Saturday Morning Gaming: Menace from the Deep

I played Slay the Spire a lot during the pandemic. A *LOT*. I played it so much that I got sick of it but snatched up any other Slay the Spire clones I could find in the hopes that I could catch the dragon again. Monster Slayers. Monster Train. Fights in Tight Spaces. Iris and the Giant. Griftlands.

There were some good games in there that I got OBSESSED WITH and some games I beat once and didn’t think about after I beat them. And, eventually, I was okay.

Well, during the Steam Christmas Sale, I saw a little game called Menace from the Deep on sale I saw that it was a card battler (“hey, I like those”) set in the HP Lovecraft universe (“hey, I like that”) and picked it up on sale.

I played “story mode” first and found myself going through the cutscenes were a bunch of characters are introduced and The Head talks to The Brain and The Hand as they take over a decaying museum in Innsmouth and they find an ancient relic that they argue will help stave off the End of the World. So they send off one of their countless little agents off to go out and do some fact finding and fight off some of the bad guys out there who are working to cause it.

You start off with the Journalist and you go out to do some digging.

And I thought “yeah, this is a competent enough game, I guess…” and I died quickly but I started unlocking stuff and when I started playing with the Scientist I realized “HOLY COW THIS IS PRETTY MUCH A RIP-OFF!!!” (but I wasn’t saying it as a complaint, more saying it with delight) and I started leaning into the game and, holy cow, it’s *GOOD*.

They do a handful of things differently… instead of giving you a map to follow, they give you a few decks of cards of locations and a bunch of movement points (gas in your gas tank) and you pick the card off of one of the three decks. So do you want to visit the merchant? Do you want to go to the gas station? Do you want to go to the Museum? Rest at the hotel? Fight an elder god? Take the top card off the deck and that’s where you go (and peeking gives you a bit of foresight).

And it was there that I saw that the Museum was the place to either get a relic or a very rare card. The gas station could give you movement points, but also money. The hotel lets you pick between upgrading a card in your deck or resting to get hit points back.

The fights are fun and interesting and they include a mechanic lifted directly from Griftlands: You can upgrade your cards by using them. Use a block card five times? You can upgrade it at the end of the fight.

And, under the coat of paint, I felt the way that I felt way back when I finally “got” Slay the Spire.

My favorite character to play is the Scientist. He summons rats and crows and they fight on his behalf (and sometimes act as targets for enemies). But the Journalist and Cultist are fun too. Each of these three characters has 6 pre-built decks for you to use. Play the Scientist as a summoner *OR* play him as a Dr. Jeckyl/Mr. Hyde. Play the Journalist as a straightforward brawler *OR* play him as a martial arts specialist. Play the Cultist as a guy who piles up negative statuses on enemies *OR* play him as a high-risk/high-reward gambler.

I really like the game and Story Mode has a lot of fun twists and turns and even a couple of jaw-on-the-floor moments and I am still playing the game even though I have already beaten it.

Will it have the staying power of Slay the Spire? Nah, it won’t. But, for a few weeks, it *FELT* like Slay the Spire.

So… what are you playing?