an item pool this small. It's a bit obtuse to figure out what these synergies are, but in a weird way, the better you are at figuring the game out, the less fun it gets. The most fun I had was in that short discovery process, and then I spent most of the rest of my time with the game appalled at the imbalances. As long as I survive long enough to pass the early game, I can consistently get one of a small handful of 2-3 item combos, and then I'll just sit there with my brain completely off for the next 30 minutes with max gold at every shop until round 80 (which is when the game finally says I won). Endless mode is fairly pointless too, with one build towering above all; easily gotten and mostly just a test of your patience to get to round 300 (which I did) for the achievement.

So a small item pool, few decision points, and no compelling in-round battle mechanics is bad enough, but it's compounded by the fact that the perks (what this game calls relics) matter so, so much less than your item bar. Very rarely do you get a perk that substantially changes your run or makes you build around it. Matter of fact, it's shocking how often it is correct to SKIP the perk pickup for +4 gold so you can get better items at the shop. That's crazy.

But let's say you connect with all this in a way that I don't for whatever reason, well, you will still have to suffer through some of the worst progression I've ever seen in a roguelike. There are no item/relic unlocks (the pool is too small for that) which is fine (it's a true roguelike) but to unlock game modes you have to spend stars which you earn from wins. I say wins specifically because you basically don't get any stars from losing; which makes a 30+ minute loss feel absolutely terrible. And these star costs are absurd. You have to win so many times to unlock everything in this game it is wild. The grind it wants you to do to 100% this game is downright disrespectful. There is a whopping 12 supervisors, 11 challenges, and 5 trials to 100% this game. The supervisors are generally extremely easy and have little appreciable difference in the core gameplay between them. The challenges are generally insanely hard and poorly designed, and the trials are just demented. You have to get ~so~ lucky. I am sure I could eventually beat all this stuff if I put my head down but... why? And then what makes even less sense is there is a cosmetic shop but you unlock cosmetics with stars (which you'll need for main game mode unlocks) ... and the star prices are out of control. What's the point of adding cosmetics into the game if no one will ever use them because they're way too unaffordable??? Is this some meta commentary on cosmetics in gaming? Am I being trolled? There is an achievement for unlocking all the cosmetics and it has a 0.0% completion rate as of this writing on steam it is that insane. The grind in this game is unconscionable.

I didn't even mention that there's slowdown sometimes too. Cmon.

Ultimately, the game has a very clear niche. It's in the Brotato, Vampire Survivors, etc 2nd monitor niche of games where you can barely pay attention and mindlessly grind while listening to podcasts, youtube videos, or in Northernlion's case, talking to Twitch chat. The type of game that people use to decompress and doesn't take a lot of brain power or dexterity. It's not the best of that type of game, but I ~do~ think that type of media has a distinct purpose in a world where we're all a bit too stressed and want something simple to distract ourselves. Sometimes we don't have the energy to play a demanding game, and it's a sign of the times that games like this get so much traction.

There is a lot of heart to this project, and the chill music and aesthetic (great use of green screen! love it!) totally speak to me. With updates, I think this game could get a LOT better, but I think there are fundamental problems to the snowbally nature of the core design and the lack of player agency that will be hard to fix. Also, with some of the challenge design I'm not sure this dev fully understands his own game well enough to know what would be fun and fair and what's just nonsense. Regardless, I'm rooting for this game. But right now I can't recommend it.