Review-A Long Way Down
This month, I played A Long Way Down, a rogue deck-building strategy game made by Seenapsis Studio. Puzzles, deck-building, and strategy are all words I dread when it comes to video games. However, ALWD has made me reconsider my feelings towards games that take just a bit more brain power to play.
Playing a game and giving up when you become frustrated is so easy to do. I’ve done it countless times. Starcraft? That didn’t survive 20 minutes after being installed on my computer. Doom? My controller evaporated into thin air from panic button-mashing. Dark Souls? I literally do not think that game exists, and would like to keep it that way. A Long Way Down has definitely tested me in ways I was uncomfortable with, but instead of just weaseling out, I found myself motivated to keep going and looked for opportunities to stretch those brain muscles.
You play as Sam, waking up in a dark world greeted by a mysterious figure, Ma’bri, who lets you know that you have just died. You’re warned that this world is no safe place, and your drive is telling you to keep going forward and see what you find because even after death, your priority is to survive. Ma’bri helps you navigate through the game, letting you know that the enemies you face are ‘Lost Souls.’ As Ma’bri is explaining more details, you encounter a lost soul that looks a bit too friendly compared to the others, Marcus. He is just as confused as you are, and you decide to work together to get out, until you lose him two minutes after introducing yourself (but no worries, he will come back, and you’ll even get to add him to your party for future battles.)
With each level, you navigate through maps facing aggressive enemies with a diverse set of skills. Defeating them gives you the chance to collect cards and other goodies enemies drop after a battle, which helps to build your deck and items up for each map’s main boss. However, always keep an eye on your HP, as A Long Way Down gives limited fireplace stations to heal your HP when walking through maps. To stretch the deck building feature even further, you can plan and create routes (with a different deck from your in-battle one ) to shape the world around you and fill in empty spaces to walk across to face enemies, replenish HP at fireplaces, and more. There are also masters to each map that can snatch cards from you and use them to block and even destroy pieces you can walk on entirely.
Thankfully, Sam will not have to go through these feats alone, as the game goes on you meet new people who are in a similar hullabaloo of not knowing what is actually going on, but know that they all died to get into this dark and spooky world. You can add them to your party, all with unique skill sets.
The color block shading and paper maché style of the game is fitting to the use of the card and deck building in this game. However, do not let that description lead you to believe that ALWD is plain. The designs of each character (NPC’s, playable character, and enemies) are carefully thought out with each story leaving you to desperately find the next one. The detail of each story works to make their personalities blossom in scenes, along with their battle card sets. It’s exciting and addictive to see what either a playable character and enemy has in store in a fight.
Yes, surprisingly enough, even though this game goes against a lot of things I liked, I enjoyed it and will tattoo it on myself to prove it. You’ll see me coming back to it as it does have a replayable factor included in all the great things ALWD offers, I can feel myself wanting to be tested and prove to this game that I am, in fact, smart, and will definitely want to go over it all soon!
This game was reviewed on PC using code provided by the developer.
