Book of Demons
This game is a gem. I’d like to highly recommend it to any player who enjoys a mix of action, planning, and collecting.
What could make you love this game?
First of all, the art style. It catches the whole idea of it being a “book”. Well designed pop-up book graphics, both in the world, the character sheet and inventory (your card deck), as well as in the menus. And if you are a fan of Diablo I & II, you will notice that Thing Trunk got one important part – that made those titles stand out – just right: the lighting. Be it torches illuminating that tiny space just outside your radius of view, be it the ominous glow of a not-so-distant boss… it does a great deal to help you “feel” the dungeon. And of course: it pretty.
– Real player with 159.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dungeon Crawler Singleplayer Games.
Overview
Book of Demons is a hack & slash which pays homage to Diablo with a few twists - it is set in a paper-cut universe like in a pop-up book, and everything you can equip, use, do comes in the form of cards that you assemble into your loadout to conquer the said Paperverse. You start out with 3 card slots out of the maximum of 10 available. Card slots are unlocked using gold and cost incrementally more. As of the build I played (0.75.11062+), only the Warrior class is available. The other 2 classes - Mage and Rogue will be released at a later date according to the roadmap but apart from this the game is pretty complete for an Early Access game. The total of 32 cards in the Warrior’s arsenal are divided into Artifacts (equipment - e.g. weapons, armor, trinkets), Items (e.g. potions, bombs, town portal scroll) and Spells (e.g. Mighty Blow, Charge, Blade Storm). All Artifacts have a mana cost which effectively reduces your mana pool available for using Spells (Items have no mana cost). Leveling up allows you to increase your health or mana, which translates to taking more hits / casting more spells. You do not actually grow stronger by levelling up. Instead you increase in strength by discovering new cards or upgrading your existing cards using gold and runes you find.
– Real player with 144.7 hrs in game
School of Magic Prologue
Very interesting i like how magic/cards works
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
Read More: Best Dungeon Crawler Top-Down Games.
Hey Everyone, yeah i really liked the Artstyle of the Game. The Soundtrack is well executed. The Combination with the Skill / Spell Cards is pretty stunning. I played the Demo and want definitly see more, when the whole game is finished. People who are invested in Kill the Spire, will be entertained and others have a more easy way to get into that system with the Action RPG part.
Keep on the good Work developers,
sincerely
Rince
– Real player with 1.2 hrs in game
Underworld Memories
In Underworld Memories you control a mysterious character with no memory in an underworld dungeon. Each room is unique and full of surprises. Build your deck, defeat your enemies, get stronger and go to the next room.
With no memory of your past, your only option is to stay alive in search of answers. Advance through the dungeon and begin to understand the real reason you are there. Fragments of your past will be released, be prepared!
Features
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Deck Building - Dozens of cards for you to build your deck wisely.
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Procedural map - Each map is unique and procedurally generated. So enjoy each round.
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Turn-based combat - Build your strategy and make precise moves.
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Portals - Use portals wisely to teleport to rooms you have already explored.
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Rogue-lite - Less harsh and punishing mechanics.
Read More: Best Dungeon Crawler Perma Death Games.
Draft of Darkness
a fantastic blend of card based rogue-like with survival horror elements and atmosphere.
there’s a good amount of content here for the asking price (around 15 hrs+), giving you a great introduction into what this game has to offer, after playing through everything there is currently available I thoroughly enjoyed my experience from beginning to end, any issues/bugs I experienced where minor(and also easily report-able within the game).
these where only things I could find fault with,
the gear can be a bit cumbersome to keep up with(it would be nice if it was a bit more visible what gear was higher level/higher rarity, I understand there is a sort tool but I wish this could be a saved setting instead of resetting each run), the UI is however very good at providing detailed comparisons between what your looking at and what your wearing.
– Real player with 20.1 hrs in game
Very fun and genuinely unique as far as this roguelite deckbuilder genre goes. The atmosphere often reminds me of STALKER in terms its lore and world being enigmatic. If you enjoy digging around for lore and what the hell is going on (at this point with 10 hours in I still can’t confidently claim to know myself what is up.) then you will deeply enjoy this game. It may be early access but has enough content to chew to justify picking it up just to toy around with. The combat is very odd when it comes to timings but you’ll get use to it. My favorite part of this game is the flowchart. While i’m not 100% sure what all it encompasses it basically is just helps paint a better picture of what events lead into what.
– Real player with 20.0 hrs in game
Iris and the Giant
This review is mostly based on 8 hours playing the demo, and one 2-hour run post-release. Will update sometime.
TL;DR: A good game but not quite ready for release, and the lack of explanations might frustrate you and make it seem harder than it is.
Does the fact that every card you play is destroyed from your deck worry you? It worried me, but it actually works because you get frequent chances to replenish your deck, and you’re not playing with several unique cards but rather a fairly tight set of base effects and improved versions of them. It doesn’t really matter that your sword is gone after you attack, because you probably have 4 more in your deck, you can get another 6 from the next chest you find, and you might have a magical power that gives you 2 swords for free at the start of every room.
– Real player with 15.0 hrs in game
Overall, I’d recommend Iris and the Giant for its surprisingly deep positional combat and charming art style. If you’re primarily looking for a great story or you don’t want to fail a few times while gaining upgrades, maybe Iris and the Giant isn’t for you.
I really enjoyed the combat system (I’ll elaborate below). I enjoyed the simple art style and good music. That said, the story didn’t work for me. It felt like it was relying heavily on common bullying/depression tropes. I personally didn’t find the story to be a motivating factor nor did it enhance the game play for me.
