Hack, Slash, Loot

Global Stats at the time of writing:

• Total Player Deaths - 11276782
  
[*]Total Successful Quests - 16292

The game is minimal to a fault. It's not simply that we're at the mercy of RNG, the whole thing is incredibly unbalanced. You can see from the stats above that having a successful run is incredibly unlikely. Because this is a traditional roguelike (vs a rogue-lite) there's nothing to be gained from those failures either. Also, the UI is unwieldy and the art is squished. I had many, many deaths myself with no way to deploy any strategy or skill to affect my chance of success. The best part of my playtime was unlocking the points shop for the goblin king.

This game has simple mechanics and easy to pick up. Might be very random and unpredictable at times, but that what makes it really interesting and satisfying when you actually winning. That's why every single run offers unique experience and makes this game very replayable.
Achieved my first win at 8th run by playing "Wizard" character, that helped me understand game mechanics and gave satisfaction during chill gameplay.
So if you're really into turn-based games and roguelikes, you'll love this game. Just be prepared to die a lot.

A lot of people dislike this game for what I think are missed expectations. If you've ever played early PC dungeon crawlers you'd recognize what this game is trying to do, and frankly it does it very well. Hack, Slash, Loot is effectively a turn-based fast paced RPG and has a pretty fun gameplay loop.

Why do people dislike it?

You'll die. A lot.
This game is kinda like the new pokemon roguelike mods. This game is based on one of the original rogue-likes. Death is inevitable but the reward for getting powerful makes you feel like God. It's a fickle beast and has its flaws but is worth it's price and the developer has done a good job with keeping up with it despite its age.

Hack, Slash, Loot is a minimalist old school style of Roguelike that lets you select from a variety of fantasy trope characters like the Human Wizard and Elf Ranger as well as selecting the self contained quest or scenario for your adventure.

The game has the surface elements of classical Rogue design with everything being turn based, set on a grid, and challenging you to navigate levels, kill creatures, collect loot, drink coloured potions, and upgrade your hero. Under the surface it lacks any of the nuance or charisma that these games normally use to keep you around.

The combat is heavily reliant on RNG which makes it an utter crap shoot if you're going to survive each encounter. The levels are linear and the same every time you play which is kinda antithetical to the genre. There's little reward when you do succeed and no motivation to continue because there's no skill involved with your survival.

It checks all the genre boxes but doesn't do any work to add substance to the game. Worse than that it is un-fun. From start to finish there's no fanfare, no innovation, no creativity - it's just a lesser version of everything we've seen before from this genre.

Looks like a simple "Kill time" old school Rogue-like, which is fine on it's own. The characters should benefited from a classic press "," to wait and refill your health, since potions are scarce and the game overall has a relentless RNG. Unfortunately it looks abandoned and probably will not have the chance to reach full potential anymore which is kinda sad.

This game should contain tactics, strategy. And roguelike It is not simply "All Random".
I do try to beat the first quest and try my best luck and the game just doen't have that much strategy in it.
Player have to rely on what the game generated things for them instead of figure out how to beat one room or the encontered enemies.

For example. In traditional turn based roguelike games, ep. TOME, if a melee enemy with no special ability found the player, the enemy simply move toward the player no matter what the players do. So if the player at A1 and the enemy is at A3, the player can skip move for a round and the enemy will move to A2 so the player can get a initial attack to the enemy.
And this really basic, simple tactic cannot be used in this game at all. The enemy will know that if they move first, they will beat by the player on the next turn, so they choose to stay put and wait for the player to come closer. You can see, if the player is a melee character and doesn't have any ability or range weapon yet, the only thing they can do is move toward the monster and pray the enemy will miss the first attack.
And the same things happen to the item system as well. The game do have many system but they are just too simple and too much randomness make players every choice not that important at all.
This is not what a roguelike game should be.

Stats
=====
Every character has five stats that help determine their effectiveness during the game. The five stats are Melee, Ranged, Magic, Defence, and Health.

