Cthulhu Realms
I’m going to start here by saying - yes, this game is technically a reskin of Star Realms. But so is Hero Realms. And Star Realms itself is nothing more than a reskinned, watered down 2-player variant of Ascension. None of this makes any of those ‘bad games’, so let’s just do away with that right now. If theme is an issue for you, and sci-fi is your favourite theme, play Star Realms. If fantasy theming is your do-or-die, play Ascension. But if theme isn’t a super huge issue for you, or you like Lovecraftian themed games, then you should definitely give Cthulhu Realms a try. In my opinion, the gameplay is FAR superior to Star Realms, as it now includes triggers for cards being discarded and cards being ‘abjured’, or removed from the game (‘trashed’ for those of you who have played Star Realms), and I felt like building colour-themed decks or concept decks actually worked in this game, whereas Star Realms felt like ‘always buy the biggest attack card possible, ignore everything else about the card’ - there are even official strategy guides for the game which say the same thing. Cthulhu Realms is a great deckbuilder, the art is great, and although the iconography of the cards can be a little confusing initially, trust me - you will pick it up very quickly.
– Real player with 109.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Card Game Deckbuilding Games.
A lot of people from the Humble Monthly are not familiar with Star Realms, but to break it down simply, this game is basically a variation on Star Realms, it is not meant to be like Hearthstone or Magic–in fact, I think it’s deliberately trying to avoid that format for something that you can pick up and play without worrying about “long-term investment.” Once you know the rules of the game and the basic mechanics, you’re set. It’s NOT a collectible card game. That’s kind of the point.
It is a deckbuilding game, predicated on factional synnergy. It’s highly similar to Star Realms, so let me explain the differences from that:
– Real player with 15.3 hrs in game
Call of Myth
Call of Myth is a collectible card game set in the universe of Mythos of Howard Phillips Lovecraft.
In this dark world, full of dangers incomprehensible to the human mind, you have to challenge not only the Old Gods and their fanatical followers, but also your own madness. Will you be able to withstand the horrors of this world and the nightmares generated by your own mind?
All cards are important
Common cards are the base of each deck, they form its playstyle. Use them to create a new tactic and add Unique and Mythic cards that will introduce special interactions and hard but rewarding plays into the game.
A unique madness mechanic
Apart from strength and health, every creature has sanity. If the sanity drops to zero, the creature will go mad and get madness. You can either avoid this outcome or create a deck that can turn the insanity of your own creatures to your advantage. The choice is yours.
Leaders
Each Leader has unique active and passive abilities, as well as a different starting amount of health. Depending on the strategy you prefer each leader can achieve its potential in many different ways.
Do you want to crush the opponent with powerful creatures capable of single-handedly dealing with whole hordes of enemies? Or do you prefer to use cunning techniques and wait until the enemy’s strength is exhausted before you strike?
Using a variety of cards, you can build a deck that suits your playstyle.
Tactics and strategy
A special playing field encourages the use of tactics. Just playing the cards that come into your hand is not enough to win. To defeat the enemy, you need to thoughtfully place creatures on the table, combining their abilities and skills.
Iconic characters of Lovecraft’s works
Cthulhu and Herbert West, Nyarlathotep and Professor Armitage, Shub-Niggurath and Randolph Carter, as well as plenty of other momentous characters of Lovecraft’s works.
Some will become your opponents, while others will become loyal allies.
Read More: Best Card Game Top-Down Games.
Mansions of Madness
At the beginning, it didn’t seem to work with my GPU… I’ve tried 800x600, 1024x768, full resolution either in desktop or mobile graphics quality, full screen or windowed and the game never started. I could just hear the rain falling (I guess this is what you hear when you are at the main menu?). The screen didn’t even change, not even in black screen. it just stuck having captured my desktop background.
On the other hand, someone from the software dev team of Fantasy Flight came immediately in contact with me in order to solve the problem.
– Real player with 65.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Card Game Adventure Games.
