Developer: Convoy Games
Publisher: Convoy Games, Indietopia Games, Triangle Studios
Platform: PC, Xbox One, PS4, Switch
Tested on: Switch
Convoy: a Tactical Roguelike – Review
Roguelike games come in all shapes and sizes nowadays. There’s a certain challenge in creating a tough-as-nails gaming experience, and this pretty much came to life after the popularity of the Dark Souls games. Of course, Dark Souls isn’t necessarily a roguelike game, it showed that people were still looking for a challenge when playing their favorite game(s). Many roguelike games set you in a situation in which you have to survive as long as possible, or clear different stages and see how far you’ll get. More than often, you’re just controlling a single character, and thus things stay very manageable. In Convoy: a Tactical Roguelike, your main vehicle is somewhat of a dead object, as you can’t do anything with it during combat sequence, all you can do is redirect the escorting vehicles around it to fend off attackers.
Story
The story in Convoy is quite simple. Your spaceship crashes in a desolate wasteland that is controlled by different factions. To go on your merry way again, you’ll need different parts for your spaceship. In order to acquire these parts, you’ll have to send out a convoy in order to collect said parts. You’ll have to interact with different inhabitants, as well as plow your way through several random encounters. The game does not have that much story value, but the premise is nice and it works for a roguelike title such as this.
Graphics
Convoy sports a heavy pixilated style, which perfectly suits the game. While many often think a style such as this is a limitation, the game does have a surprising amount of different vehicle models, which gives Convoy a bit more replay value. As we’ll discuss below, you’ll unlock new vehicles as you go. The sceneries are somewhat similar throughout your different playthroughs, which is not a big problem as you’re roaming around a desert wasteland. The effects used in combat are also fairly well done.
Sound
The 80s vibe is real in this game’s midi soundtrack. The overall mood is set properly by the ominous track that blasts through your speakers at the intro menu. Other than that, the sound design is quite simple and has all the necessary whistles and bells to provide you with an action-packed playthrough.
Gameplay
Convoy: a Tactical Roguelike is like its name indicates, a tactical roguelike title. In the game, you’ll be roaming around a big map to find parts for your ship, all while fending off raiders, help stranded people and decide on what to do with other random encounters. We can start by saying that this game is tough-as-nails and progress comes rather slowly. Nonetheless, the overall offset is simple, and the mechanics are properly laid out to you in Convoy’s tutorial.
Outside of combat, you’ll have to take into account your resources, which are bolts and fuel. The first will allow you to repair your vehicles and upgrade them, the latter makes it so you don’t get stranded in the wasteland and end your playthrough prematurely. It is quite hard to properly juggle these materials, as you run out of fuel quickly, and repairing your vehicles cost a pretty penny. Keep in mind that upgrades cost a fair amount too, and you’ll have to become quite adept at managing what you’ve got.
When you have encounters, you get a prompt that asks you what you wish to do. You can try to avoid conflicts, or you can engage enemies, or even just kill people and take their loot. The game will throw a lot of random encounters your way, but there are some that reappear quite often during different playthroughs. Sometimes things aren’t really fair, as it’s possible you only have two vehicles to protect your main vehicle, and you get attacked by a team of five enemy raiders, who have shield technology, which is somewhat strong against your light SMG or your single cannon. Nonetheless, the difficulty has its spikes, but the game is engaging enough for you to try again. Trying again also results in unlocking new vehicles, which alters the gameplay a bit.
The controls of the game are decently adapted to console play. You’ll be able to use your stick to roam around on the map, and in combat, you can select units, tell them where to move, who to attack and when to use a special skill. You can also pause the combat (this option can be turned off), allowing you to properly give commands when the game requires you to do so. There are also obstacles in the way when you’re in combat, and the pause function allows you to respond in time to position your troops, as running into certain obstacles means certain death.
Conclusion
Convoy: a Tactical Roguelike is a great port to the Switch of the original PC title. The game presents the player with interesting mechanics, the option to hopefully expand your convoy, weapon upgrades and so on, to get the best out of your playthrough. Nonetheless, casual players will have to overcome a high difficulty threshold, which is not something everyone enjoys. If you’re looking for an original, yet tough-as-nails, roguelike experience, Convoy is certainly worth checking out.
Convoy: a Tactical Roguelike - Review,
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