An indie title launched in early access recently called Source of Madness. It’s a rougelite title that’s set in a world where eldrich horrors have come down from the moon to attack everyone on the land below. The Tower of Madness is the only sanctuary, and from there, pilgrims are being sent out to beat up the monsters that are invading. You need to tackle them, collect the blood from those kills, gain some skills, and become strong enough to link the moon back to the land so that the horror either stops, or everything gets worse and everyone dies. I’m not sure, I haven’t finished the game yet, but I think it’s really good.
Something that made me hesitate about playing the game is its visual style. It’s definitely a choice that the developer has made, not something that’s been created due to a lack of budget. However, it makes the game look like something that will barely run, has poor mechanics, and won’t be enjoyable to play at all. The thing is, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Source of Madness is a fantastic game, filled with some of the best roguelite gameplay I’ve had the pleasure of experiencing in 2021, and I want more people to play it.
The game feels totally unique. You have a deep item system that revolves around elements and spells. You can have all spells, or a melee as well, and then you’re left to figure out what all the other items do by yourself. For example, there’s a hat that slowly kills you whilst making you much more powerful, a weird tradeoff. I found that having a melee was much more useful because this game is closer to Bloodborne than anything else. You get up close and personal will all sorts of mad enemies that will throw themselves across the screen to reach you.
There are secrets to unlock, and a rich lore to uncover as you play. There is so much to this game that it’s criminally underrated as an early access release. Please, if you have the opportunity, buy it and play it, because it’ll blow the mind of any Bloodborne fan and scratch an itch you didn’t know you had.
