Stray Path is a roguelite card battler from developer chx games and publisher Yogscast Games, with gameplay that is easy to learn but challenging to master. It’s a delightful mix of FreeCell with Darkest Dungeon-like dungeon diving with an ample amount of difficulty. It’s a game that is really easy to get lost in. With randomly generated encounters, events, and 100s of unique pieces of equipment and items to collect, each adventure brings its own challenges for player to conquer.

Welcome To The Tavern

The game itself is easy to understand. Before beginning a game, you pick an adventurer, each of which comes with their own base stats and potential starting equipment. Then you set out on your quest for victory. Each room has 5 stacks of cards containing a mixture of monsters, items, and new rooms to explore. You have 2 slots to carry along items, and 10 slots for relics which can be mixed and matched to various strategic effect.

 The ability to move cards around gives players the freedom to decide their own playstyle. Wisely avoid unnecessary fights as you blaze through rooms in search of new events or kill as many enemies as possible to farm souls that you can exchange for new adventurers and items in between rounds.

Speaking of souls, despite being a pre-release demo, there are a few things to unlock. Even this early on the rate at which I was unlocking things felt incredibly balanced. I played for 2 hours, and while I was able to unlock some of the new items and even a new adventurer, I could easily put another 2 hours in before seeing everything the demo has to offer.

Final Thoughts

There is something special about Stray Path. When I initially picked it up, I was admittedly skeptical about how much I would enjoy this game. The indie game space is filled with reskins of other popular card games. Stray Path is a shining example of how to take inspiration from other genres and create something fresh.

If you can’t wait to see what else is in the full release, you can follow chx games on Twitter. Make sure to wishlist the game on Steam today!