I’ve played almost 40 hours of Stoneshard in the last two weeks. My opinions are… mixed, but hopeful.

Stoneshard is a brutal, turn-based fantasy/mercenary game where death is always around the next corner. It’s one of those “you’re not the hero” kind of stories, although in practice that just means you can run into super high-level enemies early on if you aren’t careful. The general gameplay consists of taking contracts to do X inside dungeon Y within 3 days, and then returning for your reward. Eventually, the contracts dry up at your original location, so you have to trek to another town and start the process again, hitting harder and harder dungeons. The most recent update (0.9.1.0 – Rags to Riches) includes a caravan feature that makes moving through the world much easier.

The brutality of the game comes in two flavors: cascading failure, and time disrespect.

Let’s start with time disrespect first. The world is broken up into tiles that you move through, just the same as you would move through a dungeon. While you can click on a distant spot to have your character “hop” square to square quickly (outside of combat), the fact remains you still have to walk. If the dungeon is six tiles away, that’s six full screens you have to get through. There are a bunch of herbs, mushrooms, berry bushes and the like to occupy yourself with – you need to craft a lot of fodder to fuel your caravan – and there is always the risk of an ambush from bandits or hostile wildlife as well. So, it’s not always boring to travel long distances. Plus, sometimes it’s fun to kind of vibe with the very excellent music and ambient noises.

Here’s the thing though: you can only save the game when resting. If you travel for those six tiles, survive a few ambushes, clear an entire dungeon (including the boss), and then get bit by a hidden snake and die a tile away from town… you lose all progress since the last time you rested.

Technically, there are ways to mitigate this sort of disaster. You can buy/purchase bedrolls, which take an enormous amount of limited bag space, to create a one-time use resting spot outside of the dungeon. This will prevent you from having to re-walk to the dungeon, but of course do nothing about the dungeon itself or the walk back. Or perhaps you can bring two bedrolls, use one, stash the other outside the dungeon, and then use the second once you complete the dungeon. The latest update introduces the caravan, which you can technically park close to the dungeon and mitigate the worst of it, if you’re willing to burn a bunch of time (there’s a cooldown after parking the caravan). Of course, the existence of the caravan “workaround” calls into question why there’s no Quicksave, or a smaller Meditation Mat, or whatever.

[Note: there is a Save & Quit feature, allowing you to exit the game. This save is deleted after loading.]

It’s important to know about this sort of thing because Stoneshard has a lot of cascading failure opportunities. You have Hunger and Thirst, which necessitates bringing a waterskin and snacks. When you are hit, damage is dealt to specific limbs, which can develop wounds or even Bleeds; make sure to pack Splints for the former and Bandages for the latter. Oh, and limbs have a Condition meter that reduces your maximum HP until they are healed, which is another consumable. Even if you heal the damage away, you have an overall Pain meter that accumulates unless reduced by beer/drugs. Enemy abilities can Stun, Stagger, Daze, Confuse, Immobilize, Ignite, and/or Poison you. Fatigue, Intoxication, Morale, and Sanity are also things. And all of these typically compound on one another, like how Pain gives you a debuff at certain thresholds that constantly drains Morale.

I am not actually opposed to all these “crunchy” systems. Choosing how many healing items to bring to the dungeon is a meaningful decision, and rewards the collection of crafting components and otherwise planning ahead. What I am opposed to is how often and how quickly these interlocking systems go from irrelevant to run-ending in a way you can do nothing about. Bleeding out at the end of a fight because you didn’t bring any/ran out of bandages? Fair play. Getting Dazed (turns off all your abilities for a few turns), then Immobilized, and then chopped in half within two turns? Okay then. The slow descent into insanity works in, say, Darkest Dungeon because damage is usually spread amongst a party and you get worn down. Here, you often just get hit a few times and die.

Ironically, that scenario doesn’t play out that often because you are always, 100% of the time trying to lure enemies out one at a time. Which is super effective! And sometimes boring. I play an Electromage with a few finishing moves via Staff. Electromancy is all about low cooldown spells that can Knockback or possibly Immobilize enemies. I just cleared out a 3-skull dungeon full of bandits and only got hit once, by an enemy that had a charge+attack move. So, perhaps my experience is a bit more skewed than if I were straight melee, sword & board with heavy armor; perhaps there’s more survivable damage.

Anyway, that’s Stoneshard. It’s still in Early Access, has been for years, and the updates themselves do not come quickly. That said, this is a game that has good “bones” and I can see it meaningfully improving with some tweaks and enhancements. The latest “Rags to Riches” release apparently changed the game’s compiler, which destroyed all existing mods – if/when that gets fixed, I could see mods coming to the rescue too. I’m certainly looking forward to being able to Quicksave anywhere.