Roguelikes have been the flavour of the month for what feels like years now. The systems have changed in small ways, but the routine of completing a run, levelling up, and trying again has stayed the same. Blightstone is a good version of this, but it feels like it’s starting down a long journey.
Combat is the core of the experience in Blightstone. The combat system that’s already in the game feels great. In the current state, it is a very punishing title, but it has a few issues. I hope these can be dialled in over Early Access, but what is already there is a good base to work from.
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Battle is the puzzle
Blightstone is a strategic roguelike, so you have tactical battles where you move your group of heroes around and kill enemies. But they aren’t grid-based battles. They’re much more free-flowing and very focused on positioning.
Each combat takes place on one static screen, so you aren’t thinking strategy on a grand scale. When you clear the map, the combat is over. I enjoyed how granular combat feels, you don’t have to scroll around a huge map, just deal with what’s in front of you.
Positioning is the really big thing that Blightstone does very well. Almost every ability has some way to take advantage of enemy positioning or change the map layout for future turns. The Brawler character can charge enemies and knock them back to pinball into other units or environmental hazards. The Druid can summon spikes to block the path or spray quills from wooden objects. The Arcanist can use abilities that chain to nearby enemies.
Similarly, environmental hazards are present on some maps. This is something I hope will be increased over the Early Access period. There are some farmlands with large fields of crops that can be set alight, or where enemies can hide. There are also maps where the rain has caused huge puddles, and enemies within are more susceptible to lightning attacks. Unfortunately, I did start to see more than a few repeated maps and enemy setups over my time with the game, so hopefully some more variety can come in the future.
Between battles, you head back to the overworld map and pick the next path forward. There are traders, some simple social encounters and random encounters. Every few events, you have to make camp for the night, where you can heal and use some simple preparation abilities for the day ahead.
Step, cut, stumble
Unfortunately, there are a few issues with Blightstone that make it hard to recommend it fully. Firstly, there are some performance issues that seem totally at odds with the game’s simple visual style. Throughout my playthrough, I had constant little hitches when activating abilities, attacking enemies or getting hit by monsters. The worst was when hitting multiple enemies with environmental effects. I assume this is related to how the game computes damage and positioning, so hopefully something that can be fixed.
Secondly, to a point of balance, it can be incredibly easy to get into a death spiral that flatlines your whole run. The only real opportunity to heal heroes is when you stop at camp after every couple of battles. So if you take damage, or heaven forbid, lose a hero, you have to make it through more encounters before having the chance to heal up.
The last one that I think will irk some players is the Crystal. Your main objective in Blightstone is to get a floating magical crystal from point A to point B on the other side of the overworld map. It has passive and active abilities that you get to level up across multiple runs. But if the Crystal dies, your run is over. The kicker is that you can’t actually reposition the Crystal like you can your heroes. This is a huge issue, particularly at some of the bigger bosses that charge across the battle, dealing huge damage to everything they hit. Not being able to move the thing you’re defending is a massive hurdle.
Should I buy Blightstone in Early Access?
Blightstone is launching into Early Access, so here’s hoping some of these issues can be ironed out before full release. The puzzle of the combat feels good and the bones are fun to chew on. But the variety, the difficulty, and the performance could use a bit of work.
If you’re looking for a simple combat game to play for a few hours, Blightstone might scratch that itch.
For me, it’s one I’ll keep an eye on and see how it evolves.
Blightstone is out now on Steam Early Access.
A copy of Blightstone was supplied to Quest Daily for the purpose of this review.
