Leap of Fate [$3.99] didn't make a great first impression on me. The opening cut-scene dialogue is ponderous. The aiming feels a little off. The tutorial has a lot of clumsy navigation elements, suggesting there will be some shoveled-in platforming to break up the action. The first time I loaded the game, I played through the tutorial, wondered why Jared was raving about it so much, then switched over to something else. Of course, since I was assigned to the review, I had to come back to Leap of Fate soon. Reviewing games is generally a great job, but one of the few downsides is that you can't always walk away from games you're not enjoying. Sometimes, however, that turns out to be a good thing, and Leap of Fate is one such case.

It didn't take much time in the proper game for Leap of Fate to show its stripes. The goal of the game is to guide one of four characters through six stages of twin-stick shooter action. You'll collect resources from fallen enemies that you can use to upgrade your character and unlock new special moves. Each character has their own story that will unfold as you play. This is far from a straightforward run-and-gun, however. For starters, it adopts a lot of the traits found in roguelites. Death is permanent, the composition of the levels and which bosses you'll face are randomized, and you'll never quite know which upgrades or how many resources you'll have at your disposal. While you have the major goal of getting through all of the stages, much of...