Hieroglyphika

A traditional roguelike in many ways, and breaks the mold in many others. It's slow paced, brutally difficult, and certainly not for everyone. Personally? I love it. It's a great game that does what it sets out to do with great audiovisual panache. But there are game-breaking bugs that have never been fixed, and I've had several frustrating encounters where stairs did not spawn and the end of the level, and no way to resolve this. Two of the best runs I've had were prematurely ended due to the bug. And that's unforunate. It's a great, somewhat relaxing coffee-break roguelike that fills an otherwise totally empty niche, but can't be recommended since even a very successful run can just...end.

Thought I would swing back around and make a contribution to the thumbs-up jar for this one. First, the graphics are wonderfully stylized, and I thought the use of pictograms explaining how everything works was really clever given the theme. Sure, it may still take some trial and error to fully understand what things do, but that can happen even in games where you have text descriptions. Music is good, sounds are great, and I also appreciate that any gear you equip shows up on your character model. One of the most common complaints is the slow pace, but I find myself leaning more towards agreeing with the developer on this one. If enemies moved too quickly, you could miss quite a bit of what's going on. You need to be able to pay attention to how many tiles an enemy can travel so that you can learn their patterns, which panels they're stepping on, which traps they're triggering, the tiles the traps are affecting, and so on. Given that the maps aren't that large, and once you advance so far, you then have guards chasing you from behind, it essentially forces you to pay close attention to your surroundings and carefully work out how you plan on making it to the floor exit. Whether or not you're going to skip grabbing some goodies because the guards are too close for comfort, or if you're going to risk walking into a trap zone because the consequences of staying put are much worse, etc. This isn't an easy game, but I wouldn't necessarily say it's harder than any other rogue-like, just difficult in its own unique way, if that makes any sense.

Очень крутая задумка; жалко, что разработчик забил на игру и не выпускает апдейты. Ну это наверное и заслуга неумных 'ч'удаков, которые запороли рейтинг игры в стиме.. С другой стороны этого можно было бы избежать, если бы разработчик запарился туториалом, ну хоть минимальным. Суть игры в отсутствии текста, это фишка игры. Рогалик, интуитивно понятный, но адски сложный. Процесс игры помимо рогаликовости подразумевает разгадывание ребусов :D В общем, надо в этом играть, чтобы понять как оно. Рекомендую рогаликолюбам. Мой видео стрим: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmol_tINgYs

This game is on the verge of being good. If you are a person who has a lot of patience, or at least a lot time to sink into a smaller game like this, then it may still be worth picking up. The reason it's a no for me is that the game has two major characteristics and they are counter to each other. Characteristic #1: There are no words in the whole game. Technically there is perfect information in the pictograms but it's very much an iterative process to figure out what everything means. Understanding how enemies and the environment work is also a thing that one must learn as they go. #2: The game is incredibly slow. In most turn based games like this you take your turn and all of the enemies take their turns instantly. In this game you take your turn, then every enemy unit individually takes it's turn, then the environment takes its turn. Granted, there's something to be said about actually seeing what the enemies are doing (it works in CIV games, for example) BUT When the game is only learned by doing and the doing is so slow.. it's just not an enjoyable experience to get your sea legs. In my best run I died instantly from full health and am not sure why. The fact that I don't know, and it would take a lot of time to re-create that scenario makes me not want to play the game anymore.

