Evertried is a rogue-lite turn-based game. It’s like chess but your character can only move one or two spaces. It’s a game that you probably nEvertried before, get it?
Evertried follows the story of this fallen warrior who is now between life and death. He’s already dead but the Gods can’t seem to figure out where to put him. So he must face this trial of his to know if he is worthy to have a better afterlife.
The nameless warrior ascends through floors of enemies that he must clear out before he can move on to the next one. Each floor has a 7×7 tiles that you can move on. Not all floors are the same and every 10 levels the theme of the floors change. Some tiles will have objects on them that you can’t move and some will have hazards that can harm you.
Each floor will also host to a variety of enemies. Each one of them have their unique attack and abilities. Some enemies will also have shields that cannot be killed in one strike. Killing enemies is as simple as getting near them and striking at them. But what makes this game challenging is positioning yourself correctly to gain an advantage on the enemies.
As I mentioned earlier, your character can move either 1 tile or 2 tiles. Moving 2 tiles is considered as a dash. This is very useful when you are trying to outmaneuver the enemies. This can also be useful if you want to get away from dangerous hazards. The character also have skills that gets activated if you dash.
Speaking of skills, each 10 floors has a shop. It normally shows up at the fifth level of the 10 floors. Shards is the mode of currency here, which you can pick up from enemies that you have slain. You can pick up health, modifiers and active skills here. If you don’t like the selection of items that you get to buy, you can also purchase an item that will change the selection.
The modifiers gets activated when certain conditions are met. One modifier I like to use is the modifier that gives you charges when you kill an enemy. This is great to combine with another modifier that grants you immunity for 1 turn if you have more than 3 charges. Plus it will also help you use your skills faster as skills need charges for you to use them. There are so many good modifiers but you can only equip 3 at a time. So if you do get something better when you already have 3, you will have to sacrifice one of them.
At the beginning, you will only be able to equip or purchase 1 skill. However, every time you defeat a boss, another skill slot gets added. Bosses show up at every 10 floors and each provide a unique challenge that you would need to face to defeat them. I really like the variety it brings as every other floor can get monotonous. However, just like any other roguelike game, each floor is randomly generated and even the number of enemies you encounter are random as well.
Your character only has 3 life points that are represented by the character’s image on the upper left corner of the screen. Once all points are gone, your character dies and will have to start the run from floor 1. This is how merciless the game is because no matter how far you’ve climbed in the game, you will always have to start at level 1.
Your character only uses a scythe as his weapon but his skills have different ranges. I kind of wish that there were other weapons that he can equip to add more variety on the ways he can kill enemies but I guess this is not the game for it. The good thing about the skills is that you can earn mastery points for activating them. Earning mastery points levels up the skills permanently so that when you purchase them in future runs you will get better versions of those skills. Maxing out the mastery points for a skill will give you the opportunity to equip the skill at the beginning of each run.
The arty style is a 2D retro pixelated style. It’s pretty cool and brings in that nostalgia factor of games of old. I’m not sure who the intended audience is, but for graphics enthusiasts this is not probably the game for you. Nevertheless, the game’s focus is in its gameplay which to me was very intriguing and appealing.
Overall, Evertried is a fun and challenging game once you get past the idea of having to start the run back at floor 1 each time. It’s a welcome addition to the many rogue-lite games that are out there. It’s a fun game that will test your wits and skills challenging you in variety of ways. If you want to dive into a unique roguelike game, then you should definitely try Evertried.