Last summer I chanced upon Spiral Knights, a F2P (I do love my F2Ps); a cute adventure-y, dungeon crawl-y game where you play a little knight, traveling ever lower towards :The Core!:
I played it constantly for months. The jist is that you slowly accumulate mist energy over time. You get approximately 100 a day. It takes 10 to travel each level down. The in game currency is crown, which is earned from looting as you explore and selling items to fellow knights.
The goal is always to accumulate enough crown to be able to stock up a back up supply of crystal energy (CE). CE is a trade-able form of energy, a second kind of currency. Like any F2P, there are real money packages available for those who don't find joy in farming endlessly for the perfect gear.
The thing I love about Spiral Knights is just how satisfyingly simplistic it is. Since I started they have implemented many new elements, including an extensive series of missions which you can complete in order to get a kick start on your gear.
And then you can start making your way towards slowly getting every bit of armor in the game: Spiral Knight Armors.
Not only can you get every bit of gear listed (armors, guns, bombs, swords...) There is also an extensive list of costume items. But wait, there's MORE!. You can also get up to three Unique Variants for every bit of gear. So basically, unless you want to chuck out $1000 bucks or so, it will literally take you forever to get half the gear that you aim to get.
In my eyes, the game is endless and a perfect pick up and put down kind of game. There are currently four bosses located in varying parts of the tiers. Each gate has three tiers, every tier offering a different selection of mobs and damage types to challenge you. Along the way, there are also little tidbits that you can choose to take or leave. There are also danger rooms, areas that are considerably more dangerous than the level it lives on. Take it if you want to risk dying. Should you die, you must pay energy to revive. The more you die, the more expensive it gets.
The right gear for the job is essential. A good hand on your shield is as well.
You can download the game straight off steam. Warning! This game contains a lot of cuteness. If you are not the cute, adventuring, dungeon crawling, gear grinding kind of person, you will likely consider this game "boring."
But there will be no other game out there where you can find a ghost cat wearing a monocle and a bow tie. Or a mustachioed jelly cube. Or an angry devilite who is rightfully pissed off that he just got told by his boss to come in on Sunday. Or a love puppy turret that, instead of spitting nasty fireballs of damage, kissed you with lots of healing hearts.
