Review of the Ukrainian roguelike Bosorka

As you know we are Ukrainians. We’ve been working hard for many years on this website but never thought about promoting any type of particular game. Now we’ve decided to share with you Ukrainian games that our game devs release despite all troubles. Every Wednesday on Twitch KlioUA you can see a stream of a Ukrainian game. The stream itself is in Ukrainian but I can also answer in English. Here we will translate and publish reviews of these Ukrainian games so you know more about our country in the gaming world.

In this post, you will read about the Ukrainian roguelike Bosorka released on the 14th of April 2023. You can watch the video version of this review below in Ukrainian with auto subtitles. And subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Bosorka is an action game that combines elements of roguelike and shoot ’em-up genres with top-down 3D visualization. As the developers from Sengi Games say about it. The game was released on April 14, 2023.

Sengi Games is an independent video game studio in Ukraine. It was founded in 2018. Bosorka is not the first game of the studio, but the second. The first game they released was The Serpent Rogue. An adventure action game about learning alchemy and confronting impending evil. It was released on April 26, 2022.

But let’s get back to Bosorka. The first thing I want to praise is the graphics. It is decent and stylish. And despite the fact that the colours are bright, it does not tire the eye. The game mechanics are simple and intuitive to understand. You’ll need to find the level boss and kill him to move on in the game. Along the way, you will kill evil spirits to get coins that are needed to open various chests containing new spells, skills, hilts, souls, and other materials necessary for the game.

After a couple of unsuccessful attempts, you realize which spells are better to choose, which ones to use immediately, and which ones to save for the boss fight. There are several variations of bosses per level, and it’s a matter of randomization of which one you will encounter. The battle with the boss is quite clear and the difficulty is to find the right spells that will deal maximum damage to him beforehand.

As soon as you defeat the boss, an intermediate room will open up where you can unlock additional opportunities to complete the next level. For example, you can take more hearts to increase your health and thus your chances of survival. In addition, if you find scrolls with spells, you can study them and choose the ones you like best.

Yes, everything revolves more or less around randomness, but there is still progress in levelling up your character. In addition to temporary improvements that you get on or between levels, there will be permanent improvements such as a better broom and amulet. These will allow you to choose what your ult will do and how fast you move.

Bioms also have several variations for each level. But their principles remain the same. That is, the second level becomes more difficult than the first both because you will meet new, more difficult monsters and because the location itself will have obstacles. For example, in the second level, you have to jump over the abyss, otherwise, your character will lose one heart when you fall, which will lead to failure.

At this stage, you can unlock all or almost all spells, buffs, amulets, etc. in the first couple of hours of the game. After that, you need to think about which ones suit you best, and to win the game, everything will depend on your personal skills. Namely, how quickly you react to threats or shoot accurately, etc.

While playing Bosorka, I kept thinking about how I played The Binding of Isaac. Of course, I can’t say that these two games are very similar in terms of gameplay, but the basic principle of early roguelike where you have to complete the game from start to finish in one attempt and hone your skills in passing all the threats in the game is preserved in both.

Of course, the game has its drawbacks. I particularly disliked two things. The first is that after opening the chest, the loot does not automatically rise, which keeps you in one place for too long, where you can also get stuck in the textures. If the intention was to make the game more difficult, it would have been wise to add another buff that allows you to pick up everything automatically.

The second thing is that some of the map’s boundaries are unclear. Especially on those levels where you have to jump a lot. Perhaps this should also be a difficulty, but I would like to see the boundaries of the islands a little earlier so that I can plan the jump manoeuvre more effectively.

Despite this, my overall impression of playing Bosorka is very positive. It doesn’t evoke emotions of anger when something doesn’t work out but instead encourages you to eventually cope and complete all the levels. This is exactly what an indie roguelike should be in my humble opinion. Therefore, I honour and thank the developers for their work.