Loop Hero - Review
As games grow larger and more complex, they tend to rely more on fancy visuals, or insane set pieces that could only happen in a game. Lately though, there has been a trend to focus more on a few core mechanics and let the visuals be the thing that is least important and that is very much the case here with Loop Hero, because it contains a wonderful gameplay loop, for those that want to invest in it.
The story of Loop Hero is one that is best experienced on your own, mostly because it will unfold in different ways, depending on the choices you make, but the basic gist is that a cataclysmic event has happened, removing almost everything from the world, critters, places, people and even memories, except yours, sort of. The story grows the more you expand your settlement that you can build up and that expansion of locations can bring new folks into the space, as well as recover more memories. While the story will be told in a different order for different players, the overall tale being woven is interesting, but again, explaining anything about it, will take away from the moments that you experience.
Those experiences though are actually shaped by the gameplay, which is a literal loop and takes place on one as well, which really drives home the title. Each time you venture back out into the world to try and find more resources, which you need to expand your settlement, the path available to you, will be randomly created. The other thing that happens is that each time you start, you have no gear, at least to begin with and as you fight enemies, you will start to claim weapons, armour and more to help you out. This upgrade system is pretty unique in that you can’t dispose of any items you collect, just once your bag is filled up, the older stuff starts to be destroyed and while you do get some resources, if you don’t pay attention to what you have, you can easily lose out on an item that could really help. Items can have attributes that make you regen your health faster or take health from enemies when you are attacked and as they can stack, getting a shield that allows for regen, and a weapon as well, means you can really become a powerhouse.
The problem is that each time you pass your base camp, which is where you start your loop, the enemies increase their power, so you will constantly be trying to ensure that you are keeping up with them. The catch is that the enemies that spawn are entirely up to you, because you will also earn cards from enemies that will provide locations you can place down on the path. These cards can be a simple as meadows or rocks that will give you hp buffs, or they can be as dangerous as spider dens that spawn spiders everyday and working out the best places to drop them can be a real hard choice. The reason why it is hard, is simple, each card you place has a simple impact and a more complex one, for example the mountains you drop, given you extra HP at the time of placing and for each additional one, double the amount you get. But the downside is that for every 9 mountains or rock cards you place, a goblin camp appears and even worse, if you put them in a 3x3 grid, they become a super mountain, which allows for harpies to spawn every few days and fly to random locations on the map.
This system is where the games challenge lies, because combat is entirely automatic and the only way you can influence it, is based on the gear you have and the effects of the cards you place. I really would have liked to have had more control in combat, even if I could just select what enemy to attack, if there were multiples, because without control, you just have to cross your fingers and hope for the best. Thankfully, the game does allow for you to pause the game, at any time, to enjoy planning without the worry of walking into traps the catch is that again, you have no control over your character, so you have to plan right. That might sound like I am a broken record, but I can’t stress how important it is to get it right, in some of my earlier runs, I just threw down all the cards I had, wherever there was space, which left me with hardly any room to let my character regen. Later loops though, had me thinking more critically, for example if you throw down a blood wood, next to a grove, enemies that are below 15% health are ensnared by it, letting you get out of combat with less effort from you, so a buff. Then again, that blood wood can also spawn flesh golems to get in your way, so again, planning is essential.
That also comes back to upgrades and building new items in your town, one of the early options is a herbalists hut, which can give you potions, helpful for when you are getting into a tough run, but those new locations you can build also give you new cards. You can only have so many cards available to you, so you need to choose the ones you want to have appear, before you begin a run, select to many with negative effects and you can easily become overwhelmed and given there is a point to your looping, you don’t want that. The point is simple, as you complete loops, you fill up the boss meter and filling it takes time, though once it is full the boss appears and it is time to take the fight to the cause of the destruction of the world. Again though, the catch is that you need to level up your gear and ensure that you are challenged enough, to make it to the fight, with half a chance at winning, lose and it is back to base camp to start over.
Starting over is not as bad as it sounds, because it lets you get more story and occasionally meet new folks back in your little settlement and each of them is made up of pixels, which defines the entire visual look for the game. Characters are not quite 16-bit, but more detailed than standard 8-bit, throwing them in that modern 12-bit valley and the attention to detail on them is delightful, the characters all look like they were pulled from a medieval locale, complete with grotty clothes. But it isn’t just the characters, the settlement locations, enemy characters and loop locales are all wonderfully animated. While there isn’t a whole lot going on when you enter into battles, there is still enough to get engrossed in the action, more so because you are not in control, though the best touch for me, comes on the map. As your character is making loops, the enemies on the map and even yourself, all look they were pulled from E.T on the Atari 2600. One odd touch is the text on the screen, when I previewed it, I noted that the font was hard to read and passed that feedback onto the developers and it seems their solution was to just add a modern font option, which is nice, but doesn’t sit well in the other retro inspired visuals.
On the sound side of things, there is little here to worry about, the tracks are fine, but much like the title of the game, they loop a lot. The games main theme heard mostly on the main menu reminds me a lot of Shovel Knight, with a few Duck Tales elements in there and while it doesn’t sound like either game specifically, it does have a catchy tune. There are no spoken words, but you do get to enjoy the sound of retro text being typed on screen and while there is little text to encounter, compared to the rest of the game, it can sound a bit off at times.
Loop Hero is a game that I really didn’t think was going to be for me, but the more I played it, the more I found myself wanting to play it, which put me in a loop, funny that. The fact that you have no direct control in combat is just plain weird, but given enough planning, of both your gear and card placement, you can still influence how battles might go. The planning and card management may not be for everyone, but if you are like me and tend to avoid games with these mechanics, I urge you to give this one a go, you don’t want to remain outside the loop on this one.
The Score
9.0
Review code provided by Devolver Digital
The Pros
+Solid gameplay loop, pun intended, that demands to be experienced
+Even the simplest looking choices matter and taking time to ensure you are making a good one is important
The Cons
-No direct control over your character in combat is a little weird
-Music feels like it is there, just to be there, not bad, just nothing special
