I blinked, and it was Monday. I’m sure we’re all feeling that, but I made a mistake most grievous on Friday afternoon by installing both the card-slinging roguelike Slay the Spire 2 and the new Disco Elysium-like RPG Esoteric Ebb on my ROG Ally. I thought I would sample a little of this, a little of that, and go on about my weekend business after a few hours with both. I was wrong. I did nothing all weekend. Well, I did play Slay the Spire 2 and Esoteric Ebb, but I did nothing else seeing as those two absolutely gobbled up my free time.In my defense, I somehow dodged the original phenomenon that was Slay the Spire, and didn’t know it was that damn good. As for the latter, my colleague and good-RPG-taste-haver, Ted Litchfield, tried to warn me that the Disco-like was phenomenal in his Esoteric Ebb review, so I have no excuse there.I’m weak, the games are good, and I have a ROG Ally. They weren’t the game releases I had my eye on in March, but I’m so pleasantly surprised by how good they feel to play on a handheld that I can’t shut up about the combination. And now I’d love to hear the same from you, PC gamers—is there anything you’re deep into right now that just feels especially good to play on the go?Perhaps I’m extra enthusiastic after what feels like a longer slump for my own gaming tastes, but it’s been a while since the RPG gears clicked into place for me and I can’t recall the last time I was this into a deckbuilder. It’s not that there’s been a shortage of good games: I just didn’t know what I was in the mood for until I found, well, what I was in the mood for. This is also what it feels like to ask me what I want to eat for dinner. I’m sorry.
Anyway, it turns out all I wanted to play on my Ally was a good-ass card game and a satirical RPG where I can incessantly remind everyone, “I’m The Cleric, by the way.” I know I’ve found the handheld sweet spot when I’m not longing to hear my clickity clackity keyboard or goading my 4080 Super into setting itself on fire. Slay the Spire 2 is built for tiny screens and portable ease. The deckbuilder strikes a near-perfect balance between the joys of incremental progress through constant failure and occasional RNG knife twist or blessing. It’s easy to learn, you’ll have the hang of it after a few rounds, but even if you’re catastrophically bad as I am, it’s still fun. It’s not like I wasn’t making any progress for hours, but let’s just say I wasn’t slaying no spires. I was slaying the groundfloor lobby, at most. I’ve since learned it’s fun to strategize and really try, and being so easy to pick up and put down helps with that.
Esoteric Ebb is another story, so maybe save that for when you can swaddle yourself in a heap of blankets and set aside some reading time. There’s a ton of objects and NPCs to investigate, so it definitely presents as something better suited for keyboard and mouse, but the Ally’s controller setup worked just fine. I was also surprised by how well the game’s art style lends itself to readability, particularly in the more crowded environments. All those bold, black lines and sharp, saturated colors made it easy for me to identify points of interest without straining over a tiny screen. I’ve spent countless hours in Disco Elysium the same way, but squinting. Outside of being the perfect genres and presentations for handheld gaming, they get points for being so easy to tweak and run on my Ally. I had play Esoteric Ebb on low settings to keep the framerate smooth, and Slay the Spire 2’s early access build occasionally sputters, but I don’t mind the adjustments. Esoteric Ebb retains its stylish vibrance and Slay the Spire doesn’t need frame-by-frame precision. It’s not often I even prefer to play something on my Ally, but that’s certainly the case now. It’s nice. Maybe I’ll even take this bad boy outside to touch some grass. And now I must ask you again: What have you been playing on the go? Any games, new or old, have you spending a little more time with your handheld PC?
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