Coming from developers LunarPixel and publishers Ratalaika Games is another entry in their attempt to take over the world by offering simple games with easy achievement lists.
Going by the name of EvilUP, this game is promising a roguelike RPG experience for people who find that sort of thing exciting. Now, I love an RPG, but really hate the whole idea of roguelike/lite games, so as you can imagine I am somewhat conflicted. But, come with me to a world of danger and dragons as I attempt to put EvilUP through its paces. Just strap on your armour first!
We’ll start by taking a look at our motivation, why are we going to go into the worlds on offer and trying to kill anything that moves, as well as a fair few things that don’t. Honestly though? It’s all a bit of a mystery. There is apparently a dragon somewhere in each level, and someone has to take it out. Now, I don’t know about you, but a flying scaly flamethrower isn’t on my list of things to antagonise, but this is what we must do.
EvilUP is all a bit mixed in terms of presentation though. It plays as a top-down affair that greets our eyes, and our character, and indeed all of the monsters we meet, seem to be attached to a little tile or base. The world, both in the field and in the town, is made up of squares, and we can move any direction, one square at a time. This takes a bit of getting used to, however while it isn’t a bad look, it is a little strange. The NPCs that you can interact with and the monsters we fight are all tiny, on similar bases to our hero; simple in design.
The sound is fairly basic as well, with grunts and thumps as we fight, with swishes as we miss. All in all, EvilUP is functional, but nothing more. It isn’t going to set the world on fire, but that is very much what we expect from a Ratalaika game. And as is standard, it is also Xbox Series X|S optimised too, although that is a bit of a laugh in and of itself.
Mixed sums up how EvilUP plays too. At the start of each run, we have to pick the hero we have to utilise, and there is a choice of four to begin with – a magician, a fighter, a thief and a paladin. There are other characters to unlock as you play through, so it is nice that they don’t just hand you everything on a plate. Once we have chosen our character (I found the Paladin easiest to use by far) we then get to choose which area we want to explore. The choice is a wood, a cave or a castle, and depending on which level we decide on, the background is slightly different, yet that’s about the only difference.
Each run is generated from scratch, so the chances of playing a level you have played before is pretty close to zero. With that in mind, you can stick a tick in the longevity column. As we begin, we are in a labyrinth, with monsters all around us, and things to pick up as we explore. The ultimate point of each level is to find the exit to the next level, and this allows us to go deeper into each world, until we eventually find the dragon. I’ll deal with combat in a moment (and that is pretty much as long as it will take, too) but as we explore and kill stuff, we gain EXP and so we can level up our chosen character. Levelling up then lets you spend skill points on the skill tree, allowing us to make ourselves a bit stronger.
Sadly, as with most roguelikes, the instant you die it is game over, and we begin the next run with a level 1 character again. The only things we get to keep between runs are any crystals we previously found, and these can be used in town to purchase things from the various vendors. The problem is the grind – once you have bought the necessary potions needed to stay alive there is rarely another left in your wallet to spend on new gear.
Combat in the levels is again the very essence of simplicity. We move up next to an enemy, they hit first, and then it is a case of holding a direction towards the foe and pressing A until either they fall over or you do. There is no strategy and no depth to the mechanics – just press A and occasionally RT. One top tip – before you move, go into your menu and equip the potions you bought, and also the weapon you have in your inventory. Yes, we all start with a weapon but it isn’t equipped as a default, which seems silly to me, but there you go.
For anything good in EvilUP, there is one glaring problem – the game’s store page promises fifteen hours of gameplay and whilst that may well be true, EvilUP gives up all 1000 Gamerscore and all achievements in less than fifteen minutes. And sadly, the gameplay on offer isn’t strong enough to maintain any interest once there is nothing to work towards. Perhaps the crafting system will appeal to some, as will other locations and the aforementioned new heroes, but mostly they’ll all feel like too much of a chore.
In fact, you may feel like you have wasted your time with EvilUP, and that isn’t a feeling any of us want. If you are desperate for a roguelike game, I’m pretty sure there are hundreds out there that are better than EvilUP. Avoidance is my heartfelt advice.
