LORT, the new fantasy roguelike from developer Big Distraction, is a tough-as-nails action game built from the ground up to insist that players take it seriously. Learn, learn, learn; one step at a time, as you suss out the best builds and master the skills required to survive and eventually to thrive.
It’s kind of a standard-issue pitch for roguelikes, to be sure. But it’s a meaningful one. And, so it goes, that when the first batch of players checked out its early access launch earlier this week, and a not-inconsiderable number of them lamented the difficulty, Big Distraction walked the tightrope between appreciable acquiescence and a stern reminder that this is kind of the point.
Update v0.5.2
As PC Gamer notes, the devs have announced NORT’s v0.5.2 update, which is already rolling out. Big Distraction’s Steam page blog post goes into detail on a few other things: chiefly progression and multiplayer. But it’s the slight tweaks to the challenge that’s catching most folks’ attention.
“We’ve heard feedback from some players that the game feels too hard in general and too hard for solo. LORT is a Roguelite and isn’t meant to be a super easy game. You are meant to die and learn how to overcome the challenge of each new level, enemy, and boss.”
As you can see, the adjustments they’ve made (more on that in a sec) come with quite the disclaimer. LORT “isn’t meant to be a super easy game,” they gently remind the playerbase, before diving into what’s been altered. The answer? Not a lot! Goblin lobbers, an early-game enemy who’s clearly gotten a bit notorious among frustrated gamers, have had their fire attack radius reduced, their ranged attack speed toned down, and more lead time before jumping to help players recognize the strike.
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Other than that, there are now tutorial prompts designed to explain to us how important it is to build up your attributes, and to do so with some kind of plan in mind, in order to stay ahead of the curve (or at least not far behind it).
What’s more, LORT is designed with single-player in mind, so multiplayer is going to mess with the paradigm a bit. “We also base our balance around solo play first and foremost, with the understanding that the game will likely be easier in multiplayer,” the post goes on, which is a nice way of telling struggling sorts to band up and beat the odds by virtue of sheer numbers. Fair.
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