BRUT@L – A Rogue Running The Gauntlet

BRUT@L is a game that pays homage to oldschool Roguelikes, especially those represented through ASCII characters. While Roguelikes have seen a resurgence in the last decade, especially when their elements are brought to Roguelites, Roguelike-likes, and other nomenclaturally confused categories, Brut@l attempts to adapt that time honoured format into a contemporary game.

How successful is this? Well, for starters I think it’s important to note that BRUT@L pays just as much homage to Gauntlet as it does the Roguelike format. In that sense, it is a streamlined of sorts. Game progression isn’t handled in the turn order that it is so prevalent in traditional Roguelikes. The traditional turn order is usually executed simultaneously by all parties when the player acts, sometimes with different actions taking a different amount of time. It differs between titles here, and I only mention it here in the event you pick up BRUT@L thinking time progresses in this way. No, time progresses in real time in BRUT@L, with elements and monsters in unexplored rooms not moving until you discover said rooms. It generally works quite well, but like I mentioned this is as much Gauntlet as it is Angband.

Like Gauntlet, you have four classes to choose from: Warrior, Amazon, Ranger, Mage. The core difference between the character classes is starting health and skills, though everyone can draw from the same skill pool. The Warrior, Amazon, and Ranger can throw their shield with a cooldown, but the Mage is most different getting an arcane blast from the start with the much faster mana recharge (at the expense of lower health). Like most Roguelikes your character is a starting point and you can mold them whichever way you want. There are a few skills you will probably focus first, but then you may make your choices based on what you find in the dungeon.

Armor pieces provide a flat boost to defense and last until they break. Potions are brewed from alchemical components (or found as treasure) but you won’t know what they do until you drink them or have a skill that auto-identifies them. Weapons (and late game Talismans) are the most interesting, you collect ASCII characters throughout the game (both basic and enchanted) and build weapons from a blueprint out of their core ASCII components. Weapons have a certain letter that if you fill with the appropriate enchanted letter they will gain an enchantment. You can have multiple enchantments on a weapon and cycle through them (including basic, great choice) so you are never hemmed in and you never feel like it would be a waste to enchant this over that because ASCII are not consumed in making or enchanting a weapon. But they are often hidden in rooms, so you will find yourself exploring every inch of the dungeon (you can bring up a summary screen to see how many characters you need to find on a floor, helpful).

It behooves you to clear a room before activating another, since the walls are simply ASCII borders on the floor ranged monsters and traps in other rooms can shoot you through the walls. I like this – it gives the game an edge that it sometimes lacks. The Dungeon is 26 Floors deep, with floors becoming progressively bigger and bigger. If you don’t quickly learn how to future proof your run then there can be a serious drain on resources due to the huge size of these floors and the player’s drive to find all of the goodies on them. There are monsters, traps, lava, poisonous floors, and most deadly of all – bottomless pits.

I’m going to address the platforming here and now since it is the biggest point of contention when looking at impressions of BRUT@L. This is a game with permadeath, pits that instantly kill you, and an aesthetic that can throw off the spatial awareness of new players. The platforming isn’t that terrible – usually. You have a double jump and you can line yourself up using the periods present on all blocks suspended in the air. Be careful as these often have open borders, that is you can walk off them to your death. And be especially careful because many of the bridges you need to raise have blocks that will fall when you walk on them. This means you can seriously complicate a route if you have to return. Take a look at this diagram:

When blocks fall from a corner, and _ESPECIALLY_ when the bridge is 1 block wide it becomes very testy to do a wrap around jump around the bend from one branch to the other. Especially without a drop shadow or any real frame of reference. These blocks never raise back up once they drop, and while they all shake under your weight there seems to be little indication of which will fall. My advice is if the raised bridge is 2 or 3 wide, stay in one lane so you have one lane fully intact if you have to return. If you have a one lane bridge – do everything else you possibly can. Sometimes you can reach the same rooms without doing the bridge, other times I have had to abandon a level because it lead me to an exit and I didn’t have a spare life to risk going back. In general the platforming is okay, it’s just these bridges in particular seem to break it. Adding a Potion of Levitation or having the blocks raise back up after a few minutes would work? Maybe they do, but I have seen gaps in bridges remain over 10+ minutes on floors so I think it’s permanent based on this.

