Loop Hero (2021-24) - Post Apocalyptic Video Game Review (Xbox Series X)

I first heard of Loop Hero from a work colleague in my day job. He often recommends games he has been trying out on Xbox Game Pass, and usually they really aren't my thing. With Loop Hero though he struck gold, while originally released back in 2021, this only arrived on the Xbox platforms last April. After ten months of playing, and with an overall play time of forty six hours, I finally finished this fantastic game a week or so back, and can easily state that it is the best game I played out of all those wonderful gems of 2023.

The game has a very basic and charming old school look to it, with the entire game taking place on just the one screen, but it has a compelling set-up that combined with its addictive nature kept me coming back again and again. The synopsis is that the world the game takes place in has ended, not the typical post apocalyptic landscape, but a world in which everything has literally ended, with there being nothing but an endless black void. The intro text states that an evil lich was the one who ended reality, though it later turns out not to be quite as simple as that. For reasons unknown, the only thing that has survived is a small camp. You play as the simply titled 'Hero' who has awakened to find himself in this camp. Leaving the place you discover that your travels cause the world to be filled in and re-built around you, but should you retreat back to the place of safety, or should you be knocked unconscious and brought back home, then the world will once again fall away into nothingness. Initially you set out to defeat the evil lich, hoping with his death the world will be restored.

The story ties into the gameplay as it provides a lore reason for why this is a rogue-like. The world being filled in also fits this, as you have a hand in creating the small world of the loop. Each new run you start creates a random smallish loop which your character automatically travels around. There will be various enemies you encounter, but again this results in automation, with you automatically attacking enemies until either you or they die. By defeating enemies you receive a variety of things. Resources can be used to take back to camp in order to develop it, items and weapons can be equipped to make yourself stronger, while tile cards can be placed both on the loop itself and the surrounding world can be used to force particular enemy encounters, as well as to increase your stats. Loop tiles can for instance be a forest, this area will spawn wolves of a kind, as well as give you wood resource for passing through them. Placing mountains on the world outside the loop will increase your health, suburbs will increase your experience, grass will increase the healing granted at the start of every day (there is a swift day cycle that also constantly is looping). The cards can also be combined to give different boosts. For instance, putting a village tile on the loop (which grants you a quest against a stronger enemy in order to get a reward, as well as healing you for passing through it) combined with a vampire mansion tile on the world next to it (which spawns vampires) creates a cursed village that will then spawn zombies for the next three or four loops but then results in a better village after this.

You can have a total of fifteen different tiles equipped at any one time. My favourites were an Oblivion card that has the ability to destroy a placed tile, and an outpost card that sees an A.I join you in any battles taking place on the loop around it.

The game is split into two parts, the loop journey itself, and all the management back at camp. This later part gets more involved the further you develop it. Buildings placed give permanent boosts to your character such as more health and more strength, and also help you in the crafting aspect. Huts increase the number of stat increasing items you can have equipped, lost books recovered allow you to unlock really interesting lore (multiple bits of lore not only exist for enemies and tiles, but even furniture and resources have their own lore). The alchemy section become essential for later upgrades as they allow you to transmute any resource into any other type of resource. You can also build a potion area which provides you with health potions you automatically use on your loop, and guard towers that will cause soldiers to join in any battles near the camp tile. This camp section is essential enough that the game even deems fit to give you stats for time played both in and out of the camp. I had an overall playtime of forty six hours, but ten of those hours were spent fiddling around back at base.
While I thought the game was unique and fascinating it isn't without its faults. I loved the music, but there are only a handful of tunes, so you are constantly hearing the same couple of background tunes while travelling around. These sometimes had some audio distortions to them which didn't sound intended. A likely bigger stumbling block for most will be the amount of grinding needed to be able to beat the game. It is split up into four chapters, each giving enemies more abilities, as well as resulting in a different boss encounter. From the simple presentation it might seem impossible that you could put so many hours into it, but these for me included around ten to fifteen hours of pure grinding. Enjoying the game so damn much this wasn't an issue, I liked sticking on a podcast and just doing a few runs for resource gathering purposes.
An actual real life issue might arise for people in that the studio behind the game, Four Quarters, are based in Russia. The team did put out an official statement stating their opposition to the terrible invasion of Ukraine, and also said that they are perfectly happy with people pirating the game if they are unable to purchase it due to sanctions placed on Russia currently.

I found Loop Hero to be an almighty breath of fresh air. I enjoyed every second of this wonderful game, I loved the atmosphere, I loved the world, I loved how something so simple looking could be so much fun to play (for an idea of just how purposely simple the game is, the player character is represented by a small all-white stick figure on the map screen. As always when reviewing a game I have loved, I have waffled on without even going into everything. I could have mentioned the three different classes (warrior, rogue, and necromancer), gone into more detail on the amount of tiles and combinations there are, and explained everything in general better. Loop Hero is currently free to play if you own Game Pass, but is also not that expensive (I believe around £10). Due to liking it so much I happily brought a copy to be able to keep. Well worth playing, and my top game of 2023.

SCORE: