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For Jimbo’s sake not another roguelike deckbuilder I hear your groan. During a recent chat, developer Nullpointer explained that both publishers sounding out games to back and developers on the hunt for new concepts pay very close attention to trending tags on Steam. Guess what? Deckbuilder and roguelike are top of the pile. No wonder there are dozens released each month. Blame Balatro.
Hold your horses there though before you pass hasty judgement on this one and move on, Shroom and Gloom comes with a neat little twist: you play in first person with not one, but two decks. Developer Team Lazerbeam appositely describes it as a ‘first-person roguelike double deckbuilder’ and there’s a demo out now to sample its fungal hand-drawn world. Devolver Digital is on publishing duties, which is a pretty reliable signal that a game’s worth investigating.
After giving the demo a go, I can confirm it is. First, the doubledecker-y business. The two decks are distinct from one another. The combat deck is used to hack, slash, and roast mobs of mushrooms and biome bosses with a range of modifiers, pros and maluses, effects, and unique skills. Combat plays out in turns as you’d expect from a deckbuilder as you fling cards at enemies to whittle down their health. On the other hand, the second deck, called the explore deck, is for navigating and exploring gloomy dungeons, resting, digging up and modifying cards, unlocking doors, and even trying your hand at a spot of cheffing. Though this is just the demo, the variety of cards is impressive and isn’t short on quirky oddities that promote unexpected and satisfying synergies.
The dual-decks make Shroom and Gloom a game of two phases, which is where the first-person aspect comes in. No side-scrolling or a flat, uninspired presentation here – you trudge through icky, claustrophobic 3D tunnels, all hand drawn and dripping in atmospheric sounds and bendy synth compositions. You’ll come across chests containing fresh cards, chomp through roasted enemies, and barter with moles manning pop-up stores. All of this combined gives Shroom and Gloom a distinctive atmosphere that for its mood-setting qualities far exceeds what you’d expect from most deckbuilders. It’s great. Like any roguelike, death is only the beginning. Die and you’re punted back to the start of the dungeon network to try it all again.
The demo already has a rich variety of cards to play with. Captured by VideoGamer
Shroom and Gloom has you navigate a moody network of tunnels and caves. Captured by VideoGamer
Shroom and Gloom’s monsters are suitable horrible. Captured by VideoGamer
Shroom and Gloom doesn’t have a firm release date quite yet. Team Lazerbeam’s vision for the full game includes hundreds of cards, cross-run meta-progression, and a ton of unique enemies crawling a tangled network of caves and tunnels. Hopefully the whole roguelike deckbuilder trend doesn’t die out by the time it finally sees the light of day as Shroom and Gloom has heaps of promise.
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