Some of the most beloved roguelikes are single-player, such as hell, Balatroand dead cells They are all solo titles. But blown by the windthe new roguelike from Motion Twin, the creative studio dead cellsshowed me how cool it can be to play a roguelike with other people.
In blown by the windYour character, one of the few adorable adventurous animals like an axolotl or a bat, is shot out of a canyon into a mysterious giant tornado to blast his way through several areas. As dead cellsYou can equip up to two main weapons. I usually have one for close range combat and one for long range attacks. But with each weapon, you can also perform a combo that uses a special move of the another weapon called “alterattack”.
Here is an example. I love using a crossbow to attack enemies from a distance and combine it with a giant heavy sword. I rarely use the blade alone; Instead, he uses his Alterattack that splits the ground in a straight line to continue hitting enemies from a distance. That turns a run into a constant rhythm of shooting arrows and using Alterattack on exactly The timing is right, and with my five hours of play so far, I haven't gotten tired of the pattern.
blown by the wind It just launched in Early Access and you can already unlock over a dozen weapons, which means there are a lot of combinations I haven't played with. And with four different biomes to traverse as you run, there's plenty to see too.
All that would be enough to do blown by the wind Part of my regular rotation of roguelikes is spent relaxing at the end of a long day. But the game's multiplayer mode is doing blown by the wind the game I turn to every time I turn on my Steam Deck.
blown by the wind Multiplayer lobbies, which unlock fairly early, allow you to play a full race with a team of three. You can use voice and text chat to communicate, but it is not required; I haven't used them at all, but rather rely on four emoji from the game. I also like that you can name your lobbies. I created one titled “help me get my first victory” and immediately two helpful people joined in to help me face the tornado. (Unfortunately we did not win).
When playing alone, I found that I am somewhat cautious and strategic when thinking about how to use weapons and positioning to take on the game's aggressive enemies and dodge their attacks. With the help of a team, battles move faster and become delightful explosions of light, color, sound and damage. Is so It's fun to completely annihilate bad guys with other people, and it's comforting to know they have your back in a pinch.
There is a lot of great roguelikes to play right now; Hades II I just got a big update, Balatro It's almost impossible to put down (especially now that it's on mobile), and I wanted to get back to it. shogun showdownwhich I think everyone is sleeping on. blown by the wind It needed more than just its Motion Twin pedigree to stand out, but so far, the multiplayer is the hook that keeps me coming back.
