Square Keeper Review | TheXboxHub

Dungeon crawling is not at all a brand new expertise, with people hacking and slashing their method by lethal caverns for so long as I can keep in mind. Sometimes although, it will probably repay to breathe contemporary life into the legendary sub-genre; simply check out the success of Moonlighter, which has you operating a store and clearing dungeons to inventory it. Whereas not fairly on the identical price range, Sq. Keeper has aspirations of making its personal spin on dungeon crawling. Are you able to filter out room after room of enemies with solely a handful of playing cards and your puzzling expertise at your disposal in Sq. Keeper?

Sq. Keeper sees an adventurer trapped inside a dungeon, and it’s going to be your mission to information them to security by a sequence of rooms. That’s your entire narrative proper there, so don’t count on to be gripped by a intelligent story and fascinating characters. The builders Kanak have put all of their proverbial eggs within the gameplay basket as a substitute. It’s a danger in fact, however puzzling experiences can usually survive and thrive with out an excessive amount of storytelling happening.

There are forty-five rooms to flee throughout 5 completely different chapters. Finally, you simply have to filter out any enemies and make your approach to the exit utilizing a restricted quantity of playing cards out there. Every room is self-contained and considered from an isometric perspective, with a collection of the aforementioned playing cards laid out on-screen. These playing cards allow the primary protagonist to carry out actions, together with actions and assaults. 

The controls are quite simple and also you’ll be eased in with solely the actions to fret about initially. Motion playing cards permit you to transfer both one, two, or three tiles in any of the 4 important instructions. It’s very straightforward to start with, however issues get a bit extra thrilling as soon as enemies are launched, as a result of weapons are then at your disposal too. The sword card assaults in certainly one of eight instructions at a sure vary and strikes you in direction of that method too. In the meantime, the spear card assaults a specified quantity of tiles with none motion and the bow has an infinite vary, whereas additionally retaining the adventurer on the identical spot.

As for the enemies, properly there are slimes, rats, spiders and goblins. Every enemy kind possesses completely different traits to supply distinct challenges to beat. Should you step straight in entrance of a spider, you then’re useless and the room restarts, so by no means look them within the eyes – it’s a rule to stay by. The goblins transfer round in set routines and the rats wander away if approached. Essentially the most boring of all of them is the slime, which merely exists as a simple goal. I like the very fact they do all carry one thing completely different to the desk, nevertheless a couple of extra enemy varieties would assist lots for selection because the rooms are likely to really feel samey and the dungeon vibe is of course glum.

Given the restricted collection of playing cards to select from, poor utilization can see you run out and fall in need of reaching the exit. Therefore, trial and error should be utilized; particularly if attempting to determine the enemy’s actions and the patterns for any spike traps popping as much as pierce holes in your adventurer. Because of the rooms being fairly small, a couple of minutes is probably the most that may in all probability be wanted to find out the perfect sequence of playing cards to play. Solely a pair can have you scratching your head for an answer although, which is each good and unhealthy in essence. It means that almost all of gamers will handle to progress by the lot, nevertheless it additionally gives a smaller quantity of pleasure in succeeding. You’ll be fortunate to squeeze greater than an hour’s price of play from Sq. Keeper.

For probably the most half, Sq. Keeper runs easily, however there’s one recurring incident that’s only a niggling subject that should be talked about. A number of occasions, the primary character has slain an enemy and met an early demise on the similar second. There’s no actual motive for it and no enemies can declare the kill, so I presume it to be a random glitch. Fortunately the shortness of the degrees ensures any restarts are comparatively painless. 

Sq. Keeper manages to create a good spin on the outdated dungeon crawler style, with puzzles on the forefront and a relaxed ambiance besides. It’s a pleasant change of tempo to make use of your noggin to flee the rooms, however you received’t need to ponder options for too lengthy and easiness is as a lot a blessing as it’s a curse. Having a couple of further card or enemy varieties wouldn’t have gone a miss both to inject extra variation into proceedings. 

You received’t come away from Sq. Keeper feeling like a genius, however for the low value of underneath a fiver, it’s a good puzzler that may kill an hour and increase your Gamerscore within the course of.

Sq. Keeper is out now on the Xbox Retailer