I need to be upfront with you all; I am getting fatigued with rouge-like and lites. There was a time that I was all over them, especially through the birth of the genre. Of course, Dead Cells was my introduction, and I was obsessed with the game, trying my best to get to the end (spoiler-it never happened!) and I was also swept up in the frenzy when Hades received its full release. Since then, I feel like every other game is a rouge-like or lite these days, and to be honest, it’s getting tiresome. I will admit some have surprised me with an original twist on the formula (like Hadley’s Run) or incorporated these mechanics in a novel way, but it’s difficult for me to enjoy the formula that I once enjoyed in Dead Cells and Hades.
But here’s where Elsie comes in, and my hopes were to find some originality within, a new twist, or just something to give it an edge over previous games. Elsie is developed by the American-based Knight Shift Games and published by Playtonic Friends. According to its Steam page, it promises “rogue-like action, filled with procedurally generated levels, an army of robots to blast through, and a wide scope of items and weaponry to make each run unique.” I can’t quite agree on those last few words of that sentence, which is something I will elaborate on later in the review.
Before we get to that, I think some backstory is essential to understand the settings behind this Megaman-X-inspired rouge-like, and its storyline was one of the more interesting aspects of the game. Elsie, an android, has been assigned to track down and save a group of Guardians who have gone rogue on their planet of Ekis. These Guardians need to be brought back to home base to be reprogrammed so they do not cause any more damage than they already have. What made them go astray in the first place is just one of the mysteries you’ll need to solve.
Finding these Guardians consists of you completing runs through a variety of biomes, defeating enemies, gaining powerups, and customising your runs to the best of your abilities with what you are given. These upgrades are the usual affair: increase critical hits by 20%, boost attack power, extra health. We’ve seen these types of power-ups countless times before, and the majority on offer here will not surprise you. Saying that, there were a few original ones, including making your bullets bounce off walls and increase your bullet output, but their power diminishes by 45 percent, or you have a twenty percent chance of creating a firefly that will attack an enemy when you fire. It was in a run that I had these particular abilities, which caused chaos on the screen. With so much going on, it made the game’s performance slow down so much that I had to restart the game, which was a shame because I was so overpowered that I was carving through the stage with ease.
Finding these upgrades are found in the usual ways: in chests that are randomly scattered around the stages, through special rooms that you will come across, where you can choose one of three upgrades, or you can buy them from shop machines you’ll find along the way. You’ll find a few different machines on your runs that offer different services. In the health machine, you can rest, which will recover fifty percent of your health, and later on, once you have unlocked the feature, you will be able to choose to increase either your health, SP, or energy bar. The upgrade machine will give you the chance to increase your installed upgrade power or add new features to them. This was certainly the more interesting machine, as it gave your upgrades some fun options that could really impact your runs.
Weapons, of course, are a major ingredient here, and there are a few options to choose from and unlock. You start with a standard blaster, but eventually you’ll unlock shotgun-style weapons and ice and fire projectile guns. I did find that these later weapons really hindered me on my runs, and I was much more comfortable with the blaster. I found the other weapons to be slower and less effective, especially in the first stage where I hadn’t been able to upgrade much. This put me off using them and keeping to my standard issue or an upgraded blaster that fired faster bullets. I was slightly disappointed that I felt like this towards the later weapons; it did become slightly stale using the blaster, and I missed that buzz of using a much stronger and more effective weapon that I had with other rouge-likes.
With all this action happening, Elsie’s energy does dip, and if she gets too exhausted, then her shooting and dash will be affected by slowing down. This is shown by the energy bar, which, when it does deplete, needs a few seconds to reenergise. This can be lengthened through the health machines and through various upgrades, making it something not worth worrying about when you’ve got it to a certain length. I’m not sure how I feel about this inclusion; on the one hand, it gives you something to consider and strategise with, but on the other hand, when the action does get heavy, you don’t have a chance to think about it, and it becomes frustrating when you do run out of energy, especially when you are close to defeating a boss. Thankfully, jumping doesn’t affect energy, nor does her wall jump.
