There are probably a lot of jokes one could make about mushrooms being edible, and mushrooms being like, edible, man compared to Shroom and Gloom, a positively mycelial roguelike deckbuilder in which you roam spore-filled dungeons with two decks of cards in tow. But I won’t because it would mean having to think about them, and like Edwin before me, I just don’t have it in me. What I do have is the opportunity to tell you about Shroom and Gloom, which is available in Early Access today.
The immediate thing you’ll probably notice about the game is its delightfully dirty sense of style. Each step you take is through layered, densely detailed tunnels with thick, linear, comic book-like creatures and backgrounds. There is an allure to it all, an itchy allure that you inhale with a deep, willing breath that draws me in deeply. But the most interesting thing in the game is the use of two different decks and their different goals.
A deck is obvious in nature, intended entirely for combat. You have cards that do damage, cards that fry your enemy so you can eat them, cards that make a pile of gunk (don’t ask), there are all kinds. The other deck is then built around exploration. These allow you to interact with your surroundings in a myriad of ways, which can be useful for camping, gaining new cards, or making soup. It seems like a wonderful division of systems coming together into a tasty whole.
Beyond deck building, you’ll have two paths you can explore, one that’s a little more like a traditional dungeon, the other a little closer to science fiction. There are also five characters to choose from, although I can’t tell you how they differ because it’s not listed on the Steam page and I haven’t played it myself yet. Still, it looks appetizing and I’ll be looking forward to trying it when I get the chance. You can grab Shroom and Gloom on Steam now.
