Into the Restless Ruins

When it comes to favourite genres, roguelikes are definitely up there at the top for me. I've played more games in that category than any other, I think. So, it's pretty easy for me to tell if new rougelikes offer something new or if it's just another game in the crowd. Into the Restless Ruins mixes and matches a bit on that front, but mostly does it really well.

The unique ingredient of Into the Restless Ruins is that you create your own dungeon. Just as Slay the Spire has cards with different attacks, Into the Restless Ruins has cards with different types of rooms that you can place to get to the places on the map that unlock new parts of the world. The rooms also have different abilities - for example, a room that replenishes your life, a room that increases the damage of your attacks, or rooms that give you more points to buy more or more expensive rooms in the next round.

Your job is to get to the final boss, a guard of sorts who has been messing with The Maiden (who is your quest giver) and once you've done that, you unlock the next lane. There are a total of six different paths to unlock and they all have different layouts that change the strategy behind how you lay out your rooms. The Maiden and all the other characters you encounter in Into the Restless Ruins are taken from Scottish mythology. The Hen Wife and The Wulver are other characters you encounter where the Hen Wife allows you to upgrade rooms and the Wulver gives you various benefits during your runs. There isn't much of a story, but what little there is sets the mood quite well. If you want, you can even play the whole game in Scottish Gaelic instead of English.

Now, you can't just throw rooms on the map and expect to be able to run around as you please completely unencumbered. First of all, your dungeon contains a hell of a lot of monsters that you have to deal with. Then there's the torch, which slowly but surely burns out and causes darkness to envelop you. To prevent the torch from going out, there are rooms that allow you to give the torch a push that makes it burn a little more. These must therefore be strategically placed so that you can keep the candle lit during both the journey to your destination for the day and back to your exit portal.

It is clear that Ant Workshop has drawn inspiration partly from Slay the Spire and also a lot from Vampire Survivors. If you fail runs and die, you will eventually be penalised by the game giving you cards with curses. If you do well, you will be rewarded with cards that give you a big boost instead. You also get the opportunity to add various 'cantrips' that either make it harder or easier the next time you start a track. These are unlocked as you play Into the Restless Ruins and there are about 40 of them but you are limited to using a maximum of four at any one time. The whole deckbuilding aspect is very similar to Slay the Spire and that is by no means a negative point, quite the opposite. When it comes to Vampire Survivors and how they took ideas from there, I'm a bit more dubious, unfortunately.

The thing is, you don't press any buttons to attack the enemies. The game does that automatically, just like in Vampire Survivors. And the fact that the corridors are filled to the brim with them from time to time makes the parallels to Vampire Survivors even stronger. Into the Restless Ruins is some kind of mix between a rouge like-deckbuilder and a horde survivor. But it's not as rewarding as the king of horde survivors, Vampire Survivor, and it feels very bland and tame all the time. There is no weight in the attacks and you just run around and watch while the enemies slowly but surely disappear because you attacked them. You do unlock new weapons as you play, but the problem remains and the battles feel dull and boring. The final bosses offer a bit more variety, though. There, you have to dodge attacks and move smartly to avoid falling early.

Into the Restless Ruins offers really nice music. A kind of fusion between classic bit-pop that flirts with the flavour of Scottish folk music. While the music is a full score, the graphics mix and match a bit. It is a fairly simple pixel graphic, which absolutely works and is nice to look at as long as you do not see it in the seams. One problem often encountered in games with pixel graphics is that the developers have enlarged characters without giving them enough pixel density to work in the game - that's the case here too, with Hen Wife and Wulver looking pretty rubbish. But all in all, I'd say it's neat, but the whole thing is dragged down by sloppy errors that could easily be adjusted.

Into the Restless Ruins actually offers something new and fresh that helps enrich the beloved rougelike genre. Although it borrows liberally from other rougelike giants, Ant Workshop has really borrowed from the right places and created something unique that is very addictive and offers an insane amount of replay value. I would have liked more weight in the battles, especially, and the graphics falter in places but all in all Into the Restless Ruins is a very good game. So go out and build your own dungeon now.