Cardpocalypse

Cardpocalypse

Extremely Fun game with a unique and well designed card game mechanics. While there are a few things I think that could be improved, overall they really pale in comparison to the fun I’ve had from this game.

Pros

  • Fresh new card game mechanics with well designed factions that are both unique and synergistic

  • great story

  • Very replayable

  • Fun Gauntlet mode make your own deck each win with difference Champs

  • Great sound track and voicelines

Cons

  • animations and walking can get a little tedious on multiple playthroughs

Real player with 88.5 hrs in game


Read More: Best Card Game Family Friendly Games.


This game could have been AMAZING but has some design and balance shortcomings. I’ll list them briefly then go into more detail below.

  1. No way to collect all the cards or undo certain permanent changes

  2. No real post game or new game+ to try out different deck types. Unskippable cutscenes ruin the thought of replaying the game.

  3. Some balance shortcomings can make a couple parts almost impossible in some cases, this game is otherwise extremely easy.

I still had fun with this game and not a lot of people make games like this anymore. The story and writing is charming and the art grew on me. The complaints only hurt so hard because the rest of the game shows so much promise. I still had fun with my 14ish hours of it but I wouldn’t recommend paying full price unless you really love these types of games.

Real player with 33.9 hrs in game

Cardpocalypse on Steam

Library Of Ruina

Library Of Ruina

This game taught me that if something an enemy uses seems cheesy, simply use it as well and turn the dial to 11. Exploit or die. Use Gebura and Myo’s effect and leave all your worries behind, until Xiao ends you. Coming off of Lobotomy Corp made me predestined to love this game.

10/10, makes me feel like my IQ is room temperature, in Celsius

Real player with 176.7 hrs in game


Read More: Best Card Game Indie Games.


THE BOTTOM LINE

Library of Ruina is a bookstore the size of a city block–you’ll get lost in it for hours at a time, exploring a bottomless well of new and interesting stories to experience and share.

Review as follows:

I spent 160 hours with this game, but it’s lived rent-free in my head for so much longer. The world and story are evocative, unique, and at times disturbing. But the gameplay is just as unique, you’d be surprised how much changes when you strip the “roguelike” from “roguelike deckbuilder”. There’s depths to this game, and thanks to being singleplayer, it’s an ocean of archetypes and strategies that don’t centralize around a defined “meta” you might find in something like YuGiOh or Hearthstone. It’s all the joy of first discovering Magic the Gathering with friends, except in this case you don’t even need friends!

Real player with 160.0 hrs in game

Library Of Ruina on Steam

Ash of Gods: The Way

Ash of Gods: The Way

Twenty years have passed since the Great War. Frisa and Berkana kingdoms have managed to forge an uneasy peace but old grievances are not forgotten and new war is inevitable.

The Frisians have groomed new and talented commanders. They did this using a secret game developed by their best strategists to teach young aristocrats tactics and the art of war. Only by proving their tactical prowess can Frisian nobles achieve respect and a high rank. This way, only the best of the best make their way into the command. And soon, Frisa will be ready to strike.

Finn, a young and talented foster-son of Eik, the Berkanan secret service master and a veteran of the old war, is sent on a dangerous mission to participate in Frisian tournaments against the best of nobility in order to stop the war before it starts by eliminating top generals on the tournament arenas.

Gather characters, items and spells, learn about factions and their skills and abilities, level them up to create strong complementary decks and to build unique strategies to surprise your opponents on the battlefield.


Read More: Best Card Game Turn-Based Tactics Games.


Ash of Gods: The Way on Steam

Black Book

Black Book

the only guide in English on here (at time of writing) suggests paring down your deck to as few cards as you can manage, which is genuinely helpful especially if you’re getting frustrated with the game mechanics or want to speed things along. however, there’s too many cool spells for me to consider that, and there’s something to be said for equipping the max allowable and getting a rogue-like experience of figuring out how different spells play off each other. getting a page of random spells and figuring out how they best work together is definitely part of the fun for me.

Real player with 53.7 hrs in game

RECOMMENDED.

  • Long, fun, you learn a thing or two.

  • Searching for synergies is needed and pays off when you find one or two that works

  • Item managment is important!

  • You need to balance your activities progress but have a lot of room to experiment and change skill points.

  • The exploration in 3d its kinda yanky, but doesnt affect the main gameplay and you wont even care.

  • Your choices do come back to haunt you, and the choices you take do actually have consecuences inside the gameplay too (but thankfully you can always course correct)

Real player with 48.8 hrs in game

Black Book on Steam

Inscryption

Inscryption

Played through it twice, the game is the best of it’s kind, rogue like and incredible deck building elements, this game has that “little extra” that games like this need to be successful.

