Overview: Alina of the Enviornment (Nintendo Swap)

Alina of the Enviornment is an action-packed, roguelike, deck builder the place you combat on your freedom (and cash, after all) in an enormous area full of spectators. I’ve at all times been an avid enjoyer of roguelike video games, and whereas I primarily play multiplayer, this one was a pleasant refresher on how satisfying single-player roguelikes could be.

At the start of the sport, Alina of the Enviornment provides you the choice to play on rookie mode (straightforward) or veteran mode (medium). When you beat the sport, you’ll unlock warlord mode (exhausting), in addition to a hardcore mode which you’ll be able to have energetic on high of no matter mode you play on.

As soon as the sport really begins, you get thrown head-first into fight. There, the sport goes over the fundamentals of how you can play inside a straightforward encounter. After each combat, you come back to this type of hub space the place there are three columns with completely different tabs: Battle, Elite, Occasion, Store, Relaxation, and Meditate. Every of those tabs mean you can do one thing completely different, starting from a randomized occasion from the Occasion tab to a semi-difficult miniboss from the Elite tab. After you full 5 Battle tabs, Elite tabs, or a mixture of the 2, you may combat the boss of the stage.

After each Battle or Elite tab, you’ll achieve one card from a choice of three or 4 playing cards you’ve unlocked. You may unlock extra playing cards by beating Elite tabs for the primary time and beating bosses for the primary time. Playing cards will both be crimson, blue, or grey. Crimson and blue playing cards will scale off what weapons you might be holding within the arms’ respective shade (left being crimson and proper being blue). Grey playing cards don’t scale off of your weapons; they’re largely standing playing cards corresponding to buffs or different technique of motion. I actually preferred how the sport permits you to decide and select which playing cards you need in your deck for every run, and unlocking new playing cards by beating sure issues makes you wish to play extra so you may accumulate new playing cards.

There are at the moment solely three levels within the recreation, every with its personal distinctive bosses and enemies. As you progress by means of levels, the issue ramps up so much, so be sure you’re ready earlier than combating every boss and transferring levels. Every stage additionally has its distinctive occasions in its respective Occasion tabs, starting from acquiring cursed weapons to creating bets with the mafia.

When you end a run by beating the third stage (or die whereas attempting) you’ll unlock completely different beginning courses. When you unlock all of them, you may select from one of many eight starter courses at the beginning of every run. Every class has distinctive beginning playing cards, weapons, and talents.

Visible and aurally, the sport can be fairly good. Alina of the Enviornment is in an 8-bit artwork fashion which is amazingly finished. It’s additionally surprisingly gory, which positively suits the sport’s theme. The visuals even go into further element with Alina’s sprite by displaying what kind of weapons she has outfitted.

The music, whereas completely different for every stage and boss combat, will get somewhat repetitive after a few playthroughs, but it surely sounds good nonetheless.

I didn’t encounter any gameplay or visible bugs whereas taking part in by means of the sport, however there are quite a lot of balancing points. You might be given completely different playing cards from which to decide on all through every run. This might be effective if sure builds have been higher than others by just a bit bit, however some mean you can do an infinite quantity of harm whereas others provide you with infinite well being. I don’t suppose I really want to say why these could be a nasty factor, particularly in a roguelike recreation.

Moreover balancing, Alina of the Enviornment is actually good. It does a superb job of introducing every mechanic of the sport to the participant, and every run can infinitely be completely different from every other run you’ve finished earlier than. The artwork may be very inventive, and so they do a very good job of depicting the entire recreation as a brutal and bloody area. The music, whereas somewhat repetitive, additionally suits the theme of being in a brutal and bloody area very properly.