The Rookery

It's really, really good. All the decisions they've made seem to have been really intelligently thought through, so that things you initially think are pointless or unbalanced turn out to be well chosen with more exploration. It actually highlights how hard it would be to make a good chess roguelike, by actually being a really good chess roguelike.

I like the game, but it is unplayable after level 15. Its the same identical levels, just with less pieces and options. Means it all comes down to a less than 1% chance of a perfect randomly generated play through which allows you to win. Balance issues.

This is without a doubt the best chess-based game aside from chess itself and MAYBE freestyle. Everything is pretty balanced and there's a surprising amount of freedom with builds. It took 5 hours of playing for me to truly realize this game works, but man it's incredible. Chess skill matters a TON (in a good way) and adapting to the new mechanics is a lot easier than it seems at first. It makes playing against a top engine enjoyable because now you get to exploit new mechanics and buffs.

Je cherche à rentabiliser mes 1700 elo chess.com en achetant des jeux d'échecs sur steam et en essayant d'amasser le plus de succès que possible. J'ai acheté ce jeu dans un package avec plein d'autres jeux d'echec sur Humble Bundle. The rookery est un jeu extrêmement promèteur. Si vous cherchez les échecs 2.0, oubliez ces conneries de 5D chess inutilement chiantes. Ici on est dans un espèce de rogue like. Vous lancez une run, vous enchainez les parties, accumulez des pieces d'or, achetez toutes sortes d'améliorations ultra créatives pour vos pions et continuez à jouer jusqu'à la fin de la run. C'est bien fait et tout le système est intéligent. Pour l'instant j'ai un plaisir de fou. Des fois le jeu frise un peu lorsque l'IA (votre adversaire) calcule son prochain coup. Je présume que c'est normal, imaginez les échecs, mais avec encore plus de coups possibles à chaque tour. Ça doit demander une quantité de calculs immense. Il est possible aussi que ça vienne du fait que je joue sur linux. Ma principale complainte ne porte pas sur les performances. Si vous êtes des chasseurs de trophés, il est possible que le platinum de ce jeu nécéssite des centaines d'heures. Il y a un succès qui nécéssite de se rendre à l'étage 40 en une run. Quand vous faites votre première run et que vous terminez l'étage 15, le jeu vous félicite et vous renvois sur le menu principal. De là vous pouvez commencer une nouvelle run dans laquelle, cette fois, le jeu vous permettra d'aller jusqu'à l'étage 16. Pour vous rendre à l'étage 17? Encore une autre run après celle là. J'ai calculé que, dans le meilleur des mondes, et supposant que vous réussissiez toutes les étages de toutes les runs du premier coup, vous auriez besoin de jouer 715 parties d'échec pour obtenir le trophé (15 + 16 +17 + ... + 40 = 715). Bref, ne vous lancez pas dans ce jeu avec le platinum en tête à moins d'être un peu "crazy in your head" comme dirait le grand George St-Pierre.

Received this as part of a chess-themed Humble Bundle and I think it is the best of the bunch. There are plenty of boosts/relics that (if you pay attention) can make the runs very manageable, but still challenging. Hits the narrow band (for me) of frustrating enough to be annoyed when losing a run, yet entertaining enough to want to try again.

I adore this game. It has become my comfort game that I play whenever I have some time to kill. It's well-balanced, has enough scenarios to keep you coming back, and has a great number of relics that really change how you approach the game. The approach to difficulty is very gradual, with one small change every time you go up in ascension level. Some of these aren't just boring number tweaks. For instance, at least one level introduces harder AI.

Despite the upgrades to pieces and relics, the game is a good exercise for chess imagination. It features numerous levels of progression, which gradually increase the difficulty. The variety of bosses (e.g. Poseidon flooding the board from below, a battle in the ring, a fight against a herd of horses) also adds to the game's excitement. As a chess player, I highly recommend it.

Its quite the fun experience, but with some drawbacks I would like improved on - The turn timer feels pretty restrictive for the ways to play the game. I mostly avoid leaning heavy on pawns, because they tend to not win games fast. - Energy generation and energy consumption can easily be unbalance during a run. Sometimes you end with a lot of energy, but dont have powerful effects to spend it on, other times you got a couple strong relics and boosts, but are severely starved for energy. Worse than that, lots of relics auto activate and eat your precious energy preventing you from getting reinforcements. - Doesnt feel that much like deck building, but more like grabbing whatever is useful. With only 15 reward screens the rolls are more volatile than in usual rougelikes. - Checkmating Draco is such a hassle, especially with the heart shield. - AI is utterly defenseless against some relics (like devastating draco with laser eyes), but I get it, AI is hard. At the end of the day, i had some real fun with all the creative ideas in this game.

I just finished my first run, and it was a blast! I'm 700 elo normally, and started at Casual. Lots of fun abilities, and I had fun learning all the overpowered mechanics. Great if you just want to blow things up at low difficulty, or work through the complex levels at high difficulty.

I had a round once where i had 16 pawns, wich at the beginning of each round turn into atomic kamikaze bishops, wich were able to move like rooks. I just yeeted them into the enmey and took out every single piece in 4 turns or less. 10/10 (Battery + manhatten project + charging bishops) Best combo i think there is and i've been looking for the same feeling ever since