Chess Evolved Online

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 PvP Tactical 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 Evolved Online on Steam

AHOD: All Hands on Deck!

AHOD: All Hands on Deck!

AHOD: All Hands on Deck is a vehicle based multiplayer deckbuilder. It is a balanced blend of fast paced vehicle action and deck building strategy. Set in a dangerous pirate world arena, players must duke it out in PvP and PvE action for limited resources. Stockpile unique cards, play the market, and reveal a new way to play each time.

Vehicle Action ☑

Arena Multiplayer ☑

Deckbuilder ☑

Fame and fortune await.


Read More: Best PvP Card Battler Games.


AHOD: All Hands on Deck! on Steam

Lords of Cards

Lords of Cards

In Lords of Cards, build a deck of 90 cards and defy your opponents in real-time.

SELECT AMONG MORE THAN 60 UNIQUE CARDS

Building your deck is probably the most important step. Think upfront to create the best combinaisons of cards. Choose your troops, your constructions and your spells, to get the upper hand over your opponent.

DEFEND YOUR FORTRESS

The goal is simple: the first player who brings the opponent’s fortress to ground wins the game. Winning the battle usually means building the strongest economy, to recruit more troups that will harrass your opponent.

MANY STRATEGIES TO DEFEAT YOUR OPPONENT

Will you try and strike as soon as possible? Will you recruit a lot of weak units to swarm your opponent? Will you be patient, defensive and slowly build to send powerful units?Many combinaisons of cards are possible and let you play by your own strategy.

UNLOCK NEW CONTENT BY PLAYING - NO PAY-TO-WIN

With your victories and experience in the game, you will gain gems that let you unlock new cards. You can also unlock new skins or animations for your avatar. The game doesn’t contain any payment feature, you will have to unlock the content by playing.


Read More: Best PvP Card Battler Games.


Lords of Cards on Steam

Doors of Insanity

Doors of Insanity

First thing I’ll admit is that I’m a simp & beta tester for the devs, but that’s just because I genuinely think they’re cool guys who are worth supporting. This also means I’ve gotten the game for free, have a bias, etc. You get the idea. Plus, I also think this game is genuinely fun, it actually made me like Deck Battlers in the first place.

Doors is a game similar to Neoverse, Slay the Spire… Deck building, turn based RPG combat. If you’ve played those kinds of games before, you know what you’re getting into.

Real player with 40.1 hrs in game

Im a huge fan of Slay the Spire in which I was told by the publishers that this was inspired by it (obviously). I’m not the best at making reviews but heres my opinion & reasoning.

Pros:

  • Great art style

  • Character creator even though its not much

  • PVP (havent tried yet but hey you can play with people at least)

  • Unique to the cardbased rougelite/rougelike genre

  • Leveling system which makes you wanna replay to get stronger

Cons

  • Only one character so theres no true style or unique start, every run starts nearly the same.

Real player with 38.0 hrs in game

Doors of Insanity on Steam

Creatures of Aether

Creatures of Aether

It’s a free game so try it for yourself. I wouldn’t recommend it otherwise.

The game is based on Triple Triad, a Final Fantasy mini card game. It expands on the idea in many, many directions, most of which aren’t as well planned as the original. The game has excellent sprite art and music but there’s a serious lack of game modes, and the ones that do exist don’t work.

Paying players do have an advantage as they can power up cards and get new cards faster than non-paying players. There are other gameplay modes that are fair for both players, however.

Real player with 135.7 hrs in game

Have you ever ACTUALLY tried to play Triple Triad? Triple Triad is kinda ass. Creatures of Aether is absolutely fantastic compared to it, though! The biggest boon is that its 4x4 rather than 3x3, but the developers care about player feedback when cards are busted, and will change it if need be. Recently they made unlocking all the cards can be done in a straightforward way. Gameplay is easy to understand but has a good amount of depth to it.

“How P2W is this game?” One thing about the game that isn’t great is that it seem P2W. Players you encounter who are running decks with higher leveled cards than you will feel like a brickwall. Don’t let that discourage you! You can beat people whos decks are higher level, it just takes time to learn the ins and outs of the gameplay. If you’re in the middle tier of ladder (~5000 medals) you will probably encounter a lot of Lv1-2, with maybe a few Lv3s. Once you get to about 7000+ you will start hitting the beefier stuff. But by then, you probably have developed enough skills to take them down, no matter the level.

Real player with 112.4 hrs in game

Creatures of Aether on Steam

EndCycle VS

EndCycle VS

Picked this up earlier, and found it to be quite fun. It’s similar to the old Megaman Battle Network series for the Nintendo Gameboy Advance, a series I used to love a lot. It’s fast paced with unique mechanics, as well as mixing in some old ones with a unique twist such as the CRUSH system(Think guard break from other fighter games). It’s a bit different from Battle Network 6 in terms of combat pacing, but you have a lot more weapons you can use to control the battlefield as well as your deck being more consistent since you have access to all 12 weapons in your deck all the time, with cooldowns for differing levels and weapons.

Real player with 535.8 hrs in game

If you want a game that plays similarly to Battle Network, then EndCycle VS is the game for you. I know I’ve been having a blast with it in the 109 hours I’ve already clocked in at the point of this review.

