Clockfall Preview: Time is not on your side in this roguelite dungeon-crawler

Ever since Hades debuted several years ago, we've seen the dungeon-crawling action roguelike category boom and lead to several amazing alternatives. While each of these games are entertaining in their own right, aside from the core gameplay structure, they do each tend to play with another key idea: time. As the idea is to 'live, die, repeat', as Edge of Tomorrow so eloquently put it, these games are often anchored by a story where the protagonist is trapped in a sort of time loop or utilising non-linear time flows to their advantage. We saw it recently again with The Rogue Prince of Persia and even the Hades sequel plays with time, although in a slightly different manner...

The folks over at Rever Games are looking to claim their slice of the pie by soon delivering Clockfall. This is an action dungeon-crawling roguelite, where the aim is to head out on a mission where you are literally against the clock and given a fraction of the time to amass power and upgrades before being thrust into a 'boss' encounter. Should you fail, and you eventually will by design, you will be sent back to the hub area to start a new run from scratch albeit with some minor improvements to put to good use.

Clockfall isn't looking to rewrite the formula so many fans have come to adore from these kinds of games but it does have a plethora of interesting ideas not found elsewhere. For one, the time mechanism puts a strain on the player that otherwise doesn't exist elsewhere as chances are you will not 'die' during a run through the respective dungeons but will instead run out of available time to explore the wider domain. Essentially, a powerful clock allocates a fraction of time for you to explore and grow stronger, all before you are required to defend your home village for as long as you possibly can in the aforementioned 'boss' event. It's a Sisyphean task, one you are actively expected to lose, ultimately seeing your village burnt to cinders once more despite protecting it for a few seconds longer after each and every run. It's a rather interesting design choice because there is noticeable repetition but you can also see improvements in a physical form in regards to how much longer you can impede destiny each time.

As you defend your village for an extended period of time, you notch up Anomalies of Time, which are essentially permanent resources you can spend at the hub village beyond the grasp of destiny, and this could be acquiring new weapons or spells to use in battle, improving your core attributes so your base damage or health is higher, or even adding a minute to the game clock for each run. It's with this in mind that you start to see the loop taking shape, as you begin, explore, gather items, run out of time, defend your base, lose, spend your resources, and then restart the cycle from scratch again with an extra minute to play with. This should mean you can travel further and all being well discover the 'secrets' of each location, including finding key parts to the clock at the centre of your village, which when repaired may allow you to subvert destiny altogether.

But Rever Games also adds in a few additional creative flairs to define how you go about playing Clockfall. A key element is that the doors connecting each dungeon of a run only open at a cost - this being time. The start of the dungeon might knock five seconds off your total timer whereas later doors could hack away 40 or more seconds, meaning you cannot progress without enough time in the bank and might quickly run out of steam if you haven't explored quickly. You might think the trick is to zoom through rooms, moving door-to-door at a break-neck pace, but you also need to gather gold from defeated enemies to spend on vital charges to defend your base, all while finding and opening chests to find temporary attribute enhancements, locating tools to aid in village protection (like an automated Ballista), and praying at shrines for versatile enhancements. There are a huge amount of things to take into account and you have to be decisive and smart about how you go about your tasks if you have any intention of making meaningful overall progress.

The demo version I had the opportunity to test only featured one biome, but there are several and Rever Games promises tens and tens of total rooms to explore across the core biomes too. Essentially, there are a lot of secrets to discover and opportunities to take advantage of, all while completing the core tasks of finding the clock's parts and saving your village from a grisly fate. This core design philosophy also seems to work rather well and serves as a strong foundation to build upon, with tight and fulfilling gameplay bolstering the decisive dungeon crawling format. Sure, it's early and a little rough around the edges in places, but the bones are strong and the idea is entertaining enough to warrant becoming excited for what Rever is cooking with Clockfall.

So I'll stay optimistic and excited about what's on the horizon. Again, this isn't a completely revamped take on the dungeon-crawling roguelike formula, it's just a unique version of the tried and tested system that many adore. It fundamentally works, is fluid and snappy enough to keep you engaged, and has a loop where rewards and improvements are served up at a good rate. It is, simply put, a fun game.