Ring of Pain

The basics of the game is there, the pace is good, there is just some fine tuning needed to make the game balanced in a fair way. I think the evade rating should be bumped up between 30% to 40%. By the middle of the ring, evading opponents is too risky, while taking damage from ranged attacks and other threats at the same time.

What I love about this game is how easy it is to make mistakes. Even overpowered runs can be lost very easily by carelessness. It reminds me a lot of getting the shotgun in a game like Spelunky. Suddenly a lot of things become a lot easier, but you can still misjudge the recoil of the gun and push yourself into some spikes. In the same way, here you can get some wildly overpowered effects like doing random damage to an enemy in the room whenever you gain souls, and then forget about the implications of that and kill yourself by accidentally blowing up a roaming bead that's right next to you with that same ability. Like Spelunky, it means that have to constantly pay attention to what you're doing. But also like Spelunky, runs are fast enough that they have a sense of flow and you're not spending minutes agonizing over each move you make. It's a really good balance that gives the game a special, unique quality among other roguelike "deck-builder" in the genre. It's difficult for all of the right reasons.

Look at that trailer vid. That dude is unironically rhyming it up, having a great time. How can you look at that and think this is anything other than a wonderful game? Conceptually Ring of Pain is a roguelite dungeon crawl with card game elements. Collect items, optimize for various challenges and try not to die. Presentation is superb, customization is deep and victories are fulfilling. Recommended.

Engrossing, darkly unique, and incredibly well-presented. "Just... one... more run...!"