Roguelike games — where you journey through procedurally generated levels with the risk of losing everything if you die — can be a hard sell to some players. While some gamers live to get just a bit further in each subsequent playthrough, others are turned off by the idea of having to start from the beginning every time they screw up enough to warrant a death.
Tallowmere, a one-man effort released on Steam earlier this year, is here to make rouguelike games more accessible. But does it succeed?
This game launches you right into the action with no story to worry about — all you can gather is that Lady Tallowmere wishes you to go through her "lovingly violent" dungeons to prove your worth. Before you start you're greeted with a brief tutorial, as well as access to the game's hub world. Interestingly, Tallowmere frequently places warp points in the dungeon rooms that allow you to jump back to the safety of this hub for a few moments, meaning you never feel completely abandoned on your quest.
Tallowmere's controls map well to the GamePad. At the start you'll be able to attack with a basic axe, block with a shield, and use a weapon wheel to switch between all the instruments of destruction you'll soon be picking up. As this game plays like a 2D platformer, you're also able to jump — the twist being that you can jump infinitely. While there are light platforming elements in the game, the infinite jump is not a free pass to easy street, as wall spikes are common and you'll often have to confront enemies in tight passages, leaving no room for jumping over them.
Each room is of a tiny size, so you never feel bogged down or have to explore more than a branching path or two. As you progress you'll encounter orcs, archers, mages, and all sorts of other traditional fantasy foes who all want you dead. In each room, one enemy holds the key that you need to recover to open the door and progress.
They'll be tough to defeat at first with your axe and its pathetic attack range, but soon you'll be grabbing grenades, flamethrowers, ice wands and katanas out of treasure chests, which all behave differently and help you take down enemies using different strategies.
For example, if an enemy is standing below you in a hole, trying to rush in with your flamethrower would be suicide. Here, grenades are the perfect tool, because you can chuck a few down and watch your enemy go splat. All weapons have infinite ammo, ensuring that the action never slows down and you can always experiment to find the right tool for the job.
Speaking of going splat, Tallowmere is a violent game for a 2D pixel-graphic platformer. As you slay your foes you'll see plenty of blood splattered on the walls and decapitated heads rolling on the ground. If this is all a bit much for you, you can adjust the amount of on-screen violence in the options (including increasing it!).
Tallowmere is a game that constantly rewards the player with all kinds of goodies as you progress. Aside from just weapons, you'll be collecting new armour, coins to purchase potions and better equipment, and souls from enemies that can be traded in for stat boosts.
Though there are only so many types of weapons and pieces of armor, there are many variations and levels of rarity for these, each giving boosts to different stats (such as a helmet granting extra katana damage). You're able to regularly re-assess your equipment and choose what to equip based on your play style, though the game will automatically equip the best new items for you if you don't want to bother with it manually.
As you get further into a run, Tallowmere starts throwing all sorts of new twists at you. Of course enemies get stronger and rooms get bigger, but you'll also encounter boss rooms, among other special challenges. These include rooms where the speed of time randomly fluctuates, or where you must capture a flag and bring it back to Lady Tallowmere. These keep the dungeon crawling from getting stale and are a welcome change.
As previously mentioned, there are regular warp points which allow you to return to the hub world. Here, you can be completely healed, purchase potions and equipment, cash in your souls for stat boosts, as well as activate customization options, which is where this game really shines.
Things a bit too hard for you? You can upgrade your starting 10 hit point cap by sacrificing some kittens (grisly, admittedly) in the hub. Each one you kill adds 10 hit points to your max counter, up to a total of nine kittens. However, murdering kittens sends your score to a different category on the leaderboard and prevents you from earning in-game achievements. This is a great mechanic that lets less skilled players enjoy the game without having to grind to master the mechanics first.
On the other hand, if you want to go hardcore, you can also speak with the Grim Reaper, who will happily make your quest more difficult. He'll toggle pain options such as removing potions, doubling the amount of enemies, or keeping treasure chests from appearing. Once you've mastered the core game and want more, these modifiers are excellent for increasing replay value.
That's not all, though — there are also special challenge runs that you can access from the hub that task you with making it through 20 rooms of a special dungeon, such as one filled with poison gas traps or one where you can only use a specific weapon. While still procedurally generated, these specific challenges force you to play in a completely different way.
If all this sounds like a bit much to tackle alone, Tallowmere also offers co-op for up to four players. All share the same screen, and the other players can use either Pro Controllers or Wii Classic Controllers. It's great to have the option to play with some buddies, and can take the edge off the difficulty for newbies.
