ScourgeBringer is a beautiful game with intuitive combat and bucketloads of style. The difficulty curve is sharp, but if you can power through it you’ll find yourself ensconced in a tough but rewarding roguelike with punchy gameplay and a beautiful look to it.
ScourgeBringer is a roguelike (or roguelite, whatever) that came out a month after Hades set the gaming world on fire. A lot of roguelike games are fine. Hades set a new gold standard. And ScourgeBringer doesn’t quite manage to rise to that level. Your progress is too slow and simple. There’s a skill tree, and you spend Judge Blood on it; you make Kyhra more powerful. It works. Still though, I never felt that excited to unlock a new capability, and it took far too long before I felt like I was making any progress. Maybe I would have felt better if I was making progress across multiple fronts, but character development feels mostly linear.Still though, I never complained about character development when I was playing Sunset Riders on that emulator. I played it a zillion times, trying to beat the next boss or get a high score. That game could entertain me for hours, simply because it was nice to look at and felt great. And that feeling, where the controls help make the drama… you can’t fake that. That’s why you’re going to play ScourgeBringer and you’re going to enjoy it.
Despite some frustrations when it came to keyboard controls and repeatedly starting over again with nothing, ScourgeBringer is a surprisingly chill experience considering how difficult it is. Even though I died repeatedly, I never felt like rage-quitting, which is honestly a pretty solid accomplishment. With glorious pixel art, engaging fighting sequences, and plenty of exploration, ScourgeBringer is an absolute treat for veterans of the roguelite genre who want some punishing pixel art play. If you’ve got a controller handy for your PC, I don’t see why you wouldn’t pick up this title; if not, consider getting it on console (or getting a controller) for a more seamless experience.
Scourgebringer will be manna from heaven for players craving a fluid, smooth roguelite with hair-raising action. While I wasn’t crazy about graphics and the relative lack of freedom in building my character, I kept coming back because of how it all came together when I found a good groove. With a more distinct art style and some tweaks to the controls, this could have been a real classic.
Scourgebringer is a rogue-lite based primarily on combat and skill. Fighting being the essence of the game, you have to be patient and diligent in the confrontations, in order to develop your skill to face the real challenges. The wide range of moves and the very satisfying fights make the runs enjoyable. However, because of the lack of depth in the mechanics, the game runs out of steam after only a few hours of play. Nevertheless, it remains a good pick for those who expect a rogue-lite to deliver smooth, frenetic and rewarding fights.
If anything, ScourgeBringer wallows in roguelike trends instead of staking a real claim to the genre. The basic combat - a genuinely hard gameplay element to design, where other more successful roguelikes falter - is so confidently realized that it longs for a deeper, wilder game built around it.
Scourgebringer is kind of pretty. The gameplay isn't bad at first glance. But I wouldn't recommend it to my worst enemy because Scourgebringer is an empty, boring grind that shows you everything it has to offer in the first 5 minutes. All of the upgrades are boring and ****. I'd be more descriptive but I don't want to work harder on this review than the dev worked on the game.
SummaryScourgeBringer is a fast-paced free-moving roguelite platformer. Help Kyhra to explore the unknown and slash her way through ancient machines guarding the seal of her past, and maybe the redemption of humanity.