OVIS LOOP Review
With fast-paced, replay-heavy design, LIFUEL, a small but bold indie team, has made a name for itself in the rogue-like genre. In keeping with this style, their newest project, OVIS LOOP, has a strange premise: a robotic sheep is out to get payback by hunting down wolves that have been cybernetically enhanced.
OVIS LOOP has already become known as a “retro-roguelike with a modern punch,” with comparisons to Dead Cells and Slay the Spire. It got a lot of attention in early access. A lot of rogue-likes focus on either fighting or strategy, but OVIS LOOP is brave enough to mix the two into one looping adventure.
You play as Omega, the last cyber-sheep, who is out to get revenge on the wolves that killed its group. The story of OVIS LOOP is told without using a lot of long explanations or conversation. Instead, it scatters bits of story and world-building around the world through collectibles and clues in the surroundings.
OVIS LOOP’s roots can be seen in its name, which comes from the Latin word for sheep. This simple way of telling stories works well for the game because it lets you naturally piece together Omega’s story while staying engaged in its loop-driven chaos.
The few pieces of writing that are there are mostly coded messages, scary warnings about strange energies, and statements made by trial-by-combat that make the world feel alive and dangerous. The story isn’t Shakespearean, but it doesn’t need to be. It’s just a background to the violence.
OVIS LOOP is built around standard rogue-like runs at its core. You dive into procedurally created zones, kill enemies, pick up upgrades, and make your way toward bosses until you die and have to start over. You have to be able to change your build with augments, get health drops wherever you can, and decide when to risk harder fights for better rewards.
The fighting and movement are very smooth, with a focus on rhythm and flow. You have to keep an eye on your energy bar and dodge, dash, and slash your way through waves of baddies. You can pair basic melee hits with special moves that use energy.
As you play, you’ll unlock a huge variety of weapons that will completely change how you play. The weapon you start with feels heavy and intentional, and as you progress, you will eventually unlock more weapons.
You can also call in robot allies like pulse drones, rolling bots, and flying drones to fight with you, which can lead to times of chaotic synergy. You can use your sword to hack wolves one second and then order a group of drones to attack an enemy mini-boss the next.
The rogue-like structure is made even better by branching tracks that remind me of Slay the Spire. You can choose your path between stages, going through combat gauntlets to get loot, shops to buy upgrades, or healing camps where you can choose to heal yourself or forever boost your stats. Because the choices you make affect how far into enemy land you go, this layer of strategy makes sure that no two runs are ever the same.
The main point of OVIS LOOP is to fight. Battles happen quickly, easily, and are very rewarding. Cyberwolves, mutants that explode, and mini-bosses with deadly attacks are all types of enemies. You have to respond in different ways to each type of enemy, like avoiding bomb blasts, punishing charging wolves, or timing your combos to avoid ranged attackers. The difficulty level goes up when you fight a boss. Their attacks are flashy and test both your speed and your build.
The skill system makes OVIS LOOP even more difficult. There are augment slots in every skill that let you change how you play. Passive augments give you benefits like shorter cooldowns or more elemental damage.
Active augments, on the other hand, let you chain moves together, turning a simple dash into a spin attack that clears the screen. Some upgrades put more focus on drones, which lets you flood the fight with robot allies. Others focus on swordplay and give more points for aggressive physical combat as the damage level goes up.
The best thing about OVIS LOOP’s fighting is how quickly it can react. Attacks hit hard, dodges feel exact, and chaining moves together makes a natural flow that’s fun to learn. Because you can change many things, you should try different things on each run.
However, the flashiness can sometimes be bad. During busy fights, it can be hard to see your enemies because of all the particles from swords, drones, and blasts.
Also, the range of enemies feels a bit limited at times—many of them are just stronger versions of earlier enemies, and mini-bosses sometimes use the same animations over and over again. On the other hand, the rogue-like game base is strong enough that these problems don’t feel like deal-breakers.
Progress is important in OVIS LOOP, as it is in any good rogue-like. You keep some currencies and knowledge after each death, which lets you slowly gain new weapons, augments, and robots. Blue “P,” which is the game’s main resource, is dropped by enemies and can be used to unlock skills or make them better. Camps force you to choose between short-term healing and long-term upgrades, which makes the risk-versus-reward relationship stronger.
The great thing about this method is that grinding doesn’t feel like work. Every run, whether you win or lose, teaches you something, like how to build around energy use, enemy patterns, or pathing tactics. Over time, you get better on your own, so you never feel like you’re stuck in a grind loop.
The pixelated beauty of OVIS LOOP is beautiful to look at. The settings are clean and full of detail, with backgrounds that range from neon-lit ruins to industrial death pits. Omega’s sword swings in a smooth arc, enemies explode into clouds of sparks, and drones buzz with kinetic energy.
The particle effects from skills can sometimes be too much for the battlefield to handle. However, the lightning bursts and fiery detonations look amazing.
The artwork strikes a good mix between cute and scary. On paper, the idea of a robotic sheep hero sounds crazy, but Omega’s design makes her both cute and scary. The wolves look mean, the mechanical monsters are scary, and the style as a whole feels both old and new.
The sound creation is also very good. Sword fights sound like they have a metallic bite to them, explosions have a satisfying weight to them, and wolf howls can be heard across stadiums. During battle, the music changes to pulsing synth beats, and during travel, it changes to ambient tones, which keeps the mood fresh. Small things, like the buzzing of drones or the alarms that go off near traps, make the experience more real.
OVIS LOOP is a unique rogue-like because it combines tight, responsive action with deep customization and planning. The idea behind it—a robotic sheep getting revenge on its own kind—may sound strange, but the way it’s done is anything but. It feels like every run is a test of your reflexes, ability to make choices, and ability to change.
Some things about the game are wrong. The bright graphics can make it hard to see what’s going on, the enemies could use more variety, and some of the early augments don’t feel very powerful. But these problems aren’t as important as how much fun it is to try out different builds, control robot friends, and get better at swordplay.
OVIS LOOP is surprisingly well put together. The gameplay runs smoothly, the battle loop is fun, and the base is solid enough to allow for repeated play. LIFUEL has made a rogue-like game that is both familiar to people who have played a lot of them and new in its own strange way. There’s a lot to keep you interested here, whether you want to beat the speedrun leaderboards or just try out crazy multi-drone builds.
