Luck be a Landlord
The negative comments on this game talk about how the balance is very unfavorable to the player and in order to win, you have to be very lucky. These complaints are valid. But they leave out an important piece of context: This game is being very actively worked on!
The developer is constantly tweaking with the game balance. If you look over patch notes, you’ll see tons of changes to how individual items behave, new items being added, and entire new game systems being included. Over the months, these changes have been very favorable to the player. It used to be that you’d have to play many rounds before you had one where winning was even a possibility, but now most games are winnable as long as you have a decent strategy in mind.
– Real player with 225.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Simulation Games.
I LOVE the concept and the game is good but it could be better. Which is about right for an early access game.
The biggest issue is replayability. For a ‘rougelike’ that is a big deal and this game has limited replayability. Every run begins to feel pretty samey after you’ve pulled off a handful of different synergies. So far the only efforts made to address this have been adding more symbols and a handful of items. While this adds replayability it is a limited option. Every new symbol and item added makes it harder to find things that go together which lowers the fun and viability of the game. Having 100 new synergies doesn’t make the game more replayable if you can never actually get the pieces together to do any of them.
– Real player with 126.9 hrs in game
Cardnarok: Raid with Gods
Been looking around for some indie games and found this little gem. I love the theme and ideas behind this game especially with the choices of heroes from mythologies of all backgrounds.
The combat definitely requires strategical thinking, planning and careful calculation in order to level up fast and build decks that work with your team. At current state it’s quite playable and no bug that bricks the game experience.
The developers have been patching updates aggressively and that is a good sign.
– Real player with 189.3 hrs in game
Interesting take on the genre
The core loop is:
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a string of StS-like maps
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connected by a monopoly/Game of the Goose-inspired overworld
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coupled with Rogue-lite Metaprogression
The combat is pretty standard with the caveat of 3 characters (with somewhat varying abilities) in “tag-team”
The Deckbuilding part follow the newer trend and allow the player a high degree of control over the resulting deck
Overall the game could use more polish and some extra content, but it’s a solid buy if you’re a bored deckbuilder.
– Real player with 27.6 hrs in game
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
Mage Tower: Call of Zadeus
Mage Tower is an open-world roguelike deckbuilder with no set paths.
You play as a hero on a quest to stop a warlock from summoning an interdimensional monster known as Zadeus. Travel across a randomly-generated world, visit towns, and delve into dungeons. Battle the monsters roaming the land, collect cards, and upgrade your deck.
Find the boss wizards' castles and destroy them.
NO NODES, PLEASE
Travel in any direction and explore a randomized map full of towns, dungeons, monsters, events, and other secrets. Swap cards in and out of your deck anytime. Collect overworld powerups and spells. A free-roaming deckbuilder you can play however you want.
UNIQUE DECKBUILDER COMBAT
Mage Tower is a digital sequel to the 2013 internationally published card game Mage Tower, A Tower Defense Card Game, with hundreds of new cards. It expands the original’s first-of-its-kind deckbuilder combat system, which was inspired by tower defense games.
PUSH YOUR LUCK
Activate up to 6 dangerous idols before battle to make the fight more difficult, but give better rewards. This makes every battle meaningful and challenging, as you place the biggest “bet” you can based on your deck’s strategy vs. the enemy’s deck.
PICK YOUR CLASS
Over 80 character classes. Each class comes with a unique class card that cannot lose durability or break, meaning it will be your most reliable card and often the card you build your strategy around.
NINE YEARS OF DESIGN
Mage Tower’s cards are a rich well of variation, featuring mechanics that have not been done in even the most popular card games. Escape the lurch of endless “4 Damage + Random Combat Mechanic” cards!
FEATURES:
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Single-player roguelike deckbuilder.
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350+ cards (most are UPGRADABLE.)
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80 classes.
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Late 90’s aesthetic.
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Cards lose durability after battle; fortify and repair the ones you like.
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4+ biomes, each with different enemy types.
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Push your luck before battle with the Idol system.
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Discover boons, random events, and overworld powerups throughout the world.
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Crazy boss fights! Battle dozens of plant monsters, wizards with otherworldy spells, or multiple cards representing the various parts of a single foe.
