Pawnbarian features an innovative mash-up of Chess, deck-building and dungeon crawling roguelike gameplay as you choose which moves to use in turn based-battles against hordes of enemies.
In Pawnbarian you take control of the titular Pawnbarian and attempt to fight your way through a series of increasingly challenging dungeons. Your movement is controlled by the cards you draw from the deck each turn – so for instance, if you draw a Pawn then you can move forward one tile or attack diagonally or if you draw a rook you can move in a straight line horizontally or vertically.
You can move twice per turn but are vastly outnumbered and can only take three hits before your demise (which can happen all at once if you’re not careful). This means that you have to be careful about your movements, with it often being best to attack with your first go and retreat to safety for your second. There are a variety of different enemies to dispatch, all of which need to be approached differently and between levels you’ll be able to purchase upgrades for your cards, giving them useful buffs, such as an extra turn or giving you a temporary shield.
It’s a simple looking, but very addictive game that does a great job of channelling the classic strategic gameplay of Chess into a roguelike dungeon crawling format. Each new level is an intricate puzzle for you to solve as you attempt to wipe out your enemies and escape unscathed. It’s strategy, rather then stats that you’ll need to conquer these dungeons!
Download or Play Pawnbarian Here (Win & Browser)
The game’s pretty awesome, but froe on me TWICE when I was about to finish off the last guy.
Dragged the circle to attack and it just… didn’t. And the icon was still pointing at where I wanted to go, no click would change it.
Twice.
Soooo, good game, but couldn’t finish it.