Fights in Tight Spaces (Prologue)
Most exciting demo I have played for a very long time. Highly recommended if you are into games like Slay the Spire or Into the Breach. This game has so much potential but I do have a few concerns.
Pros:
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fighting has a puzzle-like aspect to it, planning your move order really matters
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great art style and animations
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some potential for different builds and deck styles
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it’s very fun. the fights themselves are more entertaining/satisfying than the fights in Slay the Spire, and can occasionally even tell little emergent stories (like the incompetent gunman who kills his whole squad by accident.)
– Real player with 26.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy Card Game Games.
The design concept alone is enough to give this game a try, particularly because it’s a free demo. Unlike so many tactical, turn-based combat systems which put you in the shoes of a typical fantasy, sci-fi, or modern miltary role, Fights in Tight Spaces put you in a role that we’ve seen in hundreds of movies and games, but (at least to my memory), don’t often get the chance to play in a turn-based format: That of the close-quarters martial arts master. Your Jason Bournes, John Wicks, Bruce Lees, Batmans, etc.
– Real player with 12.3 hrs in game
Roll
Roll is original and engaging. You roll dice to collect points, and use those points to upgrade your dice. The goal is to get the highest score possible in 2500 rolls.
It is likely to be too ‘mathy’ for some - figuring out which upgrades will generate the most had me setting up spreadsheets. However, some players like that sort of thing and once I got my head around the upgrades (most of the upgrades, there are some I still don’t really understand), I found I could do pretty well playing from the gut - which is more fun for me.
– Real player with 24.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy Score Attack Games.
The man behind this game seems to be very passionate about the project. He has been putting out updates very frequently and even wiping leader boards with significant enough changes. he has also targeted and stopped (as far as I can tell) cheaters so the in game leader boards should be fairly accurate. On the limited youtube content available for this game he pops up time to time to interact with people in the comments section and answer questions or even just say hello, seems like a small thing but its kinda the reason I started playing. A random video about it popped up in my youtube feed and after seeing the dev in the comments seem so genuinely happy to talk to people about the game I figured id give it a shot. Im having a great time with this and id say its well worth the $4.99 I paid for it. I normally value my time as a gamer at roughly $1/hr of gameplay and Im only a few days into owning this game and I have already surpassed that mark. This deserves more attention and I think that if a community starts up around this it could really be a fun experience. Honestly my biggest gripe is that if I dont understand something or want to look something up about the game its simply not popular enough for google or youtube to understand what Im talking about and I havent come up with the right buzzword to have a more efficient search. “roll” and “roll game” paired with whatever Im trying to search or even by themselves usually yield either DND results or other games. but Im not even really sure thats any fault of the developer. If you have an extra $5 lying around you wont feel like you wasted it on this game
– Real player with 13.3 hrs in game
Mystic Vale
It’s a great rendition of my favorite card game, and always a fun play due to the nearly-unique card crafting system (I’ve only seen one other game, which both isn’t in video game format and is a product of the same company). It’s fast-paced and the automatic counting of resources is very nice.
That said, there are a few issues (all minor):
EDIT JAN 28: 1 was asking for clarity in cards remaining (counting on-deck or not). It’s apparent enough after checking once or twice and sticks with you; as of this edit, it’s cards under the on-deck
– Real player with 481.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Strategy Indie Games.
I recently downloaded this digital adaptation of the card game Mystic Vale having never played the physical version. I can say I love the game so far, and recommend it to anyone from fans of casual card games to more serious board game geeks. Essentially, It’s a well-balanced deck-building game with a theme of fighting the corruption of a sacred landscape through the cultivation of nature, and in my view is very relaxing, yet mentally stimulating, to play.
Those who have played the card game Dominion or other games of the deck-building genre will recognize the mechanic of purchasing cards from a center tableau, adding them to a deck of initially underwhelming cards, and slowly increasing potential of combos and synergy as the game progresses. However, the mechanic in Mystic Vale of crafting each card by adding components, or “advancements” in in-game terms, to each card’s top, middle, or bottom zones is unlike Dominion or any other game I’ve played. In my opinion, this concept alone sets Mystic Vale apart as an island of true uniqueness in a sea of ripoffs in the board/card game sphere.
– Real player with 81.0 hrs in game
Ratropolis
Call me a dues-paying member of ‘The Cult of the New’ when it comes to genre mash-ups like this. I can’t get enough of them. When Slay the Spire came out and combined roguelites and deck-builders I was hooked for 100+ hours and even back in my pre-COVID table-top gathering days, deckbuilders (Dominion/Thunderstone) were my favorite. The combination of control and RNG is so delicious and it’s exciting to see all of the ways developers are using this in either quality design or just experimenting with a gimmick.
– Real player with 90.9 hrs in game
A very tentative recommendation. In terms of my play-time, I’ve completed most content (including wave 120), so I feel I’ve enough experience with the game to give a moderately informed review.
In a nutshell, this game is a very polished game that reminds me of my days playing free games in the heyday of flash. Take a Newgrounds defense game and add a massive layer of professionalism and that’s this game. You play a defense game where your units, economy, and development are linked to a deck built throughout a session. It is hard. You will lose a lot. But there will be an “ah-hah!” moment where you understand what the game wants from you and suddenly it will be rare to lose.
