Eldritch Review (PC)

Review Context: I’m rather new to rogue-like games. I’ve only played Binding of Isaac and Rogue Legacy.
Date of Playthrough: November 12, 2014

PC Specs Game Played on:
OS: Windows 7 64-bit
Processor: Intel Core i7 4770k @ 3.50 GHz
RAM: 8 GB
Video Card: Nvidia 660 2GB DDR5
Resolution: 1920×1080

Eldritch is a first person adventure rogue-like by Minor Key Games. This is a 2 man development team comprising of David Pittman and J. Kyle Pittman. The two brothers had designed games in the past before they broke off from their respective companies to create Minor Key Games. Eldritch is their attempt at the rogue-like genre.

Eldritch drops you off in a library. You have no idea what to do and you have no idea where to go. All you see is a mirror and a book in front of you. The game allows some customization of your character via the mirror but not too many.  As you explore the library that you have been launched into, you find books and little tidbits about Lovecraft lore. The library itself is quite large and allows some exploration. This library will act as your hub world for the game. In the center of the library you will see 3 books. These three books are the meat of Eldritch.

The first book you take is basically the tutorial stage. The game sets it up so you have the best possible chance of winning. It does a good job of familiarizing you with the game. It might actually do too good of a job. The first book is insultingly easy. You can run through it with almost no knowledge of the game and you will still come out on top. The game is setting up a great atmosphere for the first two minutes of the book. As you creep along you hear horrible noises, you have no idea where these noises are coming from and you don’t even know what you are going up against. Once you see the enemy you can’t gauge it’s strength so you want to just sneak around it. However once you engage one of them in head to head combat you realize that they are a joke. Especially once you get a weapon.

I know that this is supposed to be the first stage of the game and it is supposed to be easy but it goes on for so long that you start getting very bored. You end up just running through the whole first stage just to get it out of the way. Once you have completed the first stage you have so many resources for the rest of the game the second book feels like a joke.

Combat in Eldritch is as basic as you can get. You click away at the enemy and wait for him to die. In almost all cases while playing I was able to take out almost any enemy in less time than they could attack me back. You do get a damage multiplier when you sneak attack enemies so sneaking is a good way to dispatch foes. The only problem with this is the fact that sneaking is incredibly basic and supremely easy. You can just press the sneak button and walk up to the enemy without being seen. This will almost always be a one hit kill.

Since the combat is so dirt easy the atmosphere that the game has tried so hard to set up is completely destroyed. As you kill enemies and discover more of the level you accumulate so many bullets for the revolver you can run and gun the rest of the level. Not only is the combat easy but the exploration is not even worth the reward. When you find a secret room you might get some boots that make you silent even if you are running which makes the sneak button completely redundant since you can just run around like a marathon sprinter and be quiet as a mouse.

The game implements a magic system that allows you to use the powers you find in exchange for artifacts, which are the games main currency. These powers range from invisibility to an increase jump height. You can get these powers by finding statues littered amongst the floors and levels of the game. The powers are pretty basic and also by and large rather useless. They are also pretty tricky to find, having you go down multiple levels just to go back up to the same levels to access a block of the map you couldn’t access from the floor itself.

All of these problems make this game very tedious to play. Also on top of all the things I have mentioned the books are very large. To the point where you are barreling to the end because you are 7 floors in and just want to progress a bit further before you end the game. I’m sure there may be a few cool secrets in the game but it’s very unfortunate that the game couldn’t keep me interested enough for me to find them. The game had potential and it’s disappointing to see dry combat and a failed atmosphere completely tank this game. I feel that Eldritch lacks a lot and leaves much to be desired. The game can be fun for the first hour or so of playing but quickly falls by the wayside to be left forgotten.

Similar Games Liked:
The Binding of Isaac (PC)
Rogue Legacy (Vita)