Another contender to the roguelike genre, Night Swarm is an interesting take on a fairly popular genre. That being said, the gritty cell shaded appearance of their title is nothing new to developer Fubu Games, as their other title Rogue Loops follows the same niche in terms of art direction. Using a very interesting dynamic of miniatures moving along a diorama, you are an awoken vampire lord, looking to earn your name, as well as bolster allies.

Hey, you. You're finally awake.

Besides it’s unique approach to visual style, not much has changed from the typical roguelike formula here. You can upgrade your stats, or, at least passive skills. Otherwise you are able to unlock and upgrade the characters and skills of allies who you can take on your adventure with you. For now, it seems like there is a limit of two allies per run. While this is unique, the more allies you have with you, the less power you can keep to yourself, so weigh your options carefully. As this is potentially a dual edged blade.

Manage your allies, level them, and their abilities.

In general, I tend to sincerely enjoy most roguelikes, as it’s a chance to tun off and go into autopilot. However, there were a few things that I found just rubbed me wrong in Night Swarm, ranging form concerns to core functionality. Some of it I found disappointing, others nipped at me with grave concern. Some of the design and functionality was amiss, but also the use of AI was something that caught my attention.

While currently limited, there are POIs and events you'll want to take part in, for a boost.

While a fully (or mostly) voiced cast is exciting, it quickly becomes obvious that AI litters every corner. While sometimes it can be obvious that it is being used as temporary filler, some of the character are fairly well crafted, using some distortion methods to conceal it’s use. In some cases this might just be paranoia, however it entirely removes immersion, and the main character you play as has no real attempt to conceal it’s use, reading in an obnoxious monotonous drawl. Overall, I always find myself weary of it’s use, and I hope this starts to get filled in with real voice actors quickly.

The over world, while very typical looking for a roguelike, incorporates elements of miniature play into it, which is unique.

Currently the music is not terrible, but it really repeats and loops on endlessly. It easily just fades into the background of nothingness, and lacks some of the real polish that I noticed many other roguelikes have in this department. While, again, it’s not awful by any means, there’s entirely nothing to write home about. With so many games bringing a lot of flavour to the table, I had honestly hoped for more. For the time being- lackluster, and I hope to see more develop in the future as it leaves development stages.

Inside your castle, you have plenty of allies willing to help you out between runs. 

As far as gameplay itself is concerned, it is a bit of a mixed bag. While the bits and bobs of functionality are there, there is still a lot of fine tuning to be done. Character movement speed is absolutely abysmal, making movement speed an obligation over a choice, especially when stage times are mere minutes. Currently the functionality at the boss battle is little to none- I was receiving DOTS out of nowhere, when not touching anything or anyone, and even when I got close to beating the final boss, the damage just proved to be too much. (Though I did beat him post patch, so perhaps there was an issue that was addressed) Scaling allies boarders on slightly too taxing, though I can see it set tuned to be a challenge. However, needing to balance movement speed with attacks can be too much- as well as weapon evolution (while mentioned) seems to be missing.

The boss stage was interesting. While the change in camera was there to make it feel dynamic, it was also momentarily confusing. 

Ultimately I feel it is too early to cast a full judgement on Night Swarm. While there is a lot of promise shown, there are still a fair amount of worrying flags. However, there is still time for things to turn around, and receive the polish it needs. I feel that the game direction, for the time being is in the air- with a possibility of being a fairly popular title, or potentially it could end up a miss. I hope to see a much more fleshed out demo in the future, that is able to showcase some of the core features, bringing another strong roguelike contender to the table.