Rogue Legacy 2 has begun its quest through early access
Toss the grandkids down the dungeon.
Well then, Rogue Legacy 2. It's time to pick up where your predecessor left off and start a new lineage of dungeon-diving kiddos - prettier than before, but still squarely focussed on tossing your descendants down the dungeons. After slightly missing its planned July launch, Cellar Door's sword-swinging sequel hit Steam early access today, a mere seven years after the first game.
As before, Rogue Legacy 2 follows a family of clanking, armoured dungeon-delvers. It flaunting a more painterly look this time round, but sending your grandkids into spike-filled pits for treasure? That's timeless.
Right now, Rogue Legacy 2 contains a "complete game loop" - fire it up, select a lineage, explore a town hub and go dungeon-crawling in the castle. There are only 1-and-a-half biomes to raid, four character classes, over 700 rooms and one big bad boss to take down in the game as-is. Naturally, you'll see those numbers rise as early access drags on.
Cellar Door hope to have a "major update" (new biomes, bosses, major features and the like) arrive roughly every two months, with smaller updates adding new spells, items, rooms and such between these larger drops. The plan is that Rogue Legacy 2 will be in early access for about a year, with the full release coming "sometime in 2021".
Adam Smith (RPS in peace) quite liked the original Rogue Legacy, even if he found the core idea of choosing your descendants a bit gimmicky more often than not. "Thankfully, the actual game behind the gimmick is excellent," he wrote in his Rogue Legacy review, "and the clever use of the generational system is in the levelling of the keep and the collection of new equipment, adding an engrossing system of progression with long-term goals on top of the immensely replayable randomised platformer."
Rogue Legacy 2 is out now on Steam with a 10% discount, at £13.94/€15.11/$17.99. That cost is set to ramp up as the game fills out, before eventually settling on a full price come release.