Some games are hard, and then there’s Skills & Raids.

When I first saw Skills & Raids during Summer Game Fest, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it. I loved the art style, I love the character designs, and I loved that I was getting what seemed to be a new game in the unforgiving style of The Darkest Dungeon. I won’t sit here and lie and act like I finished Darkest Dungeon, but I certainly put a lot of hours into it and had a blast, even when runs would go as bad as they could. Skill & Raids, at least in this demo, comes up just a little short when it comes to delivering that level of experience.

For those unaware, Skills & Raids follows three heroes trying to take down the evils of the world one run at a time. That’s right. You guessed it. After every failed run, anything not left in your safe pocket is gone forever. Thankfully, though, the game offers ways for our heroes to heal up while out in the field and for them to be able to send back items when their bag gets full. Even when trying to reach these different points on the map, though, the game will constantly ask if the risk is worth the reward, and honestly, I would say yes, with the exception of one experience I ran into on more than one occasion.

Your squad of three is made up of three classes. There’s Shelldon, the Turtle; he’s our tank. Then there’s Clawrk, the Tiger. He falls into the DPS role. Lastly, there’s Owlivia, the Owl. She’s the team’s healer.

Side note: Great names. Great designs. No notes.

I explain all of this because on several occasions I would run into scenarios where Shelldon and Clawrk were dead, and all that I had left was Owlivia, which would usually mean the run was over… unless the only character left on the enemy team was also a healer. No, this didn’t mean I had a chance to win, but rather that I was stuck in an infinite loop of two auto-battling healers taking swipes at one another and then pausing to heal themselves back to full health.

To make matters worse, once I felt like I had the combat figured out, I ran into a team of three enemies that, in my current state, couldn’t be defeated. I understand that the point of games like this is for me to lose and continue going on runs to get stronger but I was near the very end of a run, I had discovered and equipped stronger attacks, and my team entered the fight with full health, but because the enemy team was comprised of two powerful healers and a tank, it didn’t matter how much damage I threw at them or what strategy I tried to implement. I was destined to lose and start all over again.

I know most sites are posting “the best” or “their favorite” demos from Steam Next Fest, but for me, I see a demo like Skills & Raids as an opportunity for developer Eddie H.Hinestroza to get some important feedback so that he can make his game as good as I know it can be. I truly believe that with just a few minor changes here and there, Skills & Raids can become the type of game that makes everyone say, Just one more run.