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Dungeons with unique rewards, but one life pool to last you through.
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More advanced, strategic, and complex cards than other deckbuilders. BIGGER TEXT BOXES!
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Easy to learn - the original game has a 2.83/5 complexity rating on BGG.
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Sequel to the 2013 card game which raised over $24k on Kickstarter and has been sold in game stores internationally.
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No “open-world slog” - always on the edge of your seat pushing your luck with battles and managing your deck and card durability.
Astrea: Six-Sided Oracles
An all new dice-deck-building roguelike, Astrea, has you chart a path through the ruins of a lost civilization as one of six brave Oracles. Using an ever-changing deck of dice and enchanted Sentinels, Purify waves of Corrupted foes and a decayed goddess to save the Star System.
• Fortify Your Astrarium - Choose among hundreds of different dice that suit your penchant; reliably safe, perfectly balanced, or powerfully risky
• Purify vs Corruption - Tactfully wield an innate risk vs reward system by pacifying enemies through Purification, or Corrupt yourself to unleash abilities that help tip the scales
• Uncover Modifying Star Blessings - Imbue your Oracle with unique passives yielding potent effects that changes up your fundamental tactics
• Over 20 Upgradeable Support Sentinels - Enchanted constructs that offer supportive dice rolls making them reliable companions in the heat of battle
• Choose from Six Brave Oracles - Each possessing their own unique dice sets, abilities, and playstyles
• Choose Your Path Wisely - Laden with bountiful boons to enhance your chances for success and encounters against waves of enemies that impede your progress, chart a course through the ruins of a lost civilization to the source of Corruption
• Battle Challenging Enemies & Terrifying Bosses - Formidable foes all have multiple unique modifiers, skills, and interactions requiring strategic use of all your abilities to scathe by
Long ago - when ancient ruins were once flourishing civilizations and their populace lived in idyllic bliss - a mystical star governed all. Loyal disciples, called Six-Sided Oracles, were blessed by their star, granting them the strength to seal away the gift of heavenly bodies within mystic relics.
All was perfect and harmonious. Until that one fateful day - The Crimson Dawn Cataclysm. A ferocious inferno sundered down from the sky, engulfing the entirety of the star system, crumbling the foundations of their society and corrupting the souls of the weak-willed. The disciples of the star were lost to the chaos - their creations scattered across a vast world of ruin. Could there still exist those who were capable of wielding their power?
Eons later, brave young scions awoke to a mysterious call beckoning them to the ruins of the ancient disaster. It is there they find the lost six-faced relics of legend and writings detailing the original Six-Sided Oracles, a vengeful deity, and a Corruption Plague. The new Six-Sided Oracles embark on a journey to save their star system and search for the secrets of their destructive history.
Void Tyrant
Yeah it’s a good game. I’ve spent probably the most hours out of anyone on this because I have like hyper autism or something (not really but I played this a lot).
People complain about the lack of diversity. They are correct.
However, this is a roguelike where each run influences the next, so it is very addictive. I am still not completely through everything. Worth every penny.
– Real player with 88.8 hrs in game
Great little rogue-like with an addictive game-play. It does take a little bit of time to get a full feel of the game. At first I thought that the RNG would drive me crazy but after a few runs and beating the boss the first time things begin to come together. Different classes and play styles allow you to control RNG in a way that’s fun.
What I love
The mixture of RPG and RNG keeps you hooked. If the RNG turns you off you can get a class that alters the RNG in their favor and if you love RNG there is a class that exploits it and 2 classes that blend this concept.
– Real player with 39.6 hrs in game
Load Roll Die
Exciting and strategic dice combat!!! Its lots of fun discovering all the different ways you can combine different dice faces to create a unique battle plan. The dice and plentiful cardboard landscapes feel really physical and its satisfying rolling a bunch of dice at once and watching them pile up! Dice go brrrrrrrrrrrrr!
– Real player with 7.4 hrs in game
I was given this game for free a few days before the official launch, so my 2-ish hours are solely based on that build. No, I was not given compensation for playing the game and my review is unbiased.
