And let Diablo wait… Review of the indie action/RPG The Slormancer

Something is wrong with action/RPGs again. Titan Quest II hasn't even reached Early Access yet, Path of Exile 2's latest updates aren't getting very good reviews from players, Last Epoch resembles fake Christmas tree decorations and isn't very exciting, and there's no point in leveling up the fifth seasonal character in Diablo IV. But the situation can be saved by a small indie action/RPG called The Slormancer, which has finally reached a full release. It's a bright and dynamic game with a bunch of interesting mechanics, and it's definitely exciting.

The Slormancer, developed by the French studio Slormite, appeared in Steam Early Access back in the spring of 2021. It took the game four years to reach a full release. A lot, but let's take into account that the game was developed by literally three people - a programmer/designer, an artist and a composer. So it's not that long, let's remember at least the game Ostriv, which has been in development for over 10 years, or the Ukrainian Through the Nightmares, which was created for 9 years.

The plot of The Slormancer tells the story of an unfortunate adventurer who accidentally kills the main champion/defender of the kingdom and opens the way to the heart of the royal palace for an evil mage. The deceased champion, who was not distinguished by special intelligence, turns into a ghost and helps the new hero solve problems. And this is not so simple, because the insidious enemy has transferred all the inhabitants of the kingdom to another dimension, and in order to be able to at least improve weapons, get new armor or access to locations, you must first find and free the inhabitants.

The Slormancer is a humorous, parody game, with a lot of jokes and references to other games of the genre and to typical clichés of the gaming industry in general. Jokes are everywhere, in dialogues, character behavior, quests, item descriptions, etc. Sometimes the humor is a bit abstract, sometimes it's a bit too much, but overall the jokes are usually spot-on and really funny.

The basis of The Slormancer is the same "slorm" that is mentioned in the name. This is an essence that drops from destroyed monsters. It comes in several types and is used in the game for literally everything. For slorm, you need to improve basic and additional abilities, clan and passive skills. Dark slorm is needed to gain access to endless dungeons, where the hero can search for powerful artifacts and runes. Some skills and passive bonuses to weapons and armor increase the amount of slorm that the hero receives.

Another important feature of The Slormancer is the leveling of literally everything. The hero gains experience, the armor gains experience, the weapon gains experience, and each individual skill. New skill levels open up access to new passive and active modifiers, so the same skills at the beginning and end of the game are completely different things. Moreover, by choosing other skill modifiers, different sets of them, and different weapons, you can get significantly different character builds. Create a hero against whom enemies kill themselves, receiving painful "rebound" for each of their hits. Or a hero whose every shot turns into a cascade of secondary shells and endless ricochets that literally sweep away everything in its path.

The Slormancer only has three playable classes – warrior, mage and hunter, but for each of them there are three subclasses with their own unique skills and modifiers. Due to the generic and passive abilities and weapon features, they can be further modified, getting really interesting and destructive combinations. Finding combos and new builds is a separate game within the game. In total, The Slormancer has over 200 different abilities, improvements and passive skills for each of the classes. This is impressive.

The situation is complicated by weapons called The Slorm Reapers in the game. These are unique samples, 120 for each class. And each of them significantly changes the gameplay. One weapon sucks life from enemies, another increases the number of arrows and ricochets, a third generates magic shields, etc. And there are also weapons that increase the amount of experience, gold or slorm gained. Did we already say that weapons "collect" their own experience? Well, they can also evolve, gaining additional skills and modifiers. Some samples in the initial phases have quite powerful negative effects, but it is worth pumping them and evolving them, as the negative will turn into very powerful positive effects. Collecting, testing and pumping Slorm Reapers is another fun in the game.

Special thanks to the developers for the ability to reset the entire build at any time, getting the slorm and stat points back, and assemble a new one. It's very convenient. As is the ability to continue the game with a different hero at any time. Another convenient thing is the automatic system of filtering and processing low-level loot into something useful. Other developers should take this into account.

In terms of gameplay, The Slormancer is a classic Diablo. We clear the next floor of the dungeon or location, collect loot, improve weapons, clear the next floor, and so on. The only thing that upset me a little was the barrier in the form of end game content before the last plot act of the game. They tell you in plain text – you are still too weak to go against the final boss, go level up… and then dozens of hours of grinding await you.

That is, I have nothing against the end game, but when it really starts after the end of the game. Who will need to level up further and open new unique weapons, artifacts, etc., who does not need to - will start the storyline with a new character. In The Slormancer, this will not work, you have to move on. This is probably the most controversial decision of the developers.

As we've already said, The Slormancer is a bright game, and the pixel graphics give it a special charm. Here it fits in and looks very good. But I know very well that there are enough players who can't stand pixel art, well, I feel sorry for them.

Another drawback is that due to the large number of weapon effects and the real crowd of monsters, especially in the endless dungeons, the screen sometimes turns into a real pixel hell, in the spirit of Vampire Survivors at the end of the race. It's unpleasant, but bearable.

In summary, if you're not allergic to pixel art and abstract humor, we recommend trying The Slormancer. Especially since there aren't any special alternatives in the action/RPG genre right now.