First and foremost, this game offers a very unique twist to the Battle Network “grid fighter” formula, by replacing the Battle Chips you would burn through with VOC’s that you can keep on hand at all times. Sure, you’re more limited when it comes to how many you can use during a battle, but that’s why you have three different sets you can shift through in the middle of the fight and change up your play style on the fly. It takes some getting used to, though. Even now, I’m still trying to get used to it, though that’s due in part by most of my time being eaten up getting into modding rather than the competitive scene, but I’ll get on to that subject later.

Real player with 129.2 hrs in game

EndCycle VS on Steam

Minion Masters

Minion Masters

Let me start by saying that this game is so rigged, manipulative and can be dangerous to people with gambling problems or really bad O. C. D. so, people with less self-control should not be playing this game in my honest opinion.

You can play solo in 1v1, with random people in 2v2 Team Battle, with a friend in a Premade Team Battle, in Guild Premade Battle or create custom matches. You can also purchase Adventures to play against AIs that try too hard to make you feel like the game has a story. You can always Challenge same bots to try out different decks and your new experiments before playing against real players. I must say that this game is not Pay-to-Win in any way as of now, which is great but I did spend a lot of money on it, mostly for cosmetics.

Real player with 1929.6 hrs in game

Early Access V 0.9.1

Before we start I got a game key for free during alpha but since Early access I bought the premium upgrade at the same price as all new players since early access launch because currently premium upgrade includes in all new purchases.

The game revolves in the Forced universe. Betadwarf has made two prior games, Forced and Forced Showdown. I have played extensivly Forced Showdown and had alot of fun with it. WIth that in mind I had very high hopes for betadwarfs third game, Minion Masters.

Real player with 1339.9 hrs in game

Minion Masters on Steam

VEmpire - The Kings of Darkness

VEmpire - The Kings of Darkness

I highly recommend this game to anyone who enjoys card games. Both the art and music are beautiful, and the basis of the game is very unique. The developer is very open, honest, and passionate about making the game all it can be. To him, it isn’t just about creating a game, it is about a creating a friendly, helpful community around the game.

A HUGE plus is once purchased, you own everything, there are no in-game microtransactions. Though some may not mind them, paying real money for virtual items just seems foolish to me, especially as they can add up fast. That is simply my own opinion, but I’m a casual gamer to begin with. When I see microtransactions, I think “another way to milk money out of customers”. Wolfgang is VERY animate that such a model will never be a part of this game, and given his straightforward nature, I have no doubt that is the truth.

Real player with 64.9 hrs in game

Oh how I dislike to review EA titles, but alas, those little kids who love to play critic, while not even having spent an hour to play this game, kinda force me to.

I´ve played tons of different TCG´s and CCG´s over the last 25 years (Dune, MTG, Star Wars, Battletech, Shadowrun, Illuminati, Jyhad, Mythos, Aliens/Predator, Kult and maybe 1-2 I´ve forgotten).

VEmpire doesn´t fall short of those at all. It´s a solid game, although still in EA, that will receive some further polishing and improvements, but is absolutely enjoyable and fun as it is now.

Real player with 17.1 hrs in game

VEmpire - The Kings of Darkness on Steam

Cards and Castles 2

Cards and Castles 2

An incredible game. A perfect blend of a CCG and a tactical board game. There are no micro transactions, and there is a ton of depth to the game play both in multiplayer and singleplayer. The lore, music, and aesthetic are all great. It also has a thriving community from its prior game so it does not have to start from scratch.

This is still only early access to, there are many great plans for it in the future.

Real player with 336.0 hrs in game

Cards and Castles 2 is an incredibly fun sequel to the original Cards and Castles and takes the game in a new exciting and creative direction. For those who liked the original Cards and Castles or enjoy strategy and/or card games I highly recommend taking a look into this game. If you’re looking for more insight, here are some of my key points from this game (Reminder that this is an Early Access Review):

PROS:

  • The game largely maintains the original’s gameplay style while spinning it in a new way to make it stand out from it’s predecessor. As someone who put a lot of time into the original game I appreciated that the gameplay did not drastically differ. However, I love how it maintains it’s own fresh identity for players to experience a new challenge

Real player with 154.2 hrs in game

Cards and Castles 2 on Steam

CityClick

CityClick

Welcome to CityClick, a wild and whimsical card game where everything seems to click in place.

Collect cards and craft decks before battling it out in both co-op and head-to-head game modes to complete the objective and come out victorious!

Customize & Collect

CityClick has tons of cards to choose from and collect. There’s a deck for every personality and playstyle, and it’s up to you to find the cards for your winning strategy.

Recruit and customize a wild cast of animal mayors, each with their own cheeky personalities and grizzly emotes to guide you through your journey, and taunt enemies along the way.

Play Your Friends

Grab your friends to join in the chaos with competitive and co-op game modes!

Don’t fancy online play? Not to worry, CityClick features a campaign that follows your mayor on their journey into office.

Go On Tour

Every leader starts small, but as your popularity grows, so do your possibilities! Expand your reach by venturing forth on your own adventure, unlocking exclusive cards, mayors, and cosmetics on your way!

Pick Up & Play

CityClick is easy to pick up and play, with plenty of depth for those with the skills.

Anyone can join in the fun with intuitive mechanics and customizable gameplay to suit your needs.

Need extra time? AI too difficult? No worries, you can change all that.

CityClick Travels With You

Continue your mayoral duties on the go with crossplay between Nintendo Switch, PC, and Mac!

CityClick on Steam