Blightstone

Without grids, but with cover, traps, and decisive resources, Blightstone rewards adaptation and imagination, offering an ambitious Spanish project that already shows very strong potential.

The tactics gameplay is genuinely a lot of fun, with exciting abilities and environmental hazards that provide several options to dispatch challenging foes. However, it never justifies its roguelike structure, with dull upgrades, limited variety, and slow metaprogression holding it back. Thankfully, there is a solid foundation, and developer Unfinished Pixel can use this Early Access period to flesh things out, but I can’t recommend Blightstone in its current state.

Blightstone from developer Unfinished Pixel is a decent, if not good, roguelite tactical turn-based game. It has a solid gameplay skeleton that follows the genre’s perceived structure, while needing some love and care to improve some lacking gameplay elements.

Blightstone is successful because it knows what it wants to be. In terms of plot, it's not an epic or a power dream based on being very strong.

Blightstone has a solid, strong foundation in terms of its combat and battle mechanics. The use of environmental hazards and interactive battle arenas is what helps the game stand out. The rest of the game feels like something of a slog, however, with some harsh RNG and an inconsistent pace that makes Blightstone feel like it can't get out of the blocks. There's something fun hidden here, but it is sadly overshadowed by a game that feels more interested in punishing you for simple things than allowing you to learn.

Blightstone brings a charming roguelike strategy game to the forefront of early access, an easy recommendation to fans of the genre.

If it can utilize its early access period well and continue the obvious passion the development team has, it could become a very big game among the roguelite community over time.