Plague Road

Plague Road drips with genuine quality. Mechanically, it’s a tight, efficient roguelike that gets the core gameplay loop down perfectly, which means that it can be very hard to put down. Some misfires in how the game is themed and presentation let it down, however.

21%Game Brain Score

graphics, story

grinding, gameplay

29% User Score Based on 24 reviews

Platforms

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About Plague Road

Plague Road is a single player role playing game with a fantasy theme. It was developed by Arcade Distillery and was released on May 23, 2017. It received negative reviews from players.

Rescue survivors, fight monsters and explore a once great city fallen to plague in a dark fantasy game combining turn-based tactical strategy and roguelike elements.

Genres & Tags

Play Modes

Single-Player

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Reviews

29%Audience ScoreBased on 24 reviews

graphics11 positive mentions

grinding6 negative mentions

The game features a unique and appealing art style with bright, vivid colors and great character artwork.
Jim Sterling's narration adds a distinctive voice and charm to the game.
The soundtrack is soothing and complements the atmosphere well.

Combat is overly frequent, tedious, and often punishing, with little tactical depth and many frustrating encounters.
The gameplay feels repetitive and grind-heavy, requiring extended farming and retries with minimal reward progression.
The game feels unfinished or underdeveloped, with issues such as limited animations, unclear mechanics, lack of guidance, and bugs.

graphics
13 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
85% positive mentions, 15% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The graphics are consistently praised for their cool, distinctive art style and bright, well-crafted visuals, especially in character design. However, some users find the aesthetic repetitive or tedious, and a few note color issues in certain environments. Overall, the visuals are a strong point, though they occasionally feel overshadowed by gameplay shortcomings.
- “It has classical turn-based RPG elements, nice soundtrack, and great visuals.”
- “Great visuals in this side-scrolling, high-end graphic RPG.”
- “I actually really like the art style and coloring; it's bright but manageable.”
grinding
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
Grinding is a significant and often tedious part of the gameplay, requiring substantial time investment, especially early on, to build a useful party and improve stats. While some players find it fair and suitable for casual play, others feel the progress is slow and repetitive, making the experience grind-heavy and potentially boring.
- “Especially in the beginning, you need to grind a lot for people until you have a useful party, then you start grinding for the buildings to improve stats and skills.”
- “Now I don't mind a grind, but if you want to get out of the first area, be ready to spend 6+ hours grinding.”
- “Progress is a tedious grind - go out, carry only three of each potion, run away from enemies, hoping to find survivors.”
gameplay
6 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
50% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The gameplay is repetitive, grind-heavy, and lacks clear direction, often feeling more like background noise than engaging play. Combat is relentless and can be frustrating without strategic depth or meaningful progression, resulting in a core loop that fails to captivate or encourage continued play.
- “The gameplay is "2.5d" in that you scroll left to right whilst also moving forward and backwards, finding random encounters and relentless enemies. Seriously, they will hunt you until you leave the screen, meaning that if you aren't at full health it is just annoying.”
- “But yeah the art is good; however, the gameplay is more of a problem. The first 3-5 hours are a repetitive grind where you have to rely on luck to get a party which will allow you to use any level of tactical play.”
- “The gameplay doesn't differ at all from the "pre-pre alpha" we were shown.”
- “It doesn't do much to explain what you're meant to be doing and the actual gameplay just isn't fun.”
- “The gameplay is '2.5d' in that you scroll left to right whilst also moving forward and backwards, finding random encounters and relentless enemies; seriously, they will hunt you until you leave the screen, meaning that if you aren't at full health it is just annoying.”
- “The gameplay gets pretty boring and grindy fast, but I found it to be a fair enough game to play in the background while doing something else.”
story
4 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
75% positive mentions, -25% neutral mentions, 50% negative mentions
The story aspect is generally seen as minimal or underdeveloped, with only brief narration and an intriguing visual presentation but little substantive plot. Some users find the story unique but feel it is incomplete, with an especially short ending sequence. Overall, the narrative is considered lacking in depth and explanation.
- “The story of the game is good and unique, but the ending sequence was very short.”
- “I really wish there was a neutral option for reviews. It's not bad, but it feels very unfinished. There are controller commands for keyboard users, and nothing is really explained apart from the intro story, which I can't listen to (this is coming from a massive fan of Jim F. Sterling).”
- “Plague Road’s visuals may tell an intriguing story, but the rest of the game has very little to say.”
- “Also, the game basically has no story other than a bit of Jimmy's narration whenever you reach a new area.”
- “I really wish there was a neutral button for reviews. It's not bad but feels very unfinished. There are controller commands for keyboard users, and nothing is really explained apart from the intro story, which, to be honest, I can't listen to (this coming from a massive fan of Jim F. Sterling).”
music
3 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
100% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 0% negative mentions
The music in the game is generally praised for its soothing and enjoyable soundtrack, complementing the classical turn-based RPG elements and enhancing the overall experience alongside good voice acting.
- “It has classical turn-based RPG elements, nice soundtrack, and great visuals.”
- “Soundtrack and voice acting are quite good.”
- “The music is kind of soothing.”
stability
1 mentions Positive Neutral Negative
0% positive mentions, 0% neutral mentions, 100% negative mentions
The game's stability is affected by bugs, particularly with achievements like "Resilient," which can unlock unexpectedly due to glitches rather than intended gameplay actions.