Melee
is the characters ability in close quarters combat. The first value, before the slash, is the characters percentage chance to hit an enemy. The second value is the characters maximum damage with melee attacks. The maximum damage score is reduced by an enemies defence stat. Melee attacks have no range and are therefore only effective against adjacent foes.

Ranged
is the characters ability in non-magical ranged combat. The first value is the characters percentage chance to hit an enemy. The 'to hit' score for ranged is reduced by two for every space between the character and it's target. The second value is the characters maximum damage with ranged attacks. Like melee the maximum damage score is reduced by an enemies defence stat.

Magic
is the characters ability in magical combat. The first value is the characters percentage chance to hit an enemy. The to hit score for ranged is reduced by one for every space between the character and it's target. The second value is the characters maximum damage with magic attacks. Unlike melee and ranged the maximum damage score for magic is not usually reduced by an enemies defence stat. See Magic Defence below for more details.

Defence
is the characters ability to resist melee and ranged damage. A characters defence score is taken off the maximum damage stat of all melee and ranged attacks. All attacks will do at least one damage no matter how high a characters defence stat. Defence has no effect on magic damage unless the character has the Magic Defence enchantment, see below.

Health
is how much damage a character can sustain before they are killed. Being reduced to zero health kills the character, unless they have the resurrect enchantment. See below for more on the resurrect enchantment. As there is no maximum for score, healing magic can increase health indefinitely.

Item slots
Every character has nine item slots for carrying items. These are head, neck, torso, weapon hand, backup weapon, off-hand, hand worn, waist, and feet. Each slot can hold only one item. When a character picks up an item, any item already in that slot is dropped. The only exception to this is the backup weapon slot, which swaps with the contents of the weapon hand item slot. To swap weapons simply click the backup weapon slot or press [x]. There is also a tenth type of item, one use items, which do not have an item slot allocated for them as they are used immediately when picked up.

Damage Types
============
There are seven different damage types in HSL. Damage types manifest in three ways, as weapon damage, resistances, or vulnerabilities. If a character has a resistance then damage received of that type is halved. If a character has a vulnerability then damage received of that type is doubled. Each damage type has one or more secondary effects which are described below.

Silvered damage
has a chance of disarming any opponent that is successfully struck. Unlike other resistances having silvered resistance means all silvered damaged is quartered instead of halved. However, having silvered vulnerability means all silvered damage received is quadrupled.

Fire damage
has a chance of destroying items carried by the target. If a fire resistant character is killed all those adjacent to them take damage from it's fiery death throes.

Lightning damage
has a chance of stunning any character it hits. If a lightning resistant character is killed all those adjacent to them take damage from it's lightning death throes. Also, lightning resistant characters cannot be stunned.

Poison/acid damage
has a chance of poisoning any target hit. Poisoned characters have a chance each round of taking damage. Any healing will cure the poison. Poison resistant characters cannot get poisoned.

Divine damage
has a chance of increasing a characters stats when it is used to to kill an opponent. When using ranged or magic weapons, divine attacks can pass safely through other characters to hit targets behind them.

Necrotic damage
has a chance of increasing a characters stats when it is used to to kill an opponent.

Psychic damage
has a chance of reducing the stats of any character it hits. When using ranged or magic weapons, psychic attacks can pass safely through other characters to hit targets behind them.

Enchantments
=============
Map
Reveals the current level to the player. If the enchantment is on a carried item then subsequent levels are also revealed to the player.

Swift
increases the number of actions a character can take each turn. The icon will fade slightly when the player is taking their second action in the turn.

Shadeform
makes a character harder to hit with ranged and magic attacks. Ranged attacks against the character are reduced to 3/4, and magic attacks are halved. The shadeformed characters own ranged attacks are reduced to 3/4, and magic attacks are halved. Finally a shadeformed character can pass through single thickness walls.

Magic Defence
makes a character's defence also reduce magic attacks in the same way as melee and ranged attacks.

Regeneration
has a chance each round of giving the character a health bonus.

Resurrection
will restore a character to full health when they reach zero health. If the enchantment was on an item, then the item will get destroyed when the character resurrects.

