Welcome to the Forgotten Mines. It is a fantasy roguelite RPG with tactical combat where the battles are tiny, but the dwarves are mighty. I had the opportunity to give this one a go. Let’s jump in and see if the small scale keeps this one from being great or if the depth of the mine is deeper than it appears.
In this review, I will be going over the following:
Story
Over a millennium has passed since all sorts of madness took over the mines of Dorvgard. It is now filled with all manner of goblins, orcs, skeletons and demons. You are the leader of the dwarves. With the united might of the clans you must take back the mines and reclaim them for the Dwarven Kingdom.
Gameplay
The Forgotten Mines have four floors and five battles per floor. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but things escalate quickly. You will need to find the perfect team to clear out the mines. First, we will discuss the setup. Then, we will discuss the elements of an expedition.
Setup
You will start off each expedition by choosing your party and your amulets. Each party is composed of three heroes, of which you will pick their race and class. Aside from dwarfs, there are also humans and elves as playable races. Each with a unique trait. As for the class, there are only a few unlocked to start with, such as the Knight and White Mage. However, there are many more that can be unlocked as you progress through the game. Each character will also be randomly assigned a positive and negative trait. These can make the beginning tough if someone like your mage has a trait that negatively affects their healing abilities.
The amulets are the same way. You can pick up to three to have with you on an expedition, but you will have to unlock each one first. Amulets apply a passive attribute to the party. These can be as broad as the whole party having a higher crit chance or as specific as doing additional damage to a certain enemy type. Once you have made your decision, it is time to start the expedition.
Layout
During the expedition, you will see your character sheets on the left side of the screen. Here is where you will be able to see each character’s stats, equipment, traits, and perks. The stats list a hero’s health, experience, strength, defense, crit chance, etc. Each character has a weapon, armor, and accessory slot for you to equip gear. The back page will show the character’s positive and negative traits that they started with, as well as perks and abilities that they picked up while leveling.
The top right of the screen is where you will see your inventory. You can see how much iron, gold, and gems you have collected—we will get more into those in a bit—and the items you have collected so far. Typically, you only have three item slots, so choose wisely what you carry with you.
Across the bottom of the screen, you will see the currently selected character and what floor you are on. When you select one of your own characters, it will display their name, portrait, action points remaining, and abilities that they can use. When you select an enemy unit, it will display the same information if you have fought and defeated that enemy before. Otherwise, it will be filled with question marks.
Combat
Battles in Forgotten Mines are played out on a small 8×8 grid in the center of the screen. At the beginning of each combat, there will be a designated deployment zone where you can place your characters. Then, the battle begins. Each unit has a set number of action points. These points can be used to move or use abilities. Your characters will gain more action points as they level up.
Each battle has a set number of turns to defeat the enemies. If you are not able to defeat them all before the end of the turn counter, then reinforcements will arrive. The battlefield is already quite small. If reinforcements arrive, then the grid gets even more crowded and you will become outnumbered very quickly. So make sure you are out of the room before that timer runs out.
Looting
So what happens if you clear a room before the timer runs out? Well, now you have time to loot the room. Some of the enemies will drop gear or keys for you to pick up. The keys can be used to unlock chests in that room or future rooms. You are also able to mine the room for resources. The turn counter is still going while you are looting, so you probably won’t have time to gather everything.
You can find three different kinds of resources. Most rooms will only have iron and gold boulders for you to break up. Occasionally, there will be a gem boulder as well. Make sure that you don’t miss these because they are quite rare. Iron and gold can be used in the shops that you come across to buy gear and potions. The gems that you find will be used between runs to unlock classes and amulets. Make sure that you get what you need and get out of there before the reinforcements arrive.
Events
In between combat encounters there will sometimes be random events. Unlike many roguelike games, Forgotten Mines does not have a map for you to select nodes. This means you never know what is going to happen next. Some of the events that you might come across include shops, blacksmiths, and encounters.
The shops are where you will spend your iron and gold that you have mined to buy better gear. You can even sell your old gear for a small profit. Shops are also the only place where you are able to revive your characters if one was to fall in battle. It’s not cheap though, so make sure you have plenty of gold built up for the later levels.
The blacksmith is where you can upgrade your current gear for a small fee. Upgrading gear can increase its stats or even boost an ability that the gear already has. The blacksmith is worth the money and really had a positive effect on many of my runs.
Lastly, the encounters are what I am going to classify as the random “make a choice” events that pop up from time to time. These were things like making a deal with a mysterious figure, deciding to help a wounded knight, or stumbling into a trap in the dark and figuring out what to do. These encounters added a bit of flare to each expedition, but I often ran into the same ones repeatedly. I am not sure if they are floor-specific. Hopefully, there are more that I haven’t seen yet.
Conclusion
Well, I do have to say that Forgotten Mines stays true to its word when it says “minimalist, small-scale fantasy” on their Steam page. The 8×8 grid is pretty small with all the boulders and enemies, not including all the water tiles. Does the small scale hold this game back, though? I don’t think so. I think it is a nice change of pace from the larger games that I usually play, like Capes and King Arthur: Legion IX.
I like that everything fits nicely on one screen with all the information you need right in front of you. The battles are relatively short since the turn limit is only eight turns for most battles. It also plays nicely on the Steam Deck, which is great for some short game sessions on the go.
In contrast to the tiny battles, Forgotten Mines does not hold back any punches. The combat ramps up quickly and can easily take you by surprise if you are not ready for it. Shops are your only way to revive a party member. With no map, you have no clue when the next shop will be. That makes it even more crucial to keep your team alive.
With the wide variety of races and amulets to unlock, I think there is a lot of gameplay here for those who want to dig in. I know I am going to go back to unlock all the classes before moving on. If you want a break from those grand strategy games and want something more bite-sized, go check out Forgotten Mines on their Steam page.
A review code was provided by the developers at Cannibal Goose.