Load Roll Die is a Roguelite Dicebuilder game, in which you move your little blob character through various randomized maps, fighting enemies and bosses, collecting different types of dice and powers for each die. It’s a very challenging game, but in a way I don’t think it really should be. Being a game revolving around dice, it’s reliance on RNG is almost absolute, with an almost healthy amount of strategy involved, given that you can create some interesting and powerful builds if you have the right powers and the correct dice, but it’s always a gamble to see what you loot from enemies, find in chests and buy from shops, which items are sometimes overly expensive for the small amount of currency you get overall. Enemies get from easy to hard really quickly as well, each one having their own specific builds that sometimes are perfected to do something specific, such as replicating dice, dealing a lot of poison damage, destroying a bunch of your own dice, etc, most of which are extremely reliable and non-RNG dependant, contrary to your shabby builds at those levels. Some other issues lie in QoL stuff, such as some powers being confusing to understand from their descriptions being vague or poorly explained, and how at the start of the game you can start off without any dice on accident, making you unable to advance.
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Spellrune: Realm of Portals
It’s like a hilariously broken STS. I was looking for something in the mold of STS, but this… really isn’t it. Basically, if you’re any good at games like these, you will break open the game on your first run due to its amazing lack of balance. My first character, at the time I stopped playing forever, was breezing through the game with relics that:
Stunned every enemy, even bosses, for 6 turns at the beginning of every battle.
Started enemies taking 110% damage.
Started enemies with 7 poison.
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
I just want to say that this game is very similar to Slay the Spire & i think it’s a pretty fun game! However, there are bugs in the game like after a battle, sometimes i start back in the beginning of the map, the game says i beat the game randomly without defeating a boss, relics & potions can’t be picked up at random times & Magic orb can’t be picked at certain times. I would like it if the settings menu had more options like windowed mode & fast mode. I also would like more classes, leveling system, more music variations & more special events in rooms with “?.” Lastly, a new game plus, replay value & a lot of unlockables. I know it’s early access but I look forward to future updates & i am very confident that this game will be great!
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
Cards of Cthulhu
Cards of Cthulhu is a casual little game, simple in design but with suprising depth. You pick cards for your deck from a choice of random two. Two cards at the beginning and more are added as you progress through the battles. Then you jump onto your motorcycle, grab your shotgun and ride across the wasteland to face off against Cthulhu himself - who stole your girlfriend, as villains in games have traditionally been fond to do.
Each opponent you meet on your way you fight by playing your cards (and autoattacking with your shotgun). Simple enough? The depth of the game is knowing when during a combat round to play each card, in battles with consequitive fights of more than one enemy which card to save for the next enemy, which card in a given situation perhaps not to use at all, which cards to deny your enemy from playing, and when to not play cards.
– Real player with 13.4 hrs in game
This game packs a lot of style and fun in a simple package, It is relentlessly focussed on play dropping you right in the game and back to the start when the game ends, which is minor but a refreshing change from the typical game with lots of menus and cut scenes wasting your time. This one has confidence in what it is delivering and delivers it proudly.
Each game you collect a small deck of cards each of which can be used once against a monster or set of monsters. In this way each run feels fresh because you are building a new deck which will be played differently than other decks.
– Real player with 8.2 hrs in game
DungeonTop
Beware that initial playthroughs may frustrate you. It is recommended you start out with the Warrior and the Shield icon, it’s just easie to surviver. Also you need to remain picky about cards. If you die, you have to start over. You can save after each battle and you can kill program if you’re losing.
Really love this game. Graphics, music, mechanics, it all comes together very well and it’s highly addictive.
Much less random than other rogue games like Darkest Dungeon and more strategic, giving more choice each turn. It also has more interesting cards to offer than most deck builders and a game board adds brilliant chess like strategy element where position matters a great deal.
– Real player with 40.9 hrs in game
Story
At the beginning of the game, you select and play as a hero. Long ago, there were legends of a place known as the Grand Forge. This was a city whose citizens were so adept at creating that they could bend the fabric of reality itself, using their skills to create whatever they wanted. The story begins three years after something called the Steel Curse has blighted civilization, causing black iron gates to crop up and manifest countless waves of monsters within the walls of major cities. The hero you select will gather an army (and minions and strange cards that do other things) and traverse the levels of the dungeons in an attempt to quell the monster attacks forever.
– Real player with 31.6 hrs in game