Roguelites and Roguelikes seem to become all the rage these last couple years. Since the release of “Hades,” it feels like this genre was the new hot ticket developers wanted to mimic. Many have succeeded in putting their own stamp on the genre, but there are others that perhaps struggled a bit on the way. Source Of Madness has a lot going for it, but it feels like everything it does, there was something else recent that did it better, which made my experience with it rather frustrating. There is obvious talent behind the developers over at Swedish company Carry Castle.
In this side-scrolling Roguelite, you play as a series of different acolytes that are determined to fight off demons in this unknown world. There isn’t too much story, just vague and ominous hints here and there such as bumping into some people of the world that are in some sort of cult that give you cryptic comments on what lies ahead as you leave the castle to begin your hunting journey. There is very much a Metroidvania element to the biomes, as you explore you begin to notice how much of a maze some areas can really be. Many other games in this genre do a very good job at helping you stay balanced when in a complex setting, unfortunately I have caught myself getting side-tracked or a little lost on a few occasions.
One of my favorite things about Source Of Madness is, by far, the Lovecraftian esthetic throughout the character and level designs. The overall gruesome and grotesque style really worked for me. As a fan of H.P. Lovecraft’s writing, this game really did a great job at transporting me into one of his scary nightmares. The disgusting enemies, while cool looking for the most part, are procedurally generated and so are their move sets, which made learning how to take them down swiftly and cleanly nearly impossible. For a game in this genre that really requires a strong level of luck is something that has turned me off in the past and again now. Each time you die you pick a different acolyte with different stats; these states can take a while to be truly noticeable since they are very minor and won’t really flesh out until you start buffing up your character. The gameplay can be fun, but over time I noticed it’s not as much about your skill and more about button mashing with the cards that are dealt to you.
Source Of Madness can be very difficult and in the Roguelite genre where you die and go back in to try to do better. In the case with this game, I feel I didn’t learn much from every death, so the more I played and eventually died the more frustrating it got rather than persevering through and feeling a huge sense of reward. This title certainly isn’t for most people, and for the ones that it is will probably have played a handful of games similar that do it better. Having said that, if you already played all those and still have that itch to play something new, this may cure it for a little while.
6.5/10
For more information, visit: https://sourceofmadness.com/
Gaming since I was given an original Nintendo as a kid. I love great storytelling and unique ingenuity. When both collide in a single game, I'm a happy gamer. Twitter/IG @NickNavarro87
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