Don’t Lose Aggro Preview

I got the chance to check out Don’t Lose Aggro, a “single-player action roguelite inspired by MMO raids” developed and published by Oren Koren. I’ve never really been into MMOs, and the closest thing I’ve ever done close to a raid was in Monster Hunter: World and Monster Hunter Wilds, but I found the premise interesting enough to give it a shot.

Currently, there isn’t much of a story to speak of in-game, other than that you play as the party’s tank, drawing aggro away from your squishier teammates. The entire team is relying on you to absorb all the damage you can to complete raids. Basically, it’s like a babysitting simulator, but instead of a baby, you get sorcerers, archers, and summoners… who all will die in seconds without your help.

Currently, there are only three game modes: a standard run through a dungeon to beat a boss at the end, a wave-based mode, and a boss rush (with rankings based on how fast you complete them). Regardless of what you pick, at the beginning of each run, you’ll start at level one with only a single skill and a companion to help you out. However, as you kill monsters and get EXP, you level up and get to choose what upgrades you want to make your job easier to perform. Obtain new skills, upgrades that make those skills better, or increase the usefulness of your companion; they’re all effective and last until you either conquer the dungeon… or more than likely die a horrific death.

Your main job will be taking care of whatever teammate you chose to bring along, making sure you Don’t Lose Aggro and kite enemies away from them. In the version of the game I played, only the Healer, Ranger, and Summoner were available, but they’re all useful in their own way. At any time, you can activate what’s basically an ultimate ability to help turn the tide of a fight.

That being said, if you find your teammate to be… um, unsuited for their role, there’s nothing stopping you from letting them die. Only your death matters, but your build better be up to snuff because they’ll be out for the rest of the run, and the benefits they provide will make losing them feel like getting your feet swept out from under you.

Between your runs, you’ll be in the city where you can unlock new skills, purchase meta-upgrades, change your shield, and switch out your teammate. It’s a nice place, though bigger than necessary, I feel. You don’t go all that fast, after all, and the area feels so empty without any other NPCs running around. I hope that gets better as development progresses.

I can definitely see the potential of Don’t Lose Aggro to become quite the interesting journey. It was fun to guard my teammate and panic when things started to go awry. Although it does get pretty same-y with the basic strategy of Taunt the enemy, and pray that they don’t target your teammate. Hopefully, content updates will improve the game’s quality and variety.

Don’t Lose Aggro is dropping into Early Access on the 15th of April for Windows PCs and Steam Deck with a 20% discount. If you’re interested, why not give it a shot yourself?