The only complaints we have with Tallowmere are minor. First, you're not able to use the Pro Controller when playing in single-player, as you're forced to use the GamePad. However, the bulky controller is not utilized at all, as there are no touch-screen mechanics in menus. Additionally, the in-game text, shown in menus and in the opening tutorials, is way too small to read comfortably on the GamePad screen. This isn't a big deal, but it would be nice for solo players to use their preferred control method.
The graphics, while passable for retro-style, aren't the greatest you've ever seen. The blocks especially look a bit bland, and after a while of dungeon crawling rooms start to look too familiar. It would be a nice change to have some different colours and textures once in a while, but it's nothing game-breaking. The music, on the other hand, is great and changes every few rooms. It's pretty catchy for a game about exploring dark dungeons.
Like any roguelike game, this gets better as you progress. At the start of a run, you might be forced to take a few hits from some poorly-placed enemies whom you only have an axe to fight against, but once you start packing heavy heat from better weapons and have more health, you'll be having a blast. It's never enough to get frustrating, and you'll probably be ready to start up another run immediately after dying.
Conclusion
Tallowmere is an excellent roguelike. Its value comes from its customization options — you can make the game easier or harder in a variety of ways, run special challenges, and play with buddies. It's all wrapped up with plenty of weapons and gear, a good variety of enemies, cool music, and an addictive gameplay hook that's immediately accessible for newbies of the genre yet deep enough for veterans. The graphics might not be the greatest and there are a few quirks resulting from its PC roots, but this deeply replayable gem is not to be missed if you have any interest in the genre.
Comments 36
Excellent game at a great price. If you check out the website he has been updating the game and Wii U has the latest version. It appears it will get any updates the other versions get.
Buy this! It's cheaper than VC games.
...anyone else thinks the main character looks like Shigeru Miyamoto the sprite edition?
Never heard of this before. Will it be available in EU?
Whoa whoa there, when did we start having good games all of a sudden?
Also did they preview Severed yet on Nintendolife? Looks sweet!
It's not out in NA yet but did anyone play the Castlevania ripoff?
Pleasantly surprised by the score. Now I'm intrigued to find out more. There's only an American price listed I see. Hopefully it's coming to Europe.
Roguelikes with multiplayer and difficulty selections is a plus in my book!
What highly varied environments.
Heads up, may wanna fix the spelling error in the first word of the article.
These retro style graphics a lot of indies are using were cool when the resurgence started a few years ago but I feel like they are getting really old (no pun intended) really fast. The concept is just tired to me and just looks lame now.
And only $4.99 too! 👍
Not really a huge fan of roguelike games, but I'll keep an eye out for this.
No mention of the actual mechanics? That's like the numero uno of any game- without knowing how tight and responsive it feels, I really can't make an informed decision on whether to purchase.
after picking up The Binding of Isaac Ribirth on sale the other day, i was somehow thirsty for more roguelike games and i was naively hoping for something of the likes of Dungeons of Dredmor coming up to the eshop... well this one didn't dissapoint!!
simplistic, responsive, awesome music, and the platforming aspect makes it feel fresh, i love it, highly recommend it if your a fan of the genre!! ;D
@JaxonH well its a platformer, and like its says in the article, you can infinitely jump, but there are spikes and traps to and most of the time there isn't enought space to fly over everthing, so prepare to close quarter fights, besides you need a key to progress to the next room, so you can't avoid combat... now there's nothing more to it if you've played a platformer before, just go watch the video on the eshop or youtube and you'll know everything there's is to know about it ;D
btw i feel like a have to mention, no, it doesn't seems to be as deep as DoD or to have as many diversity as tBoI, but its seems complex enough for what i've played so far (2-3h)... pretty enjoyable, and well priced!! ;D
@huxxny
Not sure you're quite understanding what I'm saying when I mean the mechanics. So, I get what you do, but, what I'm wondering is how responsive it is when you actually do it. How snappy are the jumps, how quick and responsive are actions, how does it feel to run and change directions. The things that make or break a game- the reason Mario and DKC are world class platformers and yet most indies fall by the wayside.
It's something you can't really observe, it's something you have to experience, or have someone else who has experienced it explain their take on it.
@JaxonH well in that case, like i said in my 1st comment: quite responsive, it feels good, there's no delay when you attack, your shield eventually become your best ally, tho is still forget to use it, weapons you gather are diverse and fun to experiement with, like in most rogue-like, and yeah, you have total control with the infinite jump!!
hope it helped a little, its only my humble opinion, but overall this game is a welcome addition to the eshop, and i'm really glad i picked up!! ;D
@huxxny
Appreciate it.
