Summer Game Fest's glitzy flagship showcase might be over for another year, but that doesn't mean we're done just yet - far from it! There'll be more bluster to come on Sunday when Microsoft shares its wares during the Xbox Games Showcase, for instance (unless its new executive team has capitulated to internet fanboys once again, in which case there's a good chance it'll be called the LOLPLAYSTATIONSUX Showcase), but first - like the zen meat in a chaos sandwich - Day of the Devs has done its thing once more.
Zombie Rollerz: The Last Ship is a survival game where you face off against hordes of zombies by arming and customizing a massive tank. You will need to roll over and shoot...
HIGH A satisfying blend of inventory management, score chasing, and uneasy horror atmosphere.
LOW It could be a grind to see all available options.
WTF All the deformed rats.
TRANSCRIPT:
Hi everyone! Eugene Sax here with another review from GameCritics.com.
There is a satisfaction in running an organized shop — everything in a neat and efficient order, and exactly where I need it to be when customers ask. Fortune Seller takes that feeling and also makes it a tense puzzle, knowing my life will be forfeit if I’m not as efficient as possible in selling to those who come to my shop…
In this roguelike shopkeeping simulator, players have a set of items they can sell to every customer who comes through their door. Customers have limited storage space, so players must fit items into their inventories as best they can. The goal is to sell enough to cover the debt for the landlord of this shop, which increases each day — but fail to make enough cash, and the landlord will take flesh instead.
It’s not all about organization though, as the types of items sold will be important as well. Items have different classifications — organic, antique, and junk, to name just a few. For each customer, there will be spots in their storage which give increased value to an item if it matches the desired item type. An antique item could sell for 100 dollars on its own, but will earn an increased 200 dollars if placed on a marked “antique” spot in the customer’s storage. Items can also have different qualities that affect item value. A Flame item will increase the value of everything above or below it in storage, while a Wave item will increase the value of everything to the left and right of it. Players need to leverage all of these descriptors efficiently in order to earn enough that day.
Between days players will buy items and tools to help out with the ever-increasing debt — more items for the shop, magic spells, or tarot cards. Magic spells can give items attributes, create new items, or destroy unwanted items. Tarot cards work similar to Joker cards in Balatro, each one having a unique effect depending on how it’s used. One tarot gives bonus money for each item sold to a customer, while the reverse gives a bonus only if they fill the customer’s storage perfectly.
There’s a lot going on in Fortune Seller, but there are plenty of reminders for each individual attribute and visual indicators for how it affects a customer’s storage. However, it does a smart thing by not telling the player exactly how much their items will sell for. Each item has a base price, but the increases earned from any of modifiers applied remains unknown, which gives a level of tension and excitement — the player never knows how much money will be earned until the sale is final.
While Fortune Seller is a gripping shopkeeping experience, I do have a few small gripes, though.
For example, there are some instances that refer to a “item stack”, but I have yet to find anywhere the term is appropriately explained. It hasn’t stopped me from completing multiple runs, but I have to wonder if I’d get further in Endless mode if I knew what it meant.
Another issue is how grindy it can be. From the start, players have one set of starting items, and more will unlock through the course of play. After eight hours put into it and multiple completed runs I’ve only unlocked two additional starting item sets out of the possible twelve. Compared to other, similar games, these unlocks are coming at a ridiculously slow pace.
In the end, Fortune Seller‘s strange atmosphere kept me engrossed and organizing items was more satisfying than I would have expected. I’m still going to keep working at this shop for a while even after finishing several runs, but it’s always a challenge to avoid paying my rent in flesh to a shadowy landlord.
For me, Fortune Seller gets 8 perfectly-filled storage boxes out of 10.
Disclosures: This game is developed and published by Kiwick. It is currently available on PC. This copy of the game was obtained via publisher and reviewed on the PC. Approximately 8 hours of play were spent playing the game, and multiple runswere completed. There are no multiplayer modes.
Parents: According to the ESRB, Fortune Seller is rated T and contains Blood and Mild Violence. While nothing is specifically gruesome on screen, it does reference the landlord killing the player with statements like “I guess your flesh will have to do.” There is a Tarot effect called “bloody” that will give a card a dripping red glow on it. The blood is more implied here than in other games, but it’s still maybe not for the younger audience.
Colorblind Modes: Colorblind Modes are not present.
Deaf & Hard of Hearing Gamers: This game offers subtitles, but subtitles cannot be altered and/or resized. There are no relevant audio cues needed for gameplay. The game is fully accessible.
Remappable controls: Controls are not remappable, and there is no control scheme. I used mouse for everything — selecting and rotating items, confirming sales, making selections, etc. Shift is used if players need more info on specific items (reviewing attributes for example). Controller is supported — A selects whatever the player is hovering over (or confirming in menus), B cancels selection or goes back in menus, X will sell items in storage, Y will reroll inventory or sell items, Right bumper/left bumper changes tabs in menus or rotates selected items, Right trigger gives more info on items.
The Speccy homebrew community has received another thrilling new title for vintage hardware with the release of Venture48k, a rogue64-ish inspired dungeon crawler tailored specifically for the classic Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48k. Developed by homebrew creator Jason-Indie, this fresh 8-bit title bridges the gap between retro nostalgia and modern mechanics, delivering a game that features 8
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The Commodore 64 gets another dose of dark, procedural dungeon crawling with the release of GloomKeep by j5-2026. This punishing new roguelike not only features 10 procedurally generated floors, but it also includes 100 hand-drawn monster glyphs themed by depth, stair guardians with themed taunts, hidden traps, healing wards, holy water, EXP bonuses, an original multi-track SID engine with mood
Game gets popular, games gets clones, that's just how the cookie crumbles. Vampire Survivors, Buckshot Roulette, Lethal Company; as soon as those games blew up, derivatives were a guarantee. This is true of Balatro too of course, a game which has produced so many clones that wildly swing between dealing with gambling in a tactful manner and outright just saying that it's good, actually. So how about a Balatro-like that forgoes the gambling, and asks you to whip out a dictionary instead?
