Loop Hero
There’s not a whole lot to say about Loop Hero. It’s a very simple game, but it’s a very addicting one.
Loop Hero has a very nostalgic and retro feel to it. From the graphics, music and sound effects. It even has an option to play with a CRT filter on it! The vast majority of the game shows real polish, but you can see where there may be future updates. There are two equipment slots completely inaccessible no matter what you do.
The game starts out by being dropped right into it, no explanation. You start going around this looped path around a campfire. Surrounding this path is nothing but darkness. You eventually settle at the campfire and realize there are a couple other people there, but it’s basically huts and nothing else.
Through your loops you gather resources to develop your campfire into an actual camp, unlocking upgrades and options to help you on your subsequent loops. There are four chapters, each with their own final boss, that progress the game along.
While light on story, there is a huge bit of lore that finally explains what the hell happened to the world at the end. The core hook is the gameplay loop. Get it? LOOP!
You gather resources quite quickly, which allows for fast progression for getting upgrades and unlocking things. There are also three “classes” that you can choose to use on your loops. You can change each loop. Knight (tanky bastard), Rogue (fast bastard), and Necromancer (squishy skeleton summoning bastard). I settled into using the Rogue, but from what I read they’re all equally viable. Just depends on how you want to play the game.
There is a steep difficulty curve, but it’s just steep enough that you want to push through and figure out how to get past it.
You use cards during your loops to place objects around the board that have different positive or negative affects. Sometimes these negative affects can be used to your advantage. Different cards being placed next to each other can also change the objects on the map, and it’s fun to try to find them.
It’s not a long game, it took me about 20 hours to beat the final boss the first time, and there’s still plenty to do. Each time you beat the final boss you learn more about their motivations and why the world was destroyed, and why you survived.
Check it out if you’re in between games and not sure what to play! You won’t be disappointed! Also their website is pretty cool, and looks just like the game and will give you a good preview of what to expect!
