CloverPit, a game review
CloverPit is an amazingly well polished indie title about gambling that features a slots machine, a hard line telephone, and a bunch of unlockables. It is addictive as hell, but it is unnecessarily time-consuming and could use some QOL improvements.
CloverPit satisfies the gambling itch. It's all about risk-taking and strategic thinking. Betting blindly will only take you so far, and to get to the higher tiers of debt in this game, you have to be clever or at least understand how to cheat the system. The game slowly reveals more and more power-up items to help you progress, and you slowly get a grasp on how the game works under the hood the more you play. After you figure out the multiplier systems and the best strategies to use to get to higher debt tiers, you will also unlock "memory cards" which augment your gameplay in both significant and not-so-significant ways. Most memory cards make the game more challenging, but a few of them can be advantageous. There are mechanisms at play which evolve over time as you unlock more power-ups. Figuring out how to combine the different charms and other power-ups is the ultimate challenge of the game.
Eventually,
you'll be earning billions off every spin, but to get there, you have
to understand a lot of not-so-intuitive mechanisms this game employs.
For example, you have to know how to increase your symbols multiplier,
patterns multiplier and individual symbol values and pattern values. You
have to combine charms with phone perks in creative ways. You have to
fight against very harsh RNG/randomization to get the items and perks most
advantageous to you during each run, and usually, even if you're smart,
you lose eventually. Most players will not beat this game, and that's a
real shame, because the game offers a ton of unlockables and
achievements to seek despite its small scope of a single closet-like
room.
There are a lot of tiers of victory to this game, however, which will give you a sense of accomplishment even if you don't 100% the game and beat every tier of debt. I've sank 20+ hours into CloverPit, but I still don't know if it has a proper ending where you've beat everything. I did, however unlock every memory card, escape the room several times, and literally break the game's multiplier system. I found ways to maximize my ticket gains and even became basically immortal once when I found a way to get infinite ankhs. I deposited well over a trillion coins in one run. I feel like I beat the game, but I'm sitting at just 73% of the achievements and still wondering how to get some of them... mostly because I refuse to look at guides.
CloverPit suffers from too small of a scope. The game takes place in a small closet-like room, so there's not much room for world exploration. The room doesn't evolve much. I would like the ability to explore the game's world and discover lore. Why did the player character get trapped? Why does the entity on the other side seem to take pleasure in torturing the player? Is there any chance of a narrative? I would like more world building, but that might have to wait for a sequel. What's a lot more likely to come in an update are different types of room upgrades. I already saw a teaser for a surgery machine to be added to one of the walls. I could see the dev adding room accessories like a window or a disco ball. It would be kind of cool to see more joke items if nothing else. I would like to see a larger room with some distractions and a sleep mechanic. Maybe that could be an unlockable mode? I would like to take this so much farther in the most literal sense. You see, what this game lacks is movement. It's a very static experience, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it won't appeal to everyone.
There are a lot of
seemingly rushed features which feel unfinished. For example, once you
get past the billions in debt, the numbers start turning into notions
rather than scrolling. I also noticed there wasn't much explanation of
the percentage on the wall above the broken toilet. The number doesn't
seem to raise with each interaction with the toilet, so it's not an
obvious goal for the player. The only players who know what it is are
those who already got the goal done and those who looked at a wiki. I
would like to see more in-game explanations of these kinds of goals or
at least some form of context clue about what certain things expect of
the player. I also would like to see a reason added to have to use the
toilet more than the first couple of times. When you only use the toilet because it's a giggle, it makes the
toilet seem rather pointless as it's not part of the gameplay loop.
The slot animations are a little on the slow side and can be slowed down but not sped up. For such a grindy game, it is made much worse by having to wait for each slot spin animation to finish. I would like to be able to rush through and even skip the animations entirely. Unfortunately, this wasn't possible. It would also be advantageous to have the ability to pause during rounds to restart so we don't have to wait through the dialogue when we know we're going to lose to a deadline. Just let us save ourselves a few precious seconds of our lives, dev.
The sound design is also top notch! I really like the sound effects chosen for every key event and for all the ambient happenings. The sound helps sell the excitement of the slots but also keeps you engaged with the phone, door, floor, and so many unlockables. Again, so many unlockables... but most of the items share the same sound effects and animations minus a few exceptions. I would like to see more variation on the items, maybe some additional sound effects for each item's death, but honestly, what's there is plenty for me. It works. The sound of items getting shredded into blood and then nothing works. The knocks on the door work. The phone ringing works. Everything sounds like it fits, and all the sounds serve a purpose, whether that's to indicate that an item was destroyed or to indicate that your phone is ringing or to make you wonder if someone's trying to get into your room.
Overall, CloverPit's one of those rare gems that has a lot of rough edges but is a gem nonetheless. It's on Microsoft's Game Pass, and it's a fairly affordable little game in the first place, so it's easy to justify. Just make sure you have many, many days to sink into it, and always remember...
