So I Tried… Heart&Slash

Each edition of So I Tried… I will try a game that I have never tried before. Will I find something new to love? Will I find something new to despise? I'll take a full half hour, no matter how bad it gets or how badly I do, to see if this is the game for me. This time I went for the indie title Heart&Slash.

What I thought it was

A third-person game that sees you fighting your way through tons of enemies on a quest to be free. I had a quick look at a trailer, so I get the jist of it at least. There are weapons, you’re a robot with a heart on its TV-screen-face...

What it actually is

A quite difficult roguelike with a randomly generated laboratory that you have to escape from. It’s 100 years after the Robopocalypse, and humanity has been presumably wiped out by robots led by the insane QuAsSy (Quality Assurance Systems). However, the creator -- Doctor Sympathic -- somehow managed to create one last Heart unit: you. You have to escape the facility and maybe even overthrow QuAsSy.
Sorry to be so vague on the story details, but as it’s a hard game I suck at it. And being a roguelike that means there are no checkpoints, and constantly restarting the game over and over...

Will I keep playing

Hell no -- but through no fault of the game. It’s a solid hack-and-slash with a great soundtrack, but man is it difficult… I’m not one to try and push through a game that’s frustrating me. There are loads of weapons, randomly allocated at the start of each playthrough, and anything you unlock remains unlocked, but… man it’s hard...