– Real player with 87.3 hrs in game
Star Realms
I used to really enjoy the online version of this game. Saddly that is no longer true. While I would HIGHLY reccomend this game for the Campaign Mode, the Online Mode is another matter ENTIRELY!!!! Once you reach level 5, you must win a number of sucsessfull wins to advance onwords, but each loss counts you backwords on that total. THIS, is not a problem. THE PROBLEM, is that many players have found a way to “HACK” either the timeclock, or the game itself! I have found myself ready to acquire a good card, only to have my game freeze. Then reload. Not only do I lose precious time during this reloaded “Glitch”. But often it will undo my card purchases or even worse, my bases will be destroyed or my health slashed in half. All of which being impossible with the card’s the opponet had availible to play. Now, I KNOW I’m not the best player. I admit that freely. But after almost 500 games, I STILL CAN’T GET EVEN HALFWAY THROUGH TO LEVEL 7! This means With the losses counting against me, I have only managed to go up 1 LEVEL in almost 500 games!!!
– Real player with 561.4 hrs in game
I’ve enjoyed Star Realms for many year. It is an entertaining deckbuilder game, which is easy to learn. A huge number of cards have been added to this game over the years, and the core sets (5€) are definitely worth the value, while a lot of the smaller dlc (2-4€) is a bit pricey. Although skill does play a part in winning, I would definitely say that a large part of winning comes down to the luck of the draw. And the expansions increase the luck factor quite a bit. I would still say that it is quite enjoyable, and I take it as a challenge, when my opponent start out quite a bit better off than me. Sadly I will not be giving this game my recommendation, based on the recent addition to this game, in the form of Star Realms Arena, which is a particular nasty way of introducing gambling into a kid friendly game.
– Real player with 516.5 hrs in game
Golem Gates
An overall good game, with a few flaws
Pros:
-pretty good balance. A few units do feel mandatory to have, but almost all cards at least have an interesting way to be used, and even the “mandatory” ones are such just because of them being the best thing to find in the early game, without being overpowered in any way.
-game is generous with glyphs (read: cards), and every mission you play feels rewarding
-Nice story, even if its sadly a rather short one, but it does keep you engaged in during the campaign as you try to find answers to what the hell is going on, answers that you DO get
– Real player with 58.3 hrs in game
I was quite sceptical of the concept Golem Gates presented at first. Although I’ve competitively played and made money off of various different card games and really liked the general idea, adding elements from them to a RTS is a risky move, and I knew from the start that this game could crash and burn, starting from it’s core. My scepticism might have been called for, but what Golem Gates actually became is something working and wonderful. Since it’s a given that the devs will still polish a lot before 1.0 release, in this review I’m not going to touch small details that don’t really affect the core experience of the game.
– Real player with 30.1 hrs in game
Siberian Dawn
The game is good but the interface is not very intuitive making the game hard to play. The developer is still working on the game so they are still hoped that this will be addressed in a coming update.
– Real player with 31.7 hrs in game
I’d very much like to see this game and designer succeed. I discovered Siberian Dawn through the Ios release thread on BGG and decided to give the free trial a go. After a few runthroughs I spent the couple of dollars for the extra missions. It’s well worth it. Designer is helpful and quick to answer questions and is working diligently on the manual and updating and revising content. If you like deep, meaty deck builders look no further. It’s got that Legendary Encounters vibe where one is constantly surprised at how thematic the mechanisms come across essentially through just a bunch of cards. Complex, difficult, rewarding, in that order. Get some.
– Real player with 30.6 hrs in game
A Token War
A good game to mellow out to, but also one that will challenge you, especially in the later levels. Excellent art and soundtrack make it feel like a handcrafted wooden board game. Gameplay is something of a cross between Hearthstone and XCOM. I would recommend this game to any fan of turn-based tactical or deck-building games, or a casual gamer looking for a board game-like experience.
– Real player with 57.4 hrs in game
Really fun and challenging game! The roguelike aspect + genuinely difficult strategic levels mean that first time you get knocked back to a checkpoint it can be a blow to your ego, but that’s nothing compared to how good it feels to get past the battle you got stuck on.
The details of the game are great too, the cheeky descriptions make me actually chuckle and I love the cute token drawings. The audio is another highlight - the sound effects perfectly match the tokens and the music is engaging and fun to listen to even when you’re on your third or fourth attempt at a section.
– Real player with 27.1 hrs in game
EllrLand
This game has been abandoned, no sign of developer or any substantial mean to follow with update.
This game had some potential, but sadly the dev prefered to dump and go with this bare minimum of a game with poor translation
– Real player with 28.4 hrs in game
NO UPDATE, very irresponsible
– Real player with 18.8 hrs in game
Eternal Destiny
Fun game, not perfect, but worth checking out.
Gameplay: : 3.5/5
The game is rather simple for a trading card game, but there are many strategies that are viable for non-competitive modes. Unfortunately, the gameplay is not perfectly balanced, leaving some strategies much easier to use than others; however, despite some strategies being better, it is still fun making various decks to fight with.
Unlike many recent card games, this game does not have an automatic battle mode where you simply play the cards and the game decides on the moves. Instead, you are in charge of many different aspects from whether a card attacks or uses a skill to even what you attack. In a defense state, you have little control if a card is attacked directly, but if the player is attacked, you may choose to defend with a specific card or not at all.
– Real player with 1064.9 hrs in game
Not really much of a review writer, but since I do enjoy this game and it has so little reviews, I feel a bit bad for it.
Honestly, it’s a pretty simple strategy as far as some other card games go, BUT, the developers are still working on adding some more of the harder content still. Out of the 600+ cards the game has, I want to say as of May 2nd, you are currently able to collect maybe 300, 350. Which, honestly is fine right now, since it might be a little too overwhelming to have all that content. Think of a classic freemium game, now remove any timers and cooldowns, and no real money transcations.
– Real player with 113.3 hrs in game