Minos is a roguelite tower defence game where player character Asterion, a minotaur who lives in a labyrinth, must protect his lair from adventurers who have been sent to kill him by King Minos.
[h1]Gameplay (high quality)[/h1]
• On each floor of the labyrinth you’ll need to build a maze by digging out blocks of dirt and placing walls to shape the adventurers’ path, forcing them to trigger your strategically placed traps.
• Your goal is to kill as many enemies as possible with traps, and then have Asterion finish off the remaining survivors in melee combat. However, you need to be careful, because if the minotaur dies, you’ll have to start again from the first floor, and you could get overwhelmed when fighting multiple enemies, especially at the start of the game.
• As you progress further through the labyrinth, you’ll earn XP which will allow you to unlock various permanent upgrades, making future runs easier. Increasing Asterion’s health and damage will allow him to survive melee combat against more powerful enemies. Increasing energy will let you expand the maze quicker. You’ll be able to start each maze with more traps, and earn new traps quicker. Most traps can only be placed in special tiles which have fixed locations on each map, so when you unlock the ability to create new trap tiles in any location, this opens up lots of tactical possibilities.
• My favourite traps are the floor spikes which trigger when stepped on, the ballista which fires in a straight line when an enemy steps in front, the lure trap which makes a noise to draw an enemy towards it before chopping them with a massive sword, and the backstabber which hits the last enemy in a group (useful if the lowest health enemy is at the back). There are more complicated traps such as a fire trap which deals damage over time, doors that can close to split groups into different paths, boulders and poison gas which can be linked to pressure plates. But I didn’t need to use them because I found a tactic that was simple and effective, so I just stuck with it.
• There are various enemy types with special abilities allowing them to attack Asterion from range, avoid floor traps, ignore lures, disable traps, bypass parts of the maze by jumping over bottomless pits or destroying walls, or gain increased health when other allies are nearby.
• Enemies spawn in waves, and the player has complete freedom to change the layout of your maze, including placement of walls and traps, at the start of each wave. This can be useful when you need to adjust your tactics depending on the spawn position of the more annoying enemies.
• Traps can be upgraded to deal more damage or trigger more often. This can also synergise with relics which can be bought from a shop. For example, an upgraded ballista which deals more damage the further its bolt flies, combined with a relic which automatically reloads a trap if it overkills low health enemies, can potentially kill multiple enemies per wave.
• Map layouts aren’t random, and I’ve seen maps repeat multiple times during the same run. On each floor you can usually choose between 2-3 options which have differences to map size, number of enemy waves, enemy types, and victory rewards. I try to avoid smaller maps because there’s less space to build. I find that bigger maps are easier because even if there are more enemy waves, more traps placed equals less enemies to fight in melee.
• Occasionally you’ll have the option to play a puzzle map. Unfortunately they’re not much fun, and I say this as an experienced puzzle game player. These puzzles give you a specific set of traps and you have to figure out the exact correct position where they can kill every enemy. They don’t have the same tactical freedom as the proper maps. Thankfully you can skip them with no penalty to your progression.
[h1]Story (low quality)[/h1]
• Quite basic, with just enough detail to explain why you need to progress through the labyrinth. There are a few short conversations with Asterion’s mentor Deadalus between maps, but interactions with other characters Theseus and Ariadne are limited to reading notes/journal pages.
[h1]Technical (medium quality)[/h1]
• It took me 12 hours (and 3 deaths) to reach floor 20 and complete the story mode. This unlocks the endgame where you’ll have to beat a further 20 floors. It took me 4 more hours (0 deaths) to reach the 40th floor. Unfortunately the last floor is another puzzle map. There’s also a roguelite mode which removes the story and puzzles, simplifies the progression, and ends after floor 20. This took me 7 hours (2 deaths) to finish.
• Graphics are basic but functional. I haven’t had any problems with framerate or stuttering.
• I haven’t encountered any crashes, but there’s a bug where sometimes Asterion won’t immediately attack the “raider” enemy in melee. You have to click the enemy, or the floor next to the enemy, multiple times, to get him to attack, which lets the enemy get in some free hits. So far this hasn’t cost me a run, but when dying means starting again with a new run, this really needs to be fixed.
[h1]Recommendation[/h1]
Minos is a fun game which tower defence fans should enjoy. Its tactical maze building and trap placement remind me of Orcs Must Die and Dungeon Keeper. Its worth picking up for full price or on a small sale.
