4/10

Minesweeper in a Rogue / Dungeon Crawler presentation.

What is it: The core gameplay is Minesweeper, click to flag or destroy walls in a huge (120x120) dungeon. Numbers on the floor indicate how many mines (booby-trapped walls) are around it. But instead of having a full view of the level, you’re represented by a person roaming the dungeon. You can see just a fragment of the dungeon around you (limited by the screen size, so 16x10 on the Steam Deck, and a lot more on a 4K screen), and you can only click on the walls at most 2 cells away, which is a bit better than just your 8 neighbors, but still very limited for a minesweeper. On top of that, there are more elements trying to turn it into a more engaging game. There are enemies you have to fight, a spell you can use, destroyed walls can reward you with iron, gold or gems, there are quests you have to do, and various upgrades you can purchase or gain as rewards. Or, you can instead choose to play the game as a pure minesweeper, with just you and the walls that need to be destroyed.

Sounds decent, and it did keep me engaged for many hours, but the implementation is seriously flawed. The “story” is dumb, the plot twist is poorly executed and inconsequential. There are a ton of bugs that one by one aren’t major, but make the game look very unpolished. I didn’t fully replay the game in the latest version, so this might no longer be true, but there were multiple sections in a level that can only be guessed, which is really bad in a proper minesweeper. There are 5 HPs you have at the start, and in story mode you can upgrade that either by buying more HPs one by one, or buying a life regen upgrade that kind of makes it infinite, since all you have to do is walk around a bit for it to replenish. HPs are lost either by clicking on a mine, or getting hit by an enemy during fights, or walking on a trap. Except that one of the bugs makes it sometimes seem that you walked on a trap even when you step around it, try not to walk too fast around them. A few achievements are wrongly awarded or not awarded at all. The game state is not properly saved, if you start in hardcore mode you cannot save and load, or close the game, or else the game forgets that it is a hardcore save slot and will break it upon loading. You only have 3+1 save slots, shared across story and plain mode, and there’s no info about the save slots, you have to remember which is which. Terrible UX, the menu keeps its state, all you can change is whether it is displayed or not.

Overall, this is an interesting concept, and with some polishing it could be a good game, but unless you play it in one go without saving for an uninterrupted couple of hours, or only play the non-story mode, it is too buggy to be recommended.

How hard is it: Easy, I found the minesweeper aspect on the easy side (basic minesweeper rules), and while the fighting may kill you, if you avoid fights and buy the life regen upgrade ASAP, it is mostly an inconvenience that can easily be managed.

How long is it: 120x120 minesweeper levels, with quests in story mode that can be done on the side while solving the mines. In story mode you don’t need to clear the whole level, just enough for the quests, and not even that, there’s a shortcut exit in a corner that counts as a win.

Level design: Easy minesweeper rules, but having to guess is bad. Enemies are randomly generated, and sometimes it may happen that there are too many of them in an area which may lead to death if you don’t get them one by one. Random placement also means that you may have a hard time finding the shop.

Quality: Buggy implementation. Guessing in a minesweeper is bad. Steam cloud saves and achievements, but some of them are buggy. Both mouse and keyboard required, doesn’t work with just a controller, and making it work on the Steam Deck requires some fiddling with the controller configuration. Too many bugs.

Worth the price: Depends how much you want to play a new take on Minesweeper, and how many times you plan on playing it, but I would say wait for a big discount given the buggy nature of the implementation.

Most positive aspect for me: Interesting combination of game types.

Most negative aspect for me: Much too buggy.

For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow Puzzle Lovers and check out our Steam group.

[b]4/10[/b] Minesweeper in a Rogue / Dungeon Crawler presentation. [b]What is it:[/b] The core gameplay is Minesweeper, click to flag or destroy walls in a huge (120x120) dungeon. Numbers on the floor indicate how many mines (booby-trapped walls) are around it. But instead of having a full view of the level, you’re represented by a person roaming the dungeon. You can see just a fragment of the dungeon around you (limited by the screen size, so 16x10 on the Steam Deck, and a lot more on a 4K screen), and you can only click on the walls at most 2 cells away, which is a bit better than just your 8 neighbors, but still very limited for a minesweeper. On top of that, there are more elements trying to turn it into a more engaging game. There are enemies you have to fight, a spell you can use, destroyed walls can reward you with iron, gold or gems, there are quests you have to do, and various upgrades you can purchase or gain as rewards. Or, you can instead choose to play the game as a pure minesweeper, with just you and the walls that need to be destroyed. Sounds decent, and it did keep me engaged for many hours, but the implementation is seriously flawed. The “story” is dumb, the plot twist is poorly executed and inconsequential. There are a ton of bugs that one by one aren’t major, but make the game look very unpolished. I didn’t fully replay the game in the latest version, so this might no longer be true, but there were multiple sections in a level that can only be guessed, which is really bad in a proper minesweeper. There are 5 HPs you have at the start, and in story mode you can upgrade that either by buying more HPs one by one, or buying a life regen upgrade that kind of makes it infinite, since all you have to do is walk around a bit for it to replenish. HPs are lost either by clicking on a mine, or getting hit by an enemy during fights, or walking on a trap. Except that one of the bugs makes it sometimes seem that you walked on a trap even when you step around it, try not to walk too fast around them. A few achievements are wrongly awarded or not awarded at all. The game state is not properly saved, if you start in hardcore mode you cannot save and load, or close the game, or else the game forgets that it is a hardcore save slot and will break it upon loading. You only have 3+1 save slots, shared across story and plain mode, and there’s no info about the save slots, you have to remember which is which. Terrible UX, the menu keeps its state, all you can change is whether it is displayed or not. Overall, this is an interesting concept, and with some polishing it could be a good game, but unless you play it in one go without saving for an uninterrupted couple of hours, or only play the non-story mode, it is too buggy to be recommended. [b]How hard is it:[/b] Easy, I found the minesweeper aspect on the easy side (basic minesweeper rules), and while the fighting may kill you, if you avoid fights and buy the life regen upgrade ASAP, it is mostly an inconvenience that can easily be managed. [b]How long is it:[/b] 120x120 minesweeper levels, with quests in story mode that can be done on the side while solving the mines. In story mode you don’t need to clear the whole level, just enough for the quests, and not even that, there’s a shortcut exit in a corner that counts as a win. [b]Level design:[/b] Easy minesweeper rules, but having to guess is bad. Enemies are randomly generated, and sometimes it may happen that there are too many of them in an area which may lead to death if you don’t get them one by one. Random placement also means that you may have a hard time finding the shop. [b]Quality:[/b] Buggy implementation. Guessing in a minesweeper is bad. Steam cloud saves and achievements, but some of them are buggy. Both mouse and keyboard required, doesn’t work with just a controller, and making it work on the Steam Deck requires some fiddling with the controller configuration. Too many bugs. [b]Worth the price:[/b] Depends how much you want to play a new take on Minesweeper, and how many times you plan on playing it, but I would say wait for a big discount given the buggy nature of the implementation. [b]Most positive aspect for me:[/b] Interesting combination of game types. [b]Most negative aspect for me:[/b] Much too buggy. [quote]For more puzzle game reviews, news and everything puzzle-related, follow [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/25928931-Puzzle-Lovers/]Puzzle Lovers[/url] and check out our [url=http://steamcommunity.com/groups/puzzlelovers]Steam group[/url].[/quote]