I’m not above being lured in by aesthetic. Draft of Darkness hooked me in with its grainy, pixelated photo manipulation. It looks like a tacky game that followed in the wake of Mortal Kombat. In fact, it would fit right in alongside titles that pushed the limits of tastefulness back in the ‘90s. It’s hypnotic.

In my experience, a well-executed aesthetic can be indicative not necessarily of a game’s quality, but of its inventiveness. Not always, but sometimes. My favorite type of game is one where the developers fucked around and found out. However, that methodology doesn’t always result in an appealing game.

Draft of Darkness is so well-executed in its mechanics that it makes them seem accidental. Aesthetics aside, everything I’ve seen surrounding the game makes it out to be this quiet little project by a solo developer. But when you get into it, you find a well-tuned machine. Yet, while I find myself captivated by it, there is one unavoidable flaw that I think is going to be very divisive for a lot of people: its roguelite backbone.

[caption id="attachment_398531" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Draft of Darkness (PC)
Developer: Crawly Games
Publisher: Crawly Games
Released: August 23, 2023
MSRP: $14.99

Dungeons and daggers

In Draft of Darkness, you pick a survivor from an ever-growing list of them. Each one is proficient with their own type of combat, from the knife-wielding Cara to the Chainsaw-swinging Rene. Each one plays extremely differently.

Draft of Darkness is a deckbuilder roguelite, but it plays a lot like a tabletop RPG. Or rather, it plays like a TTRPG if the GM had lost the will to live and was holding you hostage in a ‘90s metal music video. While your abilities in combat are controlled by the hand of cards you’re dealt, it’s backed by an abilities stat system and heavily reliant on resources you gather. If you’re carrying a chainsaw, you need fuel. If you’re carrying a shotgun, you need shotgun food.

Beyond that, the exploration system feels like something a dungeon master would draw out on grid paper. Each one is randomly generated upon entry and filled with a variety of encounters. They take place in an apartment building, in a factory, or on the streets, but they’re all very much dungeons. Your goal in each on is to try and gather power and resources for your party, then find the boss and escape to the next dungeon.

https://youtu.be/9sZE1xr7wvI

Smack the deck

Despite relying on the luck of the draw to give you a good hand, the combat is extremely deep and nuanced. While characters rely on sparse resources to use their strongest attacks, they always have a weaker alternative. The chainsaw maniac, for example, can deal an incredible amount of damage very quickly but is reliant on gasoline. She can still pull off some powerful attacks without starting her engine, which is best to do on weaker opponents.

Usually, you just want to start eating into your resources when the cards start looking stacked against you, like on bosses. However, there are characters who don’t require resources, like the knife wielders. For them, they can focus on critical hits and combos, but with Cara I liked to rely heavily on the bleeding status effect.

There are a lot of nuanced status effects, and playing certain cards in sequence can give you a huge advantage. There is a tonne of strategy from building your deck carefully so you can exploit even the most unfavorable of hand.

[caption id="attachment_398532" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Feed the TV

To progress through the actual story, however, you need to trigger various encounters. It can take multiple playthroughs and attempts before you gain any ground in the narrative. This is where I think Draft of Darkness is going to miss the connection with a lot of people. It is, at heart, a very slow and methodical game, and that doesn’t really click with the roguelite mentality.

It’s a game that asks you to be very careful about your strategy and resources, and then even when you do so, it’s possible to hit the jagged rocks of a difficult encounter. Since so much of the game is random and there’s very little wiggle room, it’s very easy to get your bones crushed between a rock and a hard place. And that can mean losing hours of progress with very little to show for it.

Specifically, a “complete” run can take three hours. If I wasn’t dying at the beginning from resource starvation, I was dying at the end from sheer blunt-force boss trauma. You’re always given tokens to spend at a store that allows you to unlock additional perks. Otherwise, you'll make progress through the various encounters that unlock characters. The store can allow you to customize your starter deck, but you’re largely starting from square one each time you start over. There are few advantages to be had.

