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Atmospheric and gruelling action roguelikes are all around us these days, but they pretty much all involve heading into dungeons, scaling towers, or escaping otherworldly realms on foot. Well, in the newly-revealed Scaravan 66, you’re fortunate enough that protagonist Lucky has passed her test, because this roguelike is all about brutal vehicular combat.
In a somewhat similar vein to one of the best roguelikes of all time, Hades, Scaravan 66 gives you one simple, overarching task – escape from a hell-like realm. Whereas Supergiant’s classic takes place in the Greek underworld, Scaravan 66 sees you trapped by the Devil on a never-ending hellish highway – the temptation for an AC/DC pun is strong right now. Determined to keep you bound to this nightmare roadtrip, the Devil will throw endless waves of demonic creatures (who are also pretty good behind the wheel) your way.
“As a Road Reaper, you’re bound to the very highway where you drew your last breath and condemned to harvest mortal souls for what may be eternity,” developer Lithic Entertainment says. “Yet behind the wheel, you are a force to be reckoned with.”
In your attempts to eliminate the hordes of enemies and progress further and further down the road, you’ll not only have to be agile and speedy to make good ground and dodge incoming attacks, but you’ll have an arsenal all of your own. Ram into opponents, sideways slam into those that pull up alongside you, fire tethers at enemy vehicles to pull them off the road, or gun them down with ranged weaponry. While of course different in terms of style and setting, I definitely get vibes of Avalanche Studios’ 2015 Mad Max game, or even some of the vehicular combat sections in iD’s Rage.
Of course, on your first few commutes you’re not going to be strong enough to overthrow the Devil’s forces and make it to the end, so with each trip down this roguelike Route 66, you’re going to need to get stronger. You can do this by making pit stops to visit other Road Reapers like yourself, who may teach you a trick or two. You can also head to the Junkyard to purchase upgrades to your vehicle.
Lithic also says that enemies that get the better of you will remember you and that the Devil “fine-tunes” their strategy for keeping you trapped during each run.
There is currently no release date for Scaravan 66. However, if you want to wishlist it and learn more about it, head over to its Steam page here.
For similar thrills, why not check out our guides to the best action games and the best racing games.
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