If someone was to rewind, say, six or more years ago, terms like “roguelike”, “metaprogression” or “procedurally generated” were gaining steam, but seemed like they were quickly burning out.
Fast forward to today, where these genres are so massive, and it seems like there is no end to the stream of rougel, or to players that want to play them. Perhaps a result of our fast world, games that let players have a complete experience in an hour and retain some degree of progress in retrospect seems like an obvivous hit.
Enter Shape of Dreams, an action roguelike where players take on the role of humanoid animals battling through levels, gaining new abilities and augments to them. Many of the elements are standard fare for the genre: travel to different biomes, fight a horde of enemies, get new random moves, try to come up with some broken builds to keep going. While the formula feels familiar, some things that stand out is the multiplayer, and the way abilities are augmented with underlying specials.
On the face of it, SoD plays a lot more methodical than some of the much faster hits of the genre like say Hades, instead it feels more like a MoBA like Dota, where players have to think about how their character’s innate specials and talents interact rather than a pure reflex and dodge fest. This is perhaps helped by the camera feeling a little further out than is comfortable along with a character that moves slower than feels normal. Each character naturally can be built far different, but even the start has a wide variety.
The most unique part of the game is the way special moves and its augments work. As players progress, they naturally find random special moves, this could be a dash, a heal, summon fire, frost and so on. The moves themselves are nothing special, but they link to a socket/augment system which each special has three slots. Players also find random quality “sockets” to go into these moves, they work as a type of modifier. One example is a modifier that adds bonus fire damage and triggers a small follow-up attack every time your main special move deals damage. While it isn’t very effective on a single-hit ability, it completely shines with multi-hit fire moves, causing the socketed item to suddenly unleash a massive barrage of extra attacks. Best of all, sockets can be upgraded and swapped around freely, which is easily one of the highlights of a run.
As an example of progress being slow, while the game only starts with two characters unlocked, starting players have a choice between a lizard with a gun that focuses on aggressive mid/long range combat, or a knight girl whose moves focus on melee blocks and combos. Ultimately, there are nine characters overall, but they take a while to unlock. Within a single character is a pretty deep system of upgrades between runs. This is where it is going to bifurcate many players. Those looking for a quick romp are going to be put off by how much stuff there is to get, unlock and keep track of. Those looking for almost a more “campaign” feel will welcome it – it is much slower unlocks than many others.
Each character has a different star chart that functions as slots to put in various upgrades. Each one is colour based, so attack boosting is red, and if the colour doesn’t match, there is a decrease in the quality. Further, while there are general upgrades for everyone, each character also has their own upgrades that can act as a modifier to innate moves. One example for the lizard gunner is changing one of his shots into a shotgun-like move that also pushes him back for some dodge/mobility.
The game is heavily based around multiplayer. Not to say it can’t be played alone, but given the ways characters interact and their roles, it is notably harder to go solo. Matchmaking is easy enough, if a little laggy at launch. Simply go into a list with tons of open games and hop into a lobby. Characters have a few different outfits and accessories, so even the same person can look different which is fun. A major problem is the game feels so balanced around using multiple characters, so solo feels a little like an afterthought. Furthermore, a single run feels long in the tooth long before its over, a typical non-rush run comes in between 90-120 minutes. Late run feels a little more of a grind than a fun romp of a fully realized build.
Overall, any action roguelike player will have a general idea of what is going on. Specific to this game though, the upgrades and runs are much slower. A single run coming in at over an hour does not give that many relative upgrades in meta-progression. So while there is a “lot” to upgrade, it comes slow enough it could put players off. Further, multiplayer already is filled with high level characters, and a single run can destroy some sense of progress getting carried through everything.