[caption id="attachment_398533" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

It's time for plan B

To be fair, Draft of Darkness has an easy mode to help reduce the likelihood of sudden death. If it was such a big problem for me, I don’t know why I didn’t use it. Pride, I guess.

I feel like this is a game that doesn’t benefit from its roguelite trappings. I feel like a more round-based dungeon approach would have suited it better. Complete a map, and move on to the next one.

The mysterious narrative does make good use of the repeated playthroughs, however. The story involves the spread of something called “Darkness” which is used rather nebulously. Sometimes it sounds like a technology, other times a disease, and then others it just sounds like an abstract concept. It goes into a lot of detail without ever being clear on what it’s talking about. The Darkness really just seems to be all of the worst qualities of humanity lumped together. Good intentions marred by greed and paranoia. The inescapable need for progress and prestige. The disgusting aesthetics certainly suit the theme.

[caption id="attachment_398534" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Let the fists speak!

Despite the heartbreak from lost progress, I found myself glued each time I picked up Draft of Darkness. To be clear, you can always quit whenever you want and pick up where you left off. Throughout the review period, I preferred to sit down at the start of the evening and let myself get absorbed in the tacky, rusty visuals. Preferably with a nice greasy slice of pizza to really make things feel like living in the ‘90s.

I say that its successes feel almost accidental, but I know that it’s not true. Draft of Darkness is the result of a lot of careful prototyping and development, as well as inspiration from games like Slay the Spire. Crawly is clearly a developer who knows how to use feedback to create a tighter product.

While I think that the roguelite format is a hindrance on Draft of Darkness overall and will probably be the breaking point for a lot of people, I can’t get past my fascination for the game. While writing this review, I made the mistake of starting the game to make sure I had a few facts straight and started a new run. One hour later, I realized I was supposed to be writing, and had to quite painfully tear myself away. Even right now, Draft of Darkness is just minimized onto my taskbar, lurking and waiting for me to finish my job so it can capture my attention again.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Draft of Darkness appeared first on Destructoid.

An offer you should maybe consider

Promising-looking deckbuilder, Don Duality, will give you a taste of its panache on April 21 through the Don Duality: Initiation demo.

Coming from developer Königsborgs and publisher Ravenage Games, Don Duality has the makings of a game that speaks my language. This language, of course, consists of restaurant management and crime. The game is a deckbuilder where you take the role of a mafia family’s new don, and you work to re-establish your family’s power.

https://youtu.be/hUWaYmFx9SI

Gameplay involves hiring thugs, sending them out to do crime, and then laundering the goods through your restaurant establishment. Don Duality looks like a simple little game, but I loved the crime/restaurant angle present in the Pizza Connection games.

I know I lost a few of you when I said deckbuilder. Personally, I’ve found myself enjoying the genre the more I explore it. Mahokenshi was perhaps the first time I really felt engaged with the mechanics, but there are many more that I’ve experienced since then that I’ve connected with. I feel that it allows for an easily understood abstraction of random mechanics. However, I can understand that it can be a bit vexing to anyone who hates being shown exactly how bad their luck is, as well as anyone who hates mechanics that involve things outside their direct control.

Nonetheless, you’ll get your chance to see if Don Duality is for your tastes before dropping money on it. Don Duality: Initiation will release on PC on April 21, 2023. The release for the full game is a little less clear and will likely depend on feedback.

The post Pixel art management deckbuilder Don Duality gets prologue demo April 21 appeared first on Destructoid.

Stay frosty

Deadpan Games and Gaziter's deckbuilder Wildfrost has locked in a release date. The charming card strategy sets out on a treacherous climb on April 12 for PC and Nintendo Switch.

