Decided to try another title on sale from Chrono.gg as I liked their concept, I logged in to find Runestone Keeper up for sale in its final hours. It was billed as Rougelite-Minesweeper, and while not really that accurate, it does fit the game a little.

So far, I've not logged a lot of time with this one, but I've greatly enjoyed what I've played of it so far. Why is it worth a look? Well...

Runestone Keeper is Minesweeper only in you click on squares and may sometimes see adjacent ones. That's as far as the comparison goes. What we really have is a very different type of rougelite genre with lots of unlockables.

To start with you have basically nothing but the generic 'man' hero and are quickly dumped into the main world with a grid of different squares.

• Light Grey: Explored Squares
• Dark Grey: Areas you can explore
• Black Squares: Areas you can't yet access.

From your starting square you can move into an adjacent dark-grey one. On this action you can move furthe raround the map and you may discover a monster, 'NPCs', loot, traps, shops, upgrades, doors, stairs, or nothing. The aim it to find the square with the stairs leading further down into the depths of this dungeon.

To start with, there is nothing to tell you what you may end up clicking on and it is pure luck. While the RNG in this game can be punishing, it never felt as unfair as other titles and you can slowly learn how to deal with the various encounters you find.

The basics of the game do have the usual RPG elements. Level up a character, equip better loot, fill your inventory and do your best to get stronger.

You also can carry RUNEstones, these can be used at the start screen as part of unlocks, combined together to make stronger runes, and applied as 'tattoos' which give you a small boost per run.

Along with this are the 'COINS'. You will find plenty of them and they are also used to boost you all characters as you play. Or you can just hoard them and go for a challenge.

If you encounter a monster you generally have two options. Attack! or just go exploring elsewhere. The game runs as turn-based and actions only happen when you click on a square. Most monsters you encounter will leave you alone as they only fight in melee, while ranged monsters will attack you whenever you move.

This is worth noting as you don't actually exist on the board itself, and instead exist on the map. There's generally no way to hide aside from the use of special items that may give you steal abilities for a few turns.

Thankfully, there is more to just clicking on the monster like a cookie based browser game.

Monsters come with Health and Shields just like yourself, but you have additional abilities to disable or debuff them, along with boosting yourself. You can carry up to three items and have a range of spells you can cast. For instance, the generic hero you start off with has a small ability to reduce the enemy attack power for a few turns.

Find an enemy that hits too hard when you attack? No problem! Cast this spell and make their retaliation a little bit softer...

Except you have limited mana.

And you may want that spell for a later level as you don't regen that mana fast as your class.

But what if that other monster on the map boosts the attack of the one you are focusing on?

What if you have three turns before this monster EXPLODES and takes you out with it.

What if....

I really love this kinda thing. It's a lite form of strategy and game of guessing/assumptions/luck as you progress and learn how each enemy behaves.

Oh sure, you can right click on a monster and get a breakdown of their stats and abilities, but knowing how they play off each other is part of learning the game.

Expect to die a lot.

I struggled through the first few levels when I began and it took some time before I made it as far as 'Floor 10'. But as indicated, the more you play, the more you learn how things work.

Strike the small troop. Explore. Discover a specific type of monster that redirects its attacks to another type. Leave it and explore more. Discover a difficult monster. Use an item to reduce its shield. Attack the easier one you left to take a few hits off the hard one. Claim the loot from both and explore.

There is a lot of fun in finding out the combinations you can play with, what items are best to keep depending on how you are playing, and what to level up and equip with.

It was initially tempting to put all my points into Strength and Life, but later levels showed that I did need a few points into Dexterity to equip a bow. Sometimes, you can't reach an enemy in time as it strikes surrounded by black unexplored squares and you have to start firing arrows/spells at it. And possibly die as more appear and you realise this was a level were you should of tried to find the exit instead...

The last thing to quickly mention is the GODS and NPCs.

Starting off as not worshipping one you may eventually find an altar of theirs and pray to them. This will give you a small boost per the run you are playing. Fulfilling requirements will have the god make a request, eg: The god of War/battle will ask you to slit your wrists and doing so selecting 'without hesitation' with give you an attack boost.
Gods need to be unlocked as you play to start a run with one and some are rarer than others. Do you risk betraying your god in this run to get the rarer one with different stat boosts to overcome the consequences? Well, to be honest, I found the gods suited the play style you were going for, and that it was a bad idea to change over mid run.

NPCs are popups that appear asking you a question on how to deal with a situation. In most cases, very little will happen. At least at first. Depending on how you behave will give the possibility for a quest chain on lower levels. As you as you explored the square that contained it and did not run to an even lower level in panic and then die again.

I know if you've read this and already played that I'm barely covering all there is to do in terms of possibilities. The game works best when you find these scenarios for yourself and learn how to deal with them.

Did I like it? Oh, very much so. The pixelated have a great charm, the music is suitably ambient, sound feedback feels powerful... But the real meat to the game is finding an afternoon for a few quick runs where you learn new strategies on how to survive. Slowly, making your way lower down to whatever is down there.

Average price is around 10USD, and at that rate it is easily worth the time and enjoyment I got out of it. If you're looking for a 'different' type of rougelite game then Runestone Keeper is really worth a look.

Game Acquisition: Purchased on sale (Chrono.gg)
Platform Used: Steam
PC Used: Scorptec Venom 2009

OS: Windows XP/Vista/Windows 7/Windows 8
Processor: Pentium 4 3.0GHz or higher
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Graphics: ATI Radeon 2400 / NVIDIA 8600M / Intel HD Graphics 3000 or higher
DirectX: Version 9.0c
Storage: 512 MB available space
Sound Card: DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card