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
Read More: Best Roguelike Deckbuilder Comic Book Games.
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
Gamble Tower
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Three clans to choose from, choose a combination of a primary and secondary clan to achieve different builds!
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20 different enemies that vary and change between floors!
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Two main boss battles with unique mechanics.
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Over 50 different orbs that you can modify and upgrade in different and unique ways.
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Capture and use enemies (and the enemies’s tools and weapons) as a way to improve your deck
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Random events, shopkeepers and interactions between each combat!
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The tower and its content are procedurally generated between each run, no run is the same as before!
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Gender swapping
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And the content list is still increasing!
A deckbuilding roguelite game where you hire a hero to crawl his or her way up to the top of a distorted tower in search of treasures, while you bet and gamble against other gamblers to profit on your hero’s misadventures.
Here you have Orbs (which actually look more like gemstones) that have a plethra of uses and effects but act exactly like cards, you have things such as Summons, Equipments, Attacks, Special Orbs and more!
A variety of different kinds and types of enemies and other gambling challenges await for your unlucky hero inside not very friendly rooms, where you might find a reward at the cheap cost of your hero’s life.
You must find precious orbs and synergize them with the other gemstones available in your orb to assure your success on this expedition! Find them on chests, enemy loot and other quite… interesting places.
Each run is different in this randomly generated tower, where you might find a lot of weird NPCs and gambling gadgets, therefore, keep entering surely not suspicious doors to your heart’s content.
Nadir - Prologue: Slay the Six
Nadir - the point on the celestial sphere directly below an observer. It’s the direct opposite of the zenith… and your destination.
GAME DESCRIPTION: 🔥
Nadir - Prologue: Slay the Six is a free prologue to the dark deckbuilding roguelike adventure, with its artwork burning of infernal fire, and many extraordinary inspirations, the deepest of them coming straight from Dante’s Divine Comedy.
Control powerful, yet extremely blemished teams of characters, each representing one of the deadly sins. Fight using a plethora of unholy cards and try to escape the seemingly endless, multi-layered city.
TWIST ON A TURN SYSTEM 🔥
The Threat Counter shows how powerful the enemy’s attacks will become. There is no limit of played cards, but each of them adds points to the Threat Counter, so you’ll have to manage your risk-taking.
CHARACTER-BASED DECK BUILDING 🔥
Each character on your team contributes to your main deck; find synergies between each Sinner’s cards and build a dream (or nightmare) team.
CONTROL YOUR SINS 🔥
Every Sin has its own group of Sinners, shells that will bring its will to Nadir. As the sinners’ journey progresses, their power will grow, unlocking new abilities to fight even stronger threats. And if they shall fall, the abyss will produce more fools to try.
CHOOSE YOUR OWN APPROACH 🔥
Do you prefer raw damage or a more cunning way of poison? There is a multitude of different card effects to choose from. But remember that the enemy will attack you back, so you better look for cards that will decrease the Threat Counter.
CHALLENGING BOSSES 🔥
Each level of Nadir has its own Floor Guardian that you will have to defeat in order to go deeper into the city. But be careful, each of them has a unique ability!
REACH THE BOTTOM OF NADIR 🔥
This goal seems simple, but considering the characteristics of Sins, will they be able to divide the power between them?
A JOURNEY UNLIKE ANY OTHER 🔥
Watch your back on your way to the bottom of Nadir, taking time to admire its horrific look. It might feel familiar – from the wonders of the Divine Comedy, to desaturated aesthetics of Sin City, to the unforgettable design of Hellboy – yet not comfortable at all.
MODDING SUPPORT 🛠️
Devil’s in the detail and that’s why Nadir offers a built-in, extensive modding support for those who want to expand the world of Nadir and imprint their twisted fantasies onto every inch of the game.
Monster Slayers
This game has more than what meets the eye. From the other reviews I am sure you have a good idea of what game this is, but I am here to talk about the depth of the gameplay. I know for a lot of card game fans and rogue-like gamers out there this is important.
The game can seem to get boring after you find yourself discovering everything. After you seen the cards, beat the boss, played the rogue class, farmed some items, maxed out talents, etc. But, you haven’t tried legendary mode. This is where the real game begins.
– Real player with 112.3 hrs in game
This is a fantastic rogue-lite deck-building RPG.
The various classes are almost all very interesting, and often lead to varying play styles. The rogue-lite progress allows you to upgrade both individual classes in interesting ways (e.g. replace some crappy cards in the starting deck with one or another set of replacements), and generally upgrade all characters (e.g. make it more likely to get better loot at the end of combat).
The moment-to-moment gameplay is very solid. It’s got a good set of mechanics that allow for some strategy and making interesting choices during combat, and the enemies you face are playing by exaclty the same rules (albeit with very different decks).
– Real player with 46.3 hrs in game
THE SPIRIT LIFT
THE SPIRIT LIFT is a deck-building rogue-like horror adventure set in a haunted hotel.
_Dare to explore a haunted hotel?