Wildfrost sets you out on a perilous journey up through the mountains, with only a deck full of companions and items by your side. You're trying to reach the Sun Temple to bring back the sunlight, so until then, everything's going to be a bit chilly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fh1roF9RBh8

It's a roguelite, where each run will net you new boons and assistance back in town. This can range from new cards to special effects, letting your squad get stronger and stronger until the summit doesn't seem so far away after all.

Alongside building up the town of Snowdwell for more cards and challenges, there are also Leaders to use from different tribes, each with their own playstyle. And the counter system is a neat way of encouraging you to pay attention to cards' stats and weaknesses, beyond just a numbers game.

I can go the distance

I played a bit of Wildfrost during the Steam Next Fest a while back and found it to be fun and lighthearted, while still providing me a decent challenge. The art style is very memorable, especially if you've grown tired of the more grim takes on deckbuilding out there.

And with a $19.99 price tag, it seems pretty likely you can get a good hour-to-dollar count ratio out of this one. If you're looking for another deckbuilder to eat up the hours, Wildfrost might just be the fit when it arrives on April 12. A demo is also available on the Nintendo eShop.

The post Chilly deckbuilder Wildfrost hits PC and Switch in April appeared first on Destructoid.

Magic sword warrior

I haven’t done much diving into deck-builders, which seems to be riding the trend wave in the indie market. I’m honestly not sure why, since every time I’ve interacted with one, I’ve enjoyed it. Take, for example, Mahokenshi.

I tried the demo of Mahokenshi a long while back and came away impressed, yet somehow the final release still snuck up on me. Its mix of board-game style, turn-based, card-centric gameplay felt rather powerful in my first experience, so I was excited to see how the whole package turned out.

[caption id="attachment_363208" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Mahokenshi (PC)
Developer: Game Source Studio
Publisher: Iceberg Interactive
Released: January 24, 2023
MSRP: $24.99

Mahokenshi depicts the Celestial Islands, a series of landmasses floating above the world. They’re places where the Oni have never set foot, but when that changes, the people call on the titular samurai, the "Mahokenshi", to aid them. Each of the Mahokenshi is aligned to a creature from Japanese folklore, and each has its own strengths and weaknesses. Moreover, they all have a different playstyle and deck of cards, which allows you to find one that suits you best.

Your Mahokenshi is frequently solo but often outnumbered. Starting out, your main goal is to gather up your deck by landing on various towns, shrines, castles, and statues. Your starter deck is usually underpowered, and a lot of the gameplay revolves around picking up cards and creating your strategy. You can also upgrade your cards and remove your weaker ones, turning yourself into a tower of card-slinging power.

It actually feels great when you get your deck together. Combining cards that increase the number of moves you can make in your turn, playing ones that let you draw further, and using cards to buff your strength to the moon can have you dropping baddies in quick succession. When the draw works in your favor, it makes you feel powerful, which I didn’t expect from a deck builder.

[embed]https://youtu.be/WkLz6AD97PY[/embed]

Stack the deck

There’s a decent amount of variety to the missions, but a lot of them can be solved using nothing but a lot of violence. However, building your strength to take on towering monsters doesn’t get old. Well, it does, but Mahokenshi stops well before it gets to that point.

While it does last — around 15-18 hours, depending on whether or not you take your time — it’s well-paced and engaging. To improve your chances of success, you can complete side quests and spend points to buy upgrades. These improve the effects of things on the board and buff your base stats, turning your deck into a lean, mean, paper-cutting machine.

The Mahokenshi unlock as you proceed through the game, and each levels up separately, which encourages you to try them all out and extends gameplay. By the end of the game, I mostly settled on just two of the four characters that I preferred to play. If you’re feeling frisky, though, the characters unlock extra gear that can be used by any of the characters. Along with side missions, there are a lot of excuses to retry levels.

[caption id="attachment_363209" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Semi-magical

It, unfortunately, has some performance issues. Mahokenshi is a decent-looking game, but it’s not that amazing. Thankfully, it’s not the most action-packed title, so a choppy framerate isn’t going to torpedo things, but it’s not something you like to see.