Finally I grinded this out for a 100% completion (though I haven't got 2 artifacts that are randomly dropped from level 5)
I must say: this game is great! It is fabulous! But it is not well balanced, though. So I will point out some pros and cons for this product. Before that, I truly recommend this beautiful game to everyone!

What I like in this game? First of all, it is not purely and completely randomly generated. I read a lot of reviews that said stuff like: "Uh, this game sucks, it is so random. I got to level 2 and died, because there was a mage that dealt 50 damage to me." and "I can't win a single game, it is too hard, the game kills me every time, it is based on luck only!" and I want to say to all of this reviewers. "Guys, you suck!" If you can't play the game the way you want to play and making stupid mistakes you die all the time, it is not a bad game, it is bad skill and understandment of how to play it!
Every game played has its meaning! Try to live the most of every beginning, even if you're bad on drop or you got swarmed by enemies, before you die - improvise! Find a solution! It is really possible to comeback even from 1 hp / acid situation to a win-win of the whole quest (when I was doing an IronMan challenge, I got 2 times down to 1 and 10 hp from 150/90 by poison/acid) :D Every death is an experience. You explore floors, you get the knowledge about what monsters you will see (they are not randomized, all mobs are the same on each level), you see their damage types, resistances, vulnerabilites and other stuff, so use this knowledge and plan a little tactics or global strategy for a stage! Use environement thoroughly and in 95% you will be the winner with the most of health even not scratched!
Yes, when you get any artifact (I suggest to hunt down the Unicorn Horn as soon as possible) you will get easier almost in everything, due to artifacts giving nice bonuses to defensive abilities you will survive with less struggling! Haste/Regeneration/Magic Defense - these are those attributes that will make any quest going down by your rules, with ease and squize :D

Second thing are playable characters, some are very hard to play and some can give you a 100% winrate on any quest with or without an artifact equiped. So when you get ideas of how to play a game you will be able to choose the best variant for each of the quest. IMHO, as soon as you get a holy/dark character, like Amazon with holy Bow, or Cleric with holy Magic, you will be unbeatable if you like their playstyle. Though, some classes are struggling even with good artifacts... maybe ring of gax has to be grinded and used by those weaklings to beat a quest, I don't know, didn't have a chance to find one for myself and try it out :D But, characters rules! I love their sprites (kinda the same as in Realm of the Mad God) and the way how each hero influences the gameplay and feelings when played.

The third thing, this game is so cheap and so small, yet it is so rewarding and made with love! I played with pleasure the whole 100% completion of this one. =)

About minuses. It is hard to believe in this game, once you die 10 times in a row on some stupid ocasions, for example, you drink a potion that nulifies every enchantement on yourself and gear... and you think "dafuq if this, why", and you get to know the name of things that you should never collect and use :DDDD So, t is kinda, our stupidity for thinking that nulifiying scroll is something good... but actually, that time I lost 50% of my stats with that on 4th stage XDDD
But be patient and believe in yourself, once you get past these hardships and get more knowledge about this mini-world of rogue-like game, you will be pleased by a good amount of time driven away :))) This is not the same difficulty as Dark Souls, this one is much easier and more linear, you just have to understand what things to use, and what not, which equip can help and which can ruin... but I don't want to spoil it here, so try and improve by yourself! <3

Once you get into the games pace, I realise that you will really like this one pretty game the way I loved it... I got almost 100 hours played in this with first 2 hours being rough, tough and ragequit :DD
p.s. I'm A REALLY REALLY CASUAL PLAYER so this is one great pros... even noobs and casuals can defeat this challenge! =D

Very undewhelming roguelike. For several reasons.

First, there is no inventory system, so the classic roguelike gameplay element of picking up resources to take with you and making decisions on what you need most and when to save them vs use them is nonexistant.

Second, success is completely reliant on loot rng to find the correct enchants/resists on random items. If you happen to not find the correct resist for a given quest, you will lose. If the dungeon is being stingy and happens to not give you any food to restore hp, you lose. If you get lucky and find all the OP stuff right away, you probably win.

