CloverPit

I can see the fun and dangerous side of gambling … especially when your life depends on a lucky roll or hitting the jackpot. For the last week, I've been locked in a grimy room with nothing but a toilet, a chest of drawers, and a slot machine with a menacing voice telling me to gamble like my life depended on it... and it did! And I loved it!

Dealing with the Devil?

With the success of a certain deck-building, roguelike from last year, it was certain there would be a new sub-genre born from the beautiful chaos. The gambling roguelike (I imagine some mad lad will do a demonic version of 21…). CloverPit is an uncomplicated, yet highly engaging and engrossing game where you are a prisoner, trapped in a dank room with a demonic-looking slot machine and a few other bits to keep you company. There is a demented voice telling you to make as much money as possible in each round, or the floor will open and swallow you whole! You die, you repeat, and you keep going until you make enough to escape the room.

The stakes are raised with each round, new titbits of information are revealed, evolving the mystery at hand, and deep down, there is an interesting message on the evils of gambling, through vicious questioning and gambling gameplay.... neat little twist. It has all the right roguelike elements at its core, with the short, sweet, and gripping mini-gameplay loop, where in 30 seconds, you will either make it or break it, and progress through countless hours in meaningful ways. Usually with perks and modifiers. All of this presents one of the best and heavy-hitting roguelikes I've played in a while.


Betting with your life!

The idea of pulling the arm of a slot machine is nothing new; we've been doing that for God knows how long. But the idea of creating your own luck and playing the house with a different combination of strategy and risk-taking can bring about high rewards, which you want more of as the game goes on. Plus, the demonic, horror vibes add a nice layer of tension and aesthetic charm. I will admit, even though CloverPit is fantastic at its pacing, especially in the late game, the start of the game can still feel like a slight grind, no matter the amount of permanent modifiers you've unlocked. The starting point didn't really start to change for at least 7 hours for me. Before then, there was a lot of repetition and restrictions that brought out the RNG fearsome.

I get it, a roguelike being repetitive, not shocking. It happens, but there was something else here.

Once you obtain the critical bits you need to start manipulating the odds, usually by the second deadline (stage), things pick up massively. But that first stage, after a few hours, just made me grit my teeth. It's not bad, it's just that other roguelikes, after a few hours, develop the beginning with something special. Hades it was the story, and I feel CloverPit could have started tantalising you with more of the mystery early on, but it takes its sweet old time to do that too. It's not a massive problem; roguelikes can be a little slow in general, that's the purpose, but even something like Dead Cells gave you some little bits to add to the mystery, like meeting random characters, seeing those characters evolve, and gaining key items. There is some of that, very minor, as the focus is on the gameplay, but the mystery and evolving that is kind of missed here.


Go Cherry! Go Lemon! Go 66 … Oh

How the gambling evolves is masterful, and you will already see hundreds of videos about how to make the most of the various good luck charms you get and playing the game before it plays you. The flow (aside from the first round) is perfect, with there being three spins per round, you are getting enough to get you by and make purchases, and interest on coins returns the more you feed into the machine. There is a good rhythm to it all, but it took me an hour or so to fully grasp the mechanical nature of it. It’s all RNG, but luck plays an important part in things, so obtaining charms that present further luck is vital.

There is a little learning curve, one which can be easily overlooked regarding luck. And without utilising this, the game is a grind, and rather tedious if you go on your own luck. You get charms that increase your luck and provide important bonuses to draw you more money for your freedom, and understanding, combining and using those with other factors is a must, and playing them, all right, will bring about some massive highs and wins! You need the luck in the game, and the strategies with the charms you get, the buffer you equip, and how you spend your money to increase your interest or keep it in case you can double your fortune. This is all very thrilling, and the joy of getting the charms you love (mine were the lucky cat, mushrooms, lemon modifiers, and a couple of other things it isn’t telling you!), and seeing all those lights and buzzing sounds telling you that you've won big makes my brain melt in an explosion of bliss.

And the game is generally not cheating or screwing you over. There is a nice mechanic, quite thematic too, where the. The money you put into the machine to accumulate the total for progressing to the next round will give you money back as interest. It's something I forgot about since I wanted to hoard my wealth for nice charms and other bits, hoping for a massive bonus that doubled my coins. But also, this could screw me over (and it did) as the interest over a stage could have made the difference between life and death (and it saved me a couple of times too).

There is a great deal of small but important lateral components that you need to play, and depending on how you play them, will bring about an amazing set of risk/reward moments I haven't felt since playing something like Amnesia: The Bunker.


Overall?

CloverPit has all the right elements a great roguelike should have: a simple, round structure that’s highly engaging and rewarding. An interesting setting, and plenty of random RNG that you can alter through clever decision-making. And the hook which keeps you coming back for more … I definitely lost quite a few hours, more so than I like to admit. But that’s fine, CloverPit is a fantastic game that spews evil vibes, and good times! I do wish there were some more interesting story elements; there were plenty of moments and times when some titbits of story, dialogue exchanges, and lore could have been included. But the room and setting brim with personality, a creepy one, and a great vibe of horror and weirdness. I loved it, and it made up for the lacking narrative elements.

Honestly, CloverPit is a seedy, nasty, and gruelling blast that kept me coming back… even at pivotal moments when I’m asked if I want to stop … and I never felt like doing so.

Powerful stuff.


+++ Gripping and satisfying roguelike gameplay
++ High replayability
++ Awesome horror vibes

- Story elements could be a little more engaging


The publisher kindly provided a PC review key of CloverPit.