Noita

I generally shy away from "Roguelike" games because they just feel like the develop didn't bother to build in any progression. To some people that equates to replayability, but if I want to do the same thing over and over again I will stick to my day job. Noita is a roguelike, but it has enough exploration, diversity, and depth to be entertaining over and over again. Couple that with Steam achievements to give me goals to aim for, and I'm all over this one.

So what is it? You're some kind of Loom-esque mage figure. You equip wands and flasks as your weapons. You can jump/short-fly, and you use these tools to navigate vast (limitless?) underground caverns and structures in order to find more amazing wands, and gain skills and powers, and then... uh... eventually die I guess. Ok but why is it fun?

First off, the art style is awesome. Don't take my word for it - go look at some screenshots or videos or whatever. If you like that style of art, awesome. If you don't, you probably need a brain doctor. As you progress, you go through differently themed areas, and encounter increasingly difficult enemies, and it stays visually interesting throughout.

Secondly, the various things you encounter in the underground make for amazing tactical situations, oil burns, both you and enemies. Fire sets oil aflame. Water douses fire. And it washes off poison. And blood. Wands not only have different spells in them, but different modifiers can be added to wands to create crazy custom weapons suited to your play style, or the skills you've managed to pick up, or just whatever good/bad luck has led to your collection of spells. Some spells are straight forward, and you shoot enemies with them and they take damage or die. Other spells are more exotic and complicated to use, and often result in... uh... dying.

Ok lastly, strategy. While it's a roguelike so you're not really developing things much from game to game, each time you get to the end of a section, you get to choose one skill from some randomly selected ones. Some skills are basic and just make you better, and some are nuts and do things like teleport you or make you invisible or things like that, so the same set of wands/spells might present you with a very different situation depending on what skills you pick up along the way. A crazy spell that shoots fire everywhere might be madness for a normal mage, but once you're fireproof, just let it burn, baby! Of course since everything is random, you rarely end up in super-powered situations, but when you do, oh it's so much fun.

As of this writing, Noita is $20, and I think it's worth it for that price, but this is definitely one to wishlist, because at $15 or less it's a steal.