Having been playing games almost as long as I’ve been alive, I’ve fought and killed more goblins than I could ever hope to count. While MMOs, RPGs, RTSes, and all kinds of other acronyms have happily enabled my lifelong war with goblinkind, Flask—an autobattler that just released a demo on Steam—is the rare sort of game that’s prompted me to ask instead what’s in a goblin’s heart.
The answer, of course, is valuable goblin blood. That’s why I—and other debt-ridden alchemists—are dispatching squads of mutant homunculi adventurers into the wastes beyond the Goblin Gate to carve a bloody (and therefore lucrative) path towards personal solvency. And I’m having an excellent time.
I don’t have much history with autobattlers, but I was drawn to Flask by its art style, crafted by artist John Kenn Mortensen. It’s scratchy; it’s grotesque; it’s somewhere between a metal album cover, a Hieronymus Bosch triptych, and an Edward Gorey book. Every one of its roguelike runs is a charming gallery of ghoulish freaks, twisted meat, and—if you’re lucky—an outpouring of emerald gore.
But I was pleased to discover that there’s something to this autobattler business, and Flask makes that appeal easy to find. While you’re piloting your mobile alchemist’s tower beyond the Goblin Gate, you’re not personally fighting against the denizens of the lands beyond. Instead, you’re dispatching a squad of homunculi that you’re gradually mutating with ability-providing alchemical flasks, snacks that bestow passive perks, and playstyle-shifting organ grafts.