Serpent's Gaze

Surprisingly good game. Roguelike Soulslike in a more traditional sense to both genres. The enemy attacks have similar wind-up to Elden Ring but when the attack engages it happens very fast so it seems harded to count on visual tells for most attacks and rather relies on a sense of timing from the player. Being run-based and multiplayer that means the multiplayer is a lot more straight forward to operate than traditional soulslikes. Load in with your friends, start the run. It's early access, replay value is low right now and content is being added. If the game continues to grow this is my favorite in the genre currently. After recently completing Nightreign I can say this game definitely has more potential to me than Nightreign did. Nightreign mainly appealed to me for being brand-name and mechanically built off Elden Ring so I knew I'd like it already. Now having played both if this game had as many bosses/weapons (which it doesn't, it's not even close) I would definitely get more replay value out of this game. Some of said replay value currently: New perks can be rolled in your run as you unlock more, more swords can be unlocked and equipped between runs. Weapons have stat scaling(true to FromSofts soulslike scaling) that the player can build into and the synergies combined from the perks make for interesting builds, traditional from what you'd expect in a roguelike. Not much more I can add I just prefer the way the game lets you build more chaotic/unpredictable builds in a traditional roguelike fasion. On top of that it's a true soulslike allowing skill to be expressed by the player. This is my new favorite genre mashup I think. I think I would have a hard time giving this game too much praise, the only sad part is it's early access and now I'm waiting on content. Being run-based I don't dislike the use of shortcuts within the maps to allow players to skip out on perks to save some time and skip to more recent areas either. I feel like this is a cool way to implement the traditional shortcut mechanic soulslikes often showcase within the roguelike genre. Similar to how other roguelikes offer secret doors that skip areas or offer routes through new areas that skip other areas you might have played out. The game is executed well and I really hope this one grows.