And lastly, the whole 32 characters to unlock thing is a bit of a lie. There are actually ~3 characters, warrior, archer, and mage. There are 32 variants of those, not characters themselves. Each character has a different weapon/armor/start stats, but they are the exact same otherwise. This system is actually a bit of a downer, many of the games quests are basically impossible with the starter classes, but become objectively easier once you unlock some strictly better variants.

And tbh, there are better roguelikes that have been in developement for decades, still going strong, that are free and better than this. I typiccally love roguelikes, gave this one a fair shake, and found it to be far too shallow for my liking.

I have a decent amount of time on this game so I feel I can comment. This game is rough. The graphics are good, the fighting is fun, but the RNG is terrible. Very few runs are winnable in this game and it takes a helluva lot of luck to win. There are so many better Rouge-likes out there nowadays that this game shouldn't even be on your radar. Take your pick, anything is probably better than this.

"Hack, Slash, Loot" is an overpriced waste of time. What could of been a cute little roguelike is purely an only-RNG based mess of a game that has you rely only on luck. There is maybe only one mission you can play through the longest since it has easier enemies but even then the game is all luck based. There is no real progression here, and there is nothing in this game worth mentioning as a positive. You can get dozens of far superior and cheaper roguelikes (E.G Dungeons of Dredmore, Tales of Maj'Eyal) and you can just find a bunch of free rogue likes anywhere, with a thousand times the quality.

This game is worthless.

The game in a nutshell:

*Miss*
*Miss*
*Miss*

**Dead**

Buy a couple of dice. It will be cheaper and WAY more fun than this game.
And the chances of getting a desired number on said dice are accurate, as oppossed to this game's RNG.

RNG (random number generator) is an important part in roguelikes. It's not, however, the ONLY meaningful part.
This is the game's worst sin. it's completely random. In good roguelikes, there's a lot of strategy and thought. Randomness can screw you up, but usually, a good player can turn the tides.
Not in hack, slash, loot. Frankly it's like someone saw the success of rogue-lites and jumped the wagon without actual knowledge of what makes a roguelike/lite a good game.

Protip: it's NOT randomness what makes a roguelike good. Randomness is just one of the ingredients.

I looked forward to a challenging game, what I got was 2.x hours of pure frustration. If I wanted to fight this hard for something I would have started an argument with my mother-in-law over anything family related and would have still had an easier time.

To quote some people on just one of the threads in the forums:-
“I've played a lot of rogue-likes, and it's one of the most unfair, least skill based, unreasonable rogue-likes I've ever played, to the point that a lot of fans of the genre refuse to even count it.”

“Almost threw my CPU out the window.”

“This sums up my experience with this game. It's almost as if you were supposed to die...”

If I could get my money back I would, this is harder than trying to please a crowd of 200 old people with their dietary requirements. I can not slam this enough. Stay away.

As of this writing, 49% of the reviews for this game are positive. This is frankly, to me inexplicable as this is the worst game in my library of 90 so far. What makes this game obnoxiously bad, egregiously terrible is that it has surface appeal. It deceives the experienced player of roguelikes into thinking that strategic and thoughtful play will be rewarded if one can intuit the subtle rules of the game. Don't waste your time. There is no depth of gameplay here. For example, you find a potion. Will it hurt you or heal you? It's random. It might give you a permanent defect. Or it might heal you. There is no way to tell unless you drink it. Intelligent decision making in this game amounts to not wasting a precious minute of your life on this cynical trap created by a soulless programmer whose only goal was to part you from your hard earned money. It is one of the most offensively designed games I ever played in my life. I am passionate in my hatred of this game. Good day sir or madam.

The game is too random.

Player skill means nothing, method means nothing, loot means nothing.

The only thing that means anything is a lucky roll of the dice.

If you head to the forums to try and find out why you die immediately and can never progess, you will find that many of the missions are only possible with certain unlocked character classes. And such classes are often far better than the starting set. Rediculous and awful idea for progression.

Dev abandoned this the minute it hit the shelves. Expect no updates other than trading card artwork.