Where countless ghosts and monsters dwell?
Danger lurks behind each door
As you ascend to the 13th floor
What secrets shall tonight unveil?
And who will live to tell the tale?_
It’s the 1990s. A magical elevator awakens in an abandoned hotel as several teenagers enter on a dare. They’re about to get the ride of their life, because this place is haunted on so many levels! Make it to the top and fight the boss to learn the hotel’s secrets. And if your team checks out early? Be kind, rewind, and better luck next time…
Gameplay Features:
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Your starting team determines your strategy, so choose wisely. Each character has a special ability and a custom set of starting cards. They’ll also react differently as the story unfolds.
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Find more equipment cards by exploring rooms. Use your deck to fight the creatures who prowl each floor.
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Each run is a unique hotel experience. Different bosses influence battles and events across a randomly generated layout.
(Note that THE SPIRIT LIFT is still in development. Check out our social media links to follow our progress!)
Deck Hunter
I am a pretty big fan of slay the spire (550+ hours) and I was happy to see another game that is similar, but still has enough differences to not feel like the same game.
The card upgrade system is alright. Cards upgrade based off of how many times you use that specific card. Which is an interesting idea however it obviously encourages you to stall fights so that you can use the cards as many times as you can before fights get harder. I decided not to omega abuse this just because it makes things go so much slower that it isn’t all that much fun.
– Real player with 82.8 hrs in game
Great game - having a lot of fun with it. Took me about 20 hours to reach the end of the current content, but it’s pretty evident that there’s a good deal more to come. And I’m still looking forward to diving back in to try some new things.
Little more information for those that want it
Much of the criticisms I’ve seen concern: “massive amounts of bugs,” clunky interface, irritating foes, randomness of cards - here’s my take on those:
bugs: 20 hours - from tutorial all the way to the end - and I’ve never seen a single bug. Doesn’t mean they’re not there. But I haven’t seen any - let alone massive numbers of them.
– Real player with 31.7 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.
Dragon Call
If you are looking for a new and fun deck building card game that is not ‘pay2win’ this will keep you entertained with several different Hero’s that have varied abilities and card pools.
– Real player with 97.4 hrs in game
All the joy o a CCG without the microtransactions, the rules are pretty intuitive and if your familiar with hearthstone and shadowverse youll catch on extremely quick, translation can be a bit wonky but once you understand what means what its easy.
PRO tip if you buy it your 1st run click the gear in the top right, from there you can change language to english
Another issue I found is if your trying to use the chatbox or add a friend ID be in windowed mode as the virtual keyboard will not work in full screen infact it can crash your game
– Real player with 83.9 hrs in game
Fuzz Force: Spook Squad
Fuzz Force: Spook Squad is a cute little dice-rolling game. It’s very easy to pick up and play, but there could be more to this game. Let’s explore the ups and downs of the game (+, +/-, -, ?):
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The game looks really nice, shiny and coloful. I like how the characters and enemies move in a limited way.
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Great character design.
! Mecha Peppa is probably my favorite.
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A good selection of weapons, skills, dice, buffs and debuffs*.
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It’s super fast to start playing the game. Everything is super straight forward. Just go and beat ass.
– Real player with 22.4 hrs in game
This game is pretty great, its main feature or whatever is that it’s insanely cute. Adorable. The criticism I have is that the actual gameplay is extremely simplistic, and the replay value is also in turn almost zero, aside just trying out each character once. It’s fun to see the new weapons, but… the gameplay is so simple that I find myself not caring what every weapon does. The game tries to make some replay value with the achievements, like using the mutators/handicaps/ AKA “special missions”, but I just don’t feel compelled to, because the gameplay is so barebones.
– Real player with 10.4 hrs in game
Malice & Greed
I’ve currently put around 200 hours into the alpha version of Malice while playtesting it before the early access launch, and it’s a MASSIVE recommendation. I feel like I’ve learned so much about the game, but that just makes me realise how much left there still is to discover.
Malice is quite a fresh take on the Roguelite genre with a progression system that surprisingly manages to sit in the middle of Hades & Dark Souls in a way that clicks. The number of possible builds with distinctly different playstyles is actually wild, and the emergent interactions scale in a way where there is always another thing to learn or consider, even if you think you’ve learned it all. Each time you have another ‘aha’ moment and understand how you can combine the systems together in a new way, the game reveals a whole new world of what you are able to do with those systems, things you would have never even considered but make so much sense once you know it’s possible.
– Real player with 153.7 hrs in game
You know how Early Access games usually build on top of itself like a tower but without expanding itself, so you generally want to wait until it’s actually full release so you don’t get bored or worse, done with the game completely? Somehow this game doesn’t feel like that. Each major update feels like its own little game, and replaying them doesn’t feel boring at all. It does help that if you don’t know what you’re doing you will get wrecked super hard, and even if you do know what’s going on you’re probably still going to get wrecked by some very poor decision-making.
– Real player with 74.0 hrs in game