Tetrogue Dragons
Tetrogue Dragons is a deckbuilding rogue-lite with a fun puzzle twist. Choose from three initial classes and unlock four more. Each class has a unique set of abilities that correlates to falling blocks on the battle board. The classes also have different stats altering the penalties they take for filling their battle board or the speed that blocks fall onto the board. As you move through procedurally generated maps, you add shapes into your deck, gain potions, and add items that alter gameplay and can also stack for impressive bonuses. Items can increase the size of your battle board, your loot drops, your maximum health or much more. Beware though! As you add shapes to your deck, the enemy’s decks get bigger as well and their abilities grow with each new map. At the end of each map battle a dragon boss with unique abilities like reversing your controls or obscuring part of your battle board. Play to become a master, or just have some casual fun, it is up to you!
Read More: Best Roguelite Dungeon Crawler Games.
Crawlyard
The performance starts – unending, ever changing, cruel to its actors and viewers alike. Yet you are far from being powerless: you can affect the Mansion’s backstage, send puppets to explore its mysterious rooms and rewrite the play however you see fit.
Every new pattern will bring new opportunities, your bonds with other members of the audience will grow stronger, until one day you finally discover the perfect scenario that the previous owner of the Mansion was obsessed with.
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Card combos: rooms affect each other in many surprising ways. Find out how you can utilize it to develop your own winning strategy or make your runs more challenging. But beware: some patterns may prove to be too difficult for specific puppets.
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Indirect battle system: strategy and preparation are the key to success. Plan your way carefully, exploit the rooms' mechanics, use spells and make event-related decisions at crucial points to end up victorious.
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Adaptability and growth: your puppets already offer different play styles for you to choose from, but with the items found in the rooms you can customize and buff your heroes even further – or uncover new doll parts to build unique fighters.
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Intertwining stories: meet other characters bewitched by the call of the Mansion. Get them to open up to you, learn about their traumas and manias, and affect their future – perhaps in a romantic way. The more you give, the more you obtain in return.
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Choices matter: the others are stuck, but you can still move forward, unraveling the threads of their unfortunate fates. Will you advise your new comrades to do what they want? Or will you suggest they search for what you think they need?
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Reach the Endgame: grow stronger, collect enough hints and find the perfect pattern – the ultimate room layout that will reveal the Wishmaster. Have your desires fulfilled at last… unless you found something, or someone, along the way that made your change your mind.
Going strong! We’re a small indie team, and every wishlist brings us closer to completing our passion project. Thank you for your patronage!
Want to become a part of the growing community and share your impressions about the game? Join our Discord server to stay in contact, learn more about the development process, and get exclusive sneak peeks into the project as it unfolds!
Read More: Best Roguelite Strategy Games.
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
Read More: Best Roguelite Roguelike Deckbuilder Games.
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
Griftlands
Updated for Flourish & Mettle Update
My opinion of Griftlands is largely unchanged from my original review (below). The combat is tight and you’re frequently just a misplay or two away from losing a big fight, but the RPG elements get increasingly gimmicky the more you play. It’s sort of sad that choosing whether to help someone or not really depends on whether the passive bonus they give for loving or hating you is important or not. At higher prestige runs then you feel somewhat punished for taking an in-character action that ends up giving you a malus - I understand that’s a strategic trade off you have to make, but it highlights where the RPG and strategic aspects clash jarringly in Griftlands.
– Real player with 45.3 hrs in game
TL;DR: Slay the Spire meets RPG. Production values are high but card gameplay is inferior to StS. Not a game I expect to play over and over again. Passable.
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Have you ever played Slay the Spire adn thought to yourself, “Man, this game could use more story”? Well, Griftlands is that game! Narrative, great writing, flavour, design, environment, Griftlands has all you’d want from a card battler rpg!
…Kind of.
I like Klei. I do! Their products, while not always for me, are usually quite innovative and interesting. So I’ve been keeping a close eye on whatever they produce. In this case, they borrowed the card battling mechanics VERY VERY heavily from Slay the Spire, and added in all the essential elements of RPGs and made it well. In these ways, the production value of Griftlands is significantly higher than Slay the Spire.
– Real player with 36.2 hrs in game
HELLCARD
Hellcard is a cooperative roguelike deckbuilder that can be played in both Singleplayer and Multiplayer modes. The game takes place in the paper dungeons known from Book of Demons, but its main mechanics revolve around deckbuilding and fast-paced tactical turn-based card battles.
What makes HELLCARD unique and different from games such as Slay the Spire is that monster placement actually matters and can be used to your advantage.
In HELLCARD we’re planning to support co-op battles with up to three heroes facing Archdemon’s hordes. You’ll be able to descend into the dungeons solo, recruit computer-controlled companions or join your friends or strangers in their battles against the hordes of hell.
If the above features get you excited, be sure to wishlist the game now on Steam. Otherwise consider wishlisting anyway - who knows, maybe we will get you excited along the way!
About Return 2 Games series
Return 2 Games is a series of unique mid-core games inspired by the golden days of PC gaming. Each R2G title is a tribute to a single hit game from the ’90s: a reimagining of a single universal story for a brand-new audience, using modern means and innovative, often vastly simplified gameplay mechanics.
HELLCARD internally started as an idea for a new game mode inside Book of Demons (the first game in the R2G series), but we soon realized that it’s a much bigger design and that it should be executed as a separate stand-alone spin-off game. If you want to learn more about Return 2 Games or support us in the development of the series, visit the Supporter Pack store page. On release, HELLCARD will be a part of it.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/706770/Return_2_Games_Supporters_Pack/
Book of Demons, the first part in the series is already here, be sure to check it out as it includes a free demo.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/449960/Book_of_Demons/
Also, be sure to check out Book of Aliens, the second book in the series and a tribute to MicroProse’ UFO: Enemy Unknown that’s also in the works:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1196230/Book_of_Aliens/
Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale
(Note: I betatested the mobile version and the Varfa DLC, which I recieved for free. Take that into account as you read this review.)
Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale is a deckbuilding rougelike tile game in the same universe as Meteorfall: Journeys. In the game, your deck of tiles is shuffled in with a bunch of enemies. You have to kill the enemies to get your stuff back. Your ultimate goal is to kill all the enemies in a dungeon using the tiles that are in it.
There are 5 characters, which all play wildly differently. Bruno is built to survive long combats with armor and direct damage. Greybeard can blow up enemies without even entering combat with them, but has difficulty dealing with enemies in combat. Mischief has a lot of positioning wackyness, requiring that enemies are alone in their row before you can do substantial damage. Muldorf is your resident necromancer, summoning minions to fight for him. Rose is… uh… Rose.
– Real player with 129.1 hrs in game
Overview
Meteorfall: Krumit’s Tale is a fiendish card/puzzle game with a distinctive art style, character traits, potions, abilities, equipment, and lots of memorable enemies.
The Good
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Game-changing traits
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Unique playable characters
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Meaningful choices
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Sessions lasting 20-40 minutes
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Replayability (randomly generated)
– Real player with 74.3 hrs in game
NEOVERSE
At its core, Neoverse is a Slay-the-Spire-esque “roguelike” deckbuilding game where you play cards to clear combat encounters across three acts of increasing difficulty, each one capped off with a boss fight. It aggressively invites comparisons to its dark fantasy predecessor, being more similar than many others in the same narrow genre.
However, despite the fact that it saves a lot of effort by way of imitation, Neoverse is a rather different experience to play.
For one, Neoverse is more forgiving. Some negative reviews complain about the difficulty spike of the bonus boss, but while that encounter does require more care and preparation than anything else in Neoverse, it’s still nowhere near the teeth-grinding frustration that you get in many games with “Roguelike” elements that expect you to fail over and over until the RNG winds blow fair and you’re able to assemble that perfect winning combo. I’d go so far as to say that until you start pushing the harder content like higher-level Transcendent Universe runs or Challenge Mode, the game is actually pretty easy… at least if you have a good instinct, either learned from playing or transferred in from familiarity with the genre, for what to do in general. But, I would say instead that Neoverse feels much more ‘fair’ than most other members of the genre.
– Real player with 59.1 hrs in game
One of the best Spire-type games out there!
Without a doubt. If you like Slay the Spire, you’ll love this little gem!
The setting of the game puts us in a futuristic, post-apocalyptic “universe” where mankind stuck its d#ck in crazy when everything was fine and dandy as it was. As a result, humanity finds itself in QUITE the pickle with multiple realities slamming into each other like a night at the local rave club - only it’s not fun and drugs are nowhere to be found. Monsters, and God knows what else, start pouring through as dimensional shifts smash realities into each other and try to find a balance amidst the chaos. Naturally humanity was NOT ready for this level of f#cktitude, and - as could be expected - that which once WAS is now a complete, dilapidated mess.
– Real player with 45.5 hrs in game
Spellsword Cards: Origins
So I read through a few of the other reviews and I can see how some may find it negative. No it is NOT flashy and doesn’t have ‘interesting’ characters, but to be honest, it’s kinda refreshing. I’m an old school gamer and I’ve played Many card games, rpgs, whatever and I have to admit I’m addicted to this for some reason. I’m determined to beat the stupid lich with all my characters if possible. That being said, it’s also VERY frustrating and will P1ss you off many times! The cards are a bit unbalanced, for example I’ve reached the lich with no access to mana or healing cards depending on who I choose. This makes it a bit unfair, as well as not being able to meet the boss with a full health. No matter how hard I try to finish the previous battle with as high health as possible, it just doesn’t cut it. There was one game I used to play a lot, had over 400 hours until some new dev, crappy pants, redid the whole thing and made it vegas like…I truly hope these devs Don’t do that to this game at all! It’s a game unto itself and Yes it Does need work but it can be challenging and fun if you know how to use the cards given to you. I noticed the new game from these makers and I wanted to give it a shot thinking it would be similar to this style, but I think they already headed to the slot machines….
– Real player with 170.1 hrs in game
An interesting take on Card Game / RPG / Roguelike hybrid. I like the mechanic of dumping cards to the discard pile to gain extra action points (earned quite a few 1 turn kill combos that way). I do like the card combinations and various synergies thus far, and I due appreciate the card upgrades system as well.
EDIT: Some previously written issues turned out to be user error, and thus deleted that portion of the commentary above. Other than that, the above aforementioned is exactly the same prior to the deleted, and erroneous (on my part again, sigh) critique.
– Real player with 26.8 hrs in game
Card Crawl
Card Crawl is a really good casual, card based video game. It’s easy to learn and enjoyable to play. There are two things that make Card Crawl great: First, playing a full game doesn’t take long. A full game averages maybe five minutes. Second, this is a game that is a lot more tame when it comes to the difficulty. This is not another frustrating/rage inducing game. Success in Card Crawl depends on what cards you are dealt, and how you choose to play them. There is some strategy involved and you do have to think about how you want to play your cards. There are also a lot of special ability cards that you can unlock as you continue to play and get better. The game’s randomness with regards to what cards you are dealt, and which special ability cards are also randomly chosen for you, provide tremendous replay value for Card Crawl. There are also extra gamemodes and characters that can be unlocked as well. This is a game that can be enjoyed in both short play sessions and long play sessions. There’s also a mobile version available for Android (on Google Play), and for iOS (on the App Store). Card Crawl is definitely one of the very best card based video games that there is. For a game that costs so little, you get so much in return. Card Crawl is great if you like casual games and/or card games. I highly recommend it!
– Real player with 120.9 hrs in game
Very fun, well crafted, simple game hampered by its unnecessarily grindy quest/unlock system.
You play against a random deck drawn from a fixed set of cards 49, and you get to choose 5 “ability” cards to mix in for a total of 54. The ability cards are fun, but you’re heavily reliant upon the luck of when they show up.
You unlock more ability cards with credits you earn as you play. Credits earn decently fast and you can read card descriptions before you pick which one you want to unlock, so earning them is not bad at all.
– Real player with 105.8 hrs in game
Gang of Paws
Fun game!!! Hard, but very fitting for a roguelike. Quite unique battle system and CRAZY cute animals (obviously the development team of this game has a great sense of humour). There is a lot of content and different ways to build up your character with different spells and power-ups. A sort of strategy and action game combo!
– Real player with 66.7 hrs in game
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Gang of Paws is a roguelike deckbuilder with real-time battles.
You start with the bunny and need to find a portal on each map. After beating the boss, the portal will appear and you’ll get onto the next map. If your HP reaches zero, the run is over. You can get new powers, cards and upgrade them throughout your run.
– Real player with 2.4 hrs in game