Upcoming Steam roguelike game Gatekeeper already has my attention, and its next class looks like the most fun addition to the roster yet. Following the launch of free prequel game Gatekeeper: Infinity, this new co-op game blending the sci-fi stylings of Risk of Rain and the explosive top-down combat of Diablo 4 gives us a look at Pandora, the next addition to the list of Gatekeeper classes.
With the free prequel Gatekeeper: Infinity already catching my eye with its slick, fast-paced top-down combat, I’m excited to see what’s coming for the fully-fledged version of Gatekeeper. If developer Gravity Lagoon can build on those solid mechanics with more environments, upgrades, and long-term replayability, we could have a worthy addition to the best roguelike games on our hands.
Enter Pandora. The next addition to the Gatekeeper lineup is a talented mage who sacrificed herself to save those of her world, and has thus been summoned as a Gatekeeper to help protect the Heart of Time. A ranged burst damage character, the initial glimpse at Pandora in action shows her darting between groups and blasting numerous enemies at once, which causes energy from the defeated foes to arc into the air and come crashing back down in devastating AoE explosions.
Gravity Lagoon notes that Pandora has less health than her fellow Gatekeepers, but mitigates this with a healing circle that’s created at locations she dashes to. It’s got a pretty generous radius, meaning you’ll be able to keep your allies topped off too, making her a great team player.
“Pandora went a long way through the design and development process,” the team explains. “Initially, she dealt extreme damage with long cooldowns, but watching people play we noticed it was boring to roam around waiting for skills to refresh.” As a result, it cut the cooldowns and the skill damage, but felt that this made her feel too similar to the starting character Hybrid (one of the playable classes in Infinity).
“After several other iterations, it looks like the perfect balance is achieved,” Gravity Lagoon concludes. It doesn’t reveal all the details, however: “[We] don’t want to spoil the discovery for you,” it says, “so we hope you’ll enjoy exploring other skills, their evolutions (yes, now you can evolve skills), and various kickass builds.”
Gatekeeper launches on Steam in the first quarter of 2024. You can add it to your wishlist now if you want to keep track of its progress, or you can play the free prequel Gatekeeper: Infinity right now.
Take a look through more of the best games like Diablo if you just can’t get enough of that top-down blasting, or browse the best indie games on PC in 2023 for plenty more excellence from smaller teams.
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