Plunge Reviews

[h1]Details[/h1] [quote] [h1]Stuck indoors, one way out.[/h1] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2087303345 Do YOU remember the 1980s? Of course you do - it's on Netflix. Isometric games, sparsely coloured on a black backdrop were ten-a-penny, awkward to play. Simple, but honest fun. In this game, you have to escape a prison set in a bleak, toxic future: more Christopher Lambert than Vin Diesel - and more female. [b]Hook[/b] Imagine 'Knight Lore' meets 'Eden Blues' meets 'HeroQuest' meets 'Robert Crumb' - but new! [b]Mechanic[/b] First select a prisoner from a growing roster in a hub level - it is turn-based, and nothing moves until you commit to your action - navigate with arrow keys in isometric world - collect potions to use with SPACE keys - moving will make your prisoner slide across floor until they hit an edge, enemy or obstacle - goal is to collect a key to unlock a trapdoor - every 10 levels you meet a fence who can offer you power-up cards - every 30 levels, there is a boss fight which, when beaten, opens up a new area in the hub - replaying a section will show same maps but will flip and rotate them to add variety [b]Accessibility[/b] - clean and clear interface - violent, toxic, disturbing but not bloody or profane - isometric grids take a bit of practice [b]Delivery[/b] - Gloombones... oh my word, the artwork is amazing! - slick gameplay, nice variety of styles - dark prison but light humour throughout (love those hairy legs) [/quote] [h1]Summary[/h1] [quote] [h1]A dark delight, plays very well with a superb old-skool vibe and sticks to the basics: 4-way controls and a fire button - HEAVEN![/h1] Pros: - compelling gameplay - great depth and tactics - variety of enemies provides a lot of challenge - world oozes its poisonous atmosphere - great progression, challenging bossfights Cons: - isometric is disorientating, especially when drunk! - initially disheartening to lose all progress between 30-level stints back to the hub - power-ups are random, and some make the game ridiculously easy My Score: 9/10 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1748253455 [/quote] [h1]See also...[h1] https://store.steampowered.com/app/319050 [h1]All [url=https://steamcommunity.com/id/boyflea/][i]boyflea[/i][/url] reviews can be found at [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/33138741-Good-Indie-Free-Game-Reviews/][b]Good Indie Free Game Reviews[/b][/url]

What Binding of Isaac would be like if it was a turn based puzzle game. Only complaint I have is that the mechanics are a little bit too basic. You can only move in 4 directions and that's it as far as I have seen. Sometimes your move is augmented with stuff like confusion or teleporters but not much changes. Some items have cracy effects like take and deal extra damage according to how many you killed which makes you onehit guys but also be onehit. Overall it's k.

Nice small roguelike for a small price tag. Original enjoyable combat that doesn't get stale with the length of the game. Music is fitting and art style is extremely original. Wonderful game for 5$.

Plunge is an absolutely lovely game- the visual aesthetic and the music are instantly charming, and the mechanics are simultaneously elegant and so, *so* fun to play with. Plunge only allows you to move in cardinal directions; this allows for both some fun puzzle-adjacent levels and some really hectic gameplay, if you're willing to go fast (and, of course, if you play with the [spoiler]secret character[/spoiler] which all but begs you to). All in all- a great experience. :)

This game is very good! Fantastic art style, super interesting puzzly movement, clear enemy action indicators. I always felt like when I died, it was because of my mistakes, not because of RNG. The bosses are fantastic, especially the final one. I actually prefer my roguelikes on the shorter side, so this was great for me. I highly recommend it to puzzle fans. Mortar is best character. Double potions forever! Now, a small but detailed gripe. This is very secondary to the rest of my review, so if you are just considering buying this game, don't worry about this detail. I think the last unlockable character has some major problems. -You start each floor only able to deal 1 damage (unless upgraded), which can be very messy on certain (Voidblocks) rooms. It feels like certain rooms are impossible to escape without taking some damage because of high quantity of enemies and the possibility of getting surrounded if you can't eliminate the enemies quickly enough. -You gain damage by moving quickly before attacking. You can maintain this damage threshold by continuing to move fast, including attacking enemies. This feels a bit strange because simply moving and then attacking over and over again, no matter how fast you do it, will not build up this counter. You need to specifically move without attacks to build up this speed. -Sometimes, enemies will "skip" a turn. This can put you in a really bad spot or even guarantee that you get hit. You could move away from an enemy attack, then move back, and get hit by the attack that was prepared the turn before. This seems to happen far more often when moving quickly - I think I might be triggering my next movement input before the enemies trigger to move. You could slow down to check if a turn has been skipped, but that doesn't work well with the need to act quickly as this character. This makes building up that damage counter wayy more challenging, since if you go too fast, you might cause a skip, or miss that one has happened. -If you take damage, the counter goes back down to 1 damage. For me, this combination of traits made this character no fun. The combination of random damage from skipped turns and crowded rooms did not match the high level of precision and focus needed to make this character work. I suppose that I could play until I get aggro or some other damage buff and just play this character like a vanilla 2 damage character, but I don't necessarily want to reroll until I get that option. So I won't be finishing 100%, but I really enjoyed the rest of it. Everything else is really good. Thanks for your time!