This game is a complete rip off. The MSRP is 100$ and you get exactly 4 scenarios with next to no replayability, in some levels the tiles layout and monster spawns change a bit, but thats it (some stay almost a100% identical). The narrative and the core elements are always the same, there arent even branching story trees, like in the first edition. Sure you CAN replay it for the challenge, using different characters etc. but for someone like me, who enjoys the story, there is no replay value whatsoever. The first two expansions are even worse, for arround 50$ each you get the components from the first edition (and its add ons) and exactly ONE mission, 50$ for ONE mission!!! The DLCs are okay, having to pay 5$ each, but Heidelberger/Asmodee can’t be arsed to do their job and localize them. Same with the 4th Expansion, it has been out since last autumn/ early winter and it hasnt even been announced to be localized into German yet. Don’t get me wrong, I really LOVED this game and the missions they made, but 25-50$ for a one time playthrough between 2-4hours is just so horribly overprized, that I can’t recommend the game to anyone who isn’t filthy rich or just wants to play the game for its mechanics, rather than its immersive story. If they should decide to add more digital DLC, and get their shit together with the physical expansions and the localisations, I might change my mind, but for the money you have to invest here you could easily get 3-4 video / board games with way more bang for your buck. Oh and while they offer the game on almost all digital plattforms, there is no way to transfer your purchases betwen them, so you have to buy it again if you want to play it on your apple/ android devices. Technically this app is also rather primitive, no mutliple save games, no customisation options (you have to confirm so much stuff all the time, and there is no way of getting rid of all the confirmations “do you really want to end the round?” YES I DO, thank you very much!). And I don’t think that it can be too hard implementing those things, considering there is a fanmade app for this game, created by one or two guys, that tackles all those issues. So Asmodee/FFG/Heidelberger, please stop counting your money and fix your game.
– Real player with 50.8 hrs in game
Sinistrous
Introduction
Discover an ancient dungeon and battle eldritch horrors in this Lovecraftian deck-builder. Play as either the Warrior, the Witch, or the Rogue and enjoy strategic turn-based combat as you carve your way through mind-bending labyrinths. With each new adventure you will face a unique and randomized assortment of mystifying events, phantasmal environments, and perplexing creatures. There are more than 100 unique cards featured in Sinistrous and each class introduces new mechanics and distinct play styles for high replayability. Seek out the Darkness, question your sanity, and uncover the secrets of Carcosa.
Features
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Play as three cultists with their own unique skill sets while fighting your way through an unpredictable Lovecraftian world.
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Make critical decisions in an attempt to preserve your sanity, or satiate your lust for lunacy and unlock your cultist’s untapped potential.
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Customize your deck with over 100 ‘Cards’ and game-changing ‘Runes’ as you strategize against enemies of shapes and sizes unbeknownst to man.
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Experience events that make you question reality as you explore and unveil the secrets of Carcosa.
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Enjoy a dark, gritty art style featuring fully animated heroes, enemies, and more.
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Experience a hauntingly atmospheric soundtrack that fuses orchestra and electronica.
Heretic Operative
Updated review after the most recent patch. Most issues I had with the game have now been fixed, and I have changed back to a “recommended” review as promised. This is the longest review I’ve ever written, and the only one I’ve edited more than once. These facts alone should tell you something about the depth and investment this game offers! Most of the text below this line is no longer relevant, but I’m leaving it up as a history of sorts and a memory of what kind of long-winded criticisms the patient devs have dealt with! :D
– Real player with 39.0 hrs in game
Digital Boardgames are a bit of an odd genre. As a fan of both physical board games and digital strategy games I’ve struggled to grasp the hybrid. Why represent a complex strategy game with cards and dice rolls when you don’t have to, especially if your game doesn’t have a physical equivalency.
Enter Heretic Operative. The description reads “Inspired by games like Pandemic, Arkham Horror, and Talisman” and that was a big selling point for me. Having recently become an obssessive for the Arkham Horror card game, I knew what this meant for the game in general - action-point, narrative driven “built to probably kill you” by design. Great.
– Real player with 34.1 hrs in game
Cards of Cthulhu
Cards of Cthulhu is a casual little game, simple in design but with suprising depth. You pick cards for your deck from a choice of random two. Two cards at the beginning and more are added as you progress through the battles. Then you jump onto your motorcycle, grab your shotgun and ride across the wasteland to face off against Cthulhu himself - who stole your girlfriend, as villains in games have traditionally been fond to do.
