Rogue-likes, love ’em or hate ’em they seem to be the “in thing” especially with indie developers, which is a crying shame that no big companies have tried anything like the genre/sub-genre; but hopefully Eldritch can change that as we have here a fabulous single player first Person Rogue-like with an atmosphere of H.P Lovecraft created mythology, dang that’s a mouthful.
You start Eldritch by finding yourself in a library, in which you explore the games hub. This includes options, such as a bank to deposit or withdraw artifacts, which acts as the currency, and magic points in the world of Eldritch. The magic points are needed when you pray in front of a statue, it gives you a power, or perk if you will, such as invisibility, speed, tame a monster to be on your side, and more. You can use these perks as many times as you like, providing you have enough artifacts to cast it, and yep, they all cost different amounts! There is also a mirror, when approached and selected, you get to customise what your character looks like.
Back to the library situation, it’s a fair size game hub which holds books (what else would a library have?) that takes you to the main games dungeons for you to pick from and this changes every time, it’s randomly generated so you’re not gonna see the same floor pattern again, and as you only have 1 life you are going to need to take the game as slow as you can. Pace yourself, life longer basically.
You can also find items that are being kept on the eerie mobs persons, you can buy them, or you can be a little bit naughty and steal from the shops in random places that are sprawled across the dungeons…or you can do what I do and kill off the shop keeper if you have the pistol revolver ammo and loot the shop…mwuhaha.
The cool thing is the weapon choices, you can wield cold, rough rocks, you can grasp revolvers, and you can clutch bottles. It’s kind of challenging to stay alive, you’ve got a heart with the number of “lives” you have, they can go very quickly through either scrapes with enemies, or even falling from a height.
There are many types of perks available, as already explained, you can find yourself a statue and grant a perk upon your entire characters being, and you can find boots, these can have different bonuses within them. They can help you become stealthier, they can allow you to move quicker, but these perks, as handy as they may be, can work against you. Move faster, it affects your stealth, move slower, it makes you less agile.
A game based around exploring dungeons wouldn’t be wrong in including pick ups! As you explore you can find yourself some lock picks that can help unlock those pesky locks, and medical kits that can patch you up after a scuffle. There’s also other items that become harder to find the rarer they become. The compass for example would be easier to find in the world than the “holy symbol”
The atmosphere of Eldritch is truly sublime as the game sucks you in with its dark and mysterious “voxel” style (yup like minecraft) but don’t let that put you off, as it did with me, as the graphics really do soak up the atmosphere. The sound effects also play a huge part in the atmosphere, you can hear the distant sounds of the monsters, and even your own footsteps as you walk. The monsters can hear you if you walk around casually like a trip to the mall, but if you crouch, then you transition into stealth mode, allowing you to either sneak past the monsters in these dark dungeons, or if you like, you can TRY to survive by shooting, or hitting all the monsters you encounter.
The music is flipping scary and eerie with it’s haunting orchestral music, this starts to play as soon as you exit the library. Be prepared to be on edge, especially if you’ve got the lights off, and you’re playing the game at night..
As already said, the dungeons and floors are randomly generated every-time you go into them, so sometimes you get fountains aplenty to upgrade your health, then in the next room there might be a good four or so revolvers, you get some nice ammo, and plenty of health; but then in the next room…well we all know about Murphy’s law just always, never forget to sneak and always hold the Jump button ‘cos if you miss a jump you can always be lucky and climb a ledge.
Eldritch came out three years ago in October, and it’s really rather worth the play. You can grab it for Windows, Mac, and Linux, on the Humble Store, itch.io, and of course, on Steam below.
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