Roguelike dungeon crawlers and deck builders are prolific these days, but many of them manage to stand out in one way or another despite sharing some similar elements. Into the Restless Ruins does just that by splicing the worlds of dungeon-delving and card-collecting together, the result being a unique, clever game where you literally tread your own path.
The cards you gather during a run each represent a room, and you play these cards to build the dungeon map, the objective being to reach a specific area and defeat the final boss. Each room has its own layout and doorways, informing where they can be positioned on the grid as you expand your dungeon.
Once you’re done placing down rooms, you enter the game’s next phase: exploring the dungeon you’ve just constructed. You walk around the passages of your creation, with auto-attacks dealing with enemies that come within range, earning XP and taking advantage of other benefits each room gives you. For example, some rooms have interactive elements that heal you, or expand the time you can spend in the dungeon.
Once you exit, you return to the build phase, using new cards you’ve unlocked or upgraded to further expand the dungeon.
It’s a smart design that forces you to think about the dungeon’s layout as much as what benefits each room grants you. Creating a snaking path through all the key spots may screw you over when you need to get back to the start to leave, for instance.
As with most good roguelikes, there are layers of strategy to consider, and the game only grows in complexity the deeper you get, with later ruins not only harder but allowing game-modifying Cantrips to spice things up.
Into the Restless Ruins is doing a lot of things right, then, but the auto-combat doesn’t have the exponential growth of Vampire Survivors to keep it interesting, and whatever story is present is easy to forget. However, again, the game’s interesting structure is more than enough to make it well worth a look for roguelike fans.