The only perks I am able to squeeze out of this unforgiving rock are that I enjoyed the simplistic artwork, and that there were no visible game breaking bugs.

I can honestly say this is one of my few steam purchases I am really upset about, because it was a complete and utter waste of money for all the aforementioned reasons, and I have no way to get my money back.


Avoid at all costs.

True to its title, Hack Slash Loot is about as straightforward a rogue-like as you can find. After choosing a hero and a themed dungeon (Goblin fortress! Pharaoh's tomb! Dragon's lair!), you are given a paragraph of exposition and sent straight into mouse-clicky battle. Your goal? To reach the fifth floor of the dungeon and slay the boss monster. There's no leveling to speak of, no skills, no puzzles. Your choice of character only determines your starting gear and your proficiency with melee, ranged, or magic attacks, all of which function identically except that melee can only attack adjacent opponents. That isn't to say there's no strategy involved in the game; HP restoration is very limited, positioning in combat is crucial, and knowing what sorts of monsters and hazards each dungeon contains can make or break your survival. However, the primary method for improving your character is to loot the place, which means endlessly comparing your current items to every item drop you come across in the hopes that one of them might outperform your current outfit. If you're lucky, you'll find something early on which offers tons of resistances or one of the handful of special abilities that can easily carry you through to the end. If you're not lucky, well, keep dying, and eventually you'll turn up something nice.

In the end, HSL suffers from a crummy GUI, tedious mechanics, and a lack of variety in almost every field. It's perfectly playable, and winning is admittedly somewhat satisfying, but you can get better bang for your buck in plenty of other places.

What a great kick-back of nostalgia with this wonderful Rogue/hack style dungeon crawler. Always a randomized roll of the dice in this never knowing what to expect around the next corner thrill-ride.

I used to love playing these games back in the day with games like Rogue, Nethack, Denizens Den, Dungeon Adventure and so on. This game has just enough difference to keep it from becoming a carbon copy of what's already been done.

For intance; Being able to find and collect relics which can aide you in consecutive games, Not having an inventory to worry about or load you down. Unlockable characters to throw more variety into the mix. Just quick simple gaming that will bring you back hoping to go further the next time. Best of all you can stop at anytime and pick up where you left off.

A must buy for fans of the genre. Give a hoot, try Hack, Slash and Loot!!!

If you enjoy playing as a character that can't hack, slash, or loot, this is the game for you.

It's desperately punishing. The blindfolded sacks of meat holding your weapon of choice nearly always fumble when confronted by a mob-filled room, fall over their own feet and onto the spear of the nearest goblin.

While certainly not a ground-breaking game, Hack, Slash, Loot is fun for what it is: an old school dungeon crawler that is unforgiving in difficulty. Over time, a few updates have been added to spice it up with new characters, though it hasn't changed the gameplay or style (a plus for me as I appreciate what it has to offer).
If you're looking for something flashy or complex; look elsewhere. If you're content with old-school dungeon crawling, 8-bit graphics, occassional insane spikes in difficulty when attacked by a multitude of monsters simultaneously, and an oddly comforting interface and simplicity, then Hack, Slash, Loot is for you.

I see lot of frustation from people playing this game.
You start with only 60% of hit chance, and the game is very random
You die a lot on this game, but as you die you unlock other characters
that have better stats from the beginning.
Only after played 4 hours or so, you start to do better,
Also when facing multiple enemies you need to try to position yourself so you dont
get hit from all sides.
the game is very basic and relies a lot on stats and change, but that does not mean is bad
For 5 euros maybe its expensive compared with other roguelike games, but if you get it on
a bundle or dicounted you can give it a chance.
If you have played games like DoomRL you know what to expect
yes, there are better roguelikes for full price

ENG:

A nice and addictive and lighter cave of goods and collection of retro game graphics, which can be crafting stuff. Referral!

FIN:

Kiva ja koukuttava ja kevyempi luola ja tavaroiden keräys peli retro krafiikalla, jossa voi craftata tavaraa. Suositteluni!