Rather than being a nasty surprise, they're an inviting challenge, baited with gold. Often these interactions are woven together into cascading gauntlets, triggered by your approach. A fire launcher might set webbed ground alight, which then reaches an explosive pot and sets it off, for example. It's an exciting test of your evasion and timing skills. Kiting foes doesn't just feel like some awkward way to cheese fights. Enemies don't set them off, but they do take damage from them-and one of the items in the game allows you to recover health every time a monster is killed by one. Light is important, too-being in darkness causes you to take more damage from foes, but it also obscures traps, driving you to always be seeking out sources of illumination.īut they can be turned to your advantage, too. You only have limited stamina for dodging, for example-which means if you run into a trap when you're out of breath, you won't be able to escape. But all of the game's other systems factor in to how you approach them. Learning how each one operates is vital to survival.Īvoiding them is simple, in theory-each has a short animation before it goes off, giving you just enough time to dodge. But here they're a thrill.Īs you explore the dark temples, you encounter all manner of deadly devices left behind by the architects-from electric landmines to living statues. Usually they're anti-fun-the thing that slows you down, or punishes you for inattention. I struggle to think of any game where I've found traps fun.
But one of the things that impresses me most about it is the traps. The punchy combat, grim atmosphere, and meaningful decision-making sucked me in immediately. These days it takes a lot for a roguelike to stand out, so it was a pleasant surprise for me this month to be so wowed by Curse of the Dead Gods (see our review on p82). Learning to love traps in Curse of the Dead Gods-Robin Valentine Slipways is out later this year, and it's worth keeping an eye on. This is really refreshing, and as someone who just likes building stuff, only makes me love it more. I also love that there's no combat whatsoever. It's one of the best-feeling games I've played in ages, with a clean, presentation and a relaxing ambient soundtrack that perfectly complements its laid back vibe. And not an inch of the UI is wasted, presenting all the key data in a way that allows for quick decision making. Watching the slipways form, and tiny resources being beamed back and forth through them, is extremely satisfying. The game's interface is readable, snappy and simple to use, and establishing slipways is as simple as dragging a line between two planets. And if people grow too unhappy, or you go bankrupt, it's game over.īut the magic of Slipways is how much fun creating these little routes between planets is. So you'll need to connect their world to a planet that produces water with a slipway, otherwise they'll experience a resource shortage and the happiness of your empire will suffer. So if you've settled another planet in the region that produces workers, connect it to your farming world with a slipway and you'll create a supply chain that boosts your profits and keeps the factory workers happy.īut here's where things get tricky: the planet producing the workers needs resources too.