If you love games where death is just a step to a new game then Skyhill you should like it. Skyhill is a small indie game signed Daedalic and greenlit by the Steam community currently in beta. The game is well advanced and playable in the version I was able to test despite some bugs being fixed.
Pitch
Skyhill is a rogue like where, as the "last" survivor of a hotel, I am given the mission to reach the exit located a hundred floors below. As a privileged customer, I owe my survival only to the fact that as a VIP my room on the top floor is provided with multiple safeguards against attacks of any kind. I have to get out of it: I therefore leave the flower with a gun (and yes, we start with an empty backpack and no weapon) with the aim of reaching the exit but above all of surviving. I quickly realize that it is not going to be easy and that I would have to make multiple round trips to my room, the only place where I can cook food properly and make a lot of equipment. Unfortunately for this first part, my lack of experience leads me inexorably to a quick death. Come on, next time, I'll avoid eating rotten food.
gameplay
To survive
Skyhill is a turn-based game where each action (basically getting in or out of a room) costs 1 food point. We start with 50 points that must be used wisely and not wasted. Once at zero, you can still play but at the cost of a drain on your life points and, in general, at this level death is not very far away. The food bar is of course recharged by eating more or less good and more or less prepared foods. As the VIP apartment we occupy is equipped with a cooking station, meat can be cooked there to make it more nutritious. We start with 100 life points that we lose very quickly by dint of meeting mutants and zombies that attack you. This bar can be restored by 2 means: drugs found or manufactured and a little sleep cure in your bed which will cost you a little food.
Explore
Once I understood these 2 concepts of life and food bars, I was better prepared to begin a new journey to even more distant floors. Each floor that I visit consists of 3 rooms, a hall with staircase and elevator (to be used imperatively to avoid losing food when going down or ascent on foot by the stairs, so it will have to be repaired in some places ) as well as a part on the right and one on the left. Each room is different and the layout is also different each time I try. So, sometimes, interesting objects (weapon, food, medicine) were found in abundance in my bag from the start of my descent and I knew that my journey would potentially be longer than usual. And sometimes, no guns until the 90th floor and much more complicated encounters with mutants damaged my life expectancy from the start. Each new adventure is different, as are the events and meetings. Thus, I was given the opportunity to help an old man who is still alive, by making an exchange with him, to follow by finding a cell phone the story of 2 lovers, but above all to know more about the contamination. through many documents found during my adventures. All "history" type items are saved and constitute your personal event archives.
craft
Exploration wasn't enough, so I had to move on to crafting and upgrading to progress my descent into hell. My VIP room has 4 upgradeable areas:
- The bed : to sleep better and recover more health points.
- the barricade: so as not to be surprised during the nap.
- the kitchen : to prepare more nourishing dishes or why not wonderful cocktails.
- the workshop: the most important place to upgrade to get new recipes for weapons or survival items.
Combat
With my improvised spear, made of a piece of wood and a knife, I was ready to face the worst mutants. Thanks to my experience from previous fights, I had increased different elements:
- my resistance: to better withstand blows.
- my speed: to type first and sometimes twice in a row.
- my touch: it's always better not to miss your opponent.
- my agility: and it's always better that he misses you.
Each fight is played in turn, The flight is possible but the mutant can strike me one last blow for form but will not come out of his room to pursue me (phew). 2 combat modes are available. By clicking on the enemy, the character hits him (or misses him) then the enemy hits you and so on. In the 2nd mode, you can choose which zone to hit among 3. Depending on the zone chosen, the chance of success is more or less important and the damage is of course accordingly. You can change your weapon or mode during the fight or take a medicine if you have previously thought of equipping it in the left hand ...
My opinion
- simplistic but effective gameplay
- infinite replayability
- addictive
- limited graphics
- no material decraft found
- a little too difficult for me
Personal report
After about twenty games, I unlocked a certain number of bonuses / penalties (to be chosen at the start of the game to make your games different), I went down to the 49th floor in easy mode (I can't even imagine the mode difficile ...) and found many documents on the history of the hotel and the epidemic. Despite its flaws and the fact that there are still a few things missing to make it perfect (but the developers have promised updates), I have spent and will spend a lot of time in this hotel until I finally have reached the ground floor!
So tempted by this descent into hell ...
