Roguebook
Wanted to hold off reviewing it until I beat +15. If you’re looking for a new deckbuilder, I’d recommend this one. I’ve played Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and a few others, and this one really made me want to thoroughly complete it. There is enough variety and unique combinations that really makes each run fun and challenging. It’s not perfect (I’ll talk about that below), but it’s worth the coin.
Positive:
*Gem system adds a fun element that makes some not so useful cards viable.
*The large deck angle adds more ways to build around bad cards.
– Real player with 150.8 hrs in game
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Turn-Based Strategy Games.
I unfortunately can’t leave a positive review. I am a linux user. Before buying this game, I checked and saw that the game worked fine with steam compatilibity tools, so I bought it. The game was working perfectly. Then they added an update, which added some random visual bugs (slightly annoying but nothing major) as well as some random game crashes (around once every 1h30 of play for me, but since I’m slow and runs were about 2h30 that was quite annoying). Then the last major update hit, claiming some bugfixes. Cool. I do not experience any bug anymore since my game doesn’t even launch anymore. I’ve tried switching the compatilibity modes, proton versions…etc… to no avail, the game doesn’t launch anymore.
– Real player with 103.6 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
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
Jupiter Moons: Mecha🦾
Choose your mech, customize your loadout, and build your perfect deck. Experiment with cards to find powerful combinations as you enjoy the tactical combat and deckbuilding in this roguelike adventure!
Customize your mech
Choose your Mech frame. Every pilot approaches combat differently, choosing from the melee-oriented assault frame, the stealth sniper frame, or just opt-in for raw laser firepower. Mech frames can be upgraded during the game: by installing new equipment and upgrading the frame to a newer variant.
Build your perfect deck
Collect weapons, shields, and equipment by destroying your opponents in battle. Victory serves you with new ‘toys’ for your mech, swapping out these ‘toys’ will adjust your combat deck.
Test your Mech on battlefield
There are countless weapons and items to discover and try out: lasers, machine guns, plasma rifles, sniper cannons, swords, hammers, drones, mines, force fields, jet engines, as well as more unique ones like: rocket fists, whips, scythes, cloaks, pile bunkers or mini-nukes!
Enjoy the tactical combat
Predict your opponent’s actions and adjust your tactics to the situation on the battlefield. Flank, assault, ambush, hide behind cover, or precisely target most valuable components on enemies.
Find powerful card combinations
Discover unique card combinations that will give you an edge on the battlefield. Or try to find the one that will break the game: one-turn boss battle victory or no damage. Test your combos on the highest difficulty levels.
Protect your mech body parts from destruction
Each body part of the Mech has its own armor and health. Balance your equipment to keep your deck efficient and provide enough protection. When a body part is destroyed, you can’t play cards attached to it!
Choose your path
Choose your path on the campaign wisely, avoid fights not suitable for your current loadout. Take greater risks for better rewards, or just complete your objectives. Discover the origins of the alien AI that is corrupting the machines.
Poker Quest
For reference, this is a game I’ve played for hundreds and hundreds of hours since late 2019, so it’s seen me through some times. At first, it was killing downtime doing research, then it was procrastination through exam times, now it’s more an evening waltz after work. I’ve also seen the game go through various changes and improvements and for me there’s a few things that are intrinsic - a baseline attraction.
At its essence it’s a permadeath crawler; there are modes with upgrades and custom runs to sustain all that modding goodness for different audiences too, but Classic is the core. Discrete runs, with randomness as a key feature. That’s actually a strong positive; that there are thousands of items, different map nodes and cards in battles and you have to figure a way through it all. There is a lot of variety, but the beauty is that there is almost always a path through to victory. Fidelity to randomness is great, it gives the game an innate value of honesty and keeps runs fresh. I think realising that even though there’s a devotion to true randomness, essentially every run is winnable makes it exciting and not ‘unfair’ for example.
– Real player with 297.5 hrs in game
Poker Quest is a fantastic roguelike, With a lot to offer in its current state! As mentioned in the description, the combat is very similar to Dicey Dungeons, but with a Poker card deck instead of dice. If you aren’t familiar with Dicey Dungeons, essentially the way this combat works is that you draw a hand full of cards (the amount you draw per turn can be upgraded), and then you have various equipment that you collect and upgrade throughout the run, that are triggered by inserting cards into them, and all have various requirements for what cards can be put inside of them (Needing a flush, straight, or pair of a certain size, occasionally the equipment effects are increased based on the value of cards inserted, etc)
– Real player with 241.6 hrs in game
Spellsword Cards: Demontide
It’s not finished so maybe this review is not fair but it’s not in early access.
I finished only the 1st chapter because the 2nd is not done.
Pros:
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creative monsters, unqiue enemies
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long campaign (example: longer than the Northmark’s campaign)
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autonavigation in quest menu
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some art is nice
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gauntlet / puzzles minigames
Cons:
- the campaign is not polished
I couldn’t finish the 1rst chapter when my hero was a warrior because I couldn’t defeat two monsters (stirred up & in flight),
and I don’t like the slow grind (job board)
– Real player with 22.3 hrs in game
Sometimes I think what’s happening with Steam and why there are so many negatives. One reviewer says that ‘it needs a pass over with someone who understands card games’. Really, mate? Dev has just designed the whole card system and is good at it. Dev is often active and updates the game, but it seems that you want to push him away.
The game is good, it has a really interesting character development, cool story and well-designed battles in which you have to tune your deck. It is a deep system, not crossing the line of ‘read the fine print’, check the guide here to see it yourself:
– Real player with 12.0 hrs in game
Death: The Ascension
Certainly not for everyone, confusing at first, but has plenty of unique mechanics after you get past the learning curve
– Real player with 285.1 hrs in game
Update:
After a few ascensions, I have a better idea now how the mechanics and concepts fit into this creative new game developed by a very friendly and responsive indie-developer who has updated the game in quick response to suggestions on the discussion forum.
What is it?
I would describe Death: The Ascension as a card/puzzle life-choice simulator in which you aim to optimize your chances of a successful ascension by manipulating event probabilities. It has a deck-building type of mechanic in which you add cards to your deck, but the deck is not a draw-deck. Cards in your “deck” influence the chances of drawing cards into the player’s five card hand from an infinite pool. In other words, if you have only one card in your “deck”, you have a 100% chance of drawing five cards of that type. You are playing cards against Death as your opponent. Death has their own deck that has similar draw mechanics, but only draws one card per turn. Each turn one card from each deck is played with four possible events dictated by the player’s card with varying probabilities for each event known ahead of time.
– Real player with 83.4 hrs in game
Shadowplay: Metropolis Foe
Shadow play: Metropolis Foe is Turn based Cyberpunk rouge like deck builder game set in virtual metropolis with a band of virtual rebels at a time with alternating play styles to learn and master. Character specified card development are veiled as reflected in the games numerous unlisted None Achievements with quite a deep learning curve.
Level are choice based as your progress depends on the chances you take with random encounters and numerous ways to progress and build your deck and optimise your items and support skills for the end game boss.
– Real player with 41.7 hrs in game
Cost the price of a movie ticket and lasted 10 times as long. If you enjoyed Slay the Spire, you will enjoy this game, two arcs completed, rewards give replay value, but unfortunately it has been abandoned. So it is incomplete. Still I enjoyed it enjoyable and a game experience worth having/ recommending. Hope the devs will complete it one day or make a similar game again.
– Real player with 29.1 hrs in game