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
Read More: Best Conversation Story Rich Games.
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
Signs of the Sojourner
This game is fantastic. There’s hardly a negative comment I could make upon it.
Story-wise, your mother passes, and you’re responsible for keeping your hometown alive through her story/trade caravan. You meet a variety of people and learn about/influence their stories, learning hidden stories about your mother’s past on the caravan route and ultimately finding an appropriate ending to the caravan problem (the town relies on the caravan for business, and your store needs to be successful for the caravan to justify coming around.)
– Real player with 43.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Conversation RPG Games.
Probably my favourite game of this year so far. I was honestly close to just quitting within the first few minutes, but once I got used to the concept the whole thing became weirdly addictive. I got drawn into the game’s world and was excited to plan my trips, explore all the places, meet the people, solve the mysteries, find out about all the subplots…
The first playthrough took me about 5 hours, and apparently the other ones weren’t much shorter because there was always new content - and admittedly also because I’ve spent quite some time figuring out which cards to collect and to play and on retrying conversations… I’m almost done with my 5th playthrough, all of them lead me to a few new places, people and stories, and there are still some left to explore.
– Real player with 30.7 hrs in game
Thirsty Heroes
Thirsty Heroes is a dungeon-crawling business sim with turn-based deckbuilding combat.
Discover, Research, & Exploit Dungeons
Send heroes Scouting to find dungeons, use Divination to pinpoint vulnerabilities, then equip heroes to exploit the weaknesses and bring home the loot.
Find & Craft Gear to Build Heroes' Decks
Take control during the crawl to fight through monsters, traps, and chance encounters using your hero’s Deck, built from equipped Gear. Find randomly-generated loot and valuables to upgrade your squad and face tougher enemies to satisfy the King’s demands.
Management Gameplay
Heroes can’t fight if they’re thirsty, so keep their spirits up with conversation and drinks from the bar! Use Hero Gambits to automate combat so you can focus on the big picture.
Plus:
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Cross-platform play for PC and Mobile. Nature calls? Don’t stop the crawls!
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A gripping story featuring a villain inspired by the inane tweets of teenage celebrities.
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Endless play with no level cap or limit to dungeon size.
Read More: Best Conversation Turn-Based Combat Games.
Forgotten Tales: Day of the Dead
If you know me at all, you know I LOVE solitaire. I’ve been playing it ever since I was a wee lass, but golf solitaire has recently become my favorite version of the game. Imagine my delight when yet another title released featuring the enjoyable gameplay I’ve come to love. Forgotten Tales: Day of the Dead had SO much promise: beautiful artwork, a fantastic theme, and interesting new power-ups and board goals I hadn’t seen done in other games — and yet against all odds it failed. As a lover of solitaire and supporter of indie game developers everywhere, it pains me greatly to have to write this review, but it is my sworn duty to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help me Dios.
– Real player with 27.3 hrs in game
TLDR: Fun solitaire game, I’m glad I bought it, one oddity to note - the game is rigged in your favour, the next card on the deck being turned over has a high chance of being one you need!
The gameplay: 100 sets of 3 games each, each set has a goal like achieve a certain score, avoid diamonds for the next 5 cards etc. I’m half way through the game right now and haven’t needed to use the boosts much yet, the one most powerful of which is to unlock a second deck so that 2 cards at a time are revealed. For each set you earn 0, 100, 200 or 300 depending on your score, you also get zero to three skulls at the same levels, getting all the skulls is linked to an achievement. Even if you’re bad at the game you could still get all the skulls by grinding the early level for money for boosters to ensure a good score, hopefully it doesn’t come to this in later levels.
– Real player with 25.9 hrs in game
The Magister
I really liked this game (after I completed it for all difficulties,
I updated my review).
Basically you are the magister/witcher and you are sent to a city
to investigate the murder. The game consists of four parts:
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investigation of the murder (procedural puzzle)
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tactical fighting with enemies (simplified heroes 3)
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deck-building for diplomacy (simplified ascension)
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leveling/customizing your heroe to be able to solve all challenges (see 1, 2, 3)
From my point of view it has followin strong areas:
– Real player with 118.8 hrs in game
Like the investigation games of the 90s…
This game reminds me of Grim Fandango and The Secret of Monkey Island from the 90s. It basically involves you running all over the place (from location to location), whilst trying to solve a mystery. You also occasionally encounter enemies that you have to battle, and the battles are your typical TRPG grid-based battles, but you use a card mechanic similar to Slay the Spire.
Pros: #1. TRPG fans will like the combat
#2. You don’t always HAVE to fight… most of the times you can talk it out
– Real player with 52.8 hrs in game