Eldritch [Windows]

Eldritch by Minor Key Games is a First Person Roguelike, set in a Lovecraftian world. It looks a lot like Minecraft and plays something akin to Dishonored with guns, knives and magic. It's an indie title and it only costs $14.99 USD, if that's got your interest keep reading.

Knowing this was a roguelike I set about my first play quite cautiously. I snuck about, got stealth kills and looted every bit of treasure. Doing this I found the game got a little tedious and I had become complacent at how powerful I felt I had become. So I started running about, killing things in the noisiest way possible and not looting everything. Then the game threw something new at me and I died. When you die in this, you can keep all of the artefacts you have banked and you can keep your progress in the way of unlocked books but everything else is lost. This means items are gone, as well as any progress you achieved without unlocking a book. Artefacts act as your currency as well as fuel for your magic powers and books are your gateway into the next world.

After my first death I wasn't frustrated with the game but rather I wanted to get back at it. I thought I knew how to solve my problem and I had learnt a lot through my first play through. I was really impressed with the way the game taught me things without throwing it in my face. I learnt how to manoeuvre through spikes by watching worms, for example and I thought the game had a lot in store in terms of this. However the game is rather short and this is it's most disappointing feature. I was hoping for an expansive RPG world with lots of items and things to do but I finished the game in one session. You can go back and play the game on an extra hard setting which is a nice challenge but it adds little to the gameplay. There aren't a huge variety of weapons and there aren't many things to learn.

Eldritch has a great atmosphere and loads of interesting ideas but it runs out of steam too soon. This adventure is going to have huge appeal to a small niche of people and I think that's really what they aimed for 7/10.