(The Caves Are Killers) Sulfur

Yoo like Dumb Ways To Die? You like boomer shooters? Well they got your shooter in one funky cartoonish art style, where the village people love to caricature themselves. Also, you'll hate Goblins alright, they kill and steal your stuff. While the church has to compensate every run.

It's just the thing with Sulfur. A roguelike FPS/extraction shooter where you are cave diving for some revenge against a witch that killed your flock. As a church father, you're furious and hellbent on vengeance. You're also looting everything you can, and getting out of the freaking cave before it kills you, and any item worthwhile lost forever in the process.

The church compensates me back, but, damn it to hell, really grinds my gears and not in a well set ways. I can give it a pass for it being EA, but man, cut me some slack, I really don't like going through areas combing and surviving against all weirdest of odds with small chances of survival.

Ah yes, what is a revenge quest without some magical amulet talking to you? Figuratively pointing the direction to your reckoning. Also, no worries, you two will get along. I mostly just use it to safely teleport me out of the place, and you'll see why that's important.

This game has caves, and the further I go down, the deeper and more dangerous it gets. Which is why it's imperative to save this in case things to do get bad, like enemies getting tougher, or you packed up way too many useful items to lose. Each run isn't that long, though, that depends on the loot I have. Remember, there's permanent progression, everything is loot based.

I start off with nothing, till I get a P38, an antique weapon that needs to fire off a little more just to secure a kill. Also, those pesky goblins tend to get ahead of themselves in the claustrophobic environment. Driving me to retreat back a bit, and take them out from distance.

There's also the Katana sword, but dear god, I have to pull off the most hard core strafe dance and sprint just to avoid getting hit by them. Easy to dodge from distance, too close and they get you. Including the little child minions, those are annoying. Mass murdering is kind of a defense when you're in a cave and these armed goons are coming at you everywhere.

Also, be ready to deal with little to no weapon variety, guns do rank up, you need specific oil or add-on to add bonuses like less recoil, acid damage, ammo saving, etc. Another to add is cooking, good luck figuring out the ingredients. I get butter, bread, and cheese, but early on had to deal with mushrooms and sticks. Heck, it wasn't until my 3rd run that I knew how cooking worked. Lastly, don't die. Money, inventory, everything goes back to just the peashooter and priest garments.

There are so many useful things to learn here, from finding explosive barrels that can easily take them out, to well, ghosts coming out of the corner and haunting you. Trust me, they freeze up the place until they get you, too. Just the Katana slashing help.

If you want the perfect experience, farm. Farm as much as you can, and retreat. Do not come back till you've gotten stronger weapons, armors, useful gadgets and explosives even like cocktails, dynamites, and such. This rifle requires me to constantly press the reload button everytime I shoot. Same ammo type, but that damage does wonders. Too bad I lost it.

Through the ride, I'll meet these merchants who'll cook, enchant, and well sell stuff. It's important to note that some also sells ammo, which is useful considering how many times I've run out. Including expensive, unaffordable guns, and gears. The first few caves don't offer much currency.

Which is one of the biggest drawbacks in the game, early looting is near impossible unless you know where to start with. It does give tips once in a while, but there's so much to figure out, while surviving against the denizens. It's kind of a head-spin. Since I died twice, it was enough to mentally exhaust me, and tell me to take a break. Don't get me started on the enemy types.

The sense of discovery, while it is nice, again, if you're not good with these sorts of games and the lack of flexibility in a claustrophobic, procedural generated environment, it's going to be tough. Despite the interesting areas, the story has taken me to. Sort of like this Preacher in an alternate realm kind of stuff going on. Some mythologies baked in with gun toting action.

I also like the banter, it's pretty crass and out there. Enough to be engaging, and not too irritating to break immersion. But as I've said, it is asking too much for a roguelike. Heck, there are certain goblins here that are harmless, and yet get caught up easily. Dumb A.I. is why.

Even for an early access, it has a lot of ground to cover. Lot of the difficulty to balance out. This is a really fun game when it works, I even found a Lara Croft inspired dual pistol, and yeah, using that was quite something if not ammo wasteful.

Maybe just waiting a little longer should do. The great sense of discovery, relying on grassroots game mechanics and RPG elements to survive. Even the FPS gameplay is fun. Plenty of enemy types to encounter, including overfed giant goblins that take 30 bullets to take down. Or those pesky archers whom I have to dodge. Then again, asking for 1000 to recharge my amulet? No thanks.