Give me an elegant roguelike with an interesting premise and I’ll go missing for days, repeating runs ad infinitum. The upcoming Cobalt Core almost had me under that trance with its interstellar take on Slay The Spire’s deck-building, but the Steam Next Fest demo ended just before I got trapped in its moreish loop.
Cobalt Core stars a spacefaring crew who are stuck in a time-loop and searching for a way to unstick themselves. The group then charts their way across a Slay The Spire-esque star map, choosing between different nodes that represent battles, upgrade stations, a friendly cat merchant, and other special events.
Building off Slay The Spire’s formula, combat gives you a handful of cards randomly picked from your ever-growing deck. There are your usual attacks, status effects that corrode or stun enemy ships, and shield points that block incoming damage - all of which use up limited energy points per turn. But Cobalt Core stands apart from Slay The Spire by blending another heavyweight into the roguelike cocktail.
You see, Cobalt Core also has a hint of Into The Breach about it. Sure, you can dish out and block damage, but more interestingly, you can position yourself to dodge laser blasts, too. At the outset, the idea begins simply enough as you exchange energy points to move across lanes and sidestep an enemy blaster.
But what happens when the enemy has multiple blasters spread across their wide horizontal figure? What if a weak point hides between two canons? Should you put yourself in harm’s way to deal some extra hit points? Can my hand of cards dish out damage and facilitate a quick escape in time? Into The Breach’s focus on positioning fully makes the transition to a side-on, turn-based board, and Cobalt Core’s combat is electrifying in action.
My only grievance is that the demo ended. Not to worry, though, as the full game drops on Steam and Nintendo Switch on November 8th.
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