Nie lubię gier, w których najwięcej ma do powiedzenia przypadek. Taka jest własnie Hieroglyphika. Choćby nie wiadomo jakby było się świetnym strategiem to i tak w grze dużo zależy od szczęścia. Startujemy praktycznie z niczym i w napotkanych sarkofagach zbieramy broń, elementy ubioru jak szata i hełm, rozbijamy amfory, w których możemy trafić na orby życia zwiększające nam punkty życia lub orby śmierci, które zabierają nam określoną liczbę punktów życia. Niektóre rozbijane naczynia zatruwają, zamrażają lub podpalają pola obok. Jednak one są najmniejszym problemem. Największym są wrogowie. Nie dość, że niektórzy mają dwa lub trzy pola ruchu, to jeszcze potrafią zabierać mnóstwo punktów życia, podczas gdy nasza postać może wykonać jedną czynność na turę a zabicie wroga to często dwie tury, bo wylosowaliśmy jakieś dziadostwo lub w ogóle nie trafiła nam się dobra broń i biegamy jeszcze ze sztyletem, który często trafia powietrze... Jednak najlepiej jak trafi się na wroga, który porusza się po dwa pola na turę a jego ciosy zamrażają. Jeśli nie mamy ochrony przeciwko zamrożeniu możemy zaczynać grę od nowa, bo ciągle nas zamraża i nie mamy szansy na jakąkolwiek reakcję. Musimy też poruszać się ciągle do przodu z racji, że za jakiś czas gonią nas wrogowie, którzy pokonują trzy pola na turę, są odporni na ogień i zabierają 20 punktów życia. Gdzieś utkniesz, dopadną cię a nawet jak mamy broń lub czar zamrożenia - zamrozimy ich na 3 tury, pokonamy 3 pola a oni i tak w następnej turze już będą przy naszej postaci. Bez sensu. Jest 10 poziomów a ja przeszedłem jedynie do 4 poświęcając 5 godzin. Na czwartym poziomie zaczynają się przepaście, w które mogą nas zepchnąć przeciwnicy lub pułapki. Ogólnie gra jest bardzo trudna, ale tylko dlatego, że jest niesprawiedliwa dla gracza i dużo zależy od szczęścia. Fajnie jest jak wypadają dobre przedmioty czy szaty, które zwiększają nasze poruszanie się - mamy wtedy szansę zajść daleko, ale dzieje się to naprawdę rzadko. Pierwsze podejścia to sprawdzenie co z czym się je. Nie ma typowych objaśnień, są z początku enigmatyczne ikony. Dopiero po kilku podejściach wiemy co one oznaczają... Jest jeszcze jedna rzecz, która utrudnia nam rozgrywkę. Na zmienienie przedmiotu potrzeba tury. Jednak w przypadku specjalnych zaklęć/uderzeń obszarowych poza stratą tury na zmianę musimy jeszcze czekać kilka tur zanim to specjalne uderzenie będzie można użyć... Taka gra zwyczajnie frustruje. Nawet nie chcę wiedzieć ile godzin z życia wycięli gracze, którzy tę produkcję ukończyli. Mi wystarczyło 5 godzin i więcej już nie chcę. Oprawa jest naprawdę świetna dla oka, muzyka nie irytuje, ale rozwiązania w grze mocno kuleją. 3/10

Cute trad roguelike with bitesize runs. Uses symbols to explain what the items/spells do. In many games would be a flaw (just tell me what XYZ does!), but in this game is part of the charm. You're an adventurer digging up an ancient's culture's artefacts , after all. (You'll get them soon enough, tho ;-)). You see a lot of complaining about slow enemy turns. While there is some validity to this, I suspect those reviews were before an update that sped things up. Especially in the beginning the speed is fine. You'll be busy enough trying to figure out what's going on. Another small minus is that the game is mouse only.

Needs a new Tag called "All Luck No Skill". Hieroglyphica is a clever idea: I like the simple and easy-to-get-in design philosophy of the game. What I don't like is wasting my time with a game where progress is based solely on luck. Lots of games, including other roguelikes attempt this "Luck excuse" to hide the poor balancing of the game. It is not a classic feature, its a classic failure.

