With the sheer number of deckbuilders in development, not all of which necessarily need their own threads, I thought it might be fun to have a place to talk about them in a more focused way. This was inspired by stumbling upon a game in early access on Steam (which might deserve its own thread in the long run, but I’m ok with that) I’d never heard of, Dimension Reign:
This one has an interesting battle system that distinguishes itself by having two characters (each with multiple jobs to pick from) that have to alternate cards and with a break system that gives you extra actions to use on a given turn. It combines an aesthetic that looks a bit like Castlevania with a jazz-influenced soundtrack for a unique feel. It also has a rather interesting mechanic called karma where relics give bonuses to a specific type of karma, and stacking up the same type unlocks perks, sort of like item sets in Diablo.
Haven’t played it yet, but definitely one to keep an eye on.
Something else I hadn’t noticed about Dimension Reign: it looks like all cards are available to you every turn. However, cards you pick up during a run, like weapon attacks all appear to be consumables with limited uses. This can lead to running out of options to use during boss fights, for instance. I think you might be able to recharge items at camps.
Not sure I would consider Eternal a deckbuilder. Sure you build a deck, but for the genre of deckbuilder I think of games where you build and evolve your deck as you play and not just in a draft mode. This differentiates it from CCG’s like MtG and Eternal.
To be serious, though, I’ve played a ton of StS. I gotta beat the heart with the watcher, then I think I’m gonna be done with it. Maybe.
I picked up Griftlands, and I quite like it, but I think I will set it aside until it releases. I finished the story with the first character, and guess what? It has ascension levels just like StS. Nothing like beating the heart, as far as I can tell though.
Griftlands, to me, feels overly cumbersome. I like the idea of the social battles and such, but the combat feels like it takes too long and gets old fast. It hasn’t clicked with me.
I saw that game at GenCon and was excited from a distance when I saw the name, but was let down when I found out it wasn’t a metagame based on building a deck building game as a deck building game.
I recently bought at least 5 of these types of games. Will try to find time to write up a bit about each. I know a few more are releasing in the next couple weeks as well. So far Gordian Quest is one of my favorites though from an overall viewpoint though since the production values and artwork are pretty good compared to many of the others.
That’s be awesome! Have you seen Arcanium? That shows a lot of promise, imo. Georgian Quest also looks great.
Oh, and speaking of Arcanium, there will be a playable demo on Steam in a few weeks for the summer festival. It will enter EA on Steam a month or so after (you can get immediate access on Fig).
Monster Train is another unique take on the genre. Then there’s Book of Demons: Hellcard.
Playing a bit of Trials of Fire this afternoon and realized I didn’t have the thread for it in the OP.
I’ve only gotten through the first act of the water gem quest, but really dig this so far. I like how you get a choice of cards when you level up and can swap that in with any card in your base deck. So far, I’ve mostly been making direct upgrades, but you could easily replace a card with an entirely different type of card (like attack with defense) to make more drastic alterations to your deck. I also like the Card Hunter-esque way that items add cards to your deck.
@Harkonis just tried the Monster train demo and it’s great. Even though I’ve watched a few hours of footage, while trying to play, I had a hard time understanding why there were times enemies didn’t get attacked when I expected them to. I’m sure I will come to grips with it. It is such a cool take on this genre.
I need to play more Card Hunter if that game is still running, really under-rated game I think. Love the way equipment works as your deck. Gordian Quest has a single card or two tied to each piece but I wish it was a bit more like CH
One other cool thing with ToF is that the higher rarity Legendaries have more cards, so if you are trying to run a lean deck, they won’t always be the best choice.
Card Hunter was a game I wanted to love… certainly thematically growing up a tabletop RPG guy. I just didn’t find it all that fun to actually play. Not that it’s bad, it just want something That compelled me to keep coming back
I haven’t had enough time to play through a full run of the Monster Train demo, but the bit I played is really fun. Thanks for the heads up! My elevator pitch would be: it’s a quick playing tower defense game mixed with a deckbuilder. So far it feels like leans mechanically a bit more on the tower defense element than deckbuilding. You’ll get cool units and level them up, but don’t necessarily know when you’re going to get them out. There’s also spells in your deck that are like instants to allow you to tip the encounter one way or the other. Looks cool, not sure on the depth but seems like it could be there. I’ll probably pick it up when it comes out.
As someone that hates TD, no one should be put off by this if they are like me. There’s nothing real-time about it (edit: in single-player. There’s a real time competitive mode apparently)
I’d also argue it has more interesting deck-building than many titles because there are more customization options available for your cards. For example, I got a card yesterday I hadn’t seen before called glimmer. It heals all allies and damages all enemies in a lane for 2 points at a cost of one mana. I bought a shop upgrade that increased the magic power of a spell by 10 at a cost of +1, so now it cost 2 and healed/damaged all units by 12. Then I bought another upgrade that returns a card to your hand (to of the deck maybe) if you used it the previous turn. It saved my bacon in the next fight after that.
Pretty cool stuff. And there’s all kinds of ways you can create combos. For instance, take a zero cost imp that gives you 5 mana when you play it. Add an upgrade that returns it to the top of your deck when killed. Then you have a 1-cost spell that detonates an imp to do 50 damage to the enemy in front of the lane. Upgrade that to return to your hand/deck when used.
I think the entire point of this game is to create combos that would be nauseatingly OP in other games. You will need them to survive.
I suppose what gives it the TD feel @porousnapkin are the multiple lanes and the fact units attack on their own. this turned into a much longer post than I expected.
