Blacken Slash Reviews

A minimalistic tactical puzzler with lots of variety between each run. Tons of "equipment" to dig into for meta-gaming and generally very satisfying to complete a level. It's challenging, but that just makes it feel more rewarding once you get one level further.

A very entertaining mix between Roguelite RPG and Puzzle genres, aesthetically pleasing, and really fun! A steal for the price it is, and will excite any gamer at any age! A must have on the Steam Deck!

Played one or two rounds each day last week since release. Learning more and more how deep the gameplay is. The base mechanics are simple, but there are many different ways to play. Also, the game runs super smooth, solid graphics and sound effects, and the soundtrack is spectacular. Maybe there are some minor balancing issues, but I guess they can be ironed out with some time.

Really cool game! The game play is quick to pick up, the aesthetic is appealing and inviting, and the music is a bop! The first day I played it, I was jamming for several hours while jumping through levels. It's fun to increase your skill while also adapting to and selecting from more powerful items as you progress through a run. Highly recommend!

Fun, turn based game with great music. My second play in I figured out which upgrade to rush and easily beat the game, then again to score high on the ladder. The final level wasn't very challenging, some variation (lightning? Shifting board?) would be nice. The ladder is a nice touch. I haven't tried the overloads yet, which I assume will up the challenge enough to bring some replay value by requiring different strategies to win. Performance Concerns 1. I notice that every 10 minutes or so (usually on the screen in between rounds) my macbook pro's fans spin up loudly for 1-2 minutes. 2. REQUEST - It would be nice to have an option to cap the FPS at 30 for when I'm running on just the battery. A lot of games I like have a low resource mode (FTL, Slay the Sprire, etc)

Having a good time so far, need to figure out what momentum does and maybe my builds will improve. A good puzzle solving roguelike, risk reward to go for loot or get attacks in from melee or range.

Fun little [b]puzzle[/b] game! Yes, [b]PUZZLE[/b]. Sure it has some roguelike elements, but I wouldn't call it a rogulite. The base game is pretty unchallenging and once you learn how to play you'll win 100% of your runs so not much of replayability here. The fun part comes from challenges (tied to achievements), where you need to think of a specific build, find required items and adapt your play style. And 1 little mistake can ruin your challenge run and you might even loose items you looted for so long...

Played this quite a bit in demo versions and on mobile before. It's a cool single-actor tactics roguelike with a strong focus on finding Diablo-like randomized loot throughout the run. The cool thing is that said loot doesn't just affect your stats though, but also determines the actions you have available, such as attacks with certain shapes, shield generators, dashes and pushes etc. You can also push enemies off the board which is always a plus in my book! :D

Already played the demo and liked it a lot. And the full version doesn't let me down. Greatn rogue-like game especially for this price! Now I will continue gathering my first equipment set...

I rated this as positive because of Steam's binary yes/no system, though there are some fairly large caveats. It's pretty solid for the price tag, though it doesn't have too much longevity despite a heavy emphasis on loot and progression. There are 2 modes: normal mode where you can carry over equipment between games and gradually increase difficulty through overclock modifiers, and ladder mode where you can't carry over loot (ladder mode also has a weekly leaderboard). Positives: -Smooth and (mostly) well paced gameplay and controls -Pleasant soundtrack and aesthetics -A good variety of loot and builds to try out and upgrade Negatives: -A somewhat large emphasis on RNG, especially in the early game (or in the late game with a sub-optimal build). You have damage variance, crit variance, and chance to miss. There are ways to mitigate some of these, but in ladder mode you often won't be able to and you just have to accept defeat or attempt reloading the stage (reloading the stage doesn't refresh the rng seed). -Acquiring Set bonuses in ladder mode is very unreliable, because you have no inventory there other than what you have equipped. Sets usually have 3-5 pieces, so you're stuck having to wear bad half finished sets in hopes you find the other pieces later. This incentives ignoring sets and just sticking with 'generic good stuff' instead. -Despite normal mode having loot carryover as a feature, it is not balanced around this at all. If you carry over your gear you will annihilate everything; nothing will pose you any threat. It's quite strange because you have the option to minmax a set of gear and upgrade it over multiple runs, but you never have any enemies that compete in power with it. It's like getting ultimate equipment without anything to use it on. All in all for 4-5$ you'll probably enjoy it for several hours, just don't go in expecting a long-term roguelite experience.