I've seen many comments complaining about the slowness of this game, as one of the key complaints. However, i'm sure the dev has heard that so many times now. I really hope it hasn't burnt him/her out on developing games. I want to actually appreciate this game for what it can do. I was hunting for that elusive "win hard" achievement over the weekend and by god was it truly brutally difficult. But I DID it! And you know what? That sense of satisfaction after quite a bit of "suffering" was TOTALLY worth it, and gave me something other games may lack, a sense of pride of achievement and also enjoyment at being able to master this games mechanics. I'm a big fan of hard challenges and at first I thought "this game is really unfair". But actually it IS fair. To an extent. There are still moments where luck really screws you over. But this game plays a little like chess. You have to stop and consider every piece on the board. You have to consider that your next move could be your last, even if you have been destroying everything in your path. Even if you have 99 hp. There are clear chain reactions in your actions. Every time I got to a new floor, I thought I was on top of the world, but then the game throws a new set of challenges at you with new enemies and increased traps. There were tense moments where I didn't think i'd live, and somehow I held on through thick and thin. To create that in such a punishing way really shows just how well this game creates tension and release. The moment you stepped down to the next floor, its a sense of complete relief and a hyping of yourself up again, I CAN do this. At first it feels like you're completely out of control. Enemies can reduce your impressive HP down to peanuts in a matter of moments. You could have traps going off in every direction, be frozen for many turns in a row as the chasers hunt your butt down, surrounding you from every direction. But then you start to realise what dictates the AIs movements, how to manipulate them in the way you want. How to prioritise speed and elemental advantage, how to manipulate the flow of the fight, fast paced rushing for the exit or slow paced holding back to slowly wittle your HP back up or to outmanoeuvre the pieces on the board. In that sense, the slowness of this game actually suits it well and I commend the developer for sticking to his/her guns. Yes it can feel agonising. But I think that's the point. Agonising is part of the experience. You're supposed to agonise over every detail of the terrain and the game movements. You're supposed to analyse the movements of your enemies closely. You're supposed to see how things play out one after another. Will the AI get their move before the trap kills them? Which monster will move first? All of this is critically important to master hard mode and the later floors. When staring down death, you may only have one move that allows you freedom, and having the knowledge of the way the AI behaves allows you to better decide what that movement may be. I do wish it was faster at times, but it was not enough to stop me hunting for total completion of this game and enjoying the feeling afterwards. I was enjoying myself, and that's all that matters. It was worth my time. Whether people agree or disagree, that's fair. All criticism is valid after all. But I hope that some others can agree too that actually this game achieves quite a lot despite its humble presentation and relative obscurity. I think anyone who enjoys strategy and tactics games could find something unique from this game, or at least enough to scratch an itch. Thanks mhanka !

Chess inspired, it's named hieroglyphika, your supposed to make a little effort to understand what's happening here, the game is not forgiving but as you progress so as your knowledge on the various enemies and danger across levels... Nothing impossible here, play on the weakness of your foes hope for the best and try a bit played less than ten hours to beat the game, was on the edges to beat it several times before that... It's charming, smart and simple at the same time, loved it, the pace is perfect for learning what's happening at wich moment and in wich order, little luck on the loot and certain aspects like the spirits, but the turned based insure a lot of control, so if you mess that up, it's mostly on you, that's honestly a stellar point in a landscape of swarming scrappy sketchy fast paced roguelites with action combat. Here you also need to learn the paterns, you also need to learn the gameplay but it's not in a reflex action way.

This game is incredibly terrible. The controls are absolutely ridiculous. Nothing is at all clear as to what it's benefits are... or aren't. Enemies aren't clear as to what they do until its too late. Any game that requires you to die again and again just to understand it is not worth your, or my, time. The game plays like a tabletop RPG but where everyone and everything gets a turn, and I mean everything, each and every trap getting a move-act in sequence. This doesn't make things fun it's just annoying and makes the game feel like a stuttering video in game format. Like a lagging flash game pre-2004 when the processor can't handle all those large sprites. I mean, I do like the visual aesthetic in the "ancient egypt" feel. But that's about the only positive thing I can say.