Mark of the deep is a roguelike with a focus on narrative being developed by Mad Mimic, this is not their first title to be released, in fact they had released Dandy Ace before this which is also a roguelike. It has a beautiful artstyle and a variety of environments according to their Steam store page. It is set to be released on January 25th of 2025 and already has a Version 1.0 demo out on steam.
The Setting Of The Game
The setting for the game is quite an interesting one, where our character is part of a pirate crew that set out on the seas for immortality. The ship tries to ride out a vicious storm but sadly sinks, but right after we find ourselves on a mysterious island. From that point on we gain control of Rookie, who has a long hook as a weapon that he can swing like a sword.
We traverse through the island reaching various checkpoints which are sort of like bonfires, interacting with this checkpoint does reset enemy spawns just like in any soulslike. Rookie slowly gains more and more abilities such as the ability to parry projectiles and gains a gun of his own for some ranged damage.
The goal of the game it seems is find out and rescue any other survivors from the shipwreck and ultimately reunite. But there is corruption that is flowing throughout the island and it seems we’ll have to make choices on who we save which opens the game up to have multiple different endings.
The Gameplay
In terms of gameplay, it plays just like any other isometric style roguelike, quite similar as previously mentioned to their other game Dandy Ace, but the movement and overall flow seems more smoothed out. The combat is really fluid although it is a bit hard to time dodges due to some of the enemies having delayed attacks.
It really takes the ‘soulslike’ moniker to heart as combat is unforgiving to say the least, Rookie can only take 5 hits before dying, forcing the player to strategize at every turn against multiple types of enemies who are a mix of ranged and melee.
Rookie does acquire his own gun very early on by killing the first boss, who acts as a sort of introduction on how to play the game. We also meet a merchant by the 3rd checkpoint who sells life upgrades along with a bigger gun called a blunderbuss.
Upgrades And Mechanics
In terms of passive upgrades, we acquire them by exploring and acquiring items called “trinkets” which cost some slot points and offer passive upgrades like a shield when stopping to heal, higher damage on low health etc. We can also buy extra slot points based on the amount of gold we have which seems to be the sole currency.
Unlike other roguelikes where there are multiple currencies available each used to acquire different sorts of items or upgrades it seems we only get gold and have to use it wisely as the items themselves are very expensive compared to the amount of gold we get between checkpoints.
This can force the player to think a bit more as what’s more important at the moment rather than spending it on getting a build ready. Since the game is focusing on leaning into the story, there doesn’t seem to be much emphasis put on the game allowing us to build. We just have to play through and use what we discover much like soulslikes.
Conclusion
The demo speaks to the developer’s improvement from their previous titles, with fluid and satisfying combat. One thing to mention is the brilliant map design, we get to see parts of the maps we’ll eventually reach but the path to reach there takes lots of twists and turns making the player more and more curious and encourages exploration this way.
We only have to wait a short while before the full release but so far the game looks and feels amazing. It has satisfying combat, interesting map design and story that may prove to be as in-depth as its triple-A peers. Mark of the Deep is set to come out on PC but it may release on other platforms in the future just like Mad Mimic’s previous titles.