Plague Road

If you're in the market for an effectively twisted dark fantasy roguelike adventure coupled with a functional turn-based tactical strategy combat system, a walk down the Plague Road might be in order. But be warned that despite it's distinctive art style, there isn't much to recommend this against the less sick competitors out there.

Plague Road is a valiant attempt at combining divergent concepts into a cohesive and interesting package. But as interesting as it may be to make the first roguelike base-building strategy RPG, it's missing a layer of depth to drive it beyond curiosity into the realm of compulsory design. There's plenty to like here, and if you're in the mood for a morose adventure down a bleak path to a ruined world this may be for you. If you're just looking to casually save the world from an outbreak, however, you may want to think carefully.

Overall, you're either going to love or hate Plague Road due to its roguelike elements, procedurally generated stages and general cycle that is a bit repetitive if you're not into the strategy battles part of the equation. I had fun with the game and keep coming back to play it even after writing this review, so it's definitely doing something right, so be sure to check it out!

Unless I’m missing something integral, I can only say that Plague Road became boring and repetitive. I wouldn’t mind so much if I was grinding mobs to level up or mapping areas, but after so many deaths I found I just didn’t want to play any longer. Which is annoying because the game has a great aesthetic appeal, some interesting options and when it flows, it does so with verve. If I did miss anything, I can only lay blame with the tutorial system, because it doesn’t really do enough to paint a full picture for players.

Plague Road feels like a case of a great concept but poor execution. I would love to see Arcade Distillery make a sequel or spiritual sequel to Plague Road but invest far more resources into it to make a truly memorable experience. It has all the elements that could make it great: a lovely art style, a tactical grid to move your characters on in the turn-based battle system, a variety of great characters to recruit, an interesting setting and a great concept for the story. However, it doesn't deliver on most of these elements as they don't feel very fleshed out and start getting repetitive. I personally love grid-based battle systems such as Fire Emblem, and I really like it when developers integrate that concept into regular RPGs such as in Koudelka on the PS1 or Ash: Archaic Seal Heat on the Nintendo DS. As a result, I got a decent amount of enjoyment out of this title, but if you don't already have a predisposition to such games, then you might want to steer clear of this one.

For a game made by such a small team, Plague Road drips with genuine quality.

Plague road is definitely worth your time on Nintendo Switch, and I'm glad that Arcade Distillery took the project to Kickstarter so that we could get a chance to play this one. The studio is back on Kickstarter with a new game called SkullPirates, which is already funded and working its way toward reaching some stretch goals, so hopefully you check that one out and show your support. And while you wait for SkullPirates to be completed, you should certainly play Plague Road!

Plague Road's visuals may tell an intriguing story, but the rest of the game has very little to say.