I’m always on the hunt for the next best roguelike, and Ants Took My Eyeball has been a real winner for me in 2024. It pulls together elements of some of my favorite games, feeling like you dropped the likes of Terraria, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Spelunky, and Noita in a blender and created a sublime side-scrolling smoothie. The action platformer already boasts a fantastic 91% user rating on Steam, and developer Bosmic Forge has just unleashed a new update bringing more than a dozen new items to play with alongside balance changes and tweaks. Plus, it’s on sale.
Ants Took My Eyeball is one of those delightful games that lays out its premise right in the title. Diving into an ever-shifting ant hill, it’s your job to blast, carve, and bash your way through swarms of deadly insects and dangerous boss fights to reclaim your stolen eyeball. Structurally, its exploration and progression feel closest to Dead Cells, but the overall combat most reminds me of Terraria, although the bug-bashing aspect always puts me a little in mind of Hollow Knight as well. The result is one of the best roguelikes of the year, and certainly one of my personal picks.
The new update introduces a total of thirteen additional gadgets and four more trinkets. Bosmic Forge has also made gadgets more powerful in general. Gadget points now require more kills to get than before, but most of the gadgets use fewer points to activate. Alongside the new additions, a sizable count of the pre-existing options have been buffed – although the Invincibility Generator has been toned down a touch.
Item throwing has been reworked. Items should now fly in a nice arc when you toss them, while throwing melee weapons should now be both easier and a more effective strategy. The Cleaver, Adamant Spear, and Bolt-Action Rifle have all seen buffs, as has the Razor-Sharp Stinger trinket, while the Vengeful Harmonica has had a rework.
The gem costs for hideout renovation have been “drastically reduced” in most cases. If you’re playing in co-op, players two through four now have new voices to help better differentiate you. There are new ‘Crit Pots’ to watch out for that will drop critical orbs when destroyed, and gold-containing pots should now be easier to spot. If you’ve yet to jump into the game, there’s even a Steam sale to let you do so at a big discount.
Ants Took My Eyeball update 1.7.0 is out now. You can buy the game at a 50% discount on Steam through Wednesday December 4, meaning you’ll pay just $8.49 / £7.14 for your copy. Head here to get it, where you’ll also find full details on everything added in the patch.
Whether you’re on the hunt for the best platform games on PC, or perhaps the best action games to keep you hacking and slashing into 2025, we’ve got you covered.
You can also follow us on Google News for daily PC games news, reviews, and guides, or grab our PCGN deals tracker to net yourself some bargains.