Heart&Slash Reviews

The combat doesn't feel good as it ought to for this sort of game but it's a very charming action roguelike. It's obviously small development but it doesn't feel fully polished. I still dig it though.

Rather basic but fun little roguelite, Heart & Slash will have you fight robots as you switch out weapons and body parts. It's engaging and pretty original, but you'll have to put up with the jank that comes with it. Heart & Slash isn't the prettiest game. Our hero, Heart, knows this, and does his best to make up for it with his humor and cute little animations. Some sentences will sound a little weird, but it's likely to work and you'll give those a pass. What's harder to look past is the environments. Rough-looking, with shoddy lighting and holes that let you see out of bounds. Getting out of bounds yourself isn't even that hard, but if you make the effort to stay within the limits and ignore a few collision bugs, you'll be all right. There are a lot of weapons in the game, some of them being unlocked as you progress or through achievements, Binding of Isaac style. Many have a unique moveset, and although the combat remains very basic, the impact they have on enemies is satisfying. They're fun to discover and try out. The other loot you'll find during your runs are body parts. They can either give you advantages at the cost of speed or defense, or allow you to use new abilities like an air dash or a powerful laser. You can upgrade each of those up to three times using the scraps left behind by the robots defeated along the way, and keep what you don't use for the next run, hence the "roguelite" tag. Heart and Slash is a game that goes from being pretty hard to very easy in just a few runs. It's even possible you'll beat it on your second or third try ! It only gets easier from there, as some achievements grant you permanent bonuses in health and strength. With only 3 worlds and 5 unique bosses, 4 to 5 hours will be enough to see most of what the game has to offer. That's the time needed to beat it a couple of times, and maybe experiment with some of the weapons. Quite short, still. You could always try out the unlockable characters, but there's almost no difference in gameplay... Or follow the story questline, that requires multiple restarts and thorough exploration. But beware the jank once again, as whatever triggers the next part of the quest may not spawn for a while ! Short and janky, Heart and Slash won't be winning a beauty contest any time soon either. But it's fun ! Enough to keep you entertained for a few hours, and see the game through to the end. I'll give it a [b] 6[/b]. For roguelite fans who don't mind a little jank.