Runers

Runers is a top-down, may-as-well-be-twin-stick shooter with roguelike qualities, including permadeath. Contrary to what you might have expected after glancing at the screenshots, the game does not feature traditional loot, consumables, equipment or an inventory system, other than what’s required to craft spells. With this in mind, I didn’t expect it to have much depth but was pleasantly surprised to be proven at least partly wrong. The main attraction here is the magic system that lets you combine a catalyst with one to three runes from eight elements to create 285 different spells. Most results are unique in both animation and effect and generally fall under buff, debuff, direct single-target damage, area of effect, or some combination thereof. Spells can be further upgraded in power by dragging duplicate runes of the same element onto them, which augments their damage, knockback, coo

In an industry run by flashy visuals and over-the-top plots we tend to forget what makes the games that have lasted us the longest so memorable, their content and the feeling of discovery. Runers ditches the sugar-coating and fluff in favor of pure action and customization to help craft an experience that revolves around how you want to play. Banished to the confines of a dark and dank dungeon with nothing but your arcane knowledge and the magical power of the Runes found within. The moody melodies and grim dim-lit rooms beckon you deeper in to the randomly generated chambers of ongoing dungeon floors which each act as an arena, staging chaotic top-down battles and sometimes throwing objective based events at you for a chance at an additional skill to level up and increase your survivability in these diabolical crypts. On the surface Runers may seem slightly rough around the edges in

The most beautiful thing about starting a new rogue-like game is seeing the different options that are available to customise your first play-through. Binding Of Isaac shows you the 6 characters you can unlock, Risk of Rain presents the three classes you can play as. Immediately you’re thrown into the game knowing full well that you can choose to play however you want, and that your choices are going to matter, and that’s what makes rogue-likes my favourite genre, because you have such control over your playstyle from the get go. Runers developed by Let’s Get Kraken is no different. Wait, let me rephrase that. Runers is different. You’re not provided with 5 characters, or three classes. No sir. You’re give 20 of each. 20 blessings and 20 classes. Let’s do some maths for a minute. That’s 20 x 20 playable combinations. And while I’m sure the majority of you remember your 6th grade multipl

Runers is very interesting roguelite that does a lot right. Essentially, you attack by using spells and the main novelty of the game is that you hand-craft spells by using various combinations of runes that you collect. You carry several spells at once. This makes for some really wild spells/attack combinations that actually feel and look and act drastically different. Yeah, you have your run-of-the-mill fireball spell, which is simple to make, but further down the line you may craft a wave of fire that moves in a DNA-strand-like pattern across the screen. It gets crazy. But, there are rough edges. The Great: +This has spell creation like no other game I've played. You really do feel like the crafting is endless, and they do really act and feel different. +Definately an addictive factor here. +Meta-game upgrades also keep you coming back for 'just one more run'. +Controller support is s

Runers is an amazing combination of discovery and rogue-like gameplay. You use 1-3 of 10 different types of runes to create hundreds of spells. Of the 285 spells you can only discover a handful per run, and runs can take hours. In other words, this game's element of discovery can last hundreds of hours. The spells are incredibly unique and versatile. You'll find that they fit into general categories and serve similar purposes, but that no two spells are the same. You can also upgrade the spells you have created by using additional runes on them. This doesn't simply upgrade damage or cooldown time though, but any of a number of aspects of a spell including but not limited to: buff duration, radius, force, speed, knockback, stun duration, and even "leash elastic." Clearly not all spells will have every one of these and more aspects, but how a spell can be upgraded is just as important as