Lone Ruin review

Ironically, Lone Ruin lacks that magic.

Games are routinely iterative. Instead of inventing an original concept, developers often deliver variations of existing works. Take Vampire Survivors, which ingeniously fused mechanics from roguelike and bullet hell genres. The game felt innovative upon its Early Access release in late 2021 and its breakout popularity spawned a multitude of titles that each tweaked Survivors’ core formula. Of course, the success of deviations like Brotato, Soulstone Survivors, 20 Minutes Till Dawn, Project Lazarus, and Nordic Ashes hinges on whether each of them gainfully builds on the Vampire Survivors foundations.

As such, Cuddle Monster Games’ Lone Ruin is a bit of a disappointment. Fault isn’t found in the game’s execution, which channels the feel of twin-stick gems like Hades, Children of Morta, Curse Of The Dead Gods, and Dandy Ace. Like these titles, Lone Ruin is a twin-stick shooter with roguelike elements like randomized weapons, procedurally generated locations, and a single life to make it through the game’s 45-minute, three-boss gantlet.

Expectedly, your spell-casting protagonist has a proficient set of abilities. A selection of offensive tools is offered at the start of each run, extending different approaches to enemy extermination. A scythe provides a quick melee combo and can repel enemy bullets, while chain lightning can arc across clusters of adjacent enemies. Naturally, there are benefits and drawbacks to every weapon. So, while lightning comes with aiming assistance you’ll need to zap opponents multiple times.

With the inclusion of fireballs, pulses, rails, barrages, shards, and boomerangs, there’s a respectable selection of projectiles- but expect the use of each spell type to be constrained by a cool-down timer. In keeping with genre tradition, you also have a dash with a decent amount of invincibility frames.

As you progress through Lone Ruin’s isometric battlefields, you’ll earn additional capabilities, blessings, and improvements. Often, you’re given a choice of three upgrades, so you can opt to reduce the cooldown time of your dash, stretch out the length of your evasions, or leave behind ice that slows enemies. Similarly, you might be given a trio of ways to upgrade your main weapon, with possibilities like longer range at the end of your scythe combo, quicker weapon reloads, or different types of passive damage. If you don’t like your current loadout, there’s even the possibility of switching it out mid-run. Nicely, the game’s selections aren’t completely random. After clearing a room, different doors signal what kind of bonus awaits.

Unfortunately, there are quite a few bugs that need to be ironed out with the weapon system. In one game, I couldn’t summon a protective barrier during a boss battle. More consistently, projectile weapons couldn’t be shot across modest inclines or even across a flat bridge. Small omissions, such as the lack of indication of boss battles on the overworld map are particularly perplexing. Enemy AI isn’t the best, and sporadically they’ll hop off the side of the stage, right into oblivion.

Those issues can probably be patched out. But the more worrisome problem is that there’s little reason to select Lone Ruin over its peers. Games like Hades and Children of Morta offered meta-game progression, extending an incentive for replay. Ruin is a much more fleeting experience that will be beaten by experienced players after a few practice runs. Beyond that, there’s a single-stage survival mode where you’ll confront waves of enemies. But after about five hours, I felt I had seen everything the title had to offer.

If the evolution of game development could be compared to a communal conversation, Lone Ruin would offer little more than “yeah, I agree with everyone else here”. Sure, the game’s eponymous ruins look cool, where highlights of cyan, pink, and emerald leap off a murky background. But beyond an attractive color palette, there’s nothing here that hasn’t been accomplished multiple times before. The difference is that Lone Ruin’s rivals exhibit more polish and a greater sense of value.

Lone Ruin was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.