Blightstone is a new roguelike fantasy adventure that tasks players with delivering a magical crystal into the heart of an evil empire to save the world from impending doom. Taking inspiration from popular titles in the genre while still doing its own thing, it is easy to see, even in Early Access, that this title has a lot to offer. However, the early build of the title does show some familiar limitations that Early Access games face, and some questionable balancing and gameplay issues may leave players wanting to wait and see what gets tweaked and added before deciding to purchase the game for themselves.
In the vein of Slay the Spire, Blightstone is a roguelike where players choose their own path on a map of procedurally generated nodes, deciding between the rewards and challenges that lie ahead. This is a mechanic commonly seen in deckbuilding roguelikes, but Blightstone instead takes a turn-based combat approach.
On player turns, you command your small party of heroes using action points, which is a currency they use to activate their unique attacks and skills. You have a party of three, each defined by their own class, as well as the Crystal, which is an immobile unit that must be protected but one that can be upgraded to provide buffs for your heroes or even use some damaging abilities of its own. Anyone who’s played Darkest Dungeon is sure to find the combat in Blightstone similar, but with the addition of a top-down plane on which to navigate and position strategically.
The best part about the game’s combat is the ability to grab and throw enemies and objects around. Mantling an enemy and throwing them into a rock is great, but using telekinesis to lob a bear trap into a foe is even better.
Further comparisons to Darkest Dungeon can be made in the game’s camping system. As you move through the map’s nodes, your party must make camp each night to avoid the presence of an evil magic that threatens to corrupt them. In these campsite scenes, each hero can make use of unique campsite-only skills to empower or heal the party, and the group must make use of firewood to keep the campfire lit, which reduces the chance of a negative event taking place. Every night, a bit of corruption infects each hero, raising a secondary bar that inflicts debuffs as it gets higher; once again, this is similar to the Fear mechanic in Darkest Dungeon.
These similarities, I’m sure, are no coincidence and are made in homage to what is undoubtedly one of the greatest turn-based strategy series of all time (yes, I’m including the second Darkest Dungeon in that category as well). I personally feel like these mechanics work in Blightstone‘s favor without making the game feel too similar to the game’s inspirations.
Being that the game is in Early Access, there are bound to be some problems, especially those centered around the fact that the game is incomplete and, thus, lacking content.
As it stands, I think the game presents a solid taste of what it has to offer. The game’s campaign, while incomplete, is long enough that you can get at least a good few hours of enjoyment before hitting the third and final boss.
I found the incompleteness of the game’s main cast of heroes a little less tolerable. Each of the game’s five classes (with more to come in future updates) has around 14 skills, but I would say only a small selection of those skills feel really viable and appealing. I also didn’t find the three starting characters too exciting, with the wizard class feeling like he especially fell short of the fantasy of being a spell-slinging wizard, even when I focused my upgrades on him.
This, I feel, has a lot to do with how the game’s abilities and progression are designed. The wizard, in particular, seems to only unlock a lot of niche utility spells that don’t really conform to the identity of an “artillery mage” you might imagine him to have. Being able to shoot a laser that damages all enemies in a line is cool, and linking yourself to share healing and damage is also cool, I guess, but it is far less useful and not something I’m going to be using often.
This, of course, is more of a subjective opinion, but I think any player might find themselves a little frustrated when the game’s progression system only targets the utility in a character’s kit. I’m speaking specifically of skill upgrades here, which are the most enticing of the several ways you can upgrade your character across a run, alongside flat stat improvements and new gear. These skill abilities, regardless of who they’re used on, never seem to target the character’s main damage ability or anything that really defines their kit, and instead go to more niche, often utility-focused spells like telekinesis.
This, again, might be a more subjective opinion on the game’s mechanics, but I often didn’t find myself excited with the upgrades or improvements I collected for my characters throughout a run. I also often found my party feeling drastically unprepared for even the first boss fight, where one or two of my characters would face permadeath. Because of the reward rate of materials used for permanent upgrades, I would also often go several runs without being able to make any meaningful permanent improvements to my runs, which, after a few, started to make my sessions feel tedious, almost like I was grinding for resources.
In its current Early Access state, Blightstone is a promising roguelike with room for improvement. Subjectively, some of the character class identities feel odd, and the game’s progression feels kind of underwhelming and not as rewarding as it probably should be. Less subjectively, the Early Access build of the game clearly lacks in content, which is promised to be delivered later. Some players may find it worthwhile to wait for a patch or two before checking this game out, if not flat-out waiting for the 1.0 release.
Pros:
- Darkest Dungeon meets Slay the Spire in a clever combination of inspired mechanics
- Interesting enemies and fantasy world to explore
- Solid turn-based combat, which mixes clever positioning, class-identity-based skill usage, and a defensive element, with the inclusion of the Crystal
Cons:
- A lack of content in Early Access, to be expanded upon as the game develops
- Subjectively underwhelming execution of class identities and skill design
- Less than exciting progression, which can make you feel underprepared at points and make some runs feel grindy
TryHardGuides was provided a Steam code for this PC Early Access Review of Blightstone. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page!
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