– Real player with 13.7 hrs in game
Deep Sky Derelicts
I will caveat my recommendation by saying that it only just makes it over the threshold. It has a couple of nice ideas that make it playable but many small annoyances that make it far less so. It’s quite cliched but if I could give it a “meh” I probably would.
There are several reviews that compare it to Darkest Dungeon (one of my all time favourites) so I gave it a go. After an hour playing, I realised that this was not particularly accurate. Other than having turn based combat and a map where you wander round and encounter random things, it is not that similar, please disregard anyone saying that!
– Real player with 72.2 hrs in game
OVERVIEW
As a TCCG/RPG game Deep Sky Derelicts scratches an itch I didn’t know I had. It has a few rough edges, but I can certainly recommend it. It is mechanically sound and thematically interesting, albeit somewhat clumsy and childish at times; more on that later. The presentation is well executed and the pacing is just right thanks to careful balancing.
GAMEPLAY, MECHANICS
There is a lot of variety here - the number of classes/specializations makes for great replayability. I’m pretty far along in my current playthrough and I already know what my next party composition will be. The game can be swingy at times, but I never ran into long periods of it being too easy or unfair party wipes. At least… not yet. That said, there are a couple of things I dislike, mechanically speaking:
– Real player with 53.0 hrs in game
Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition
GoD is a fun little rogue-like with a lot of character, but not a lot of content.
The card based gameplay is very straight forward compared to a traditional TCG, so the mechanics shouldn’t be a stumbling block for most players for very long. Each of the different character classes (13 in total, I believe) has their own starting decks. These decks are expanded in battle by collecting equipment dropped after each battle. As with most RPGs, the common drops are low quality, only granting you a single card or buff, while the rare and epic loot drops can grant you 5 powerful cards and multiple buffs. You can also equip your Dungeoneer with a special item or blessing before exploring a dungeon, and these can offer advantages like extra hit points, larger starting hand sizes, or increased damage.
– Real player with 137.0 hrs in game
Just finished the game at 15hrs. Interesting game with innovative system. Still, I had to consider really long whether to say I’d recommend this game or not. In the end, the positives won out.
Something very important you should know before buying the game: despite the misleading name and description, gameplay-wise this game is not a dungeon crawler, neither is it a RPG. It is more like a twist on deck-building card game. If you understand that before playing the game would be a lot easier to play.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game
Vivid Knight
This is a cute roguelite and auto-chess crossover. It’s very strategy-focused, and the difficulty makes it quite addictive, but some balance issues begin to detract from enjoyment once you’re deep in the game.
The Good
The core game play is roguelike, with your character exploring a maze and fighting monsters in turn-based auto-chess-esque combat. Each step consumes mana, a limited resource that refreshes on each floor, and your team begins taking damage when you run out of mana, forcing you to be efficient in your exploration.
– Real player with 62.5 hrs in game
Welcome to Auto Chess Darkest Dungeon, But Cute.
Jokes aside, this little game so far is one of the biggest surprises of the year for me. I do quite like the auto chess formula, but this game takes a quite unique spin on it which makes it really enjoyable for me.
I’ve seen a lot of reviews making comparisons to TFT and they’re not entirely wrong by drawing the said comparison.
That said, if you’re familiar with games like Auto Chess and TFT, there’s a few things this game does a little different.
– Real player with 32.4 hrs in game
Banners of Ruin
I do not play deckbuilders if I can help. I’m not really down for the whole card system usually and I think Slay the Spire was the only exception. I’ve tried others in the past and none of them really stuck. This one was baller, I dig the art style and the card system isn’t overBEARing. I’m sure some folks that play this games primarily may find it easy but for a noob, it’s awesome. Even the music gets you pumped and it is very much like a choose your own adventure.
That being said, there’s not really a lot of content to the game and I kinda wish there was more to it. I didn’t even know I beat the game, I thought it was just the first part or something and then abruptly ended. Still, that didn’t keep me from coming back and playing it again and again.
– Real player with 40.0 hrs in game
TLDR: If you don’t have enough patience to read this review then you don’t have enough patience to play this game I assure you. That being said, it has a LOT of redeeming qualities and is worth a look for anyone who likes deck builders or games similar to Slay the Spire.
Let me start off by saying that I REALLY want to love this game and it is pretty good in spite of its faults. I was raised on CCGs and the advent of deck builders has given the genre a fresh and new take that I thoroughly enjoy and Slay the Spire, a game which I have played into the ground. (Ascension 20 on most characters) Ever since I have been looking for the next StS and there have been some decent offerings, but none have managed to capture my attention in quite the same way. Because of this when I saw this game come up on my store page and watched some gameplay I was immediately sold.
– Real player with 27.2 hrs in game
Decks & Daggers
(Review updated after completing the game.)
I felt neutral about the game until about half way through, but having finished it, it gets my unequivocal thumbs up.
I loved it.
It’s not a Slay the Spire clone, or anything like that - and yet I do feel it could offer the depth of strategy and builds of those games (and its spin-offs) while still remaining true to itself.
This game has had a lot of love and character thrown into it, which exceeds the StS brigade. It has a story and interesting characters. The art work is also beautiful and full of atmosphere and charm.
– Real player with 28.3 hrs in game
It looks like a fun game but sadly the cards you are dealt for each hand are completely random, so you can end up with no chance at winning a round and this happens time and time again.
I played for 6 hours and most of that time was starting again as the cards I was dealt meant I died pretty much on the first hand of each round.
What should have been a great game is ruined by the RNG.
Edit - Following latest update
I revisited the game after the update and although the RNG is still an issue (for me), it’s much less than before and I completed the game.
– Real player with 21.3 hrs in game