18 people found this review helpful
Recommended
0.0 hrs last two weeks / 19.7 hrs on record (5.5 hrs at review time)
Posted: 7 Jun, 2022 @ 9:31pm
Product received for free

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Shotgun King: The Final Checkmate is a strategy roguelike with a very unique take on the genre. It deftly blends the rules of chess with a turn-based roguelike, creating a game unlike any I’ve seen before.

Gameplay
Shotgun King requires knowledge of the basic rules of chess, but that soon goes out the window once you start drawing cards that change how certain pieces work. Each round you choose a pair of new rules to follow: a positive one that gives you a small advantage, and a negative one that gives enemy pieces a boost. Because they are paired together, you usually get one change that you actually want and one that you’ll tolerate. I like that it adds replayability without making success feel completely luck-based (a common pitfall for roguelikes).

When it comes to the main gameplay mechanics, it’s quite straightforward. Your central goal is to kill the king, which can be easily done in five turns when a run commences, but quickly becomes a complex task with a lot of tactical moves to make, once you get farther along.

Each turn you can either shoot, reload, or move. It’s deceptively simple because even though your options are limited, you always need to be on the lookout for checkmate. Many of my runs ended simply because I forgot about a rook or queen in a dangerous position and spent too much time lining up good shotgun blasts. The real draw comes from the slowly increasing complexity as pieces unlock new moves, the number of enemy pieces begins to grow, and you upgrade your character. Some runs can be huge struggles if you make a poor choice of cards, but it’s balanced out by the runs where you become extremely strong after a few upgrades that synergize well.

Presentation
The graphics have a nice retro style coupled with a CRT filter for an extra bit of authenticity. The gameplay doesn’t require much in the way of graphical fidelity, so expectations are on the lower end, but it still looks excellent. The developers could have gotten away with slacking, but instead, they deliver a game that looks much nicer than it needs to be.

Musically, it wasn’t as strong as the gameplay or graphics, but it remains decent, probably even above average. It’s the type of music that you wouldn’t take note of while playing. It works well as background music, especially for a small indie title like this.

Verdict
I didn’t love Shotgun King, but for a $6 game, it’s excellent. Sure, you can beat it in a half-hour, but as with all roguelikes, the main source of entertainment is replayability. I wound up getting five hours out of it, including story and endless mode, and ultimately, I was satisfied with that. I would recommend Shotgun King to anyone that enjoys chess-related strategy games or small-scale roguelikes. It doesn’t have the endless content that something like Binding of Isaac has, so temper your expectations, but it’s still a strong game with a unique take on the roguelike genre.

7/10
No performance issues running on: AMD Ryzen 9 5900X, 16 GB RAM, NVIDIA GeForce 3070
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2 Comments
ManlyMeatMan 7 Jun, 2022 @ 10:53pm 
thanks dog, appreciate it
Preator 7 Jun, 2022 @ 10:49pm 
Great review MMM. Lots of good information and wonderfully written!