THE SPIRIT LIFT Review for Steam

THE SPIRIT LIFT developed and published by Prettysmart Games, is a roguelike dungeon crawler that focuses on deck building and team composition. This makes the game focused on players being creative with how they build different team compositions and how they play the game optimally, as with each run new variables are added in. Aside from the gameplay, the music is pretty great and accentuates the mysterious nature the game has built the setting around. This makes the game more focused on the roguelike genre that the developers have focused on allowing them to have more time to add more items to truly make the game feel unique, as no 2 runs will be the exact same. So, a majority of the fun will be found in testing new ways to play.

The gameplay is pretty bare-bones and not too different from other dungeon crawlers in terms of broadly defining the game itself. It’s the small details in THE SPIRIT LIFT that truly set it apart from everything else in the genre, as there are very few roguelite dungeon crawlers. Such as how the start of each run begins where players will need to decide how they are going to build their party for combat. As each character has their own specialized skill set that makes them wholly unique and changes the team composition entirely. However, most people might try and focus on having one person on the team specializing in providing a high damage output to ensure that certain high HP (health point) enemies are defeated swiftly.

And for the team itself, it can only consist of 3 members, each of whom specializes in certain attributes, with Tobias, for example, focusing more on damage, as early into the game he is by far the best damage dealer till the player can unlock other characters. And there are plenty of other characters that all feel decently well balanced to give everyone a fair chance of completing runs. Moreover, the gameplay for this roguelite in particular has a lot of lore locked behind runs and random events. So, players will need to keep on playing the game over and over again. And that goes for the items needed for upgrading the player’s teams, as the stat bonuses from them can make progression easier and decrease the number of failed runs in the game.

The narrative of the game is found in random events that can be triggered with each run, revealing more and more about the hotel the player’s characters are staying at. So, players will need to keep on playing to understand the lore of the game, as it is hidden away in evidence and special events that tell the whole story. This makes progression tantamount to the overall story that the player can read and incentivizes the player to do better over time and make smarter decisions. By making the narrative linked to the gameplay loop, it is such a great way to incentivize players to want to do more, take more risks, and understand when to back down or up. To go back on track, the narrative takes inspiration from a lot of different genres of literacy, such as mystery, cosmic horror, and classic horror, from key character and design elements in the game.

Overall, the gameplay is pretty good enough to keep players interested, and with roguelikes in general, a few runs can often extend to a couple of hours, and soon enough it’s the next day. So, The Spirit Lift is a great game from that standpoint but can leave players wanting more and more from the gameplay loop. However, other than that, it can be a bit repetitive, especially when trying to farm for certain evidence or materials for upgrades, which can make the player feel like they are getting weary. And while the music can help after the 7^th hour, the music can feel tedious to listen to despite it being composed really well. This makes the game great for short runs every now and then for players who are not used to farming in games. All in all, THE SPIRIT LIFT is without a shadow of a doubt, a solid 8/10.

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Kyle Manila

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I would describe myself when interacting with games as a strategist with a pension for stealth and loud explosions.