Outsmart Enemies by Using the Environment in Catacomb Kids

Even though rogue-likes often bring random factors into the foreplay, they don’t always leave those factors up to the player.

Catacomb Kids takes video game dungeons to a sandbox-like level with what the team plans to be a richly interactive environment.

A few centuries ago, a band of heroes succeeded in sealing the demon sorceress Abys beneath her own fortress. Peace reigned for many years, but the dark underground area became more and more corrupt over time, heralding a return of the forces of evil. The dungeons became known as the Catacombs, places of danger and monsters but treasure as well. The titular kids venture below for adventure, a coming-of-age process, and riches.

Catacomb Kids has features typical to rogue-likes, with randomly-generated environments and a host of weird traits that define each new character; they could be good with daggers or hammers, be messy eaters, have access to a number of spells, all in addition to leveling up. It seems that most enemies will be much stronger than the heroes, at least at first, but there’s a number of creative ways the environment (which appears to be fully destructible) can be turned against them. For instance, a slime could be used either for climbing or just throwing it over the foe’s face, then bashing it down. That fire pit the player almost fell into could turn advantageous if he or she, for example, freezes enemies into blocks and throws them in.

While currently in Early Access on Steam, Catacomb Kids has already garnered a large number of positive reviews, earning praise for its layouts and experiences that change significantly, an unforgiving but rewarding difficulty, and a pretty stable Alpha build.

Take a look at this rough rogue-like on Steam, and check back with IGM for more updates in the future.