This is really, truly lovely. Halfway between a puzzle game and a roguelike, the sliding mechanic and the unambiguous timing of the enemy moves makes this a real delight. Any time I've taken damage, I've felt it's very clearly because I let myself get in this situation, not unfairness within the game. The upgrades are chunky and clever, and the ability to lose them in order to pick them up for trying on a future level is great too - though I kinda wish such banked upgrades got you a couple uses out of each so you could feel free to experiment a little more, that you can do it all is still excellent. Levels don't appear to be truly procgen (Probably a good thing given the puzzle movement), but there's a fair variety - even if you end up on the same map, the enemy positions seem to shuffle around a fair bit, so the feeling of repetition to date has been low, and the devs have said there's more coming, so I'm happy with the variety on offer, but worth noting it's not infinite. Movement is swift and crisp, and the sounds and art are amazing; if you wanted a new coffee-break roguelike I couldn't ask for better.

Plunge consumed a pretty hefty amount of my time. At it's base, Plunge is a sliding puzzle rogue-like where you have to clear 30 individual levels in 4 unlockable stages to escape from this prison dungeon. Despite being a sliding puzzle, it has your usual rogue-like features such as potions you don't know what they do til you drink 'em, HP and abilities that alter how you play and different unlockable characters that have drastically different playstyles. Each stage/scenario introduces new concepts to you or gimmicks to each scenario such as teleportation or whatnot. The game combines puzzle games and turn-based RPG gameplay pretty well as you try and figure out the optimum direction to slide and stay three steps ahead so you're not cornered or sliding into danger. I'd also say that the difficulty ramp is decent as well as each stage allows you to get used to the changes before scaling up to really test your understanding of them or throwing more difficult enemies at you. Obviously, it is a rogue-like tho so difficulty is something you'll be butting your head up against a lot. And while sometimes randomness can mess up a run or be stacked against you, very rarely did I feel as if something wasn't my fault due to how long you can take to think of your strategy. I'd say that up until the last unlockable character is the balance pretty darn good and that the last character is more of a "well, you beat the game so here, try this bullcrap" type of difficulty wall. Not really a negative cause it's supposed to be the hardest challenge. I'd say the one thing you'll love or hate is the aesthetic; it's very "zine" feeling, reminiscent of the R. Crumb/that rat in the car with the huge gear shift years of cartoon magazines. It either works for you or doesn't and as someone with a gajillion hours of Isaac, I've dealt with worse aesthetics. All in all, for 8 fricking dollars this is 100% worth the money. I got a good 30 some odd hours out of it and even if you only get 20 before you beat everything because you're better than me at rogue-likes I'd say you spent your money well. Really fun and unique rogue-like that I hope gets some DLC or additional content cause I'd love to come back to it.

I don't get how people can play this for hours when it's the same simplistic gameplay loop over and over. The puzzle aspect is decide when to hit the enemy and when to run. That's it. slide around the level to find the right timing and you're done. Too simple for me.

Plunge is a tile-based dungeon crawler that is a mix of puzzle and action. While the game is fundamentally a turn-based affair, the game moves as fast as you do, so it never feels like you are waiting for the game to catch up. It feels like an action game when you are doing well, and a puzzle game when things get tough. I never felt bored or frustrated during my play through. Each new mechanic that is introduced is clearly understood after interacting with it once or twice, and it makes you feel clever as you outsmart the games many challenges. It didn't take long for me to complete the game the first time, but there are lots of new ways to play the game with the different characters and upgrades available, so there's lots of puzzling to be had for those that want to challenge themselves even after escaping the prison. For my money, Plunge is worth every penny.

Nice positional puzzle game with some roguelite elements, a bit reminiscent of [i] Endhall [/i]. Not a lot complexity as far as the stats and loot go, it's mostly a brain game with some marginal power-ups. Honestly, I did not like the gameplay at first, mostly because it does not show all of its features right away. However, the game eventually adds enough mechanics to make it interesting, such as additional characters, randomized power-ups, and a hub zone that connects main areas. Each character is slightly different in terms of stats, not too exciting if you ask me, I wish they had some active skills as well. As you progress through the levels, the game will add new potions and power-ups that will randomly circulate through the stages. Every 10 levels you will meet a dude that will give you one of the 3 abilities, it seems like you can only keep 3 at a time though. While I enjoyed the puzzles and boss fights, the game does not have a roguelite loop with enough depth. If you want some replay value you would have to rely on achievements for completing the game with different characters. [h1] Pros: [/h1] + several playable characters (have to unlock them) + good variety of funky effects (potion that flips the screen XD) + unique art style + achievements  [h1] Cons: [/h1] [u] Mouse Controls [/u] - currently you have to click and drag to choose the direction. It would be nice if I could just click on the tile and move into that direction. Also, sometimes the game zooms in too much and you can't see far enough ahead. [u] Character Variety [/u] - the difference between characters is very marginal. One character has more HP, the other has more armor, and so on (makes no difference to me). Perhaps they should have active abilities with cooldown or at least better passives.  [b] Overall Thoughts: 7/10 [/b] Probably not the kind of roguelite where you would spend a lot of time on, but the price is fair and it might be alright for a few runs. Just don't expect an RPG, 90% of the game is thinking, 10% is stat-boosting with upgrades and potions.  [code]For more Hidden-Gems: http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31294838-Hidden-Gem-Discovery/ [/code]