Malys is made by David Gaider a former Dragon Age developer. It uses the basic idea of Slay the Spire but adds a dark gothic horror style to it.
Malys has a lot in common with other top roguelikes. You start by choosing a deck of cards and then travel through a creepy futuristic city filled with demons. You ride through the empty streets on a motorbike trying to find a powerful being named Malys who wants to destroy everything. Along the way you battle her monsters using cards. The path you take really matters because the wrong choice could lead to a quick death while the right one might help you survive.
At the very beginning of the game I meet a mysterious character named Angel. She looks beautiful but is known for speaking in strange confusing ways. After listening to some of her odd and teasing words she shows me a map of a place called The Lower Stacks and then sends me off to explore. So far it feels like something I’ve seen in other games.
Soon I enter an old empty building. Inside I see a horrifying scene bodies have been ripped apart. The smell of rotting flesh is so strong that it’s almost real thanks to the detailed writing that appears on the side of the screen. Then I see an old man who looks either undead or possessed happily eating the dead bodies. Suddenly he looks straight at me and charges. I have no choice the fight begins.
Malys design and style are seriously impressive. The Lower Stacks battle arena looks like a place straight out of a nightmare dark, creepy and filled with terrifying demons. The enemy you're fighting is floating in the air bent backwards in a painful-looking position right in the center of the arena. It really sets a scary and intense mood.
When you play you get five cards each round. But to actually use a card you have to burn or sacrifice other cards to make candlelight which is like your energy. This means you have to think carefully. If the monster is defending this turn it’s smart to get rid of your defense cards and go full attack. If the monster is attacking you should save your attack cards and focus on blocking the damage.
At the start of my turn I summon a priest card that costs three energy. At first it seemed too expensive and not that useful. But this priest does one damage every time I use a cheap one-cost spell. After a few rounds I realized it works perfectly with my early-game cards and actually became one of the strongest parts of my strategy.
Every time you use a spell Noah the main character who is an exorcist shouts out to the person he's trying to save. He tells them to stay strong think positive and remember who they really are. This is very different from most roguelike games where you just attack and move on. It makes the story feel more connected and meaningful.
After defeating the beast I moved to the next room. Sadly it looked exactly the same as the first one. The boss fight was new but I hoped to see more of Malys world. The repeated room made the experience feel a bit less exciting. Still I spent many hours playing in The Lower Stacks. My GPU got really hot and loud while running the game it almost felt like a demon itself.
When I talked to Gaider during the Kickstarter campaign for Malys he said the game is kind of like the movie Constantine from 2005 the one with Keanu Reeves. After playing it I think that’s a great comparison. Malys has the same dark, gothic and mysterious feeling that you see in really good vampire movies. I’m very excited to keep playing and see what other secrets the game has to offer. The good news is I don’t have to wait too long.
Malys is now available in Steam Early Access for $9.99. The price will go up later when the full version (1.0) is released. If you enjoy fighting demons and sending them back to where they came from you can try the game now.
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