Real player with 56.7 hrs in game

great gameplay, amazing story, just wish you could play against the wizard and necromancer too

Real player with 55.7 hrs in game

Inscryption on Steam

System Crash

System Crash

System Crash is a strategic story-rich cyberpunk card game both developed and published by Rogue Moon Studios. Set in the not too distant future this is a story of intrigue, corporate espionage and cyberwarfare. Being a runner is a good, if not dangerous, career choice but after a mission in Berlin goes horribly bad you spend the next couple of months forcibly globetrotting while on the run from Corporate assassins intent on killing you. Eventually evading the pursuers you finally end up back in the “Sprawl”, a.k.a. San Angeles, down on your luck and looking to make some much needed credits. But a runner without a console can’t get any credits so after forging a deal with a local loan shark and finally getting your hands on some black market cyberware you hastily start down your road to redemption. A road that will take you through the darkest most dangerous places in both cyberspace and the real world…JACK IN!!!

Real player with 49.5 hrs in game

I really love this game.

System Crash is a single-player deckbuilder set in a cyberpunk-style universe. Battles unfold as a number of 1-vs-1 card-based duels over the course of the campaign. The campaign follows a comfortably generic story about hackers and back-alley doctors and shady corporations. There’s a very home-brew feel to the game in general, like it was cobbled together out of assets that were sitting around on a shelf in a garage somewhere.

Despite this, the card-battle system at the heart of System Crash is fantastic. It is extremely easy to pick up, but is highly addictive.

Real player with 48.8 hrs in game

System Crash on Steam

Tainted Grail: Conquest

Tainted Grail: Conquest

Song: Tainted Grail Artist: Vlakabaka

“Sometimes I feel I’ve got to, run away, i’ve got to, play a chill card game for a run or two

And the love we shaaare for card games is all in d’ere, with 9 classes, lots of deckbuilding and re-play-aability

Some runs might end baaad and some might go well but with this game time seems to goo noo-where

And this Tainted Grail is full of story, voiiiice acted characters in a daark tainted woorld

So taaake Gabens tears awaaay and buyy diz game here, cause you dont want to hear any-moe from mee

Real player with 73.6 hrs in game

It’s very similar to Slay the Spire and Monster Train but you’ll like it more than either of those if you prefer a dark aesthetic. The music and story are also more substantial here than other games in the genre. You get access to 3 classes (basically archer, fighter, invoker) which determine the type of base deck you’ll play. Every class is broken into 3 subclasses (i.e. invokers can be summoners, blood mages, or necromancers) that each have unique passives and a unique subclass ability. It’s honestly pretty remarkable how each subclass feels very distinct from its counterparts.

Real player with 69.4 hrs in game

Tainted Grail: Conquest on Steam

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales

This made me start reading the books

The 3 Witcher games (though amazing) didn’t have that effect on me, nor did the Netflix show. Here you get a different view on this world, this time through the perspective of a queen. More politics, more intrigue, more information, and choices that don’t affect just you, your friends, and who you’ll sleep with tonight, but entire kingdoms and their inhabitants.

This card game is more of an RPG than 95 out of 100 RPGs out there

The card gameplay is cool if you like gwent, has interesting puzzles for variety too. The deck building was weak though, most of the cards felt not very useful. Played on hardest (bonebreaker) difficulty to avoid the game being too easy and that meant I couldn’t goof around with interesting cards/combinations too much. If only I knew the soul of the game was the RPG element and that I’d spend 40hrs in it! I was expecting something like 10hrs!

Real player with 40.2 hrs in game

Knickers ate my cards. 7/10 if you like card games, a little repetitive in the middle.

Real player with 39.9 hrs in game

Thronebreaker: The Witcher Tales on Steam

LetterBound

LetterBound

LetterBound is a cooperative spelling adventure that can be played locally with up to four friends. The game features a full length campaign, a competitive battle mode, a host of unlockable content, and an educational mode for parents and teachers to practice spelling with their children. The game world is inspired by 1920’s newspaper printing factories but will take players on a larger journey through a world that features trains, skyscrapers, zeppelins, hover cars and more. Due to release in the first half of 2021, LetterBound harnesses the spirit of beloved word games and marries it to the fast paced gameplay of modern day couch co-ops. It’s the perfect mix for those who love playing word games with loved ones on their couch. Whether you’re a word maestro or trying to improve your vocabulary, LetterBound will surely bring a smile to your face!

LetterBound on Steam

Battle Mage : Card Caster

Battle Mage : Card Caster

Written for 1561’s Thoughts - Honest reviews, for busy people.

Battle Mage : Card Caster is a card game that gives you the illusion of choice, but is actually entirely revolving around luck. There’s no strategy involved at all, and the “plot” is shallow. 3.5/10

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui1dzl99XS4

Real player with 0.2 hrs in game

Looking at a wall, watching paint dry has more content than this.

Real player with 0.1 hrs in game

Battle Mage : Card Caster on Steam