I've played a lot of games this Steam Next Fest and covered quite a few that have real potential, but Shape of Dreams, an upcoming action roguelike from Lies of P publisher Neowiz and delightfully named dev Lizard Smoothie, has grabbed me faster and harder than anything else.
This is an isometric game promising "a fusion of MOBA-style controls and systems with action roguelike gameplay," and its demo is a whip-smart combination of so many things I love that it's managed to overcome my instinctive dislike of MOBAs. And I haven't even gotten to the 4-player co-op yet.
The demo begins with the destruction of the boundary between the real world and the dream world, giving rise to a purgatorial in-between called The Rapids. Monsters pour out, our heroes dive in, and some villain sends beefed-up Hunters our way as curveballs on our procedurally generated adventures.
From your starting point, you select and conquer chambers to reveal more of the map, scrounging up resources, new abilities, and myriad upgrades to improve your build before fighting the boss at the end. Knowing what chambers to explore and what to skip is half the battle. My mind digs up lessons from Risk of Rain and Slay the Spire when I look at the map. Can I handle an elite right now? Do I have enough gold to justify a merchant visit? Should I just rush the boss and get out of this floor? Should I save this healing totem for later? Soon, you learn to pace yourself and formulate a practical route to the boss, freeing you up to focus on combat.
I've been playing the default ranged hero for now because I never really gel with melee characters in games like Diablo 4, and Shape of Dreams definitely has that flavor of action RPG about it. It also instantly feels fantastic. It really is a PvE MOBA. Aim your basic attacks, space your AoE, stagger your cooldowns or let 'em rip for a burst of damage, and dodge, dodge, dodge through enemies.
I've torn through waves of spiders, ghouls, and some kind of Wendigo boss. I've chucked fireballs, unloaded shotgun blasts, rapid-fired piercing rounds, summoned hellfire from above, cleaved through crowds with a sword in hand, and slowed groups to set up wombo combos. A staggering variety of skills is thrown your way, and you can augment them further with collectable gems or stat upgrades that tailor your hero's strengths. Again, my Risk of Rain sense is tingling: the buildcrafting potential for semi-automatic room-destroying machines is clear.
Shape of Dreams is the most-played action roguelike in Steam Next Fest at the time of writing, and I absolutely see why. You can add my voice to the growing pile of positive reviews on the demo page. This is a novel and elegant mish-mash of a lot of good ideas, and it's rocketing up my Steam wishlist. The full game is out in May, the same month as bizarre-o roguelike Elden Ring Nightreign, and all of the sudden I'm desperate to play it.
