Get ready for some psychotic card-battling, Sepsi-drinking madness with Rungore! Find out whether or not its frenetic card-based action, graphics, and humor are worth a buy in our early access review!
Rungore Early Access Review Overview
Rungore Pros & Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
 Tense, Exhilarating Card Game/Idle Action Hybrid Character Classes and Enemies Are Unique Zany Pixel Art Style |
Progression is Too Luck-Based Humor Is Overdone at Some Parts |
Rungore Overall - 70/100
Rungore is a fun, frenetic card-battling experience that keeps you on your toes throughout your playthrough. There’s a good number of characters to use, each with their own unique skills and abilities, as well as enemies with their own gimmicks. The pixel graphics are charming, while the audio could use some work. Even though the game is still in early access, it already has a strong foundation one day on which a great game can stand on.
Rungore Story - 6/10
Rungore’s basic premise is that you’re trudging through a vaguely post-apocalyptic medieval land while following the whims of a psychotic Microsoft Office desktop assistant. There’s not much of a story to be found here at current, though to be fair, stories aren’t the main focus of games like Rungore anyway, so we’re giving it a middle-of-the-road score.
Rungore Gameplay - 8/10
The strongest part of Rungore is its unique mix of card battling and idle action. You play your cards to affect the outcome of battles, but the cards you use will be affected by which class (or "Guy" you’re playing as, as well as what enemy you’re fighting. You can never truly predict the outcome of your playthrough because of the sheer randomness of what cards you’ll be dealt with. This proves both quite challenging and fun, but it also decreases the sense of progression in the game because getting to use the upgrades in-game can be a bit too luck-based.
Rungore Visuals - 8/10
The game’s cartoony pixel art perfectly matches the tone that the game is trying to go for - a quick, down-and-dirty action-filled romp through a dungeon. Each Guy and enemy is drawn quite well, and each of them has their own funny-looking card designs that are usually based on popular memes.
Rungore Audio - 5/10
Rungore’s audio feels disjointed in two parts: the main menu theme, which sounds like a foreboding, never-ending groan straight out of a horror game, and the combat music, which is a rather upbeat mix of techno beats that sounds very cyberpunkish but somehow matches the tempo of the game. This is an aspect of the game that still needs more polish.
Rungore Value for Money - 8/10
For $15, Rungore is a fun, unique experience that’s nice enough to play even for just one afternoon. Since it’s still in early access, it’s expected that the game will receive more updates in the future (especially in the way of characters). If you like card-battlers and idle action games, this game is worth your money.
Rungore Early Access Review: A Killer Card Game
Card games and action games are two genres that developers have been mixing throughout the years, usually with great results like Square Enix’s Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Library of Ruina, and Neon White. Rungore is no different. It’s a roguelite idle battler that’s been smushed together with a card battle game, and the end product was a speedy, gory experience.
You are in charge of a bunch of "Guys," each with their own unique skills. Your Guy goes through a corridor, fighting enemies automatically, and you use cards to affect the outcome of the battle. Easy enough, right? Wrong. For one thing, each Guy has their own unique set of cards, which necessitates their own play style. Also, each enemy has its own gimmick, which necessitates a different way to deal with them.
So, you end up with a game where you’re figuring out how to effectively use your Guy of choice, while fretting over whether or not you use all your cards up before the next battle. It’s a frenetic experience that keeps your adrenaline pumping, if only because using the right card at the right time can spell the difference between winning in the dungeon or seeing one of the game’s many game over screens.
For what it is, Rungore is a fun game. There’s a unique challenge in learning how to use your characters’ cards effectively, and figuring out how to deal with all kinds of enemies and their gimmicks. The cartoony pixel art style lends itself to the hyperactive violence the game encourages you to join in, while the audio is a weird mix of eerie foreboding and… techno beats. Since Rungore’s still in early access, there’s a lot of room for improvement, though the core concept itself is strong enough to be worth trying out.
Pros of Rungore
| Things Rungore Got Right |
|---|
|
Tense, Exhilarating Card Game/Idle Action Hybrid Character Classes and Enemies Are Unique Zany Pixel Art Style |
Tense, Exhilarating Card Game/Idle Action Hybrid
Rungore’s strongest suit is how it combines an idle action game with cards and somehow comes out with an experience that feels like you’re playing a Soulslike how it makes things like timing and execution so crucial.
You’ll be using dodge cards at the last second before your enemy attacks, you’ll be tossing out a card that takes a chunk of your health but gives you a massive attack power boost before using a bunch of attack cards, and you’ll be rerolling the cards your pets provide you just so you can get one that actually buffs your stats. All this while the game continues in bullet time (a feature which you can buy from the Shop with Gold, by the way). Further challenge comes from how each Guy has his own deck of cards and playstyle, and how each enemy has its own gimmick.
