Into the Restless Ruins Review: A Must-Play Hidden Gem for Deckbuilder Fans | The Gamerheads Podcast

Platform reviewed: Nintendo Switch

Also on: Steam, PS5, Xbox Series X/S

Price: $14.99

If any game deserves the title of "hidden gem," it's Into the Restless Ruins. From the moment I picked it up, I had a hard time putting it down. It’s part puzzle builder (think Blue Prince), part auto-battler (think Vampire Survivors)—and that combination? Absolutely killer.

Into the Restless Ruins is a deckbuilder, but instead of cards, my deck is made up of rooms. My goal is to dive into the ruins, unlock the seals holding a beast, and then take that beast down. It sounds simple—except my torch has a health bar, and once it burns out, I start taking damage. There are ways to keep my torch lit, though, and that’s where the rooms come into play.

The first thing I had to learn was how to strategically place my rooms. Each one has its own special function—some replenish my torch, others restore health, and a few grant extra build points for the next night. I only get a limited number of build points, and each room costs a specific amount, so I have to really think through my layout. Every decision matters if I want to build a dungeon that’ll actually get me to the seals.

Placing rooms strategically is part of the fun. I loved thinking through when to drop a health tree or when I’d need a torch room to stay alive. And every time I uncovered a new room, I couldn’t wait to play it just to see what it could do—it made every discovery intriguing.

But I quickly learned that if I didn’t plan carefully, the maze would start to get messy, and I’d get lost fast. I started placing landmarks and making mental notes like, “Take a left at the forge.” There are rooms with fairies that can lead me back to safety, and signposts I can set up to point the way—but once I’m inside the ruins, the camera zooms in on my character, and I can’t see the entire layout. That limited view makes good planning even more important.

The seals are hidden behind a fog of war, and just reaching that fog doesn’t guarantee I’ll find what I’m looking for. Sometimes it’s a dead end. Other times, I’ll stumble across currency or vendors who’ll sell me new rooms or upgrade the ones I already have.

There’s a horde of monsters in the ruins, all out to kill me. But taking them down rewards me with Glimour—basically, it's experience that fills a bar. Once that bar is full, I get to choose one of three new cards to add to my deck. It’s a mechanic that works, similar to Vampire Survivors.

There are two ways to end a run—either I make it back to the portal and end it on my own terms (the preferred method), or I die. Either outcome adds corruption to a separate bar, and once that bar fills up, the entire game ends and I have to start over. But dying speeds up that process. It not only adds more corruption, it also clutters my deck with bad cards. If I die too often and those cards pile up, eventually I’ll be forced to play them—and that’s when things really start to spiral.

After completing a run—whether by defeating the final boss or letting the corruption bar max out—I gain experience that levels up my character. Each level unlocks new cards that can show up in future runs, along with Cantrips. These are modifiers I can select at the start of a run to make things easier or harder. Some Cantrips even offer rewards, which sometimes tempts me to pick one that ramps up the difficulty just to see if the risk pays off.

Final Grade: A

What makes Into the Restless Ruins work is that I’m in total control of my destiny. Sure, I’m at the mercy of the draw when it comes to what cards I get to build my labyrinth—but ultimately, it’s up to me to decide how I lay out each run. The game loop just clicks. There are six dungeons to explore—each one more challenging than the last. If you’re a fan of Vampire Survivors or Blue Prince, this should absolutely be on your radar.

Review code provided by Wales Interactive