It didn’t bother me enough to ruin my fun. Mahokenshi is an inventive little deck-builder that lets you build some powerful combos that help you live out your magical samurai fantasies. On the other hand, while it definitely doused my curiosity about the genre in kerosene, it didn’t light my jimmies on fire. Instead, it was just an enjoyable experience. It kept me interested throughout its runtime, and that’s about all I can ask for.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

The post Review: Mahokenshi appeared first on Destructoid.

Don't overlook this indie masterpiece

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is one of those games that I kept hearing about, but it took me a minute to get around to playing it with all the amazing titles that came out last year. I know I’m a bit late to the party on this one, as the game originally came out back in August of 2022, but I’m so glad that I went back to give this one a shot. 

I went into this playthrough without knowing anything about the game and without any real expectations, and exactly one completed playthrough later, I’m absolutely in love with this title. I can’t think of any other game like it, and I can’t think of a game I’ve ever played that’s made me want to dive immediately into another playthrough right away as much as this one did.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist (PC [Reviewed], Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5)
Developer: Northway Games
Publisher: Finji
Released: August 25, 2022
MSRP: $24.99

From the gorgeous art to the lovable characters to the addicting gameplay and so much more, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist had me hooked from the beginning, and my intrigue only snowballed as the hours ticked away.

The premise of I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is that Earth’s first extrasolar space colony has set down roots on an alien planet called Vertumna that they accessed through a wormhole, and the player takes on the role as one of the teenage members of the community. The game follows the player character from age 10 all the way up to age 20, chronicling the dramatic highs and lows of colony life. 

Let's talk gameplay

Gameplay-wise, it’s a mix of a narrative RPG presented in a visual novel style with deckbuilding mechanics. The main gameplay loop consists of growing friendships through conversations and gifts, completing helpful tasks around the colony, and taking part in card-based battles and other deckbuilding mechanics.

Players also have a total of 15 different stats, which are broken down into three different colored categories: emotional, mental, and physical. Specifics include characteristics like bravery, creativity, toughness, empathy, and organization, just to name a few. You mostly improve your stats by taking on different jobs around the colony, but there are some other modifiers that can make leveling up even easier.

[caption id="attachment_359171" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

This game offers a huge variety of content, including 10 different romanceable characters, 25 different jobs, 200 battle cards, 1,000 story events, and 50 different endings. It’s also important to note that the game only took me roughly 10 hours to get through the first time, but it’s designed to be played on repeat – it’s even advertised on its official website as a “narrative deckbuilding RPG with a timeloop twist.”

I’m a huge fan of deckbuilders, so I was pumped to jump into the card-based mechanics in this game. Basically how it works is that whenever you partake in an activity or need to participate in a “check” to see if you were successful at performing a task, you’ll enter a card challenge. Each task has a specific number goal that you need to reach, either in one go or at the end of three rounds. The cards themselves have a different suit (yellow, blue, or red based on their associations with the three different stat categories), a numerical value, and often a unique card power that affects the other cards on the board.

There are also other mechanics that can help you gain bonuses or get rid of cards you don’t need anymore, but otherwise, it’s a fairly simple minigame, but a balanced and endlessly enjoyable one at that. 

My other absolute favorite thing about the cards is that they correspond with memories your character forms – having a new or particularly compelling encounter, either with other characters or alone, will reward you with a new card. This ties the main battling/minigame mechanic back into the game’s story incredibly well by acting as a meditation on how your experiences shape your personalities, interests, and abilities. It also just encourages you to reflect on your journey so far as you regularly look at everything you’ve gone through and the bonds you’ve formed, which not only ties perfectly into the themes of the game, but also mimics how our memories work in real life quite beautifully.

[caption id="attachment_359172" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

A loop you won't want to break

If you’re worried you’re not gonna get your money’s worth with this one, I can assure you that there’s nothing to fret about on that front. The game encourages you pretty strongly right after you finish that it’s meant for you to start again, and I know for a fact that I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is only going to get better with each subsequent playthrough, as per a friend’s anecdotes now that they’ve played the game three times through.

