Kaamos: Puzzle Roguelike

Cool and rather addictive little brain puzzle game! Definately worth the money considering the many hours of play time you can spend on it (ofc if you enjoy indie games like this). Best regards from the Finnish mate who met one of the devs at Dan Murphy's haha!

It's basically 10000000 (or whatever the number of zeroes there is), but with minimalist mechanics and an eschatological theme; which is fitting as a modern upgrade to the formula since the world economy and social contracts have nigh defaulted (profit-driven financial institutions, delusional managerial elites, and sociopatic tescrealites grinded hard to achieve this with a click of a pomodoro timer) and the human society ends any moment now as well. It's a good 1-to-2 YT video essays companion game, but it's hard to play it consistently for longer, because we're gonna experience the events first-hand anyways, and one of the YT podcasts told me I should be more productive and innovative to be fit in the bright future we're headed to, so I started learning copper wire thieving skills and precious metals in electronic devices content tables instead of playing to greet the technocratic posthumanist singularity as a prepared scavengingmaxxer. [spoiler]Technical details: Proton Experimental, no bugs/glitches.[/spoiler]

The night is never-ending and full of danger. What the night doesn't know is, I have a huge ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ axe. Perfect brain-scratcher that you can play for 15 mins at a time or 2 hours at a time and leaves you wanting more. Combat feels punishing but fair, so you're encouraged to explore your options on each set of tiles. The system itself is very satisfying (especially when you get a crazy multi attack & defence combo at just the clutch moment) and the sound design helps massively. There's nothing more enjoyable than the retro inspired CRUNCH when you smash an enemy through their defence. The class and item system are excellent. There's enough customisation that you feel you can get really specialised into certain builds, but also the items you pick aren't so overwhelmingly important that you feel like you can't progress because you didn't RNG the item you needed for your build. My only criticism would be of the story. What there is of it is great and very intriguing, but I wish there were more to flesh it out. Maybe some unlockables or random drops that flesh out the world a bit more (a world which has a lot of potential).

Time and time again I find myself re-writing my reviews due to me willing to give games a second chance. I had always been told to at least give something a fair try before outright saying it's bad. While I do admit this game is challenging, and it sucks having to start over and over again, this game does have an interesting twist to it. It's not a souls-like, it's a puzzle game. I feel this as a result will turn a lot of people off, but if you do like a good puzzler then this might actually be the game for you. I would recommend waiting for a sale, but that's only if you want to save money. All in all I do wish the game well, and that it can become better.

I truly believe that Kaamos is worth the money. For $10 I definitely got my moneys worth, and didn't expect a game that I would play for years. If you enjoy simple puzzle games and want to scratch that itch for a bit this is the perfect game. BUT as it stands I do have a few issues with it. For one when you beat the game with a certain class, at least for me, there was 0 desire to go back and try again. Perhaps due to the limited playstyles. And the defensive playstyle classes are brutally tedious. And you quickly learn what to grab and to avoid, and it gets rather repetitive after the first few times. For me however there's one solid thing that really disappointed me about this game. And mild spoilers. But that's the last class you unlock. You beat everything available, reach the final unlock and whats the reward? A character that literally has no powers. The one thing that kept me playing which was the varying powers, is taken away as the "reward" for beating the rest of the game. This should have been a "hard" mode unlocked after beating the game with the first character in my opinion. I unlocked this character and was excited wondering what power it may have. Instead I was just dissappointed and sapped of any desire to play the game after that point. Despite this the game was fun, and I got my moneys worth.

I could go either way on this one. Overall I think the game is great, the issue is that I also think it is quite overpriced. The core gameplay while good, is pretty repetitive and lacks much depth. Again, I enjoy the game and think there is a lot to like here, I just also have to mention those grievances. The combat is unlike anything I've played before. It's a sort of back and forth, often very drawn out, battle between you and your opponent, where your turn is determined by a match three system. I actually like that most of these battles can become very lengthy, and tense, almost like a real pair of duelling knights. At the same time, there is a strong lack of player agency to the combat, or to the gear you find. Your turn is just finding whatever the best match is and making it, all determined by your gear, which is also completely determined by the game. You either find good gear, or you get unlucky, find bad gear you don't need, and eventually lose. Watch some gameplay (video below) and get an idea for the game. If you think it looks like something you'd enjoy; add it to your wishlist and wait for a substantial sale. Falls in the category of good, but not great; a three, maybe three and a half star game. Video of real gameplay and first impressions: https://youtu.be/vUYQaSjoMHA

Simple, addictive, elegant match3 roguelike. Fun, spooky style and presentation