Sometimes all you need and let’s be fair want is a short and sharp burst of gaming fun, to scratch that inch and put a smile on your face and nothing hits that sweet spot quite like a roguelike/lite. Swedish studio Cuddle Monster Games have just cooked up such a title to help start the New Year with a bang, as Lone Ruin truly ticks that ‘just one more go’ box and then some.

Again and Again

Lone Ruin is a spell-based roguelite twin-stick shooter with a real focus on replayability. You play as an explorer who is seeking a mysterious ancient power and to find it you must venture ever deeper into a ruined magical city, where you’ll have to face an evil corruption that has twisted its foundations to the core.

Of course you will because they never have these dark magic item things in the local corner shop.

But that’s it for story really, I am sure there is more to it, but it faded into the background so quickly once I started playing it felt like I got whiplash.

Gameplay is King

This game is all about one thing and that’s gameplay. Where you pick what “spell” you want to use for your run and then you’re off blasting everything that moves and getting non-stop buffs and power ups on your way to battling ever more bigger, badder and sometimes frustrating bosses, as you get deeper into the ruins.

The game is played out on an isometric view, which lets you see a lot more of the level than you would expect, which actually helps you out a fair bit given the number of nasties that are spawning in to get you.

Runs can be often short and sharp at times as you play around with the different spells you can choose from at the start. Like Shards which is a sort of blaster weapon, to Chain Lightning which is powerful and can kill a number of enemies at once, but it’s slow to “reload” and has a limited range.

Exploring the Mechanics

Your first few hours will be spent finding what spell and strategy best suits your play style before you really start making headway into the city. Each room you clear gives you a choice of paths to take, which will give you an option to win an upgrade for your spells or loot.

It’s a real risk-reward system as you have to really think of bagging an upgrade for your favourite spell or mixing it all up and experimenting and grabbing something new to maybe find a new synergy, as you can combo attacks for powerful effects.

The game has twenty one rooms broken into three seven room layers and each room is more challenging than the last. The game throws hordes of nasties at you as well as the odd random surprise along the way just to keep you on your toes.

This is all before you get to the leaderboard side of the game and start the real battle to get to the top of it, across its number of difficulties. Technically if you know what you’re really doing, you could clear the game in about an hour. But the key word here is ‘could’. You could always get stuck into the survival mode, where you just have to last as long as you can.

Lots to Lite

Visually, the game blends fully 3D worlds with 16-bit characters for a striking look elevated by its limited colour palette. Purple, magenta and cyan are the colours of the day. Th soundtrack is outstanding – the tracks never begin to grate given just how often you’ll hear them.

As for issues only one that really sticks out is that because the game is isometric. Some levels have high walls or arched walk ways, which do hide enemies. So, a few runs were ended a little too soon by a sneaky attack created due to the camera system.

Lone Ruin is a striking roguelite that it’s fun to play but extremely hard to master. One that will see you losing hours to get in perfect tune with its high polished mechanics, as it delivers a truly hardcore action packed time, that fans of roguelite will love.