The characters in this game are so incredibly loveable. You not only get a clear sense of who everyone is right off the bat, but it’s particularly intriguing to see how each individual changes and grows as time goes on. The young cast members are truly shaped by their environment, and every step of the way you get to see how your friends react to the hand that they’ve been dealt. It’s some of the best character work I’ve seen in a game in a good while, and I know I only scratched the surface of those 1,000 unique story events.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is also a game that hinges on its choice-based narrative and let me say, I don’t think I’ve ever felt like my choices matter so much in a game before. Even the smallest action, or lack of action, can entirely alter the status quo of a playthrough in the opening hour, which will send ripples throughout the entire rest of your experience. It’s so incredibly easy to miss certain encounters that the ones you do find feel truly special.

[caption id="attachment_359173" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

I know the "visual novel" style isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but any skepticism should certainly be helped by the fact that the art in this game is gorgeous and so full of life. Another benefit of the game’s restrained yet stylized art is that it allows for a ton more variation in what players can experience in the story – a lack of animation and smaller scope means that the story can branch any which way without it being a strain on resources, which further opens the door for a choice-based game to fully embody its descriptor.

I also have to say that I absolutely love the music in I Was a Teenage Exocolonist. I’m already pre-disposed to enjoying anything remotely related to the lo-fi genre, but I found the music always perfectly matched the mood and heightened the emotional atmosphere. It was just nice to listen to, honestly. This game is highly polished, as well. Everything looks and feels great, and I can’t recall a single bug from my entire run. 

It's darkest before the dawn

Right from the start, I Was a Teenage Exocolonist makes it clear in the form of some lengthy content warnings that it’s going to be touching on some pretty dark subject matter, and let me tell you, I’m glad it did – this game does not pull its punches. I was pleased that any darkness that’s included, though, is not gratuitous or there for the sake of making the title edgier. Basically, the whole premise of the game is that this colony of people has come all this way through space and landed in a precarious position on this new planet where they don’t know whether they’re going to make it or not.

 It makes sense that they would encounter some harrowing situations, but what makes I Was a Teenage Exocolonist really shine is how it uses those difficulties to reflect on the characters, their relationships, and ultimately what it’s like to continue living on in the face of life-altering adversity.

[caption id="attachment_359177" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Considering the time we live in now, where so much of our lives are online and we can all feel so distant, there was something really powerful about a story that focused on a small, tight-knit community that has to work together in the face of an ever-present existential threat. Whether it’s from a lack of resources, difficulties adjusting to the ecosystem of their new home planet, or straight-up attacks from both outside and inside forces, there is never a point in this game where it feels like the colony can entirely breathe a sigh of relief.

It’s certainly a difficult scenario to imagine, but I can’t deny the sense of hopefulness I felt in engaging in activities in the community that were a clear benefit to the rest of the group at large, whether it was digging around in the greenhouses, helping out in the kitchens, or assisting in the med bay. It was refreshing and honestly pretty grounding to have such a tangible, beneficial effect on a fictional community when in the real world, having an impact on anything truly substantial feels out of reach.

[caption id="attachment_359183" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Touching on colonialism

Of course, the game’s narrative also touches on the “colonist” part of this whole endeavor. Clearly, colonialism on Earth has its own dark history (something the game also acknowledges), but I Was a Teenage Exocolonist leaves it up to the player to decide what they make of people from Earth staking their claim on a planet that is not their own. This decision is made slightly easier due to the fact that the colony only really encounters animals/insects/plants as opposed to, from what they are able to ascertain, fully sentient beings, but it’s still a key piece of the game’s story. 

