I do not have a ton of familiarity with the rogue-lite genre, but REMEDIUM: Sentinels, by developer Sobaka Studio and publisher ESDigital Games, has made me a huge fan of them in the hours I have sunk in already. Set in the post-apocalyptic steampunk Renaissance setting of the upcoming Remedium game itself, the story tasks you as one of a variety of alchemists in what is essentially different forms of steampunk power armor. Armed with a variety of melee or ranged weaponry, you will go into battle against mutated horrors such as bat-owl-rabbit hybrids, multi-limbed spider beasts that look grotesque and remind me of The Thing or hybrids in Killing Floor, and many types of mutated or giant mutated human, wolf, and other animal variants. All of them are equally ugly, and you need to make all of them equally dead.
The game is divided up into a few levels currently, and surviving a map for long enough will yield victory and a new character. Rush mode exists for a continuous gameplay loop, allowing you to continually play as long as you remain standing. You can collect scrap metal in order to buy permanent upgrades, such as health, damage, shields, and speed in the main menu after a game, and it definitely helps survive the early few minutes to a map. You will continue to upgrade your character in genre fashion as you survive and collect dropped experience points from your enemies, which can increase damage, speed, regenerate health, and perhaps most fun, add additional automatic weapons to your arsenal such as the sawblade, machine gun, emitter, and landmines. There were times that I thought one upgrade was superior to another, until the random selection switched up the choices allowing me to try a variety of weapons, and realizing, when fully upgraded, that they all had their uses and helped a ton. Not only that, but everything also feels satisfying to have or use, and players will definitely have their favorite characters to choose from and try things from a different angle.
The best thing I can say about REMEDIUM: Sentinels, and it is the best praise that I can give it, is that every time I lost or won, I continually had the urge to play “just one more game.” That type of feeling cannot be understated, and for the low price of $2.99 the game is charging going forward, it is easily one of the best dollar for dollar values that you can get at the moment. If you love the excited feeling of surviving against literal hordes of enemies with the ebb and flow of offense and defense, I cannot think of a more fun continuous gameplay loop in recent memory, definitely give it a shot!
REMEDIUM: Sentinels is available for PC via Steam Early Access.
Related: Reviews by Matt O’Toole
Your local neighborhood nutjob, gamer, and teacher! I'm an avid fan of many genres such as platformers, shooters, horror, etc. I am also an avid tabletop gamer - hugely into the worlds of Warhammer and all of their spinoffs. I'm a big believer in being objective - even if something is not my cup of tea, I want to talk about it on the objective level - is it well made, crafted with love, and with care for the fans? If so, that's a good game in my book for someone and well worth their hard earned dollarydoos!
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