Developer: Eduardo Scarpato
Publisher: Black Lantern Collective
Platform: PC
Tested on: PC
Don’t Let It Starve – Review
Ah, the humble Balatro-like. LocalThunk’s poker-based roguelite may not have been the first of its kind, as it was at least partially inspired by Luck Be A Landlord, but it did redefine the formula, leading to a slew of games that built on the same foundation. The obvious imitators, like Raccoin or Slots & Daggers, just take another existing game and pour Balatro-sauce on top, but of course, we’re more interested in the oddball variants, like Menherarium or… Don’t Let It Starve.
Story
Compared to most other Balatro-likes, Don’t Let It Starve puts a lot more focus on delivering an engaging narrative. Its premise is surprisingly reminiscent of that of Menherarium, in that you find yourself being held captive. This time around, your captor isn’t an anime girl, however, but instead a mysterious, multi-limbed and Francophonic monster that lives in the shadows and crawlspaces of the room you’ve been taken to. Said room doubles as a small kitchen. You’re tasked with satiating the creature’s unending hunger by constructing bento boxes. Should your creations fail to satisfy the monster’s cravings, it’ll consume you instead. Not all is lost just yet, however, because if you can obtain a key to the escape hatch, you’ll regain your freedom. From there on, the story branches out, as small storytelling elements and hidden clues around your workstation, such as a keypad, blacklight and padlocked exit, compel you to piece together the game’s broader, cosmically horrifying storyline. Without wanting to spoil too much, the game is filled with macabre humour and features several different endings to discover… and not all of them turn out well for you.
Graphics
The dark, hopeless atmosphere of Don’t Let It Starve’s premise is reinforced by the game’s rough pixel art and dark colour palette. This is the kind of game that relies on not showing you everything and instead letting your mind fill in the blanks. The game never explicitly shows the monster, instead keeping it shrouded in the unknown to heighten your sense of terror. Your workstation is in a small, cramped room, with only limited sources of harsh light. In-game models are deliberately low-res, with simple designs and blocky textures. The whole thing ends up feeling claustrophobic as a result. Neither the visuals nor the gameplay are very demanding in terms of performance, and as such the game runs smoothly.
Sound
A minimalist but highly effective soundscape ties the game’s chilling atmosphere together. Music is deliberately sparse, although we did find the inclusion of accordion notes a nice little nod to the monster’s supposed French origins. The majority of Don’t Let It Starve’s audio is dominated by satisfying arcade sounds that fit with the “numbers go up” approach that is so integral to the gameplay. Of note is that although the game relies a lot more on dialogue than other genre entries, there is no voice acting present here.
Gameplay
Where the framework of Don’t Let It Starve is instantly familiar, its finer mechanics are not. The game’s core loop takes place over six rounds. Each round, you’re presented with a selection of ingredients that you must flip, rotate and place into a grid-based bento box. As usual, you need to reach an ever-escalating target score. Between rounds, you can use the coins you earn to buy modifiers, charms and tools that let you build multipliers and alter your odds for subsequent rounds. Of note is that there are different bento box sizes to choose from, and the different grids that these represent alter gameplay in meaningful ways. The smaller 3×3 boxes come with a coin bonus but severely limit space for larger ingredients. The standard (or medium) 4×4 grid is the “default” way to play and offers the most balanced or straightforward path. Meanwhile, the large 5×5 grid offers creative freedom, but you need to pay to use it, and its odd dimensions make it harder to fill perfectly.
When it comes to filling, you need to carefully arrange your ingredients to fill rows, columns or simply the entire grid. Placing specific items together creates combos: sausage and bread together results in a hot dog, for example. While you can reroll ingredients a limited number of times, or even entirely discard a disappointing bento altogether, any food placement is final once locked into the grid. Of course, things don’t end at food placement. You can equip up to three kitchen utensils on your work station, which will boost score multipliers or reward point bonuses for specific foods. Additionally, surviving a round also unlocks Chef’s Dishes which are special passive modifiers that do not take up table space and can dramatically alter both point values and item drop rates. Unlockable chef’s hats grant unique starting bonuses, essentially acting as equivalents to Balatro’s different decks.
By nature, Don’t Let It Starve is a game that puts more emphasis on its narrative and central mystery than it does on the score chasing of its genre compatriots. While this does add both an intriguing angle and an incentive to keep returning to the game, Don’t Let It Starve doesn’t land in the same way as some of the more straightforward takes on the formula. We’ve clocked well over 100 hours in Balatro alone, and we can tell you from experience that Don’t Let It Starve doesn’t avoid the typical balance pitfalls that are so common in games like this. Early rounds rely heavily on luck and happenstance before optimal synergies are achieved, and the high level of unlock requirements make the early game especially feel very lacking in ingredient variety. The game can be brutally punishing, especially at higher difficulties… and yet we found ourselves coming back to it for “just one more run”. It’s not as outright addictive as Balatro itself, but it sure is one of the better copycats that we’ve played recently.
Conclusion
We may have been comparing Don’t Let It Starve to Balatro quite a lot in our review, but the latter set such a high standard that this is almost inevitable. To its credit, Don’t Let It Starve manages to set itself apart within the genre because of that chilling atmosphere and focus on a narrative. If you’re still on the fence, there is a free demo available on Steam, and in all honesty, we do recommend that you try before you buy this one.
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