Erosion preview
I don't envy game developers. Industry complexities, financial constraints, and technical obstacles aside, simply coming up with a compelling game idea is hard enough. Although it won't even be released into early access until next spring, Plot twist Erosion has some really interesting ideas. This looks promising.
Back and forth in time
The Erosion recipe includes many familiar yet delicious ingredients. It's a roguelike with a spaghetti western theme, featuring two-stick fighting and massive voxel graphics. It features end-level bosses that cheekily reference classic video game icons like the Centipede. But what's most intriguing about Erosion is the way it plays with time.
At the presentation I attended, the developers were a bit cagey about plot details. Essentially, you play a character whose daughter has been kidnapped. You decided to save her. The open world in which Erosion takes place has both mission-specific levels and more accessible areas to explore. You start from a base camp and work your way up.
Here's the cycle: you talk to NPCs and complete missions. If you die during combat, you will be pushed back to your home base camp. Turn? When you are resurrected, time moves forward. Both you and your daughter continue to age as the world changes and evolves. However, winning means you can turn back time and correct some of your mistakes. There are many ramifications that are affected by the missions you take on, the choices you make, and your success or failure in combat.
Choose your weapon
The game's combat is clearly based on the twin-stick shooter/bullet hell genre, where the player mows down large masses of swarming enemies. The developers note that the game will have more than 100 types of weapons and skills, although there is not much information about them. The gameplay demo looked and sounded like fast-paced fun.
Often voxel art is code for “we're not interested in the details,” but that doesn't seem to be the case with Erosion. While the characters and enemies lack distinctive features, the visuals are attractive and make good use of the voxel art style. The spaghetti western aesthetic comes through loud and clear, and enemies and bosses are well animated. We only saw a fraction of the biome diversity the game promised, but what we did see looked great.
Many roguelikes have a problem with longevity because once you finally get to the final boss, you won't have much motivation to continue. The developer especially noted that after completing the main story quest there will be a lot of end-game content and additional missions.
Saddle up
While we didn't get to see much gameplay, it looks like Plot Twist combined a number of elements in an intriguing way. Erosion will be released in early access in spring 2026.
