There are so many unexplored concepts in gaming and new ways to tackle old ideas that it can occasionally get a little overwhelming. This often leaves the next new interesting thing fighting with a constantly growing backlog of games worth playing. The Serpent Rogue is one of those games that won’t always justify taking up your time but may just be a little too interesting to ignore.
The Serpent Rogue is a game that is far more confusing than you might expect from the setup. You play the role of an alchemist in a world wholly unfamiliar to you. You can analyse all the little things you pick up and use them to create bigger and better potions. It’s a game all about slowly discovering what lurks in the dark and how that information may help you in the end.
This being said, it combines a few different ideas in ways that are as frustrating as they are interesting. It gives some consequence to death by making you drop your inventory every time you die. It then further reinforces this penalty by losing your entire inventory if you fail to pick it up before your next death. This would be okay if the game didn’t drip feed all your gear. This can occasionally leave exploration just a little too daunting to reward your curiosity.
That being said, the base formula of discovering and combining ingredients is fun enough to stick around afterwards. You are given a central hub style area where you can interact with some others and take a breather to combine your ingredients, then you are pushed to explore and destroy the corruption just north of your tiny little foothold. Unfortunately, whilst exploration is interesting, combat is often too rigid to really feel good. You’re an alchemist, not a fighter.
Its visuals and music manage to strike a tone that is consistent with this slow trudge through an unknown world surprisingly well. The palette is muted and calm whereas your enemies are vibrant and red. It sets up this sense of danger and really makes your alchemist feel weak. You are forced to use your brains to get out of a situation. The music is often inspired by medieval music, opting for the use of intense jig-like timing and the hurdy-gurdy. The Serpent Rogue has plenty of great ideas that are bogged down by the worst sides of its gameplay. Hopefully, with time, these can get better.
If you want to explore the unexplored and brew fantastic potions and horrible poisons through trial and error, you can check out The Serpent Rogue right now.
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