Into the Restless Ruins review: A roguelike deckbuilder for the budding architects

Armed with just my torch that threatens to extinguish at any second, I crawl through a labyrinth of my own making.

I pass by the armoury and feel strengthened as I do, feel the breath of heat as I rush past the campfire, and sense the eerie silence of those who walked the halls before as I creep through the cemetery.

However, each of these rooms gives me strength and abilities that will help me on my fight to the top as my card-filled hand waits in anticipation whilst my heroine cuts through enemies and weaves through the rooms that have carefully been placed before her.

Ant Workshop LTD

This will be your goal in Into the Restless Ruins, the roguelike deckbuilder developed by Ant Workshop LTD and published by Wales Interactive.

You will have a deck of randomly selected cards with each one representing various rooms and corridors, and it will be your job to place these cards down in order to build your very own labyrinth. Once you are done, you will need to brave the darkness and guide your heroine through your own design, battling monsters and meeting characters inspired by Scottish folklore along the way.

I will preface this review by admitting that I have never played a deckbuilder title before, and my experience with roguelikes begins and ends with Hades.

However, in an effort to support all Welsh publishing companies out there, I jumped at the opportunity to check out Into the Restless Ruins and I may now be fully converted to the genre.

My main area of trepidation going into deckbuilders is that if I am useless at all card games in real life, surely the same will happen in a video game. However, Into the Restless Ruins makes things very easy for the player and yet allows them to work out the main concept of the game (placing down rooms and making your way through the labyrinth) without spoon feeding you instructions.

Our main character is armed with a torch and a weapon - which can range from a sword to a bow for long distance shots - and it is their goal to make their way through the rooms, picking up buffs along the way. You will need to break through each “layer” of the labyrinth until you get to the boss which you will need to defeat in order to unlock the next map.

However, the challenge comes when you learn that our heroine’s torch only lasts for a short amount of time (although the time can be increased slightly by putting down campfire rooms), and they will have to get back to the start portal before the light extinguishes and plunges them into darkness, which incidentally, also removes health at an alarming rate.

Not only that, but they will also have to battle enemies and make sure they remember their way back to the start in order to get out before it’s too late. Luckily, there are cantrips which can be selected at the start of each run which will make things a lot easier, such as the ability to summon an arrow to point towards the exit at all times.

Fighting enemies is simple as your character will automatically slash or shoot at them but I would recommend keeping an eye on their level as things can quickly turn nasty if you find yourself surrounded.

Ant Workshop LTD

This will happen when you unlock seals to open up the next area of the map as a horde will soon descend upon you as you make your way back to the beginning and get ready to begin marking your way towards the newly opened rooms.

Additionally, when you are not collecting your buffs from various rooms and slaying enemies, you will need to collect seals which act as a sort of currency in Into the Restless Ruins.

You will be able to exchange them at various NPCs to either upgrade your various rooms to increase the buffs they already offer or to unlock brand-new cards which offer bonus cards; these definitely help in the long run.

Players can also stumble across random events such as running into a phantom piper who offers you a riddle. I’m not sure if there is any rhyme or reason to these riddles but I received extra cards and buffs upon selecting an answer, even if I’m not sure if I had picked the ‘correct’ option.

Into the Restless Ruins encourages multiple runs, not just so that you can clear the different maps and defeat their bosses but at the end of each run, you will see a screen dedicated to your progress. Here you will be able to see how many cards, cantrips, charms, ruins, echoes, creatures, and characters you have collected along the way and I know that the completionists will jump at the opportunity to find everything.

Ant Workshop LTD

Despite this being my first experience with the deckbuilder genre, it has become one that will go on to inspire other adventures armed with a pack of cards and a dream.

Filled with Scottish folklore and just begging you to replay at any opportunity, Into the Restless Ruins is a game that you will keep returning to, even if it is to beat your very own high score. I would recommend this to beginners and veterans of the genre alike.

Pros: Adorable pixel-style graphics, huge replayability potential, smooth gameplay

Cons: May not appeal to everyone due to deckbuilding mechanics

For fans of: Slay the Spire, Inscryption, Hades

9/10: Exceptional

Into the Restless Ruins is available on PC (version tested), Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.