Chess Evolved Online
The developer is clearly insane, and there are numerous horrific flaws that I assume will never be fixed ever. The good news is that it takes a while for the true gravity of those flaws to start affecting you, and until then you can enjoy this game a lot.
Here is a small sampling of some of the terrors of the past, although they may be gone*, they surely portend of more great sorrow in the future:
1. Turn one checkmate was once possible. Yes it is as bad as it sounds. Although it could be staved off by simply covering ever square within a 3 square radius of your king.
– Real player with 752.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess PvP Games.
Chess Evolved Online is an extremely frustrating game to play, and not for the right reasons. While it has an incredibly compelling base for a game and that is fun for a long time, you eventually get to a level where, at the highest rankings (I am currently in the top 50 as of this review, rank ~4400), you are forced to play only the most boring stally armies or lose a lot of rating because of effective RNG where other armies hard-counter your pieces.
So while I am giving this game a positive review out of support for being much better than most games out there, it still feels dreadful to play due to developer incompetence.
– Real player with 565.3 hrs in game
Chess: King of Crowns Chess Online
The developers of this game take much pride in the hard work they put forth into making sure the game is stable, steady and runs without hiccups.
They are always ready to solve issues and really make this game worth what it is.
The support is immeasurable!
thank you king of crowns chess!
I appreciate all that you’ve done for me, keep making games :)
– Real player with 35.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess Turn-Based Tactics Games.
Activation keys are not working!
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Grace of Zordan
EDIT:
I used to recommend this game, I do not anymore. This game has some serious game breaking bugs that are being abused by some players and the devs are not taking care of. I posted the issue on the forum with proofs of users abusing them, but they still don’t ban anyone abusing that bug, nor patch the bug.
Before:
An extremely skill demanding turn-based tactical-strategy chess-like card game, the main focus of the game is on each player’s ability to make the right tactical and strategic decisions rather than luck.
– Real player with 59.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Chess Early Access Games.
I actually like it,
great for people that want a ‘slower’ (yet fluid) paced game.
The game goes fast, but by ‘slower’ I mean it harkens back to the day when games weren’t ‘distracting’ - you were able to focus on them due to the game design, art style, etc.
Minimal distractions unlike the games of today, where even the garbage is ‘hi-res’ and distracts your eye.
Once again Russians show they have a great sense of aesthetics, they know how to do art with a very beautiful contrasting colours and tones.
– Real player with 41.9 hrs in game
Pawnbarian
I often feel like roguelike deckbuilders use a wide breadth of cards in their game to distract from the fact the core gameplay loop just isn’t all that satisfying. So, enter Pawnbarian, a game that doesn’t let you change your cards at all between characters, all you can do is add one of a few different upgrades. Strips away all the noise and gives you satisfying, thoughtful gameplay from the moment you start a run to its finish.
What it delivers is an experience that reminds me of Into the Breach, but with movement/attacks that vary from hand to hand. Calculating out the perfect route through the board to get a few pick offs and avoid damage is incredibly satisfying. Each turn feels like a tight geometric puzzle. The different characters really do feel like different beasts entirely. The titular Pawnbarian gains a lot from getting past the enemies to the final rank, the Knight Templar gets more actions by using more knights, and the Shogun uses pieces inspired by Shogi, which are often a little weaker, but he backs them up with an AoE ability he can power up by killing enemies.
– Real player with 25.8 hrs in game
I was privileged to win a copy of this early via Esty’s Misfits giveaway on Twitch (@Esty8nine) - delighted, because I was salivating over this from the ads!
The game is very much as it appears: use your moves optimally, learn opponent moves, build your army, and try not to die of Blight. It’s one of those puzzle strategy games you could open, mess around with for a bit and close again. I’ve since found the 2019 free demo, and it’s true to that- though extra time & development has gone in to make user experience satisfying.
– Real player with 14.5 hrs in game
Prismata
The easiest way to describe Prismata is to call it a RTS-themed (think Starcraft) chess. Chess comparison comes from the fact it has 0 RNG of any kind and no hidden info so the game is deterministic i.e. one of the players has a guaranteed win based on the starting positions. But just like Chess, Prismata is incredibly complex where solving it is impossible.
Players start with 6 or 7 Drones that harvest gold (2nd player starts with 1 extra drone to compensate), gold buys you technology structures that produce blue/red/green resources (not official names, but that’s the accepted naming convention in the community). Subsequently gold and tech resources buy attackers/defenders and your goal is to kill opponent’s units while protecting your fragile drones and attackers. Sounds simple at its core.
