Into The Restless
Ruins

Into The Restless Ruins (2025) is a dungeon-building action game where you create and then enter a dungeon night after night. You play cards with different-shaped rooms to gradually expand the dungeon towards The Warden's lair, then battle your way through the labyrinth. It's unusual because as you build the dungeon, you want to balance challenge with survivability, to maximise your rewards but not make it impossible.

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You are an adventurer in the Scottish highlands recruited by a mysterious Maiden. In return for helping her by defeating the Warden, she will grant you your heart's desire. Play is split into two sections: constructing the dungeon and traversing it.

During the build phase, you start with a selection of cards, each with a different-shaped room on it. You choose how to place and orient the rooms, all the while building towards the areas clouded by shadow to collect the seals required to progress. During the exploration phase, the aim is to traverse the dungeon to break seals and defeat enemies for their valuable Glimour. However, your torch gradually diminishes and limits how long you can spend.

Battles are automatic but require careful movement and evasion. Defeat enough enemies and you unlock new cards to expand the dungeon. Some of these rooms offer special functions, such as extending your torch's duration or adding characters to trade with or stations where you can upgrade cards in your hand. This means that the best placement of rooms is as much about gaining these boosts at opportune moments as it is about reaching new areas.

Every time you exit the dungeon, you fill up a death meter. Die inside the dungeon, and it increases much more. If it fills up completely, all your progress is erased and you have to start again, so balancing staying in the dungeon to get things done while ensuring you can get out safely is essential.

The result is an unusual game where you create the dungeon you must master. Learning to harness the synergies between rooms' functions while balancing progression with safety is a challenge, but getting it right makes for strategic and rewarding fun.

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Our examiner, Ben Kendall, first checked Into The Restless Ruins 11 months ago. It was re-examined by Jo Robertson and updated 10 weeks ago.