The number one thing that ruins an otherwise great game for me is shoddy mechanics. If it isn't built on solid ground the rest of the game just seems to fall apart imo. I've played some truly excellent games that I just couldn't bare because of the delay in movement or jumping.
yeah i totally get ya, i was interested by a game not long ago, Olympia Rising, and it looked fine, the critics seems to be decent, but when i finally played it, OMG it was so awful, the controls killed it for me, the game had a unique art style and setting, not that original, but still, and i had a good feeling i was going to enjoy it, but man, the sluginess and the framerate drops, it was like a Matrix scene that never ends, one of the worst experience i had buying a game blind in a long time...
as for Tallowmere, all i can say is: if anyone like roguelike games and platformers, and if gameplay is more important to you than shiny graphix, that game might interest you, imho, its worth it!! ;D
Nice! I'm just now getting into The Binding of Isaac and i keep getting better with every run! This game sure sounds like a blast!
I've never played a game like this before. Is there an end to it?
Oh, look. Another great game made by a single developer at a good price. RCMADIAX, take note.
Game looks great, I'll definitely pick it up. I adore the Binding of Isaac and this looks similar (as several others have noted). @BenStegner, the review author... Is it a "rougelike", or a roguelike? should I be expecting a red-tinted game, or a procedurally generated permadeath game? In seriousness though, great review, but there are a few typos there.
@Pahvi This is a real-time, as it plays like a platformer. No turns here!
I'm getting a bit of an Unepic vibe here and I am wholeheartedly about that. I'm in.
@Pahvi yeah, when there's procedurally generated contents and permadeath the general public usually call it roguelike, but i think the appropriate term is roguelite when its not turn-based and that you still keep some progression like achievements!
Games like Dungeons of Dredmor or Sword of the Stars: The Pit on steam are more "Like" the original Rogue, but modern indie studios often opt for a more "Lite" approche hence the slight difference in nomenclature...
@sketchturner as far as i know, usually there is an end, you're just not likely to see it anytime soon becauce of the nature of the challenge!
Watched some gameplay videos. Looks like a really clumsy Rogue Legacy, to be honest. Multiplayer is a cool idea, but the actual gameplay looks quite weak.
@FantasiaWHT It's surprisingly great, actually. I had the game on my iPad but got this to support the dev and for local multiplayer (which is very well done) and physical controls. The combat is fantastic, and constantly challenging due to the shield use and the weapon / enemy variety. It may look amateurish but the gameplay is very tight and addictive.
Last night I got this amazing armor that boosted the awesome ice wand I had and made me into a death-dealing machine, and then I thought, self, you should switch to the katana and chop these dudes up and I got trapped between purple -potion guys and instantly died.
@Stargazer
I hope in the future there is a patch to disable up and down on the control pad to change weapons or switch that to the left stick. Besides that the controls are excellent.
@Shiryu - That was the second thing I noticed, right after "the graphics look like ****!"
@SetupDisk Agreed. He needs to let us map the buttons as we see fit. When playing multiplayer with a classic controller it forces shield to ZR which is less than optimal.
@Pahvi I don't think that strict of a definition holds up anymore, unfortunately :/ you are correct, the original Rogue and its ilk operated via turns, but subsequent games inspired by such have not necessarily adhered to that rule. From what I've seen, the modern roguelike adheres to being 1) randomly/procedurally generated & 2) involving permadeath. It would be nice if 3) were "is turn based", but, well, the times, they are a'changin'.
Edit: I saw someone else refer to a game adhering to rule 1 & 2 but not 3 as a "roguelite". I like that, a lot. I fear it will not stick however :/
@BenStegner, the author, the first "rougelike" has been fixed in Paragraph #1, but the second remains in Paragraph #2. Maybe a "Find -> Replace All"?
Bring backs fond memories of the GCN launch when so many were fauning over Star Wars: "Rouge" Leader...
Anyway, I like the game a lot, but it's in desperate need of control options. Both the aforementioned button-mapping and the ability to use whichever controller as player 1/solo.
Without a patch it's unlikely I can convince my group of friends to keep coming back, which is unfortunate since we all like the game in principle. The lack of control options really hinders the couch co-op appeal as I don't want to have to wield the Gamepad around a stuffed couch, with no elbow room and drinks everywhere, unless I have to. And even worse are the buzzed friends who can't wrap their minds around "up" switching weapons on them.
Regarding previous queries, I don't like the jumping... the character moves a bit slippery, almost like he's gliding, and there's a decided lack of animation in the jumps, which makes it feel too floaty. That said, I do enjoy many other aspects of the game.
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