– Real player with 981.4 hrs in game
EDIT: I almost don’t believe it. Within two days the devs released an update that addressed several of these issues. That’s just awesome. You hardly see that happen for any game these days.
Thumbs up for quality of life updates, and a great strategy game. There’s still room for improvement with drone defaulting to block and such, oh well. Game is good though.
Outdated:
I really want to love Prismata. At a glance, this could be the first truly free to play strategy “card” game without any of the pay to win nonsense, and a potentially fantastic game at that. But for a game that tries so hard to be different than all the others in its genre, why are there so many familiar disappointments?
– Real player with 203.9 hrs in game
Dota Underlords
It is with a heavy heart that I write this review, because at 217 hours of game-play at the time of writing, I have invested a lot of my time into this game. I’ve played since the first publicly available build, so feel I have enough experience to critique this and its development as time has gone on. And for anyone wondering I capped out at Lieutenant IV, hardly a rank to sniff at.
I enjoy this game, I really do, when the game goes right it hits that sweet spot so well and you come away with a shiny new rank knowing you were the best of the best in that game.
– Real player with 278.6 hrs in game
I wish I could recommend this game. I really wish I could. But I feel like Valve took an idea they didn’t create, and without properly knowing what was good about that idea took it in their own direction, which ended up ruining what I enjoyed about the game. I played entirely too much of this when it was in beta, and I enjoyed every minute of it, even when things weren’t entirely balanced. The polish Valve put on the game with the interface and coding was just miles above the competition. Perhaps its better now, but TFT wasn’t even a game when Riot released it. I feel Valve had a great head-start on the competition, but I feel they’re ruined it, and while I don’t have access to player numbers, I get the feeling those would back up my claim.
– Real player with 240.9 hrs in game
Trendpoker 3D: Texas Hold’em Poker
I discovered this game many years ago. It learnt me to play poker and brought many hours of relaxation when I just wanted to chill out.
When it appeared on steam I decided to purchase it and leave a positive review but I hesitated a lot, to be honest.
The game has a wonderful interface and I haven’t found any poker simulation game that would be so nice looking. You can change the style of table and cards, and I also like to hear comments from my competitors. However, this game has some issues that developers apparently don’t want to fix or even admit. Stats aren’t being saved correctly making this feature rather useless. That is unfortunate since many achievements are tied to statistics. The menu is getting bugged for no obvious reason and AI act weird. But devs gave many efforts to make this game more interesting by releasing updates, lowering price, creating a free-to-play version, and I respect that.
– Real player with 71.5 hrs in game
Single player against the AI, this game seems broken…on easy setting, you basically never lose a game, or for that matter even a hand. On normal or above, half or more of the AI players fold almost every hand, and it’s like you’re playing against a bunch of drunks as far as their betting goes. It becomes especially obvious when you fold and the AI plays the rest of the hand against itself . . .They’ll raise twice in a row, then fold when someone bumps the pot slightly; they keep bumping raises when they have nothing, even if there’s a flush or straight already laying on the table and they had nothing from the start, or they go all-in with nothing . . .it seems like an attempt to replicate human thinking/strategy that just ends up being needlessly and endlessly annoying.
– Real player with 38.3 hrs in game
Eonica Chess Battle
great auto battle game, good graphics
– Real player with 507.4 hrs in game
This is the best chess game I’ve ever played. The amount of depth to the game, while still in early access, is impressive. I think that the game will only get better with time and will have more players to compete against as the game grows in popularity.
– Real player with 7.6 hrs in game
Tabletop Playground
Nice way to play tabletop games with friends in these times.
good modding community, it’s brand new but everyday theres more and more great board games made.
Editor can be a bit tricky at first, but there’s a few tutorials available at the moment.
As i read somewhere else, Devs are working hard on this, so I guess there will be more advanced tutorials and definitively more features in the future.
I dont know anything about programming, and I managed to create all the 1st edition circuit boards for Formula D. Hopefully, the guy who created the formula D game (which is awesome btw) will use them.
– Real player with 48.9 hrs in game
Experienced on the Oculus Rift
Please note: I received a free Steam key through the Steam Curator Connect program.
You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/SJSIN7RH-80
If you’re thinking of buying Tabletop Playground (TP), you’ve probably heard of Tabletop Simulator (TTS). They are both digital tabletop sandbox games. In both games, certain card & board games are included, and they both have mod support so you can easily download even more card or board games. They both have online multiplayer and have VR and Non-VR support. TTS has been on Steam for years and is running on the Unity Engine. TP just released a few months ago and is running on the Unreal Engine. So which one is better?
– Real player with 3.2 hrs in game