Evaluation: Alina of the Enviornment (Nintendo Swap)

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

Firstly of the sport, Alina of the Enviornment provides you the choice to play on rookie mode (simple) or veteran mode (medium). When you beat the sport, you’ll unlock warlord mode (arduous), in addition to a hardcore mode which you’ll have lively 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 find out how to play inside a simple encounter. After each struggle, you come back to this form of hub space the place there are three columns with totally different tabs: Struggle, Elite, Occasion, Store, Relaxation, and Meditate. Every of those tabs can help you do one thing totally different, starting from a randomized occasion from the Occasion tab to a semi-difficult miniboss from the Elite tab. After you full 5 Struggle tabs, Elite tabs, or a mix of the 2, you’ll be able to struggle the boss of the stage.

After each Struggle or Elite tab, you’ll acquire one card from a number of three or 4 playing cards you’ve unlocked. You possibly can 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. Purple and blue playing cards will scale off what weapons you might be holding within the palms’ respective colour (left being crimson and proper being blue). Grey playing cards don’t scale off of your weapons; they’re principally standing playing cards similar to buffs or different technique of motion. I actually favored 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’ll be able to acquire new playing cards.

There are at present solely three phases within the sport, every with its personal distinctive bosses and enemies. As you progress via phases, the issue ramps up quite a bit, so be sure you’re ready earlier than preventing every boss and transferring phases. 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 totally different beginning lessons. When you unlock all of them, you’ll be able to select from one of many eight starter lessons at the beginning of every run. Every class has distinctive beginning playing cards, weapons, and skills.

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

The music, whereas totally different for every stage and boss struggle, will get somewhat repetitive after a few playthroughs, nevertheless it sounds good nonetheless.

I didn’t encounter any gameplay or visible bugs whereas enjoying via the sport, however there are lots of balancing points. You might be given totally different playing cards from which to decide on all through every run. This may be effective if sure builds have been higher than others by just a bit bit, however some can help you do an infinite quantity of harm whereas others provide you with infinite well being. I don’t suppose I actually need to say why these can be a foul factor, particularly in a roguelike sport.

Moreover balancing, Alina of the Enviornment is absolutely good. It does a wonderful job of introducing every mechanic of the sport to the participant, and every run can infinitely be totally different from some other run you’ve finished earlier than. The artwork may be very inventive, they usually do a extremely good job of depicting the entire sport as a brutal and bloody enviornment. The music, whereas somewhat repetitive, additionally matches the theme of being in a brutal and bloody enviornment very effectively.