Well, it’s a roguelike.
Fin or-
No, no wait! I have more to say. One Way Heroics intrigued me thanks to its central mechanic- the inexorable march of Darkness encroaches ever onwards from the left side of the screen, spurred on by the villainous Demon Lord, and you must outpace it else be swallowed. It puts a neat spin on a genre usually filled with easy decisions; exploring that little fortress might result in some sweet loot, but if the entrance gets swallowed up while you’re in there you’ll have a very short amount of time to bond with your new toy.
Alongside this, there’s some nice little Quality Of Life tricks that alleviate some of the ‘features’ of roguelikes. Each world is generated from a random seed which you can replay as many times as you like, enabling you to get a feel for what lies ahead- it’s not all totally random nonsense. You can also store a few items between lives, ready to be picked up immediately at the start of your next run, so every run actually feels like it contributes something- you’ll get a weapon, or a trinket, or even just a valuable jewel you can immediately sell at the start of your next run to stock up on healing items.
Overall, it feels far less anti-player than most rogues do, and runs are so short that it doesn’t feel like a sisyphean task to go for a completion. In fact…
Fin or Bin:
I decided to go for it, and since my first hour, I have managed to Finish a complete run, with
Swords the swordsmaster fighting a gruelling campaign, smacking down that archfiend once and for all, and halting the onslaught of Darkness. It’s a pretty neat game all told, and while I doubt I’ll be coming back to it, the entry fee is very low and it’s a perfect lunchtime filler. Stream is archived here!
(Steam)