Before You Buy Shardpunk: Verminfall

Shardpunk: Verminfall (Steam Link), the first release of developer Clockwork Pie, is a tactical turn-based role-playing game where players control a team of desperate survivors in the process of attempting to escape from a city overrun by humanoid vermin invaders. Leading them through a steampunk city, they are forced to fight to survive, scavenging resources and food in order to fight their way to the palace and, hopefully, victory. 

This article is based on 40 hours of gameplay with a press version of the game. For disclosure, I was given a playtester credit for the game due to feedback I gave regarding bugs and user interface features. I have no further connection to the game designers or publisher. 

#1: Remixes Turn-Based Classics

Shardpunk: Verminfall is described by their developer as “XCOM meets Darkest Dungeon” and frankly this description is pretty apt. The tactical combat is very reminiscent of the X-Com games, despite its twists and the camping between stages is very similar to the camping featured in Darkest Dungeon. Additionally, the game is a roguelite and features unlocks and a progression map that should be familiar to anyone who has played a game in that sub-genre. 

The majority of the player’s time in-game is spent on the tactical combat stages. Each stage represents a different area of the city, but this has neither a large effect on the map’s generation, nor on the player’s strategic approach to completing it, instead just providing some small graphical variation. The goal of these stages varies somewhat, but the bulk are simply to get to the far side of the stage and survive while waiting for the door to a safe bunker to open. In the process of moving towards this goal, the characters should generally try to collect as much loot as possible while avoiding the groups of vermin camping around the map and periodically arriving to threaten the team. 

Camp is the stage of the game that is more reminiscent of Darkest Dungeon and is where the team can be upgraded or patched up to better survive the next stage. Characters get two camp actions that they can contribute during this phase, though there are various characters and upgrades that can increase this. Leveling up character skills, team skills, or upgrading a weapon does not take an action, but providing permanent healing, reducing stress, replacing grenades or stimpacks, or using a special character ability does. The number of available camp actions can be tight, especially for recovery required after a particularly tough stage, but rarely so that the player lacks the option to make meaningful choices.

Shardpunk: Verminfall is run-based, with unlocks, a three-act progression, and iron man rules. If the party is killed a restart is required, and any character deaths are permanent within that run. Unlock options include characters, automatons, team skills, and gear upgrade options with unlock points coming from in-game achievements. Most of these achievements are either easy or a reasonable challenge, but there are a few that are fairly random or require extreme actions (killing 9 enemies with a single grenade attack I am looking at you!) So unless a player wants to jump through quite a few hoops they can expect that there will be some achievements that will not be reached and thus some unlocks that will not happen. 

Even with all of these familiar bits, Shardpunk: Verminfall still ends up carving out its own identity. These inspirations feel like starting points to understanding the game rather than the end of the conversation. Every piece fits within the larger context of the game, and the developer has added enough thematic and mechanical twists to ensure that players familiar with the titles that inspired it will find it to be fresh. 

#2: High-Tension Stages

Shardpunk: Verminfall, especially on its highest difficulty, maintains a high level of tension and stress in its tactical combat stages through the relentless arrival of enemy groups to challenge and destroy the party. Some of these groups are planted in the stages and will become active as soon as the players spot them, but there are also waves that will arrive periodically, attacking the players regardless of their situation. 

This constant threat of new arrivals keeps the player on their toes, and can effectively punish them for being a bit lose in their play. If lone characters are sent off to gather loot or the entire party spends both of their actions on movement this will eventually be punished in a brutal, and potentially permanent, sort of way. 

Similarly, this threat of a new enemy squad’s arrival while the party is already engaged with another means teams has to be built to eliminate enemies quickly. Most team members need to be set up to be able to break this “one attack per action” economy when fighting, otherwise, they will be overrun and the game lost. 

#3: Replayability, Of a Sort

As a roguelite, Shardpunk: Verminfall is built around runs and replayability, with the game relying on there being sufficient interplay variability to justify spending time playing it. Does it succeed at this? Tentatively yes, but this will depend on what the player wants out of the game and their tolerance for repetitive gameplay. 

The best part of the game’s replayability, and the one where it unequivocally succeeds, is with its characters. Although some of them do share an ability (most commonly built-in armor), each one offers a specific combination of abilities that makes them distinct and interesting. Playing the game again after completion is particularly enjoyable because the abilities that are used, and the order in which they are unlocked, are influenced by the combinations of characters in play. The fact that the fifth team member is determined by chance adds quite a bit of interplay variability, generating new combinations and opportunities to use previously played configurations in a new context. 

Other forms of replayability are a bit less realized and this feels to be a reflection of the game’s small-team, indie nature. There are a fair number of different types of enemy vermin, but there is only one or two variations in when and how they start appearing in enemy groups, and their capabilities do not vary enough to dramatically change overall tactics. Furthermore, map configurations change, but these are not varied enough to have a strong impact on your strategy and rarely lead to truly interesting shifts in the overall decision space. 

With all of that being said, the lower degree of variation outside of squad choices does allow for a smoother and more consistent ability to assess the impact of changes in party composition. If a player really enjoys exploring and testing team compositions and capabilities Shardpunk: Verminfall has a lot to like.

#4: Starts Strong, Finishes Fine 

Shardpunk: Verminfall’s early stages are tight, tough, and filled with delicious tension. Every decision is important and any group of vermin could lead to death or serious damage. Resources are scarce and tight, and every resource and medical supply is valuable and absolutely necessary to prevent the run from coming to a screeching halt. This does an excellent job of conveying the danger and difficulty of the situation, which fits the theme of the setting in a satisfying way.

The late game is best represented by this picture: 

This says a lot about late-game difficulty. If genuinely pressed into a tight position, the team would not have all of those grenades and stimpacks in their possession, they would use them in a desperate fight to stay alive. Characters scale much faster than the game’s difficulty does, assuming you create a well-designed party. Most squad compositions will be so powerful by the time the party rolls into the third section of the game that individual combat stages will no longer pose a significant challenge. That big exception is the final boss stage, which is fun and interesting, but that alone isn’t nearly enough. This feels like it can be fixed though, and hopefully, this will be one of the first things the developer will look at post-release. 

Conclusion

If the idea of a game with X-Com-style tactical stages, the camping aspect of Darkest Dungeon, and a roguelite structure tying it all together appeals to you, then Shardpunk: Verminfall will definitely be a good buy. There are a few aspects of the game that could be tightened up, most noticeably the reduced difficulty later in the game, but these feel like things that are fixable. We will see if that happens… As it is, this is an excellent indie release. I quite enjoyed my time with it, and look forward to playing it again in the future. 

Jesse James Dean

Jesse is another of our turn-based game aficionados and is often found playing many different types of turn-based games, whether they be strategy games, deck-builders, RPGs, and much more. He also really likes cats.