Let’s! Revolution! review

Puzzle games have been around for decades, but outside of Tetris I don’t think any are as well known as Minesweeper. Installed on all the Windows PCs of our childhood, players were challenged to avoid all the mines on the grid by using numbers on certain squares that told you how many mines were nearby. Now Minesweeper isn’t really as culturally relevant as it once was, but that doesn’t mean its mechanics aren’t worth applying to new titles. Enter Let’s! Revolution!, a combination of Minesweeper, tactics game and Roguelike that is bloody delightful.

The aim of each stage of Let’s! Revolution! is to find the king who is hiding and chase him off, until eventually you catch the corrupt monarch and fight in the final stage. This is easier said than done though, because each grid based level has a road running through it with a few enemies on. Any non-road space has a number that represents the number of roads next to it, so that’s how you avoid it and the enemies that inhabit it.

The issue with this is that the king is hiding on one end of the road, so you need to figure out where the branching paths of this concrete line come to a halt. As well as His Royal Highness you’ll also find helpful extras like shops and chests (more on them later) on these dead ends, so getting your head around how to follow these paths without getting in too much trouble is the name of the game.

Which class you’re playing as makes a huge difference in how you accomplish this though. You’ll start as The Trooper, who is awarded extra cash for killing all the enemies on a stage and has a skillset to help him do so. This includes a whirlwind attack that deals damage to all squares next to him, and a bow to finish off anyone further afield. These attacks cost stamina to use and have a cooldown, but you can earn this back by revealing tiles so it’s worth using when you’re worried about bumping into an enemy and taking damage.

The next class you unlock is completely different, using stealth to find the king and leave the map as uncovered as possible for bonus gold. Switching from the violent Trooper to the stealthy Shadow takes a lot of getting used to, but with a little help from smoke bombs you’ll be able to hide any enemies you accidentally reveal and make your way to the king.

Finally you’ll unlock the Oracle, who gains a whole heap of extra wonga if she reveals all the tiles on the map that don’t contain a road. With powers that reveal how many enemies are in a certain column and the ability to teleport, this class is particularly hard to master and definitely not for the faint of heart.

No matter which class you pick, you’ll need to take advantage of all the shops, gyms and weapon vendors you find on your way to the showdown with the king. From health and stamina upgrades to perks like gaining interest on your money or even brand new attacks, there are plenty of options to try out on each ten to twenty minute Roguelike run you set out on.

By collecting special gems from chests you’ll also unlock more upgrades and weapons for the future runs, as well as the classes that aren’t available to you yet. The starting pool of upgrades and abilities is pretty small, so adding a whole lot of extra options always feels rewarding.

It probably won’t take you too long to overthrow the king and succeed in a run for the first time, because Let’s! Revolution! is designed to cleverly make you feel like a genius by keeping the initial difficulty on the manageable side. Once you do complete a run as a class though you’ll unlock new game plus mode which gives you new negative traits and less health to work with, and if you manage to beat that yet another level of new game plus will unlock. It’s a wonderful system that ensures there are a whole load of challenges to take on if you dare.

As well as being a thoughtful and engaging puzzle game, Let’s! Revolution! is also absolutely lovely to look at. The pastel cartoony art style brings this game that could easily be made up of just numbered squares to life, and adds an unnecessary but lovely level of charm to this grid based world.

If I had to complain about one aspect of Let’s! Revolution! it’d be about the fairly lackluster onboarding, especially when it comes to the new classes. It’s really hard to work out the best way to succeed as the two less combat focused classes, and a tutorial or two for each of them would have saved me a lot of heartache and failure.

Let’s! Revolution! is a wonderful Roguelike puzzle game that uses familiar mechanics to create a truly unique experience. With new game plus modes and plenty of additional content to unlock, this game will keep puzzle fans busy and satiated for a heck of a long time.