Kaamos: Puzzle Roguelike

Cool and rather addictive little brain puzzle game! Definately worth the money considering the many hours of play time you can spend on it (ofc if you enjoy indie games like this). Best regards from the Finnish mate who met one of the devs at Dan Murphy's haha!

Kaamos – Puzzle Roguelike Review Kaamos is one of those rare indie games that quietly hooks you and doesn’t let go. At first sight, it looks like a simple tile-matching game, but it quickly reveals a surprisingly deep system. Every move matters. Instead of just matching tiles, you’re constantly thinking about positioning, future turns, and how your current build affects the board. The ability to rotate rows and columns adds a unique layer of strategy that keeps each run fresh and engaging. What really stands out is how well the roguelike elements are integrated. Each run feels different thanks to the wide variety of items and upgrades. You’re not just playing the board, you’re building a strategy over time and adapting to what the game gives you. That mix of planning and improvisation is where Kaamos shines. The atmosphere deserves credit too with its unique musics. The dark, sunless world creates a subtle but effective tone that fits the gameplay loop perfectly. It’s not trying to scare you, it just keeps things tense and immersive. That said, the game can feel challenging at times, especially early on when you’re still learning how different mechanics interact. But once it clicks, it becomes incredibly satisfying. Final thoughts: Kaamos is a smart, addictive blend of puzzle mechanics and roguelike design. If you enjoy games that reward thinking ahead and experimenting with builds, this is absolutely worth your time. Rating: 8.5/10

The night is never-ending and full of danger. What the night doesn't know is, I have a huge ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ axe. Perfect brain-scratcher that you can play for 15 mins at a time or 2 hours at a time and leaves you wanting more. Combat feels punishing but fair, so you're encouraged to explore your options on each set of tiles. The system itself is very satisfying (especially when you get a crazy multi attack & defence combo at just the clutch moment) and the sound design helps massively. There's nothing more enjoyable than the retro inspired CRUNCH when you smash an enemy through their defence. The class and item system are excellent. There's enough customisation that you feel you can get really specialised into certain builds, but also the items you pick aren't so overwhelmingly important that you feel like you can't progress because you didn't RNG the item you needed for your build. My only criticism would be of the story. What there is of it is great and very intriguing, but I wish there were more to flesh it out. Maybe some unlockables or random drops that flesh out the world a bit more (a world which has a lot of potential).

Time and time again I find myself re-writing my reviews due to me willing to give games a second chance. I had always been told to at least give something a fair try before outright saying it's bad. While I do admit this game is challenging, and it sucks having to start over and over again, this game does have an interesting twist to it. It's not a souls-like, it's a puzzle game. I feel this as a result will turn a lot of people off, but if you do like a good puzzler then this might actually be the game for you. I would recommend waiting for a sale, but that's only if you want to save money. All in all I do wish the game well, and that it can become better.

I could go either way on this one. Overall I think the game is great, the issue is that I also think it is quite overpriced. The core gameplay while good, is pretty repetitive and lacks much depth. Again, I enjoy the game and think there is a lot to like here, I just also have to mention those grievances. The combat is unlike anything I've played before. It's a sort of back and forth, often very drawn out, battle between you and your opponent, where your turn is determined by a match three system. I actually like that most of these battles can become very lengthy, and tense, almost like a real pair of duelling knights. At the same time, there is a strong lack of player agency to the combat, or to the gear you find. Your turn is just finding whatever the best match is and making it, all determined by your gear, which is also completely determined by the game. You either find good gear, or you get unlucky, find bad gear you don't need, and eventually lose. Watch some gameplay (video below) and get an idea for the game. If you think it looks like something you'd enjoy; add it to your wishlist and wait for a substantial sale. Falls in the category of good, but not great; a three, maybe three and a half star game. Video of real gameplay and first impressions: https://youtu.be/vUYQaSjoMHA

I won on my first run, then tried the duelist and it just immediately felt like the best strategy would be to discard all the duelist trappings and switch to doing the same as on the warrior run because dodging sucks (it can't ever block second attacks). The warrior's special power was borderline useless anyway since attacks were nearly always at max damage. Without the ability to see what the other characters are like I'm going to guess also more of the same, which leads to no interest in completing a second run, especially in light of another reviewer saying they've done all the things and it wasn't ever meaningfully different. It looked like it might be like Puzzle Quest, but it's not. Some powerups to modify the board or occasionally allow extra moves or something could have made this good, but the "randomized board each turn then one move" model means there's no planning, only luck and a tiny bit of effort to identify the best available immediate move (out of 40 possible moves, many of which are not actually possible each round).

起初看到Kaamos的时候我还以为是那种“像素小游戏”，结果一玩，发现挺上头的！乍一看很简单，其实是需要策略，每一局都不一样。我一开始也是一脸懵逼，乱点乱拼几下就挂了，但慢慢搞懂机制之后，真的很有意思！ 游戏画风我真的很喜欢，像素风又不会太花哨，对我这种眼睛容易累的人很友好了。音乐也挺有氛围感的，不吵但很有代入感。 最让我喜欢的是它不浪费时间，一局玩起来不会很久，但每次都能学点新东西，哪怕输了也不会觉得白玩。适合那种想动脑但又不想被游戏绑死的玩家。 还有，有些人可能觉得节奏有点慢，特别是喜欢快节奏打打杀杀那类的可能会觉得不够劲爆。但对我来说，这种节奏刚刚好，很适合拿来放松又不想完全躺平的时候玩。 总之，如果你喜欢解谜＋策略＋一点点RPG，又想试点不一样的roguelike，这游戏真的可以冲一波，推荐！

I truly believe that Kaamos is worth the money. For $10 I definitely got my moneys worth, and didn't expect a game that I would play for years. If you enjoy simple puzzle games and want to scratch that itch for a bit this is the perfect game. BUT as it stands I do have a few issues with it. For one when you beat the game with a certain class, at least for me, there was 0 desire to go back and try again. Perhaps due to the limited playstyles. And the defensive playstyle classes are brutally tedious. And you quickly learn what to grab and to avoid, and it gets rather repetitive after the first few times. For me however there's one solid thing that really disappointed me about this game. And mild spoilers. But that's the last class you unlock. You beat everything available, reach the final unlock and whats the reward? A character that literally has no powers. The one thing that kept me playing which was the varying powers, is taken away as the "reward" for beating the rest of the game. This should have been a "hard" mode unlocked after beating the game with the first character in my opinion. I unlocked this character and was excited wondering what power it may have. Instead I was just dissappointed and sapped of any desire to play the game after that point. Despite this the game was fun, and I got my moneys worth.

Fun, little out of the box adventure. Buff your character with better and deeper tile selection to snatch those delicious combos.

neat