Shadow of the Depth is a roguelike action hack-and-slash game developed and published by ChillyRoom. As always, for transparency, I want to say that I received a key for this game. This however will not influence in any way my review. It is also important to say that the version I played is a preview alpha version, that being the case, the bugs I mention here can be fixed in the Early Access release, some things can change, and things that are incomplete or missing can be added in the launch version.
The things the developers confirmed to change in the release version are:
- Refine Nightmare difficulty
- Better BGM
- Include an introduction for every character
- Game completion cutscene
- More passive skills
- Better help manual
That being said, I will now share my experience.
Gameplay
Shadow of the Depth has a top-down view, and, as the roguelike genre requires, the levels are generated randomly. Each time you die you start from 1-1 and advance towards new levels and regions. At the end of each dungeon, you face a boss. Each dungeon, at least in the version I played has 3 levels. So for example, at 1-3 end you fight a boss to reach 2-1.
The game has 5 unique characters, which is already great, since 5 characters means 5 different playstyles, thus adding more replayability. Every character can attack, dash, consume mana, charge attacks, use an Ultimate, and possess 3 weapon abilities available, depending on the weapon you have at hand. Also, every character can find each other’s weapons in the dungeon and use them as a secondary attack/skill (this is an unlockable perk). Every character however has a unique skill exclusive to them, besides having exclusive abilities, an exclusive main weapon, and different stats.
Arthur is a melee fighter with high defense, but lower speed. He uses a sword and shield, that being the case, he has the block skill, which consumes mana to block enemy attacks
Arya is an assassin with dual daggers, with high damage and survivability. Her unique skills allow her to spin her dagger while attacking if the player keeps pressing the skill button.
Stephaine is a sorcerer that attacks from long range using a magic orb, however, she has a slower dash and low survivability. Her unique skill allows her to charge mana.
Phyllis is an archer, she has a limited amount of arrows and has to stop attacking to reload. Her unique skill allows her to summon animals to help in combat.
Ginzo is a swordsman that wields a katana. His unique skill allows him to counter enemy attacks and projectiles.
It is also worth mentioning that each character has many different combo routes that you can unlock. They work by pausing your attack string at certain moments and then attacking again. I didn’t use this much since I found it to be too slow, but I played mostly with Ginzo, maybe this is more useful for ranged characters.
Another important thing is that your dashes/evasive give you I-frames (Invincibility Frames), which means you can dash into attacks and not take damage, maintaining pressure on the enemy.
Exploration
As I mentioned before the levels are randomly generated. The players also spawn with a random main weapon for their chosen character. For example, if they choose Phyllis, they will spawn wielding a bow with random stats, a random weapon skill, that, in Phyllis’s case, can summon a bear, a wolf, or two eagles, and also random passives that are too many to mention.
Then, the player will find enemies, chests that can drop new weapons, support weapons (other characters’ main weapons), and mana and health potions. It is also possible to find shops that can sell passives, Dragon Hearts, that increase the player’s base health, and weapons. There are also teleport points around the map that you can teleport back to at any moment.
The main “objective” of the exploration is to find a door with green flames around it. That door leads you to the next level. If the door has red flames, usually it means you are about to face a boss.
Runes are one thing you will find during your explorations, especially after boss fights. They can be equipped before starting the playthrough and give you unique effects like taking less damage from bosses, increasing health, increasing attack, and more. There are three slots with different shapes. You can only equip one rune of each shape.
When finishing a run or dying you will gain exp to level up, unlock more characters, gain diamonds, which allow you to buy runes, and gain talent points.
Talent points can unlock many permanent upgrades for all characters, such as increased base damage, increased base health, unlock more combos, and more.
Graphics and design
Shadow of The Depth has a unique design and well-made effects. The characters’ animations are also great and fluid.
What really caught my attention was the hand-drawn visuals, especially the character design. Each character has a great design and looks unique. It is a thing that must be appreciated, especially in the AI era, where generic AI art is becoming more and more common. The only thing I could say is that I wish there were more eye-catching skills, maybe in the ultimates. They are not bad, but it would be great to see something more with the game’s art style
The game also features introductions cutscenes for some characters at the moment, but, as I stated before, the developers plan to add a cutscene to all the characters before launching to the public.
Bugs
I only faced one bug that I can remember. It happens when changing scenarios after loading, your character, for some reason, gains insane movement speed and stays like this unless you quit and load again. Fortunately, the game has an auto-save feature, so this bug doesn’t cause much trouble. I expect this to be solved by the game’s launch.
Conclusion
Shadow of the Depth has a good variety of unique characters, plus the weapons, passives, and runes systems I mentioned above allow the players to create different kinds of builds for different playstyles and add replayability. Other than that, the game is difficult, and, from my experience, in an addicting way. It has 3 difficulties Normal, Hard and Nightmare. Just the Normal difficulty is already hard.
Shadow of the Depth is a fun roguelike with a great variety of characters, good progression, and an amazing art style. The game will only launch in Early Access, and I expect the game’s content to grow even more.