Lone Ruin is a fun, fast-paced shooter that could have had more options for progression.
Lone Ruin is the second game by Cuddle Monster Games, their first being Hell is Other Demons, and there are certain thematic similarities between the two games, but the genre is entirely different this time around. Lone Ruin is an isometric roguelite shoot-em-up and, occasionally, a hack-em-up too.
The easiest comparison to make is to Hades. You need to go through one room after another, clearing out waves of enemies, and every room ends with several doors to choose from, and the doors have a symbol on them to tell you what is through that next room. You progress through several rooms, meet the boss, beat the boss, continue on your way, and eventually beat all three bosses to beat the game. Lone Ruin is built on replayability. You are meant to finish it and then restart your run.
The big difference here is that there is no persistent progression. Lone Ruin is a pure roguelite experience. None of those additional character unlocks or anything else you may be familiar with in many similar games. Each run is a fresh run, and for that reason, it may put off some who want that more persistent progression. This game is all about replaying the central loop repeatedly, but, thankfully, that central gameplay loop is a good one.
Lone Ruin sees you play as an explorer of a magical city that has been overwhelmed by monsters, and you need to get to the center of that city because… there isn’t really any reason given. This is not a narrative-focused game. Instead, you focus on using your various spells to make your way through this dangerous environment.
Every run starts with you choosing between several different spells, and these spells are effectively like different guns. There’s a standard blaster type, an explosive type, a shotgun type, a scythe, which serves as the only melee weapon in the game. So, you are effectively playing a shooter, but also sometimes have the option of a melee attack. Each of these weapons can be upgraded along your run, and many of the upgrades can be fantastic, like increasing the number of projectiles or adding certain effects. The screen can, if you’re lucky, end up as a barrage of your bullets as everything falls around you.
Throughout your run in Lone Ruin, you will get the chance to upgrade those spells, your dash ability, and also gain a variety of blessings. These blessings are additional items that add buffs, such as increased damage, speed, et cetera. However, they can often be a little underpowered at points. And this can contribute to a bit of an inconsistency issue in the game.
Lone Ruin is inconsistent in its use of difficulty. The game is heavily RNG focused, similar to many other roguelite games like Binding of Isaac, so one run could get you a great set of upgrades that decimate your enemies, and the next run could wind up useless. It is generally very easy to get to the first boss, but after the first boss, each level can either be manageable or feature a seemingly infinite number of enemies that continuously spawn. It appears to be entirely random. So, if you don’t have powerful weapons and abilities by the time you get to the first boss, you may not reach the second.
What makes this even worse is that the game actually gets easier as you progress. If you manage to get past the second boss, you will probably get to and beat the last boss. If you manage to reach the second boss, you’ll probably be powerful to handle the rest of the run. So, Lone Ruin actually gets easier in the last third rather than harder. Additionally, the bosses are easier than the regular fights, because sometimes the regular fights can become swarms, and boss arenas always have a reduced number of enemies in them so that you can focus on the bosses.
This strange inconsistency and the fact that the bosses are easier than the regular fights also indicate an issue with the level design at times. The boss arenas are nice open spaces, but the regular fights can often be in tighter confines with walls that, because of the art style, can be difficult to see. So, you may end up getting stuck on level geometry while fighting enemies while never having that issue with bosses.
There is, however, some variety in Lone Ruin. There are three difficulty settings for those who want to challenge themselves and there are two modes to choose from. There is an adventure mode, which is what has been described thus far, and there is also a survival mode. The survival mode actually removes some of the issues with the game, such as the level geometry that can stop you from dashing.
The survival mode is a wave-based mode in an arena, and you gain upgrades after a certain number of kills. This also makes it feel more satisfying to play than the adventure mode. However, Lone Ruin is very leaderboard oriented. So, if you want to show off your skills in the game, Lone Ruin has you covered.
Other than the issues with the environment sometimes holding you in place, Lone Ruin has a gorgeous, pixelated art style, and your character seemingly holds their hand as if they have finger guns and the spells fly out of them, which is a cute touch. But the environmental issues are not the only technical problems the game has.
Sometimes an enemy will spawn on a raised surface, and you simply cannot hit them. It’s an extremely annoying occurrence that, while rare, is not rare enough to be ignored. It’s clearly something small, but it will usually end up where you’ve cleared an entire level and now sit there trying to kill this enemy while they also fail to attack you. It’s quite frustrating.
However, Lone Ruin does have great music and it is a game with a fantastic central loop that is fast, satisfying, and full of variety. It’s just a shame that the game has so few additional options and no persistent progression.
