Harvesting Desires in a Self-Built Labyrinth
The tiny team at Scottish-based developers Ant Workshop first caught my attention almost a decade ago with the addictive puzzle platformer Binaries. Now though, they’re teaming up with publishers Wales Interactive, who are synonymous with FMV titles. Surprisingly, Into the Restless Ruins isn’t an FMV, nor is it similar to anything seen before from these two.
Into the Restless Ruins is actually a roguelike deckbuilder inspired by Scottish folklore, with dungeon crawling and auto-battling too. Oh, did I mention that you have to build the dungeon yourself?
The Harvest Maiden’s Plea
Legend has it, there’s a being known as the Harvest Maiden who grants the desires of anyone that seeks her out. Upon locating the ruins where she resides, you realise she’s weak from all of the corruption surrounding her. You must rid the place of its beasts and mighty wardens, harvesting Glimour from these poor souls and restoring the Harvest Maiden’s powers in the process. Only then will your greatest wish be finally fulfilled.
Even for someone unfamiliar with Scottish folklore, the influence on Into the Restless Ruins is clear from the outset, especially in regards to some of the creatures featured as well as the names of the ruins. It’s certainly interesting, but perhaps more so to those already knowledgeable in this area as they’ll no doubt appreciate the lore. The narrative in place is acceptable enough as a reason for your escapades, however that’s unlikely to be one of the main draws.
Building Your Doom: Constructing the Labyrinth
There are six ruins in total, with each unlocking upon completion of the previous one. Before venturing in, you’re given a brief of what the starting deck consists of, how tough the enemies are, if hordes randomly appear, and such things. The idea is to build a labyrinth, using room and corridor cards, to create a passage for your character to get from the entry point to where the warden of the area can be summoned.
In order to reach the warden though, blockades must be removed and this is done by interacting with seals hidden throughout the ruins. You see, there are a number of rooms already in place, albeit covered by fog, meaning their contents are not visible until you connect to and visit them.
Every card costs a certain amount of Build Points (BP), so you have to take that into account. The actual placement of cards is super easy to action and it even lets you rotate to enable the doors of each build to line up as you wish. Some of the buildings are oddly shaped and quite lengthy, hence smart planning is necessary to ensure that you use the best cards for the job and can navigate the labyrinth efficiently. Obviously a bit of luck is needed in the hand you are dealt too.
And then the night of harvesting begins, letting you roam around everything you’ve built – which probably won’t be much on the first outing – and auto-attack any creatures lurking within. Every kill will reap Glimour, which earns new cards to add to your deck from the Maiden, but bear in mind you can only stay for a limited period of time. The exact time is dictated by your torch, because once it’s burnt out, the darkness descends and it hacks away at your health. The key is to head back to the entry point before this to go through the exit portal to begin night two, and so on.
The run ends when you take down the warden of the ruin, or you are exposed to too much corruption and become consumed by it. The corruption meter increases with every night spent there and it’s accelerated further through death. On the contrary, it decreases after breaking seals and using specific cards. What I will say is that it feels like the perfect length for each ruin, ranging from half an hour to an hour on average.
Deck Evolution
The card variety in Into the Restless Ruins seems pretty dire initially, but stick with it and you’ll witness the more creative types being unearthed in no time. Little square rooms to lengthen torch duration and boost health are soon joined by huge training rooms to boost attacks, stables to aid movement speed, and even portals to allow fast travel across the sprawling ruins. There are also special cards available to buy in certain rooms, Boon cards to earn that offer potentially game-changing effects, and curse cards that only bring doom.
It’s great to have plenty of choice because some of the ruins are pretty big and you’ll be building far and wide. While the sizes are commendable, it really makes life difficult when trying to navigate your way back to the exit portal. Once you’re harvesting, there’s no way to see what you’ve built and you have to commit the layout to memory – or get a tattoo of it on your back like in Prison Break. Sure, there are small things that can help if you play your cards right, but getting lost, panicking and meeting death is quite likely.
Automated Annihilation and Enemy Encounters
If the darkness doesn’t get you, the creatures might. Expect to automatically attack spiders, banshees, hounds, bats, adders, and a few other weird looking things. On the positive side, I like how some versions explode and can inflict damage on other enemies for you. Unfortunately, they’re not visually impressive in pixelated form and it could do with more variety. As for the wardens, their size and differing attacks make encounters mildly interesting. Overcoming them is perhaps too easy though, with simple manoeuvres often all you need to do to avoid damage and get some cheeky attacks in.
Still, the hard work getting to the wardens of Into the Restless Ruins means success is worthwhile and rewarding. It’s likely to be quite literally rewarding too as XP is earned, which leads to level-up related unlocks. Cantrips are one such unlock, acting as modifiers to increase or decrease the difficulty of a run, depending on what it does. For example, cantrips might introduce stronger and faster enemies, end your run after a single death, lower the curse meter, provide an arrow to roughly guide to the exit, or hide the fog rooms from view. It certainly adds replayability, alongside the procedurally generated layouts.
A Strategically Addictive Dungeon Builder
Into the Restless Ruins manages to make building dungeon layouts addictively strategic and a whole lot of fun. Deciding which cards to use, where to extend the reach of your rooms, and how to ensure they complement each other, is very enjoyable. Venturing into the ruins to witness your work first hand is great, despite the high chance of getting lost being a bit of a nuisance. It’s also a shame that the enemies are lacklustre and the big bad wardens are a little too easy to topple.
Nevertheless, Into the Restless Ruins is ready for harvest and I think you’ll have a pretty good time building your way to achieve your desires.
Important Links
This Deckbuilder Has You BUILD the Dungeon! Into the Restless Ruins Arrives with a Tactical Twist! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/this-deckbuilder-has-you-build-the-dungeon-into-the-restless-ruins-arrives-with-a-tactical-twist/
Build Your Own Doom: Into the Restless Ruins Coming to Consoles and PC – https://www.thexboxhub.com/build-your-own-doom-into-the-restless-ruins-coming-to-consoles-and-pc/
15 NEW Xbox Games Due to Release in May 2025 That Will BLOW YOUR MIND! – https://www.thexboxhub.com/15-new-xbox-games-due-to-release-in-may-2025-that-will-blow-your-mind/
Buy Into the Restless Ruins on Xbox – https://www.xbox.com/en-GB/games/store/Into-the-Restless-Ruins/9NPB6WNS74W8
