After applying the roguelike formula to countless different games and genres over the years, we’ve finally come to this: a roguelike, dungeon crawler take on Minesweeper, courtesy of developers BUCK and their debut game, Let’s! Revolution! You would think that I’d be more surprised by this point, but less than a year ago, I was playingOverhaul,a roguelike Sudoku dungeon crawler, so something like Let’s! Revolution! is starting to feel par for the course by this point. What surprised me instead was just how much I enjoyed this twist on a classic game. How much? All you need to know is that it has the same tipping point that convinced me to recommendFriends vs Friendseven more: it’s a game that kept me wanting to come back to it so much that it killed productivity.
Being extremely addictive is the highest praise you can give any sort of puzzle game (or any game, but especially puzzlers), be it the older titles like Tetris or modern classics likeGrindstone, but let’s start with the setup, which is actually simple: the land of Beebom has a narcissistic king, he’s exploiting other lands, so take control of a hero from one of those lands in order to kickstart a revolution and dethrone them. Doing so will require you to travel across ten different levels, where you have to put your Minesweeper and maze deduction skills to the test.
The core gameplay in Let’s! Revolution! sees you moving your chosen hero across a grid of square tiles, the vast majority of which start as being hidden. You move to a new tile, you reveal what’s underneath it. Much like Minesweeper, there are landscape tiles with a single number indicating what’s around it, in this case road tiles, which eventually lead to dead ends, either containing bonuses or the king, whose reveal allows you to advance to the next stage. The catch is that you’re also told how many hazards are in the area, all of whom lurk on the road tiles, meaning you could be risking your chance in moving to one…assuming that you’ve even deduced that you are moving to one.
The ultimate goal is to uncover the king while trying not to get caught as you uncover tiles, but your approach will depend what hero you choose to play as. Initially, you start out with the Trooper, who’s able to deal with enemies via more direct combat, but has to replenish energy for each skill by uncovering a certain amount of tiles. Then you’ll unlock and move on to the Shadow, a more nimble character who can cover up enemies by leaping over them and can only initially attack hidden spaces, recovering energy through cash, and finally the Oracle, who can only stun enemies and uses various perception skills to instead deduce where hidden enemies are.
As you’re able to tell, each hero represents a different playstyle and a different level of difficulty, with each character’s end-of-level coin bonuses even being tied into how many tiles they have or haven’t covered. And this isn’t even getting into the other three unlockable heroes beyond that, which are variation of the main three, but now with more remixed skillsets and different challenges. The main takeaway is that Let’s! Revolution! contains a ton of depth when it comes to its characters, having to work with their starting skills, both positive and negative, how you replenish much-needed energy for each one, and the way they work with each map. Trying to master each one can easily have you sucked in for a while.
Even without all of the various skills, though, there’s something extremely satisfying about the gameplay of having to deduce a map via various clues given via uncovered tiles. Here, it’s not just a matter of knowing where road tiles are, but knowing how to essentially read them and decipher what direction they go in and where they lead to, eventually uncovering a previous dead end. Honestly, that one its own could make for a satisfying game in some way, but the dungeon crawler twist in Let’s! Revolution! makes for a terrific touch. Combat (or avoidance of it) requires even more strategy as well, as uncovered enemies each have their own timer that counts down after each turn, and when it’s full, they can attack you from anywhere on the map. And if you think you may avoid them, certain stages start with one or two uncovered, and certain skills can reveal them as well.
Dealing with enemies will require careful planning, especially when you have timers and different ways to gain energy for moves. For example, the Trooper requires uncovered tiles in order to gain energy for each move, so depending on how timers, distance and enemy health is left, you have to leave a certain amount of hidden tiles nearby in order to gain back energy needed for moves that can take them out. All of this mixes together to create a terrifically-challenging game, although this being a roguelike, that does mean that fate can end up screwing you over at times. In particular, later levels with the Shadow loved lining up opponents in certain ways so that I couldn’t backflip over them and then attack them.
Of course, like any roguelike dungeon crawler, the coins you can gain in various ways can be spent towards new skills, upgrades to said skills, health and energy boosts and useful items (assuming you can uncover the tiles with the shops, of course), meaning that you once again have a lot of nifty chances in order to build that dream loadout of yours, with more unlocked as you play and collect crystals. And on top of that, the game also has an Easy mode for those who want a more chill experience, which is always a nice touch. And on the opposite end, completing a run with a character unlocks an increasing NG difficulty for them, which adds even more obstacles to tackle.
When it comes to the aesthetics of Let’s! Revolution!, it should be noted that BUCK is also described as a creative company with an apparent emphasis on artists and designers, and unsurprisingly, that explains a lot about why the game is gorgeous to look at. The backgrounds for each type of fantasy land are eye-catching (especially the more carnival-esque Beebom City), the cartoonish style makes for unique character designs that have a ton of personality, and even the little animations and tile designs clearly have a lot of work poured into them. The only real complaint is that there needs to be more of them, since you’ll be seeing a lot of the same visuals with a limited set of levels, impressive as they look. The soundtrack by Antfood also has this perfectly dreamlike, vibrant quality, one that perfectly matches each setting and makes for terrific tunes.
In the end, what Let’s! Revolution! should be lauded for, aside from its addictive qualities, is just how utterly unique it is. Even if you somehow might have an idea for what springs to mind when you hear “roguelike Minesweeper dungeon crawler,” the sheer level of complexity here when it comes to trying to figure out the best way to deduce things and advance in several different ways while dealing with assorted factors, boons and drawbacks makes for an something truly clever, a superb and tricky strategy game that still remains perfectly accessible to all. This unique charm is cause enough for celebration without having to dethrone the king (though that helps).
Closing Comments:
Unique, challenging, deep, fun and even gleefully bizarre in certain ways, Let’s! Revolution! is a truly superb blend of puzzlers, strategy games and dungeon crawlers that easily makes for one of this year’s most pleasant surprises. It’s a game that can easily keep you hooked for several runs at a time as your traverse several gorgeous fantasy lands and master the art of deduction along the way to walloping the king, being a truly one-of-a-kind cerebral gem that’s worth ticking off royalty for, so don’t pass it up.