Dungeon crawlers conceptually appeal to me as a genre, but I've never quite found one that I've entirely clicked with. I'm talking oldschool dungeon crawlers here, where you take each step as it comes. I want to crawl some dungeons! Perhaps just not like that. Hopefully, Dungeon Lurker, with its crunchy dark fantasy pixel art and muddy, deep sound effects, will be able to make the difference.
Blood in the Panopticon is an ASCII bullet hell roguelike where you command combat android C424 through humanity extermination missions while navigating a complex relationship system.
In Blood in the Panopticon you’ll battle toward humanity’s most feared weapons across six unique bosses through Strata 13, collecting over 100 unique upgrades shaping C424 into a weapon matching your playstyle. Death arrives frequently but replaceable metal bodies … Read More
Band Together is a survivors-like adventure where you assemble musical animal groups to restore happiness across a kingdom fallen into widespread grumpiness through the power of procedurally generated melodies.
In Band Together you’ll recruit diverse creatures each contributing distinct instrumental parts that combine into dynamic soundtracks unique to every playthrough. Your growing ensemble explores forests, villages, and hillsides completing quests for sour faced inhabitants while … Read More
Aramatus immediately caught my eye, as I consider myself a big fan of the roguelike genre. These days, it seems like most roguelikes tend to rely on 2D graphics, while Aramatus features fully realized 3D graphics powered by Unreal Engine, set in a post-apocalyptic Paris overrun by demons, making it something I wanted to check out when given the opportunity.
One of my favourite roguelike games is Returnal, which I fell in love with on the PlayStation 5 back in 2021. At a glance, Aramatus borrows the fast, frenetic third-person shooter action of the former, with Counterplay Games Inc. adding its own unique twist. Aramatus is set in a demon-infested Paris, where a cataclysmic event known as the Vanishing has transformed the most promising of humanity into demons. Players assume the role of a gunslinging immortal, summoned to earth by a holy order in the hopes of eliminating the demon scourge.
I was given access to the first biome in Aramatus, which consists of roughly 13 rooms and eight sectors. Sectors serve as the primary combat zones within the biome, while the total room count also includes the interstitial spaces between hostile encounters. These transitional areas function as pit stops, where players receive a random boon, such as weapon upgrades, secondary abilities or healing pools, along with other RNG-based modifiers.
“At a glance, Aramatus borrows the fast, frenetic third-person shooter action of the former, with Counterplay Games Inc. adding its own unique twist.”
In Aramatus, players can wield a range of modern firearms, including automatic rifles, shotguns, precision weapons and submachine guns. Weapons are divided into tiers, which determine their effectiveness as well as their secondary firing modes. Secondary fire adds variety by introducing both practical and fantastical abilities, such as grenade launchers, flamethrowers and energy-based sonic blasts. Players also have access to a powerful melee option in the form of a scythe, which, like a weapon’s secondary fire, operates on a cooldown timer.
Augmenting your toolkit further, in addition to the powerful melee and secondary fire mode of your weapon of choice, Aramatus features unique special attacks that players can earn by clearing rooms. With only the first biome currently playable, I was only able to discover two of the unique power-ups, including a Max Payne-style bullet time augment and a devastating groundpound AoE attack.
Progressing deeper into the first biome of Aramatus unlocked additional enhancements for my special abilities. These included an extended radius for my ground pound and increased damage per second for my firearms, depending on proximity to enemies.
Other notable upgrades I encountered during my time with the Aramatus demo included homing-style shots, extra melee charges and additional projectiles that trigger after landing a hit. Ideally, the full release of Aramatus will introduce even more over-the-top upgrades that allow players to push builds to their limits, as those moments of excess are often what make roguelikes so compelling.
As far as the first biome is concerned, Aramatus presents a contemporary Paris transformed by medieval and Gothic-inspired characters and demonic creatures. The setting blends modern architecture with otherworldly corruption, creating a striking visual contrast. The art direction is strong, featuring stylized character designs that lend the game a comic-book aesthetic while remaining grounded in a recognizable real-world environment.
“Death can come quickly in Aramatus, though players begin each run with three charges of a health-replenishing item that can help offset mistakes.”
Gameplay is fast and responsive, with each weapon offering distinct advantages suited to different situations and playstyles. Secondary attacks feel impactful and can often determine the outcome of an encounter. Death can come quickly in Aramatus, though players begin each run with three charges of a health-replenishing item that can help offset mistakes. That said, falling into pits frequently caused moments of disorientation, which were sometimes compounded by enemy mobs closing in for a swift defeat. With further balancing ahead of release, these scenarios may become less punishing.
From a technical standpoint, Aramatus performs well and delivers strong visuals, with the exception of some noticeable judder early in the experience, likely related to shader compilation. I was also unable to get the game to recognize my controller, whether using XInput or Steam’s controller override. These issues are expected to be addressed as development continues toward release. On the subject of controls, keyboard and mouse input felt responsive and intuitive, and will likely remain my preferred way to play the game.
Overall, the short vertical slice of Aramatus that is playable is already promising and something that fans of the roguelike genre should definitely keep on their radar.
Galactic Vault is a fast-paced FPS roguelite where you build weapons to their full potential while infiltrating high-security vaults.
In Galactic Vault, big corporations hoard all technology in a dystopian future. As a former VOLT operative, your mission is infiltrating and plundering tech vaults to recover cutting-edge equipment. Start with low-tech weapons and unlock advanced options with hard-earned currency for stronger starts.
