The first roguelike in which you play as the devil, which means you can change some of the game's rules to your advantage! Run after run, manage your team of famous evil geniuses as they encounter unforeseen events and turn-based combat. Unlock new skills, create powerful synergies and use your powers to turn the situation in your favour at critical moments. Only by collecting ancient artefacts can you finally take your revenge on the Demon Hunters.
The Story: Weakened from defeat to the forces of good, you fled the world and sought refuge in hell to survive. Decades later, you have returned with your most faithful Disciples to exact revenge on those wretched Demon Hunters. But the world has changed in your absence. Your enemies have become all-powerful, and a new religion – the Sanctua Lumen – has become very influential. It mercilessly hunts down all those who serve you. To reinstate your hold over the world of humans, you must first regain the strength you previously wielded by taking possession of artefacts with legendary power.
Key Information:
Create your team of 3 Disciples from Dracula, the Headless Horsemen, Bloody Mary, the White Lady, Lilith, Hecate, Baron Samedi, and Frankenstein and his Creature.
Each Disciple has their own unique story, abilities and gameplay: combine their skills to create devastating synergies, and deal with the mortals that dare stand in your way.
Collect souls and exchange them for new skills, upgrades and powerful relics that can strengthen your Disciples.
Sacrifice some of your health to control the game interface: nothing will stop you – and certainly not the rules imposed on mortals.
Manipulate the health bars of your Disciples and enemies, optimise status effects to suit your fight tactics, open portals on the map, tip the odds in your favour during events… there are many occasions to use your diabolical powers throughout your run.
Increase the terror gauge by winning fights and completing interactive events to earn valuable bonuses for your Disciples.
Complete each event to your liking to reduce the influence of the Sanctua Lumen, give mortals good reason to fear you, and decide the fate of traitors who have allied themselves with your enemies.
Take revenge on the Demon Hunters in epic turn-based fights.
Our Thoughts: I feel like in the last year there has been a tidal wave of roguelike games releasing and I have slowly been getting more and more fatigued from playing them. That being said Rogue Lords peaked my interest with its mix of RPG, Turn-based, Strategy and roguelike which mixes things up a little bit. Gameplay features an overworld map that you traverse, with multiple choices with which direction to take. The battles feature turn based combat reminiscent of classic JRPGS with your team of three disciples battling enemies with their own unique powers and move sets. The battles require alot of strategy and patience and can sometimes drag on too long, but having the ability to spend blood/souls to do a deal with the devil mid combat to essentially cheat is a fun, but risky twist on the normal template.
The game features great graphics. The dark gothic tone of the game, comic like but full of detail with character designs of classic horror names looked fantastic, coated with blood effects, moody music and well delivered voice acting really make playing as the bad guys more fun! Overall Rogue Lords is a solid roguelike that brings a variety of new things to the table which make it stand out from the mass of others in the genre. Whilst its not perfect, with difficulty spikes and some messy UI issues - it's positives well outweigh it's negatives. The setting with classic horror names gives this one a wider appeal and the ability to cheat is a fun touch! Lets just hope this one doesn't get lost in the current boom of roguelikes as its well worth 15-20 hours of your time.
TOTAL SCORE: 7.5/10
Rogue Lords was released onto the Xbox store on the 12th May 2022. The game is playable on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S consoles. Priced at £24.99 you can buy it HERE. There is also a DLC skins pack available for purchase separately that includes exclusive character skins. A copy of the game was provided for this review. A big thanks for that!
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