The enemies have to be an important consideration for a rouge-like to keep your interest, especially in the first section, as you are most likely to come up against those more so than any other. The enemies in Elsie are an interesting bunch, with some unique attacks and designs. There are some that carry over into other biomes, but for the most part, each area has distinct bad guys with different attacks. I did start to get weary of the first-stage enemies, as I did have to fight them over and over, but this may be down to my shoddy playing more than anything else. Some enemies will be shielded, and this is where Elsie’s parry comes in the most handy. Time it right and release it when the circle is in green, and you’ll disable the shield and have the chance to dispatch that creature. I was rubbish at this, and when I did encounter a shield, I mostly used one of Elsie’s special attacks to dispatch the shield, which was much more effective for me. You can use the parry feature on any enemy; it doesn’t have to be shielded, but it was something I never used, as it killed the high energy gameplay by making me stop and wait for the right instance to use it, and all I wanted to do was keep that high energy going.
I mentioned special attacks briefly there, and Elsie does have some other arsenal up her sleeves. These are typically a laser beam or the ability to despatch drones or fireflies. There’s also an option to refresh your energy bar, but these all take time to charge after a use and also use SP. You can gain more SP in chests or through the upgrades, and when coupled with the energy bar, it really gives you something to think about apart from blasting. You can also gain new weapons and abilities for your special attack back at the home base.
Home base is one of the more interesting elements of Elsie. It’s here you’ll respawn when you die, and it resembles a small village. During the early runs of the game, you’ll come across characters that will return to home base, and once you’ve built their property, they will assist you with unlocking new buffs, abilities, and upgrades. These all cost, of course, with different currencies that are found during your runs. Home base serves its purpose well, and it’s been implemented well into the game, and I especially like the idea of the construction. I was a way into the game, and I still hadn’t unlocked some of the properties, though, and I would have liked them to be available earlier, as they would have freshened up my runs immensely and kept my interest in carrying on.
The biggest hit for me was Elsie’s visual and sound design. The aesthetic choices made here are great, with a gorgeous, colourful, and bright representation of older Megaman-style graphics. Elsie’s sprite has this lovely look to her, and the levels have been designed to a high standard. Each run is procedurally generated, and each new area was just as gorgeous as the last. Music and effects matched the visuals perfectly, with high energy sound throughout and a satisfying blast effect. Elsie also contains a high level of voice acting, which is carried out well, and there are lots of sound bites from Elsie that you will hear throughout your runs. “Pew pew pew,” “I feel powerful,” “What do we have here?” “Oh yeah!” These are just some examples, and they do get slightly irksome after a while, especially when you look at a health station and then the upgrade station straight after and receive exactly the same phrase.
Apart from the slowdown I mentioned earlier, I did encounter other issues with Elsie. Somehow, I was able to defeat bosses with one shot that only went away when I rebooted the game. I did check the accessibility menu to see if I had accidentally turned something on but I hadn’t. Once, Elsie got stuck jumping, and I was moving about in the air with her stuck in that position, and there were some other instances I had of bugs breaking the game for me. This is a polished game, and it did run well for the most part, but you can tell it needs a little more TLC.
I didn’t find that twist or originality I was seeking, but for a debut game that has been developed in the team’s spare time, Elsie is an impressive feat. It may not do anything to innovate on the genre, but it does carry it out well. If you’re itching for some old school rogue-like action, then you will walk away satisfied, but if you are craving something new or looking for a twist, then this isn’t the one. If Knight Shift Games can patch a new hook into Elsie, along with the bug fixes and improvements it needs, then maybe they will have something here, but as of right now, it’s just the same old rogue-like with a new skin, and that’s a bit of a shame.
Release Date:
August 26th, 2024
Platforms:
PC, PS5 & Nintendo Switch
Price:
£15.49 (PC)
£19.99 (PS5 & NSW)
Version Tested: PC
Many thanks to the developer for the review copy.
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