Rogue Legacy

9.0 Gameplay

At its core Rogue Legacy is a game that feels like something we've all played before. Think Castlevania with swords. Your character in Rogue Legacy is incredibly agile (unless your heir is some kind of lumbering behemoth), which is important since you'll be wanting to avoid contact with enemies/projectiles as much as possible.

Each time you die in Rogue Legacy you get to send one of your heirs to avenge you. The only thing is, every time you enter the castle you're in store for something new. The name of the game here is randomization. Random heirs, random dungeons, random loot, and loads of random crap dead-set on sending you to meet your ancestors.

4.0 Story/Setting

The story of Rogue Legacy exists only to give a small semblance of purpose to your slaying of all things living within Castle Hamson. The first of your lineage was lost ages ago inside the castle and you're tasked with finding out what happened. This is done through randomly generated journal entries you'll find scattered throughout the castle.

Killing the four bosses allows you access to the final area of the game and the truth about your ancestor. But even if you skip over reading the journal entries entirely you'll likely not be surprised who the last boss is.

What is really interesting about Rogue Legacy is that, despite having very little actual story/plot, it is really easy to let yourself get sucked in with wanting to avenge your 500 deceased family members.

10.0 Graphics

While Rogue Legacy doesn't look like exactly like something you'd find on the SNES you definitely have this vague feeling that you're playing a game far older than it actually is. Rogue Legacy combines many different art styles and brings them together in a surprisingly retro-feeling modern game. Even though the backgrounds have an aged sprite-look the hud items are incredibly crisp and high-resolution. Done in such a way that you never feel like you're looking at something really wonky and out of place.

For what it is, Rogue Legacy looks amazing.

7.0 Soundtrack

Despite there being a lot of randomized stuff in Rogue Legacy there really isn't a whole lot that can be said for its music. Sure the tracks that we get to listen to are pretty awesome but there just aren't enough unique songs to really leave us wanting more. Each of the areas of the game has 1 unique track that plays until you: reach the boss room, exit the area, or die. In a castle that is randomly generated every time you die it is disappointing that the music is always the same.

8.0 Replay Value

So you've died 500 times and finally beaten the boss of the game. Now what? Well Heir+ mode of course! Every time you kill the final boss you're allowed to start again with everything you've earned. The kicker here is every time you beat the game it gets harder. I'm currently on Heir+3 (the fourth playthrough) and the enemies in the first area of the castle are all around level 250 or so. Thankfully with the increased difficulty you also get massive boons to the amount of gold you find.

Those who crave a challenge will be glad to know that Rogue Legacy, like the popular Dark Souls, will challenge even the most diligent and hardcore gamers.

8.0 Bang For Your Buck

With a $14.99 price tag Rogue Legacy is a pretty sweet deal. You're looking at anywhere between 10-20 hours for your first playthrough and plenty more if you take on Heir+ mode. For the price there are very few games on Steam that give such a solid and enjoyable gaming experience the whole way through.

You're still here? Why haven't you gone out and picked up a copy yet?! Go now. Shoo Shoo!