Oh, wow. Yeah. Ring of Pain is an odd bird, and I’m not just talking about the big yellow owl with a human body that is stretched across the screen like something out of a nightmare. It’s a card game that takes the genre, shakes it up a little bit, then places it nicely in a horror-driven circle of never-ending painful dreams the will just rain down on you endlessly.
Also, there is strategy involved.
For the past week, I’ve been playing this game, spiraling towards a review later on next week, and I have some early impressions to share with you. So, let’s get this thing going.
Thanks, how does this game work?
Glad you asked, obviously there is a Ring of Pain involved, where you have to form a giant ring of progression as you complete each level. Each level is filled full of cards broken down into the following categories: Enemy cards to fight, item cards to help you progress your character, and mid-range cards that could go one way or another. It’s nothing terribly complicated, nor does it become complicated as you continue through the game. It’s a constant and a good constant that is just enough to make the game a fascinating journey of decision-making.
When you begin a level, you are presented with two cards in front of you. Beside each card is a rotational arrow that allows you to move and shift the cards from left to right. The ultimate goal being a card that contains an exit of that level, though disposing of as many enemies as possible and gathering as many items is a secondary goal. Should you have the misfortune to have enemy cards (2), the arrow beside the enemy card turns into a ‘stealth’ roll, which if rolled badly, will allow enemies to hit you. The arrows actually play an important role in the game, as they can get you where you need to go quickly, but they have to be used strategically in order to succeed with the least amount of damage. It’s a balancing act.
The enemy cards have damage and speed points on them, as well as an enemy life bar. The game thankfully will give you a preview of your normal hit on an enemy, non-critical, which will give you some sort of strategic scope on if you want to fight the enemy or avoid them. The speed of the enemy will come into play during this portion of the game, which will pretty much dictate who gets to hit who first. Those are how the enemies work. Should you kill an enemy, you get their soul (they have a number depending on the strength). Those souls can be spent on treasure chests. Not too bad and also good motivation, though another layer of strategy to deal with within the game.
The item cards are a saving grace in Ring of Pain. Should you have one of those (could be upping the speed of your turn, gaining an object/weapon (which you can equip immediately), or gaining health), then you have a card that helps to balance out the baddies. The game does its best to treat you to a fair algorithm, and it works most of the time. These cards build you character up, though the slots they sometimes fill are limited, meaning that you have to pick and choose the best cards to keep or discard. Regardless, these cards are great to use but should be well thought out before executed.
The mid-range cards are interesting. There is a price to be paid for the mid-range cards, as some will help you or hurt you, depending on the random roll when selecting them. I don’t want to give too much away, but when you’re running low on energy, they can be a very risky venture, especially when the game will unforgivingly end should you get it wrong. It’s a tough equation to figure out, especially when you get deep into the game. If you lose, you lose everything.
Cards aside, the game does have some pitstops in it to allow you to breathe. Getting back to strategy, as you have to balance out energy and progression, avoiding enemies and progressing can mean escaping through a card door that will provide you with items or more energy back in the tank. The doors are also a key to this game’s strategy, as some will led you to pitstops, while others lead you to a room full of enemies. Don’t worry, the doors aren’t random, they will have symbols above them telling you what to expect, though some are harsher in delivery than others.
It’s bigger than it looks
Don’t like card games? So what. Don’t like games that don’t involve shooting enemies? It can do that. There is enough terrifying juju here that will hook you into continually seeing how far you can get, which is the point of this game. You don’t need any special bells or whistles, you just need purpose. Sometimes that purpose is survival. Developer Twice Different has somehow created a Roguelike card game that asks you to simply ‘hang in there as long as you can’. It even times your survival, showing you how long you lasted, how many enemies you defeated, and how many items you collected in your short life. It challenges you in your death to come back to life and do better. I mean, it’s a specific way of making a ‘continue’ screen, but very effective. This is what a narrative designer would call motivation to continue playing the game.
What drives this constant ‘go-go-go’ attitude of the game is how quickly it lasts. I think the longest I’ve made it in the game is around seven minutes, which is pretty impressive. The game is built for you to die, retry, and die more. It goes rather quickly, as it randomly generates levels for you, keeping you guessing on how best to beat the game, which can change from session to session. That is some thick strategy that requires you to think on your feet, which makes the game intellectually challenging at the core of its gameplay. It’s odd how effective the game is and how it needs to kill you will, much like the time/progress it displays, challenge you to do better. The speed of the game helps in warranting a constant restart. Most card games simply cannot do this and usually take a large amount of time to lose, but not this one. You lose, you lose quickly, and then you start right back into it again. Ring of Pain does all of this with perfection.
Initial impressions so far…
There are other details of this game I could tell you about, but I’ll save it for the review. Keep an eye on Ring of Pain, as it does some unique things that I haven’t seen in a card game before. The atmosphere, the cards, the creative nightmares it provides, are only a shallow taste of what the game actually brings to the table in the card game genre.
It’s certainly worth a look.
