Heart and Slash Demo

Rogue-like games may not be as popular as they once were, but that’s a bit of a redundancy, because the genre has never been too popular anyway. In fact, thanks to titles like Faster Than Light or similar ones, rogue-likes actually attracted much bigger crowds than their ancestors, which is indeed a nice surprise in the days of DirectX 12.

Heart and Slash mashes together much more than robots and rogue-like gameplay, which is highly unusual to begin with. In fact, there are many other unusual elements thrown into the mix, such as the procedurally-generated game world and the dystopian universe devoid of human life. On the other hand, everything seems to be working just fine, as long as you are having fun fighting huge bosses.

Permadeath is a big part of the gameplay as well, because it basically means that your progress is scraped once your character dies. Not only that, but a whole new world is created from scratch if you restart, so that might sting as well. Fortunately, there are some bonuses and options you can unlock by playing, which are not reset every time you die, so you get to enjoy a few advantages if you have at least tried to finish the game a few times before.

Another element that’s specific to the rogue-like genre is the fact that you have the opportunity to collect and use a variety of powerful items, each one of which can be customized as well. The same is true for Heart and Slash too, which is especially exciting when you think about the fact that the character is a robot, and these items can be used in a multitude of ways.

Visually, the game is certainly not the eighth wonder of the world, but it’s not horrible either. The graphics are decent and you can admire some interesting scenery along the way, which goes well with the theme. A brilliant soundtrack is part of the deal as well, and it is a pleasure to hunt for enemies on the included music tracks.

When it’s all said and done, Heart and Slash still has a few things it needs to sort out, such as the number of available map styles and the occasional bug here and there. However, everything else is good to go, and it should be a no-brainer decision if you enjoy rogue-likes.