Luck be a Landlord Review | Slots Enthusiasts, Go Bananas
No matter how you slice it, if you’re not into “Slots” then I don’t think this is for you. The Roguelike & Deckbuilding aspects are…
Luck be a Landlord on Steam
Luck be a Landlord is a roguelike deckbuilder about using a slot machine to earn rent money and defeat capitalism. This…store.steampowered.com
No matter how you slice it, if you’re not into “Slots” then I don’t think this is for you. The Roguelike & Deckbuilding aspects are redeeming, but they’re not enough to and keep me coming back.
I wanted to enjoy Luck Be a Landlord. After all, it’s marketed with some of my most enjoyed genres as of late: Roguelike, and Deckbuilder. And, at a relatively low price, I figured that I might get my money’s worth, but I’m surprised that I probably won’t be getting my money’s worth.
You have a slot machine and it’s your job to fill it with symbols that synergize and give you big payouts. The selection they give you is random and there’s a remarkable variety of ways you can synergize things and make certain combinations work for you. After [x] turns, your “landlord” comes around and collects rent, and that continues to increase after each payment. Spin, collect symbols, sometimes collect items (which further augment symbols, or your overall experience), and eventually pay up. That’s the gameplay loop.
I get hopelessly addicted to my roguelikes and roguelites. It’s a problem. I also really enjoy my deckbuilder games. When I initially cracked into Luck be a Landlord, I did get some of the dopamine rushes I’m familiar with. Figuring out a symbol synergy that works (and having the ludicrous amount of luck to pull it off) is satisfying. But I found myself in a rut after beating the game once. I didn’t want to put in the work again to get another game-winning setup going.
But I pushed through, and I completed the game a few more times (each time it gets slightly more difficult in one way or another). It gets so monotonous so fast. And on higher difficulties, you have to get even luckier to pull off the right combinations to win the game, which takes a lot of the fun out of it.
To an extent, I think a portion of my distaste does come from not enjoying slots, to begin with, and admittedly I was hoping for those other genres to kick in and override the boredom I feel from that, and to its credit it does go a bit deeper, but still… If you’re not into slots from the jump, I do not recommend this game to you.
It’s in early access, so of course everything is subject to change in time, right? Well, here’s my hopes:
I hope that the background gets a little more interesting. Even something as simple as a random color change after [x] payments. That would help visually break up the game so it doesn’t necessarily look the same all the time. I would even take smaller item icons in place of a visually appealing and changing background. Maybe in my apartment even??? Why do I care about paying rent? Is the apartment I’m in even cool?
I hope the final game has something to break up the slots. Even if there was some kind of Pachinko or Plinko or some other gambling-based game every so often, I think it would go a long way in making each attempt feel unique if there was a bonus game thrown in there. I think the roguelike designation is a mistake here. Would love to be able to decorate my apartment or do something meaningful, have some kind of alternative goal to work towards, because as the base game sits now it’s kinda one trick, kinda hollow. There are SO MANY missed opportunities for cool gameplay things by relegating this to JUST a slot-based roguelike.
I’d like to see a “test” machine too… There are a ton of synergy combinations, so many that I think it would be impossible to know all of them from any point. I wish there was just a machine I could go to, where I could put on symbols at will, and see how much the payouts would be with certain combinations. I understand part of the gameplay loop is learning as you play, but because you can be mega unlucky and never see some symbols, having a compendium plus a playground would go a long way.
Again, I can’t reiterate how detrimental I think the Roguelike designation is for this game. I think it would benefit greatly from a RogueLITE mode… maybe where you do gradually get some tertiary upgrades over time to your machine with a light and meaningless story. As it currently stands, the progression exists in mind only via symbol memorization and that’s kind of tiresome. I’d love to be able to grow my machine and see the progress, the real roguelite power fantasy comes to be in-game, rather than just a few neurons firing in my brain with a few decent synergies memorized.
Overall, it’s a well-done game that works, but I just feel like it doesn’t stray far enough away from the base of slots to make it a compelling experience for the masses. This tied with its price tag that is maybe a bit too steep for players like myself makes it a hard sell. But if you’re into slots from the jump, this will probably captivate you for many many hours, even in its alpha state, and with its built-in steam workshop support, you’ll always be able to spice things up even if nothing is changed about it ever again.
Originally published 27 May 2022 at https://backloggd.com.