Skyhill: Black Mist announced for Nintendo Switch, takes the series from 2D roots
Going down
Have you played Skyhill? It's a 2D roguelike which is available on almost every current platform. In it you fight your way down to the ground level of a 100 floor hotel with tactical combat and a refined crafting system — it's a clever twist on the dungeon-crawler genre.
Well, the developers, Mandragora, are back. This time they're working with publisher Klabater on the roguelike's sequel: Skyhill: Black Mist. Rather than an initial PC exclusive launch they're going console wide with their release plans, hitting the Nintendo Switch alongside PC, Mac, Xbox One and PS4.
Skyhill: Black Mist appears to validate one of the endings to Skyhill — although the main character shares more than a passing resemblance to the one from the first game. There's a few big changes though.
The biggest change is in the perspective through which you play the game. The environments are now 3D, with the Skyhill conglomerate's sprawling condo complex the new setting for the sequel.
The player character begins the game infected and slowly dying. This time there's more than mutants to fight though, strange cultists fill the halls too, and they've kidnapped the protagonist's daughter. You've got to keep yourself alive while pushing forward through the complex to try and save your family.
My biggest disappointment in the original Skyhill was the story. It concluded with three potential endings which were all at odds with each other and undermined the small sense of hope which slowly rumbled through the game. Not only that but several endings were stretches on the core of what the game laid out, also contradicting elements of the game. A shame because the turn-based combat, easy to read stats system, crafting and progression systems were all tight and refined.
Black Mist does scrap that turn-based combat system however. From what we can see in the announcement trailer we're instead offered a much wider variety of combat options through traps, projectiles and real-time movement. It means that Skyhill has gone from a dungeon crawler to more of a survival horror game, with Black Mist giving off some serious Dead Rising meets Dead Space vibes.
More information on the game can be found over on its website, and there are also a couple of GIFs of the game shared over on its Steam page.
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