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If Inscryption was a fantasy-themed roguelike dungeon crawler, it might look a lot like thisPyrene is another budding deckbuilding obsession
Pyrene is another budding deckbuilding obsession
Image credit:Indie Asylum
Image credit:Indie Asylum
Apologies if I’m starting to sound like a broken record these days, but here I am, back with another edition of"Have you heard about this cool new roguelike deckbuilder?“I swear I’ll find a new/another niche one of these days, but listen,Pyreneis very cool indeed, and I lost a good hour to its free demo last week on Steam. On the surface, this might look like your typical fantasy dungeon crawler, but Pyrene has some neat tricks of its own, combining its own blend of resource gathering and roguelike citybuilding withInscryption’s number-crunching battles and a dash ofForetales' card-based exploration. And it has a lovely piano soundtrack to boot, too.
In its demo, though, simply keeping Atanaia alive with her five-strong deck of mostly restorative items is already quite challenging, so much so that I’ve yet to complete a fully successful run of it. But Pyrene does a very good job of tempting you back in for more, not least because its jaunty piano score helps to keep things light and relaxing.
Image credit:Indie Asylum
In the demo, the Votive Altar usually only takes between 1-3 nights to show up, but there are lots of lovely extra wrinkles that Pyrene indulges in to keep you on your toes. The first is how you move around each board, as you can only move into spaces what already have a card on them. That means no retreating into empty spaces, or moving around willy nilly. Movement must be precise and strategic, which, yep, scratches both of thepuzzleandstrategylobes inside my brain. A secondary wrinkle is that leaving any monsters alive when you go to camp will award them an extra pip of health/attack power, so you’ll want to plan your route around the board to maximise clearing them out, otherwise they will come back to bite you later.
I certainly plan to spend more time with it before the demo disappears at the end of the month, so why not give ittry on Steamyourself? Side note: I would have included this along with the rest of ourSteam Next Fest demo recommendations, but technically it’s part of last week’sQuebec Games Celebrationrather than Next Fest proper. Still, there’s certainly no shortage of great games to sample at the moment, so make sure to give Pyrene a go as well while you’re at it.
