Brut@l

In a sea of roguelikes, you might as well go to the source. Brut@l is a brilliantly addictive reimagining of the original Rogue with smart graphics and accessible combat.

It’s a hugely entertaining, visually striking experience, and has instantly become my favourite multiplayer title on the PlayStation 4.

Brut@l is one of this summer's most pleasant surprises. By taking inspiration from classics like Rogue and adding new gameplay mechanics, striking visuals and some very fluent gameplay, Brut@l becomes a great game in its own right.

An experience housing enough content to validate repeated play-throughs, Brut@l — despite its stripped approach to crafting and indeed to leveling-up — manages enough in its generative structure to add a distinct level of spice to make even the most minimal-looking of scenarios feel both exciting and enticing.

There are only so many bad guys you can explode to bright red bits before they — pardon the pun — start to bleed into each other. If that's your thing, then for sure you'll want to check this game out, but if it's not, you'll want to proceed with a bit of caution.

Arguably, Brut@l lacks the depth of some of its genre contemporaries while the uniquely touted ASCII-inspired veneer, though a flamboyant shift from the norm, results in some visually repetitive environments. All the same, Brut@l still acquits itself nicely as a decent hack and slash yarn whose prospects are elevated by co-operative play and a neat level editor that adds a good number of extra hours to its playtime.

The dynamically generated world and character leveling systems help to emphasize its infinite replayability.