Currently in early access, Ember Knights – a 1-4 player rogue-lite with a visual style and setting suitable for all ages – has a solid foundation which should pique the curiosity of any rogue-lite fan or newcomer. Players are cast in the role of Ember Knights as they attempt to track down the mad sorcerer Praxis whose attack on the Ember Tree has imperiled the universe.
To do this, players battle through a series of small rooms, before facing both stage bosses, acquiring skills, stat upgrades, gold, embers and other items to help them on their way. Being a rogue-lite, defeat comes fast, sending players back to the beginning minus all but a few special items that can be used to give your Knight an edge on the next run.
Combat itself is fast and slick, and often comes to resemble bullet-hell as players dodge their way through a hail of arrows, acid sprays and poison globules, all while trying to avoid deadly melee-based foes. Very few enemies are a danger by themselves, but when you’re facing half a dozen or so, all with different attack patterns, combat becomes very frantic indeed, and you’re only ever a few mistakes away from restarting the run again. While extra players do help take the load, they also add more distractions to what can be an extremely visually busy scene.
It also doesn’t hesitate to throw nasty surprises at you. After my first few runs, getting the tempo of combat and snagging myself a few nifty upgrades, I was fairly confident that I would be able to breeze through the first stage (after all, I had already gotten through it twice already, and only had my adventures cut short by those pesky ice-archers). It was precisely at that moment that the game started pelting me with upgraded and elite variants of the foes I had been facing. Not only are these versions more aggressive, they also have wildly different attack patterns and can almost be bosses in their own right. Sent back to the beginning again, I found myself with my jaw set, a steely glint in my eye, and the feeling of “right – I’m going to beat this thing.”
And with that, Ember Knights manages to successfully capture the feeling of any good rogue-lite: the throwing down of the gauntlet to the player, which will have those enjoy a challenge coming back again and again. ■