Space Grunts 2 is a rather fast-paced turn-based roguelike game, that mixes in card-battling gameplay, and wraps it all up in a 1950's sci-fi setting.
OrangePixel developed this indie-game. You can get it on itch.io (DRM-free download plus Steam-key) and Steam for Linux, Windows, and macOS. It's also available for mobile devices on Android and iOS.
Before you start a new run, you pick one of three different characters: Roak, Grimm, and Gadget. They differ in the stats attack (or strength), defense, and tech, which share a total of six points. You can customize your character by redistributing these six points and the 24 life points you get per default.
The gameplay consists of two base mechanics: a turn-based world and card-battling interactions. A turn-based world means, like in a classic roguelike game, the game world and its inhabitants only move or act when you do. That means you do a move or an action, then they do a move or an action, and so on. Combat, as well as other interactions with objects, are done with battle cards. You start with a deck of 32 cards. A card in your deck will represent each item that you pick up. The maximum number of cards that your deck can hold is 52. When your deck is full, you can not pick up any more items.
There are four types of cards: weapons, defense, tools, and specials. Weapons are represented by blue color, defense cards are green, and tools are red. The cards show in the lower corners their attack and defense values. In the lower-left corner you see the attack value and the lower right corner of the defense value. Special cards are represented by black color and show an infinity sign in the top right corner. These cards are always available when the context allows it, for example, to offer a tricorder to examine a new discovery.
You will get into all that very quickly, as the game explains everything new to you. What surprised me was how fast-paced the gameplay feels. Not at all what I expected from a turn-based game world. I also enjoy the pixel art style a lot. It has this unique "OrangelPixel look" that you also find in other games from this developer.
It is certainly not a game that you'll spend countless nonstop hours playing. But when you have a bit of time now and then, Space Grunts 2 is an excellent game. It is a lot of fun to explore the randomly generated levels, discover - and fight - aliens, gather items, avoid traps, and so on.
If you like roguelike games and battle card mechanics, then you should try Space Grunts 2. I recommend it.
I've played Space Grunts 2 version 1.22.0, as provided by itch.io, on Manjaro Linux 20.0.1 (Kernel 5.6.12) with Cinnamon desktop (version 4.4.1). My rig has an AMD Ryzen 7 1700x CPU, 32 GB RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 graphics card. I use Nvidias proprietary drivers (version 440.82).
About the author - Hatnix
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