There’s an interesting question to be explored about how much destruction of nature can be justified in the name of survival, which I think is always relevant as we are a species that not only rely on nature to survive but has turned around and exploited it as means to our own selfish ends. You can probably guess where I landed in the game’s political divide – regardless of where you fall, this game presents an interesting way to explore topics like this in a simulated environment, and one that challenges you to come at its story with a different perspective on each playthrough.

[caption id="attachment_359181" align="alignnone" width="1200"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

In conclusion

I know this is high praise, but it’s deserved – this game reminds me a lot of Disco Elysium. In fact, it feels like I Was a Teenage Exocolonist saw Disco Elysium, learned from it, and put its own spin on the heavily text-based RPG in a way that really moves the genre forward. Don’t let the cutesy characters and art style fool you – this has to be one of the most well-told and integrated RPG stories I’ve seen in a good while. I know this is partially because I need to play more RPGs, but the point here is that this game is one for the history books.

I Was a Teenage Exocolonist is a game to get lost in, from its heartbreaking, hopeful storytelling to its engaging gameplay. I think it’s a shame that this title probably didn’t get as much widespread recognition as it deserves, because it has to have one of the most touching stories about what it means to be human that I’ve seen in games. I’m so thrilled that this title is meant to be played on a loop, because it’s a game I’m looking forward to returning to, and learning from, again and again.

The post Review: I Was a Teenage Exocolonist appeared first on Destructoid.

Why do you build me up?

The satisfaction that comes from doing well in a deckbuilding game is like nothing else. Whether you're playing a physical game like the excellent (if dryly titled) DC Deck-Building Game or a video game like the infinite time-suck that is Slay the Spire, it just feels good to build and unleash your own slate of moves. But recently, I've found myself bored by straight up-and-down deckbuilders. A lot of them feel very similar, and while there are plenty of good games playing with the same ideas, I've started actively seeking out deckbuilders with slightly bigger ideas.

And if it's big ideas you want, Backpack Hero is your new best friend. This early-access roguelike is one of the most inventive deckbuilders I've ever played.

What are ya buyin', stranger?

Backpack Hero wears its Resident Evil 4 DNA proudly on its sleeve. The game is entirely built around fitting weapons and consumables into a limited space, and the eponymous backpack bears a suspicious resemblance to RE4's legendary attache case. But Backpack Hero's survival horror cousin treats inventory management as a neat diversion from a larger game. In Backpack Hero, it is the game.

[caption id="attachment_357593" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Every item in Backpack Hero takes up a certain number of squares in your backpack. A certain shield will eat up a 2x2 square, while another will only occupy a 2x1 rectangle, so choosing which one to bring along is of maximum importance. But it's not just about what you take with you - it's also about where it goes. Most of the items in the game will be buffed in some way if they're placed in specific slots relative to other items. A helmet, for example, will only function if it's at the top of your bag, and a breastplate will buff adjacent pieces of armor. You might randomly happen across a really sick sword, but to take it, you'll need to sacrifice a defensive build that you've carefully fostered.

Tough choices like that are central to Backpack Hero. Getting married to any one build early in the game can spell defeat, and you have to be willing to let go of something that's working now if you want to plan for the future. Actual combat is pretty bland and repetitive, but that's not the draw. Backpack Hero is a game about inventory management, and it may feature the best inventory management system ever. Where new cards are simply added to the deck in more traditional deckbuilders, Backpack Hero makes every pickup feel like a little puzzle.

Incredible depth

Most of what I've described here is true of the game's first playable character, Purse. But Backpack Hero has a few other fellows to choose from as well, and they each play dramatically differently. You could also play as a mystic frog, who pulls items at random and uses the backpack as a strategic playing field; maybe you'll end up preferring the bird bard who can tear discreet specialized pockets into his backpack. These aren't just characters with different specialties, a la Slay the Spire, they're characters that totally reinvent the game (think of something like Dicey Dungeons for a good reference point).

