After I first fired up the demo for Strikes of the Diamond Hand, I rolled a personality specializing in “Statement” and “Wit,” two abilities I figured needed to be good for the form of talky, investigative RPG I would clocked this as.
“Cooking” needed to be one thing like Deus Ex’s swimming ability—absolutely speccing into that will chew me within the ass. However actually the second problem I bumped into had a cooking choice to bypass it, and what’s extra, the best way of the chef may even be “OP” so far as this journey game-RPG hybrid goes. It was time to re-roll.
Watch On
Strikes of the Diamond Hand is the following sport from Cosmo D, an unbiased developer and musician whose most well-known work up to now was 2022’s Betrayal at Membership Low.
Membership Low has been a kind of actual head, hardcore, indie-liker indies I have been which means to find time for, however Diamond Hand’s demo earned it a direct Spring Sale buy and Steam Deck set up. Cosmo D is cooking.
It is a combat-free RPG the place the gameplay is all exploration, dialogue, and ability checks—suppose Disco Elysium, Planescape Torment, or the non-combat bits of New Vegas and Baldur’s Gate 3.
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Diamond Hand’s first particular person perspective and punk, city nightlife grounding additionally rang a bell in my memory of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines, one in all my main RPG fixations.
Character leveling, gear, consumables, and even facet quest outcomes are all about modifying your d6 ability rolls. You wish to specialize, however not an excessive amount of (I invested in two “important” and two “backup” abilities), with most obstacles in a position to be overcome by a number of abilities, however hardly ever all of them.
In the meantime, successes elsewhere can usually “soften” a ability test, letting you full a quest to sidestep a difficult roll, or use one in all your strengths to squeak out a profitable roll with a weaker skill.
For instance, my connoisseur proclivities let me impress a number of NPCs with my information of their beverage of selection, incomes me particular bonuses on subsequent rolls with “Knowledge” or “Physique,” which I used to be poor in.
The result’s an expertise the place I am curious to attempt it with a unique construct, however did not really feel prefer it totally locked me out of quests or selections. There’s replay worth, however I did not really feel shortchanged or like “oh, that is the Physique half—not for my construct.”
That will change (however in a great way) within the full sport although: Early dialogue implies there’s an unique path as a part of the primary quest for every particular person ability, nearly like a class-exclusive quest in one other RPG—suppose the Thieves’ Guild within the OG Baldur’s Gate or the Elder Scrolls’ varied class-flavored guilds. As a cooking specialist, my said aim was to create the right sandwich.
Pizza pizza
Within the meantime, cooking opens up a complete pizza-crafting minigame the place toppings you discover within the rubbish might be baked into cube roll-enhancing pies. Basil offered my favourite impact, swapping my cube roll with the opposing one, opening up Uno reverso moments the place I would intentionally sandbag a tough roll with one in all my weak abilities, then swap my crappy consequence for the opposing good one like somewhat trickster imp.
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I am unable to converse to the style of an “oops, all basil” pizza, however it’s mechanically unimpeachable. Additional, many NPCs within the demo might be pickpocketed through the Deception ability, and I will be curious to see if the opposite abilities get related bonus mechanics to the pickpocketing and pizza chef minigames.
One thing I actually must reward, although, is that I by no means wished to save lots of scum whereas taking part in this demo—the myriad mitigation instruments, skill to re-try most rolls, and occasional fascinating outcomes from failure all made residing with it preferable to obsessively reloading—I am unable to even say that about Disco Elysium or Baldur’s Gate 3, two of my very favourite videogames.
The end result of all this standout RPG gameplay was not the ultimate dialogue boss struggle with an AI-enhanced Massive Mouth Billy Bass—although that was an important second. No, he was the Sephiroth to a different dialogue problem’s Emerald Weapon.
The Final
You possibly can fill in for a famous road performer in entrance of her adoring public, which ends up in a form of mini roguelike, repeatable dialogue puzzle-type factor. You need to go progressively more durable ability checks to carry out for the gang and attain the top of the sequence, and might draw in your whole physique of abilities—not simply the express “Music” one—to take action. Three failed checks causes you to go bust and forfeit all of the tip cash you’ve got accrued.
The factor is, you possibly can solely use every ability as soon as till you exhaust the total repertoire, which unlocks all of them once more, which means you must strategically deploy your weak abilities and consumables, and even intentionally go bust on just a few checks (which additionally lowers the problem modifiers), to go the gap and full the efficiency. You may also, in fact, minimize and run along with your winnings to purchase higher stuff and equipment up for an final run.
There is a chic, Balatro-like loop to Diamond Hand’s ability checks. Buried below its immersive, adventure-oriented exterior is a devilishly good, mechanically impressed RPG, one which units Diamond Hand aside from the wealth of trendy, beautiful journey video games on Steam.
However Diamond Hand is additionally a singularly trendy, beautiful sport. Cosmo D’s Off-Peak Metropolis, the unifying setting of those video games, has a form of “Grownup Swim noir” vibe to it: Very brash, surreal, anarchic, and punk. Crucially, although, it additionally has a really heat, empathic present working below every part. It isn’t so absurd that I felt disconnected from the story, and there is a actual dedication to Off-Peak’s fictional guidelines and politics that made me wish to know extra concerning the world.
So I in fact grabbed Membership Low for like, six bucks, and loaded it on my Steam Deck. Regardless of presently missing a verified and even “playable” standing, it apparently runs fairly properly on Valve’s handheld.
The Diamond Hand demo is at a weirder spot in the meanwhile. I attempted it on Deck simply to see, and whereas it runs nicely, it presently appears confused by the Steam Deck’s inputs, recognizing a number of the handheld’s buttons as a part of a gamepad, and others as mouse and keyboard.
It is hardly a dealbreaker or something, however Diamond Hand on Deck requires both extra severe user-end tuning than I used to be in a position to decide to throughout my work day, or consideration from Cosmo D. Within the meantime, this can be a desktop affair.
However I am on board irrespective of the platform. It took me three hours to complete the Strikes of the Diamond Hand demo, which is the primary of a deliberate 4 chapters. Chapter two will probably be coming as a part of Diamond Hand’s early entry launch this yr, and I believe the self-contained nature of its first sandbox truly lends itself to being loved in an episodic trend, one thing that may at all times be a toss up with early entry. You possibly can take a look at Strikes of the Diamond Hand’s demo for your self and wishlist the total sport over on Steam.
