Heaven has a computer virus problem, and apparently the solution is to drop a pile of weapons on it. Drop Rogue is a newly revealed roguelite that turns falling-block puzzles into battles, with enemies sitting underneath the increasingly dangerous mess you’re building.
Developer MONO ENTERTAINMENT unveiled its Steam page on 5 November. The premise is wonderfully silly: an angel called Forn manages the heavenly PC responsible for the world below. When monster-shaped viruses infest it, she summons an engineer to help clean things up. That would be you.
The interesting bit is how you fight. Weapons fall onto the battlefield, and placing them next to an enemy makes them attack. Their shapes matter, as do the arrangements you build around them. Some deal more damage as they connect to additional objects; others change their damage depending on how high they sit in the stack.
Your loadout grows between fights. After defeating an enemy, you choose one of three objects to add to your deck. The developer’s announcement, published by 4Gamer, describes more than 60 stackable objects, including batteries that charge weapons they touch.
That puts an unusual twist on deck-building: picking something useful is only part of the job. You also have to find it a useful spot in an actual pile. A weapon that benefits from height asks for a different arrangement from one that wants as many neighbours as possible.
There are ways to interfere with that pile, too. The Steam description lists items that let you drive nails into chosen positions or enlarge and shrink weapons. Enemies can cause their own problems, including setting the stage on fire or shrinking your equipment.
Drop Rogue is listed for Windows, with English among its supported languages. Its release date and price have not been announced yet. For now, its Steam page offers a closer look at this very unorthodox approach to antivirus software.