Combat is mostly pretty straightforward. The player exchanges blows with monsters until one perishes. You can block to mitigate damage, or dodge behind or away from an enemy. Dodging behind them, delivering a few blow, then dodging behind them again when they turn around trivializes most single encounters with standard enemies. Crowds can rough you up pretty bad, but weapon skills make short work of them. There are certain special enemies, like Gargoyles and Golems that really mix things up and I wish there were more varieties of them. Because let me be frank here, once you have the weapon skills and an epic class weapon nothing stands in your way. The enemy I had the _MOST_ trouble with was an ice enchanted rock golem, that had a huge move pool and I was getting frozen by coming into contact with it. I had to play differently to overcome it. Gargoyles got on my bad side enough that I would often pop Invisibility or Protection to get the upper hand. But I had a surplus of these potions by the end because – at least in my winning run – these special enemies started to give way more and more for bog standard sword and board monsters with beefier health pools.

Here’s another knock against monster variety – You are going to break every object in the dungeon because they give 1xp each and that amounts to a lot of experience points over the course of the floor. Sometimes there is vermin hiding in the boxes and barrels you break which will latch onto you and cause damage. Cool, I like that. Keeps you on your toes. But does there need to be FIVE varieties of these monsters? Rats, Centipedes, Rustbugs, Soul Ticks, Spiderlings. Cut a few of these out, and if you want some that grant status effects then _enchant them_ like every other monster in the game can come in an enchanted form. There doesn’t need to be five of them, especially when the core rogue’s gallery is suffering so much in the variety department.

I know it seems like I’m being pretty negative about BRUT@L but I had fun with it. And maybe that’s the real downer here. I want so much for this game to be good. So much. Because it’s such a wild and fun concept and a fresh take on a well storied genre. I love Roguelikes. I love high fantasy. I love dungeon crawls. I love monsters. I love games with original art direction. It could have been so, so much. I really think it could be a solid game with an update adding more dungeon elements and maybe introducing a hard mode.

Because this game is easy. If you’re used to Roguelikes then you know how to plan ahead for late game floors. I stockpile the best food and potions and once I’ve identified the potions I want I leave the rest unidentified so I don’t waste materials. I find every ASCII of every floor, seek out every blueprint. I keep a weapon with every enchantment handy. I realize how broken the weapon skills are and I build my initial skills around it. I start to see the enemy variety fall through so I don’t become adverse to using the best stuff I have. I think the next time I play through BRUT@L I’m going to have to put specific limitations on what skills I can choose or make use of to add a layer of challenge I feel it’s missing. Because I don’t mind if a game is easy, as long as it keeps things interesting.

On a more positive note, the visual style is a treat. Now, the novelty of this particular art direction will find its fans in those of us who have played traditional ASCII Roguelikes. It’s really cool and distinct and it’s clear that the developers were a fan of the look and feel of these classic dungeon crawls. Honestly, it’s a treat and I welcome bold and unique art direction with open arms.

Let me be clear, this isn’t a bad game. Not by any stretch of the imagination. It’s okay. It’s a fresh concept and with decent, but flawed, execution. One of the biggest drives behind a Roguelike is that every time you play it is different. More monsters! More traps! More gear! I think BRUT@L could become a pretty good game if it just did more, had more variety. I get that it’s meant to be streamlined but I feel like there’s not much more to see after a few games of it and a succesful run. But I want more, and that’s a good sign right? It’s a sign that there’s a solid foundation here it just needs more crenulations. Crenulations that can kill you.

BRUT@L is a fun game, but really only for fans of Roguelikes who will enjoy the flavour of it. There’s a local co-op I haven’t had the opportunity to try yet – perhaps it’s a little more fun and challenging there if you have to split the resources with a friend? If you have a buddy who likes Roguelikes, it could be worth a shot. All in all, it’s an interesting game that doesn’t really live up to its potnetial. But I’m still glad it happened and I hope something more can come from it.