Each opponent you meet on your way you fight by playing your cards (and autoattacking with your shotgun). Simple enough? The depth of the game is knowing when during a combat round to play each card, in battles with consequitive fights of more than one enemy which card to save for the next enemy, which card in a given situation perhaps not to use at all, which cards to deny your enemy from playing, and when to not play cards.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
This game packs a lot of style and fun in a simple package, It is relentlessly focussed on play dropping you right in the game and back to the start when the game ends, which is minor but a refreshing change from the typical game with lots of menus and cut scenes wasting your time. This one has confidence in what it is delivering and delivers it proudly.
Each game you collect a small deck of cards each of which can be used once against a monster or set of monsters. In this way each run feels fresh because you are building a new deck which will be played differently than other decks.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
Tabletop Creator
Make your tabletop games come true! Tabletop Creator is a tabletop game maker tool that allows you to design any kind of tabletop game. Create your different game components, customize them and export your game for getting a physical copy or for playing it online!
Features
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Blueprints: design your components templates by using a WYSIWYG editor!
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Collections: create instances of your components, just choose a blueprint and customize it!
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Version control: projects support version control, enabling collaboration on the cloud with others to create your game!
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Documentation: guides and tips articles on how to create your game
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Automatic updates: receive all future updates for free
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Support: join the community at Discord or mail us for solving your doubts and issues
Under development features
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Icons gallery: all the icons you need for a prototype already included!
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Demo projects: “original” game projects created for you to check examples of use
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Variables: create a set of variables, use them along your game and replace its value from just one place!
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Export: export your components to pdf/image format and print a copy of your game!
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Game localization: translate your tabletop game texts in an easy way by exporting and importing a csv file!
October Night Games
This is a nice little puzzle-like game, and it’s more complex than meets the eye at first time. I enjoyed it more and more, when exploring how things worked out.
I found the hunt for manage the achievements fun, and I have collected 21 of 23. Coming Halloween I will reach 22, but to get the last we all have to wait until 2039! (Playing during Halloween, beneath full moon)
But … after 98 hours playing the “Halloween” campaign I have reached my goals, more or less. Will I play the game again? There is a second campaign “Freezing Moon”. I didn’t see anything that interested me there. The only effect I could see was that you take injuries by the freezing cold. I will check it out again … but I don’t see it as that fun.
– Real player with 102.1 hrs in game
Been having a really fun time playing this one and I’m not the most active board game player, love the setting and it’s inspirations. The developers have been releasing patches since the launch of the game making it better and correcting some bugs, there’s a lot of fun to be had here, even if you just play againts bots.
– Real player with 22.8 hrs in game
Cultist Simulator
I’m a writer, and I fell in love with Alexis Kennedy’s imagery and lore. I was never into videogames, but the storytelling and atmosphere really spoke to me. I recommend it to dreamers and problem-solvers alike.
– Real player with 1273.0 hrs in game
This game has to be the single most difficult game I’ve ever played, I wont lie.
Like it’s one thing if a game is hard as balls, but this game physically hurts to play.
It’s not even a matter of frustration or anything like that.
All I have to do is look at the game board, and then my head starts to pound.
No game I have ever played before has had me slam my head down on my desk after winning because winning means I don’t have to torture myself anymore …until my brain decides that starting a new run is a good idea, that is.
– Real player with 90.7 hrs in game
Endless Voyage / 无尽航线
Changed review from Thumbs Up to Thumbs Down.
2.4/5 Card battler. Fantasy with guns and bombs. This would be a pretty great game if it didn’t have language errors in the UI and didn’t have the bugs. The default language is Mandarin and it’s a wiitel complicated to get to an English UI in this game.
The Good:
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B-to-A quality card battler
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Pretty good graphics, cute.
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Decent cards and mechanics
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Value: I got this for $10 and it’s a fine game for 10 USD.
The Bad:
- The game’s tutorials are terrible. If one makes single mistake, you have to replay a dozen stupid battles. That’s not a tutorial, that’s just punishment.
– Real player with 210.1 hrs in game
These are the fun stuff:
1. The idea of building a"squad" is fun. Some combos are fun to execute.
2. Decent stage design. You always get 3 options, which gives flexibility in how you play the game.
3. Certain builds are fun.
These are the issues:
1. Once in a while resolution will be messed up and fixing it take eternity.
2. Game never updates. No new cards/characters/modes being added ever since I purchased this game.
3. Game is fun at the beginning, but once you reach higher levels, you will realize that there are only one or two playable builds. Other build will either become frustratingly bad with higher enemy HP or hard stuck on certain types of enemies.
– Real player with 105.2 hrs in game