14 DAY TRIAL // At first glance, I thought Stoneshard is one of those unforgiving roguelike games that punish you hard for even the slightest mistake. I still believe many will see it that way, but underneath Stoneshard's brutality, some solid gameplay mechanics greatly help your character survive.
Stoneshard's prologue takes about 30 minutes to finish assuming you have no issues with the final boss and acts as a demo for the game. You're introduced with all the main mechanics and asked to put them to the test, but once you're done with the prologue, the real work begins.
Although the game is in early access, you get to choose between four classes: Reaver, Maiden Knight, Woodward, and Runaway Sorceress. Each class comes with a unique trait and a set of skills that fit a certain playstyle. The Reaver and Maiden Knight are Stoneshard's melee classes, while Woodward and Runaway Sorceress are the ranged damage dealers.
Stoneshard is set in an open-world medieval world and lets you take on contracts and explore the world of Aldor. Well, I'd strongly recommend dropping the exploration part until you finish a handful of contracts, otherwise, you'll die quite fast.
For my starting character, I chose the Runaway Sorceress, a squishy ranged class that can dish out decent damage at the beginning of the game. The problem is all contracts must be completed in confined locations like abandoned castles, ruined forts or dungeons, so it's quite tricky to prevent enemies from engaging you in melee.
The good news is combat is turn-based and most of the time you'll be fighting one or two enemies at a time. Having both ranged and melee weapons is a good idea since there's no way that your character will remain out of reach for too long. I know my sorceress broke quite a few skulls with her staff during her adventures.
During my short time in Stoneshard, I fought wildlife, human brigands, and all sorts of undead, from vampires to wights. I'd say there's enough variety of enemies for an early access title, each with their own strong points and weaknesses.
Stoneshard has a solid health system where each part of your body has its own health, but if one part is disabled, your overall health will drop considerably. To help you with mending your injuries, developers added splints, healing salves and other materials that can be used to stop the bleeding of a body part and then heal it. Depending on which part of your body is injured, your attacks might fail (fumble), so it's really not a good idea to continue your adventure without healing for too long.
And then there's the pain. Whenever you take a lot of damage and one of your body parts breaks, the pain will become a constant nuisance until you drink alcohol or any other concoction that can relieve it. It's a good idea to stock up on various healing items before taking on a new contract, but there are lots of items that you can find in dungeons and ruins. You can even cook and make potions if you learn the recipes and have the right ingredients.
On top of that, you must drink and eat, but that's one of the least worrisome survival mechanics since a contract usually takes between 30 minutes and one hour. Now, the roguelike aspect derives from the fact that whenever you die, you start from the beginning and lose everything (i.e. experience, items, etc.) Well, if you don't enable the permadeath option, you can start right from before you took a new contract.
Stoneshard does include a save system, but it will only work while you're at the tavern. So, before you take on a new contract, it's a good idea to sleep at the inn and save your game. That way, if something bad happens, you will not lose too much of your progress.
Although not all are available at the moment, Stoneshard promises more than 100 abilities and 200 equipment pieces, which are not restricted by class. I also saw a placeholder for at least another class, which will probably be added in the coming months.
Overall, my time in Stoneshard was quite wonderful. I didn't die too many times and I manage to deliver a couple of contracts that made me rich. I can't wait to learn more about the mystery of the Stoneshards, so I think I'll revisit the game in the future after more content is added.
If you're looking for a roguelike with turn-based combat and solid mechanics, Stoneshard is definitely a good choice. Stoneshard is available for purchase via Steam for just $15 / €15, a great price for such a promising game.
