Rogue Water's review

Villain Is a tactical roguelit who wants to rule the players with the history of Captain Cutter, a sluggish pirate whose fate is greater than anything he has imagined. Players who played Darkest dungeon 2 A number of similarities may notice like the branching card when you start your adventure. Fortunately, Villain Quickly creates his own identity with a diluted history, a ship's shipping fight and a more forgiving approach for encounter. Ice Code Games managed to create an unforgettable experience, and while it was initially published for PC in 2024, Villain is now available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch.

The gameplay loop of Villain is often convincing. The players start in their hub, an underwater closure in which they can recruit crew members from a tavern, upgrade their ship, impose characters and generally handle their entire business before completing an adventure. If you are ready to sail, you can start a new attack. Players receive three options on the selection screen. An option will always drive the history of the Roguelit, while the other two only have adventures and have the chance to collect rewards. Everyone will vary in length and difficulties that commit themselves to the raid. If a player has difficulty completing a story -raid, he can probably benefit from coincidences to receive resources and XP.

As soon as Captain Cutter puts the sail, the player is shown a branched card that gives you an idea of which encounters he will face. Players can choose their own way and decide whether they want to face elite ships, visit shrines where they are asked to make options, or drive in ports where they can repair their ship while spending gold. If you are confronted with several ships along a branching route, players can see what rewards you acquire from your enemies, which can take into account in the direction in which you can choose.

Ship-to-ship battle keeps every encounter in rogue waters freshly

In view of enemy ships, the place where the Villain Really shine. As soon as the players are hit against another ship, they will get involved in ship's shipping fights. During this phase, players will use their cannons to shoot the enemy on the enemy and strategically choose their goals. For example, you may want to put a goal on a module (such as improved cabins) that gives the opposition a health bonus. The player can also try to target members of the crew or to remove the enemy ship's cannons to prevent damage to their own boat. These moments offer a strategy layer outside of the typical grid combat, and the results can often have significant consequences.

If players manage to remove the entire enemy crew before the boarding phase, they will win and continue to sail an early victory without entering the enemy ship. Everything that can be done to an enemy can also be done to the player, which makes situations exciting. Enemies have the opportunity to destroy the beneficial modules of Captain Cutter, which means that the crew may be the enemy ship on board with less health, less movement or even fewer fighters. The ship-to-ship part of the game makes every encounter unique.

After a few laps, the ships will be close enough together so that the player's crew is on board on board the enemy ship. Here Villain pursues a classic approach for the tactical struggle and can be inspired by games like XCOM. Allied and enemies will stand in a network, use weapons and position them for their advantage. For example, if the player manages to hire an enemy on the edge of the boat, he often has the opportunity to push him overboard.

The battlefield will often be filled with other dangers, e.g. On the other hand, players can also use environmental jokes, such as rum barrels that restore health, or hanging ropes that enable pirates to swing around to achieve better positioning. The use of the environment in addition to the unique skills of a device fights fresh, appealing and entertaining. The boarding phase is also when Captain Cutter can use his curse to order Seemonstern to help him. In a bad situation, the player can use the octopus to fend off several enemies with a massive tendril.

Rogue waters can give a guilt

With VillainIce Code Games managed to create an experience that is accessible to players of all skills. This atmospheric roguelite offers players 15 different levels of difficulty, with the lowest story that enables players to prioritize the history of Captain Cutter before punishing the fight. The players also have the opportunity to choose a new difficulty at the beginning of each raid, whereby everyone offers an increase in the challenge together with bonus premiums. While these options are welcome and quite standard, some other functions undermine the selection and challenges of the game.

In the boarding phase of the fight, the players can use a “canceled” option. This enables players to withdraw a step that they may have accidentally made, which can be very practical. However, it can be misused because there is no real limitation. Players can undo actions until the start of a curve and enable them to trace the movements and skills of each crew member back. Although this is certainly a forgiving feature, this also undermines the idea that these encounters and tactical decisions have consequences. Running a single movement feels fair, but being able to manipulate a whole turn can appear almost too forgiving.

Similarly, Captain Cutter meets islands or places on the trip through the sea that offer the pirate some options. It could be so easy to sacrifice a crew member to earn gold, or to lose gold to heal someone on the ship. While these decisions appear convincing on the surface, you can also sail away without making a choice at all. While this is rather forgiving, it makes the whole curve appear a little senseless. In a world full of challenging Roguelikes, however, it is difficult to criticize ice code games to give the players such options because the game really makes it accessible to newcomers who are looking for an informal experience.

The story of Rogue Waters is both fun and predictable

Captain Cutter's story is one of the weaker points of VillainBut it's not without appeal. As can be expected, there is betrayal, skullduggery and more than just a hint of the supernatural. Perhaps the best part of the story is that it explains the actual mechanics of the gameplay loop. Due to a curse (or maybe a blessing), Captain Cutter and his crew are essentially immortal. Every time you die, you can get back in your underwater closure and ready to sail again. Her ultimate goal is to free old Seemonster captured by Captain Blackbone.

While the language actors bring the characters wonderfully to life, players should also expect to do a lot of reading, since the story is largely told by text. In the end, writing is full of joke, humor and a sense of adventure. Some of the more emotional moments can feel a little persistent, but that's all part of the charm of the game when she tells a rousing pirate story.

It took me 21 hours to complete the main story of VillainAlthough I often changed the difficulty of the game and took part in additional raids.

This game may not be everyone Villain offers a very special and unique experience. It manages to create inspiration without affecting your own identity and his forgiving approach to combat means that players will likely be accessible to all skills.