Rogue Lords Review (PC)

Rogue Lords adds its own take on a genre that was made popular by games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train: roguelike deckbuilding. Set in a fantasy world where you take on the role of the Devil, your main objective is to finally return to the world after being weakened from defeat to the forces of good.

To successfully recover from the wounds and fully replenish your powers, you must hunt ancient artifacts with legendary power. Since you can’t walk the earth year, all the treasure hunting is done by your most faithful disciples who take the form of iconic monsters from fairytales, including Dracula, Bloody Mary, the White Lady, Lilith, Baron Samedi, the Headless Horsemen, and even Frankenstein.

On the opposite side sit the so-called Demon Hunters and the members of a new religion called the Sanctua Lumen. Unlike the two roguelike games mentioned earlier, Rogue Lords does away with the deckbuilding aspect and heavily focuses on the synergies between your party members.

In Rogue Lords, you can create a party of 3 disciples, each with their own unique abilities and skills that correspond to a certain playstyle. The secret to being successful is to find the best combinations and synergies between their abilities, although you’ll find that your party is less effective against some enemies and very powerful against others.

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There are two types of damage that you can do in Rogue Lords, which pretty much will dictate the party composition and the skills you want to unlock: physical and spiritual. Your party members and enemies have two health bars that visually shows how much damage they can withstand.

Some skills do physical damage, while others do spirit damage. Since many times these aren't equal, it's best to use the skills that will deplete the enemy's shorter bar, which can be HP or SP. It's the same mechanic that Iratus: Lord of the Dead introduced about two years ago.

The game adopts a turn-based combat system where your party acts first based on the number of “action points” that you have. Disciples' skills cost anywhere between 0 and 3 action points and once used, they must be recharged before you can use them again. You start with 5 action points, but this number can be increased by artefacts you might find throughout your adventure.

Although the first battles are made easier to let the player learn the ropes, difficulty ramps up quickly and it will only be through sheer luck that you’ll be able to finish the first chapter on your first try. That certainly encourages players to experiment with different builds, but I can’t shake the feeling that the game has some balance issues. Not to mention that new disciples are only unlocked after beating a chapter, so you’ll be limited to just three different classes throughout the first chapter.

That being said, Rogue Lords introduces one interesting tweak to the roguelike formula, which is the cheat system. Because you’re playing the Devil, you’ll be able to use Diabolic Essence to influence the outcome of events, steal buffs from enemies or transfer debuffs from your Disciples to enemy troops. Each of these actions can be paid using Diabolic Essence, which can only be replenished from so-called Styx fountains.

Besides the typical Darkest Dungeon-like battles, Rogue Lords introduces “events” that should increase your Disciples' stats or even reward them with powerful artefacts. It's a nice touch that sets Rogue Lords apart from other titles in the same genre.

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There's a certain depth to the skills tree in Rogue Lords, as some of them can be upgraded two or three times for more devastating effects. Every time you fight an enemy, you can choose your reward: terror effect in X nights, 1 or more skills, X number of souls. The former will place positive effects for your band of evildoers in certain points on the map, which will trigger once you arrive at the destination.

The second reward is quite obvious, but if you want to add that to upgrade a skill in Rogue Lords you need to own it three times. Because you get limited skill slots at the beginning of the game, it might be a bit harder to decide which ones are worthy.

Finally, the third option will reward you with a fixed number of souls, which is the in-game currency used to purchase skills, artefacts, or upgrade skills. This can only be done by the Grim Reaper, your go-to store throughout the entire campaign.

Maps in Rogue Lords are procedurally generated, but you can choose your route according to your needs. Sometimes you'll need to visit a Styx fountain to replenish your Diabolic essence, or you might want to buy or upgrade skills at the Grim Reaper. Just like in Slay the Spire, you can only move forward, so once you choose a certain route, you can't go back.

Ultimately, you’ll have to go through six big chapters to have the chance at fighting and beating Van Helsing, the leader of the Demon Hunters. Unfortunately, the RNG factor plays a big role in what enemies you’ll be facing during each of the chapters, so a run can end abruptly after just a few battles, while others might get you through several hours of content.

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The Good

The Bad

Conclusion