Character Classes and Enemies Are Unique
So you’ve got the Knight Guy, who’s the jack-of-all-trades combat specialist with basic cards any other Guy has access to. But then you get characters like the Bow Guy, who specializes in dealing critical hits while dodging counter-attacks, or the Hungry Guy, who attacks faster the more HP he has. Each of these characters requires a different way of playing - one’s more aggressive with using up cards, the other’s more defensive and focuses on healing, while another is more focused on dealing debuffs to enemies. It really feels like you’re using different characters and learning how to play them properly.
Then there are the enemies. Mirrors use your cards against you, Sunflowers attack whenever you draw cards, Capsules spawn enemies upon death, and there are even blobs that sub-divide into 64 separate blobs that you’ll have to kill before they kill you. Each enemy has to be dealt with differently depending on what kind of cards you have, and most of the time you’ll have to improvise because you may not have all the cards you need.
Zany Pixel Art Style
Rungore looks a lot like those cartoony flash games that came out during the late 2000s, and it’s quite charming to look at as a result. Each Guy and enemy has their own little quirks, and you can see that the developer took time to draw them. For example, the Scientist enemy actually has a sprite of him attacking you with "Facts and Logic." Someone actually drew that. Funny stuff.
The cards themselves also have their own unique designs that revolve around the Guy using them. For example, the Hungry Guy’s cards are mostly related to either food or masochism, so you’ve got sandwiches and brass knuckles and caltrops. Some cards are based on popular memes (like the Mark card, and a lot of the Pet-related cards). You can see that a lot of love has been put into the art style of the game.
Cons of Rungore
| Things That Rungore Can Improve |
|---|
|
Progression is Too Luck-Based Humor Is Overdone at Some Parts |
Progression is Too Luck-Based
Whenever you’ve cleared a dungeon (or died during a run), you get Gold, which you can use at the Shop to buy equipment upgrades for your Guys. The thing is, these upgrades are treated like cards. So, when you’re doing a run and you’ve just finished a battle, you’ll be given the choice of selecting cards and the equipment upgrade. But since these options are randomized, there’s a feeling that you may never get the upgrade you truly need.
So even if you’ve bought all the equipment upgrades, it feels like you haven’t really gotten stronger because there’s a good chance you won’t get access to the upgrade you actually need at that part of the playthrough. Maybe we could also get upgrades that increase the likelihood of the different upgrades appearing? Something that actually carries over between playthroughs and comes off as a sign that yes, you are actually getting stronger in-game.
Humor Is Overdone at Some Parts
Rungore has a lot of gags based on popular memes. I’ve already mentioned the card designs being based on popular memes, so there’s that. Sometimes, during your run through a dungeon, there are random events that reference Millennial and Zoomer humor (you get to call your enemies ‘cringe’ at least once). While this is all welcome at first, with most gags giving me a good chuckle, it can eventually feel overdone when you’ve been playing the game for a bit. The ironic and referential humor loses its appeal rather fast.
Is Rungore Worth It?
Definitely Worth Your $15
Rungore is one of the more unique card-based games that came out this year. It’s certainly a type of game that I didn’t expect would be so good, and I’m not a big fan of card-based games in general. If you are a fan, though, and you also like roguelites and idle action games, Rungore is a great game to try out and play, especially since the game’s bound to be expanded in the future by virtue of being in early access.
Rungore Overview & Premise
Rungore is a card game smashed together with an idle action battler, creating a roguelike 2D battle adventure where you have to mow through different enemies while deciding which card to use. Each class or "Guy" has his own cards and playstyle, which you’ll have to learn how to use properly because it can get really random between battles. Now go out there and grind the bones of your enemies to dust for Clippy.
Rungore FAQ
Is Rungore Coming to the Nintendo Switch?
According to its page on the Game Development World Championship website, Rungore is slated to come out for the Nintendo Switch, as well as the Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. However this console version is currently on hold, and may come out within 2024.
How Do I Consume The Sepsi?
During your playthrough, you will get the objective ‘Consume the Sepsi,’ which you’ll need to do to unlock the Pet Guy. So go into any of the dungeons (like the Pet Nursery, for example), and there’s a chance you’ll get a random event where you’ll be asked to shove cards into a Mutatron-3000. Select the middle option that says "Yes, all my deck and a small Sepsi, please," which will result in all your cards being taken. In exchange, you’ll get a Sepsi card. Use it and finish the dungeon run to complete the objective.
Game8 Reviews
Rungore Product Information
 |
|
| Title | RUNGORE |
|---|---|
| Release Date | October 12, 2023 |
| Developer | YOUR_MOM'S_HP, RavenJm |
| Publisher | GrabTheGames, Gamera Games, UpgradePoint |
| Supported Platforms | PC |
| Genre | Card Game, Idle Action |
| Number of Players | 1 |
| ESRB Rating | N/A |
| Official Website | Rungore Page on GDWC Website |
