Review - The Spirit Lift

L. Sahara McGirt
3 hours ago
4 min read

Publisher: prettysmart games

Developer: prettysmart games

Available on: PC (Steam)

I love a good deckbuilder because I enjoy the strategy of putting together a deck of cards to battle opponents and win. Roguelikes, on the other hand, can be a bit hit or miss for me depending on the roguelike elements used in the game's mechanics and whether the execution pays off.

In The Spirit Lift, the roguelike elements are played out in a haunted hotel with randomly generated rooms in a sort of 90s-esque teen horror film aesthetic. The game itself is, simplistically, a roguelike in every way. But is it a roguelike to check out? Let's break it down.

A Hotel with No Consistent Floorplans

The hotel in the Spirit Lift is absolutely every bit a dungeon-crawler. Players navigate their way down hotel hallways and wander from room to room on their search for the mystery behind the hotel and the next lift upward. Rooms contain surprises from gold to useful cards and equipment, and especially monsters that must be defeated in order to move on. There are also clues and evidence that can be found that tell the backstory of the Vexington Hotel and what may have happened there.

The Spirit Lift utilizes the dungeon-crawler element in a very simplistic manner. There aren't too many rooms to explore on each floor, which can make movement to the next level very quick if you're a seasoned deck-builder and roguelike player who understands the strategy of resource management and defeating monsters while maximizing your deck's usefulness. The first several floors are very easy to navigate through, but it's the later floors that make you question how you're playing the game, as the monsters get very difficult to defeat from floor 9 and upward. Prepare to hit permadeath and start over again once you get past the 9th floor, taking all the lessons you learned with you into the next run.

Thankfully, each run in The Spirit Lift doesn't take too long to get through. I was averaging about 30 minutes per run, which, while I don't mind longer rogues, is kind of nice to go through quickly, learn and earn what I can, and move on to the next run.

Simple Deckbuilding

The deckbuilding in The Spirit Lift isn't so much strategic as it's considering your best of two choices when you happen upon cards in a room, making deckbuilding choices a bit more random and hoping you picked the right cards as you go level to level. The most strategy that happens when deckbuilding happens at the start of the game, when you pick out which 3 characters will be entering the Vexington Hotels to make the journey to the top. Those 3 characters each have different starting cards with different focuses that are heavily character archetype-based. Cards that you'll find in the hotel after that will usually fit the character archetypes you chose, so choose wisely at the start.

I almost wish there was a stronger deckbuilding element, but then again, I think that would take away from part of what works for The Spirit Lift, which is quick playthroughs that don't feel like a slog to get through. Perfect when you're looking to play games for an hour or so.

Prepare Yourself

The real strategy when moving from floor to floor in the Spirit Lift is in managing your health, cards, and equipment during the first 9 floors in preparation for the real challenges. The game gets much more challenging from level 9 and on. It almost felt too easy initially as I moved from floor to floor, and in my initial run, I began to wonder if the game would stay that easy. But no, I immediately permadeathed on the 9th floor and realized I needed to rework my strategy. Each run, I got further and learned more, which is very much how roguelike gameplay should operate.

For Those Who Enjoy the Teen Horror Movie Genre

The aesthetic for The Spirit Lift works very well for the game. The characters available to choose from at the start of the game fit those 90s movie archetypes quite well, and their starting cards suit their characterizations. However, the overall aesthetic, while pleasing, feels like little more than set dressing to the overall game's mechanics. The characters have some chatter while navigating through the hotel between one another that fits their archetypes, but overall, they mainly exist as an element of the deck-building. I almost wished there was more depth and story to them.

The Verdict

Overall, The Spirit Lift is an exact representation of what a deckbuilding roguelike should be. While I enjoyed the quick-thinking and fast-playing run-throughs, I don't think it does anything particularly awe-inspiring for the genre. However, it's just right if you're looking for a new deckbuilding roguelike to enjoy or if you're new to the genre altogether and don't want anything too complicated to learn. That said: