I can’t put down this zombie RPG that mixes tons of great games

I saw the second The last spell‘S first follower In 2021 I knew I had to play it. A city builder with Dungeons and Dragons-style units on an isometric battlefield employing massive hordes of zombies Turn-based tactical combat? And staged to a pulsating metal soundtrack? It seemed like a genius recipe, and after playing a lot The last spell Over the weekend I’m happy to report that it’s the real deal.

Having completely fallen off my radar a few years ago when it entered Early Access on Steam, I recently fell deeply The last spell Rabbit Hole following the release of 1.0 for PC, PlayStation and Switch last week. This included a couple of nights where I started the game on PS5 at a reasonable hour, only to glance over a few moments later and realize it was already 1am. Even sleep was no escape, the music continued to echo through my dreams.

Developed by French indie studio Ishtar Games, The last spellThe loosely defined premise of , sees you protecting a mystical crystal while a wizard attempts to break the seal, banishing magic and making an army of zombies and other demonic enemies disappear in the process. During the day you upgrade buildings, build defenses and refine your party. At night, your handful of heroes shoot, slice, and smash through dozens of enemies, accumulating experience and resources even when your health, mana, and walls are depleted.

A early preview from Rock Paper Shotgun described the formula as a real-time zombie strategy hit they are billions meets tactical RPG classics Final Fantasy Tactics. I would throw in too loop hero last but not least, another indie bestseller that combines roguelite city-building with grim mystical fear to great effect. I was just playing The last spell about five hours so far, but its successful “one more turn” approach to progression and combat is already making me hungry to play 10 more.

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Part of that comes from mixing a bunch of interesting systems and mechanics without them being overly complicated to launch or getting in the way of each other. Three main resources determine the city construction phase: gold, materials and workers. Gold can be used to buy better gear or construct new buildings. Materials are used exclusively for the crafting of walls and city weapons such as ballistae. Workers can salvage materials from destroyed buildings or leftover enemy corpses, or can be used to make building benefits such as restoring mana and health more effective between battles.

On the units side, characters choose between randomly rolled stat upgrades each time they level up and receive perk points that can be invested in various active and passive abilities. Aside from their base stat rolls, their class is completely gear dependent. Do you want an archer? Give someone a bow. Want a melee maniac? Give them a hammer and armor and watch them smash through enemy lines.

The last spellHowever, the real innovation of is the way it subtly rebalances the usual turn-based strategy combat to account for it being just a few heroes against a vast undead army. Units have action points, movement points, and ability cooldowns that can be used in any order without penalty. Instead of just moving and attacking like you would in a game Final Fantasy Tacticsyou can attack, attack, move, attack, move, move and attack again.

The result is that while everything is turn-based, you can chain many actions together, including freely swapping out weapons and their corresponding abilities, at will. It’s both immensely satisfying to watch someone unload on a group of squishy, ​​crunchy undead, while also adding a whole host of new options to try and maximize your zombie-killing efficiency each round.

The Roguelite structure, meanwhile helping to ease the pain of inevitable defeats. With each run, you’ll collect zombie essence, which can then be used to unlock better gear that can spawn in shops, higher base unit stats, and new buildings to build. So far, at least, every run has felt meaningful and beneficial, even when an attempt has been broken off painfully. Time will tell if the rest of the game feels as generous or gets too tricky as I work my way up the difficulty ladder. At present The last spell is a pleasant surprise that I did not expect.