I'm So Slimey - Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot Early Access

We’re back in Konfa Games territory again, and the third in the trilogy, Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot Early Access, is now available on Steam. I’ve been committing mass amounts of pixel genocide in this rogue-like where you play as a blob, and it’s been utter chaos.

Mindless and wanton destruction are the first words that come to mind when playing the game. Based on the extreme volume of enemies on screen at a time, you’ll want the controls to be as simple as possible, allowing your free hands to evade, collect, and work on other hobbies.

Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot Early Access is an auto-shooter; you’ll shoot in whichever direction the mouse cursor (or joystick) faces. Twin-stick shooter is what the kids are calling it. With the directional buttons, you navigate your slime across relatively large arenas, fending off puny humans, mechs, and bosses galore.

Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot: Mr Blobby

Oh, you want some exposition? There’s little on offer. In the world of Despot, you’re an unwanted blob. It’s all part of the shameless experiments that’s been taking place in these underground labs. Said blob 

rises above and goes on a path of mayhem, annihilating fellow clones and castaways and taking out some nasty bosses.

That’s about it in terms of setup, and that’s fine and dandy. Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot Early Access is very much a rinse and repeat of dancing around a large area while you’re swarmed by enemies as if flies around shit. Sure, it’s pixel art visuals and very low-key, but sometimes we get slowdown like in the recent Bish Bash Bots. Not here, however. There were 100s – no, 1000s of enemies on screen, and not one bit of slowdown.

For the first two stages, I had mixed feelings. Actually, they weren’t mixed at all: I didn’t like it. The gameplay was monotonous, and I didn’t get the card system. As before, the writing was brilliant, and I felt like an idiot unable to understand the instructions of stacking up cards of three and whatnot, so I conceded and winged it.

Slimey Customer

At the beginning of each stage in Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot Early Access, your blob starts afresh. Tell a lie – you have one bonus which can be unlocked with progression, and you can also configure your decks to have the best cards to play based on your style. Again, these must be unlocked through progression, and you must earn the cards in real-time.

That means you’ll fight off weak enemies and move around the arenas to restore health, get speed boosts, trigger traps, earn DNA, and predominantly, visit a shop. The shop doesn’t slow down the game as you might expect, which makes sense as you have to frequently visit it to stack up your cards, upgrade them, and sell any excess.

By the third or fourth stage, I was hooked. Sure, Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot Early Access is a massive grind, and I’m sure it took me about 15 minutes to finish one level as I couldn’t get to the boss as a legion of fodder protected them. I had a film on in the background a few times while playing this, as I could take my eyes off the prize utilising some run and gun tactics. 

In summary, Slime 3K: Rise Against Despot Early Access is remarkably repetitive, but something moreish about it makes it worth returning to and unlocking new gear – if it is incredibly frustrating in terms of enemies on screen and a slow-moving blob in the centre of it all. I’m keen to see where Konfa Games and tinyBuild take it through the Early Access phase.