GameLight Review - Hack, Slash, Loot

Official Site: http://hackslashloot.com/
Steam Page: http://store.steampowered.com/app/207430/
Source: Youtube Channel videogamr DE

Developer: David Williamson
Publisher: David Williamson
Platforms: PC
Release Date: Apr 5, 2012
Genre: Rogue-Like RPG

Pros:
+ Cute character sprites

Cons:
- Everything is based on luck: Enemy placement, loot drop, attacking, winning
- Walls block off the view of enemies and items unless highlighted over
- You unlock characters by dying over and over, more incentive to lose
- Classes are mostly a few number and sprite changes
- It isn't very rewarding finishing a quest and getting there wasn't fun either
- The music isn't too bad, but it abruptly comes in and out throughout the game
- This game is infuriating every step of the way

Recommended: Definitely a "no"

Rather than "Hack, Slash, Loot", the game should've been called "Miss, Travel, Die".  This iteration on the Rogue-Like RPG genre plays entirely on chance and luck.  The player chooses a class and quest they want to take on and traverses the deadly dungeons to find better equipment to finally reach their quest goal.  The problem is that you will most likely fail the first time you play and perhaps the next few dozen times.  You will sometimes be presented with one door to go through and find that the first room is filled with 14 enemies right from the start and immediately die in the first room you walk through.  Maybe you'll find one enemy and fight it but have your character miss every attack while the enemy hits you twice to kill you.  Perhaps you did a great job finding equipment that made you stronger, but never found any potions to heal you so your character ends up dying before you could reach your main quest.  Everything about the game relied a little too much on statistical luck.  Almost all classes start off with about 60% chance to hit.  Even with a 3/5 chance of successfully hitting an enemy, your character will probably miss 5 attacks before it lands a successful one.  I had one really good game out of the many hours I gave the game a try and it was with the Amazon class which wields a bow that increases accuracy with each kill and recovers a little bit of health.  I ended up failing even that one after running into a boss that two-shotted me.  The game just isn't worth my time, even as a time waster.

Aesthetics
Art Style: 8-bit Pixel based sprites
+ Cute character sprites
+ The pixel based graphics had a certain charm to them, but they get boring

- Walls and items obstruct the vision of enemies
- None of the quests changes the look of the dungeons
- Music was okay, but played abruptly throughout the game
- The sound effects got annoying after a while
- The graphics feel boring and uninspired playing the game
Aesthetics: 2/10

Buttons
Controller: Mostly mouse and some keyboard
+ Moving around was easy enough
+ The keyboard shortcuts really helped

- The planes aren't very clear and so mouse clicks aren't accurate
- None of the controls are explained in-game
- Not able to play completely on keyboard, requires mouse sometimes
Buttons: 4/10

Concept & Content
Core Concept: Choose a class and a quest.  Then fulfill that quest by killing enemies, finding loot, and search for what the quests asks.
+ Simple and straight-forward

- Quests changed some of the level layout, but nothing to the game experience
- Levels are randomly generated, but they all feel about the same
- The goal of the quest isn't even that important after dying so many times
- Even with 32 characters to choose from, the game offers little in variation
- Exploration wasn't fulfilling, combat wasn't fun, and looting wasn't satisfying
Concept and Content: 1/10

Duration
+ There's plenty of replay value for those who can stand this game

- Pacing of the game was very jarring as nothing except dying was expected
- The length of each round can be anywhere from 2-3 hours down to 10 seconds
- You have to die many times over before getting a new character
- It feels like a lot of wasted time whether you're doing well or not
Duration: 2/10

Fun
+ Having an overpowered Amazon that was killing everything in one shot was semi-entertaining, and then she died in 2 hits and I felt cheated

- Having my character miss all their attacks is infuriating
- Dying in the first few rooms over and over was dumb
- There weren't any loot that made me excited when it should
- Combat is a long and tedious chore rather than an exciting experience
- There wasn't an incentive to continue playing the game any longer
Fun: 1/10

Overall
I know rogue-like RPGs are supposed to have a sense of unexpected randomness to it that makes it spontaneous and different each time, but each of those experiences should be entertaining and manageable.  The impression I got from the game was that it was all about missing attacks, dying, and starting over again in a vicious cycle to get all the characters.  I just couldn't believe how bad of a game it turned out to be.  Everything works, there aren't any bugs, but the design of the entire game just wasn't good.  It's a game I couldn't recommend anyone to, not even hard-core Rogue-like RPG fans.  Overall: 2/10