[caption id="attachment_357591" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

Backpack Hero also has various different character-specific challenge modes that force you to come up with builds that you might otherwise ignore. In addition to providing a ton of extra content, these challenges also expose exactly how deep customization can get in Backpack Hero. Synergies that might seem totally insignificant become vital when, for example, you can't use any traditional weapons. Brute force can be handy, but what if you played music for the enemy until they joined you like a temporary Pokémon? There's a lot to uncover in this game, and it's only getting bigger and more dynamic as time goes on.

[caption id="attachment_357598" align="alignnone" width="640"] Screenshot by Destructoid[/caption]

The game is still in early access, and the developer, Jaspel, has promised significant updates in the future. Apparently, there are plans to introduce a city-building mechanic to provide some progression hooks between runs, and I'm very excited to see how that turns out. To be honest, though, Backpack Hero already feels like more than enough for me. Backpack Hero, in its incomplete state, is richer and more engaging than plenty of full games I've played. I'm excited to see how it grows and changes in the future, but I don't think there's any reason to wait and see. What's there now is excellent, and there's a pleasantly hefty demo that you can try out if you're still not sure.

The post Backpack Hero is a deckbuilder that makes your inventory the game appeared first on Destructoid.

Snap into a slim Jimmy-6

I recently went on a little book-buying bonanza, readying my little library for the cold autumn and winter nights that’ll soon be coming to my wee corner of the world. Most of my purchases were novels designed to make me look intelligent and well-informed when guests see them on my shelves. But one was a pure nostalgia purchase. Earlier this year, Abrams Books released a compendium of The Uncanny X-Men trading cards that were illustrated by Jim Lee. These cards were a massive part of my childhood. I used to have an incredibly thick binder that had hundreds of these cards in it, and every once in a while, I would thumb through its pages, gawking at my collection.

While sentimental, the book’s decision to limit one side of one card per page makes it a rather annoying read. But I’ve enjoyed reading it because of all those wonderful memories it unearths in the catacombs of my mind. The cards of Marvel Snap have had a similar effect.

Marvel Snap (Android [reviewed], iOS, PC)
Developer: Second Dinner
Publisher: Nuverse
Released: October 18, 2022
MSRP: Free-to-play w/ microtransactions

From developer Second Dinner, a team founded by several people who helped develop Hearthstone, Marvel Snap is a quick-paced card battler that pits characters from the Marvel universe into a numbers game. The rules are simple: each player will build a deck of 12 unique cards from those they’ve unlocked and then play those cards in one of three locations. Each card has an associated cost and power, and the player who can build the most power at two of the three locations, or by a larger margin if you tie at one or two of the locations, wins.

Most cards are equipped with either ongoing or on-reveal abilities that can boost your hand or set back your opponent. The locations themselves, each based on an iconic locale in the Marvel Universe, can have gimmicks that greatly alter the effectiveness of your deck. Some can be very beneficial, like doubling the strength of abilities for cards played there. Others are a hindrance, like locations that destroy any card you play there. Depending on which cards you have in your deck, you won’t know the full scope of these location gimmicks until you reach the third round.

There are six rounds in total in each match, and the amount of energy you’re given in each round corresponds which round you’re in. Unspent energy does not carry over, so if you don’t play a card in round two, you’ll still start the third round with three points of energy. Cards with low energy costs don’t offer too much in the way of power, but they can prove clutch if you’re able to augment their strength with more powerful cards in your deck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNuq6E3enZQ

Putting together a compatible deck is very much a trial-and-error process. But with most matches wrapping up in around three minutes, it didn’t take me too long to put together a few decks of cards that complement each other. There is no greater feeling than seeing a well-planned strategy come to fruition thanks fine-tuned deck and a bit of luck in the draw.

Actually, there is a greater feeling than that, and that’s when your opponent decides to snap.

The eponymous snap of Marvel Snap is what can best be described as upping the ante. At any time during a match’s six rounds, you can press the Cosmic Cube at the top of the screen to snap. Players are encouraged to do this when they think victory is in the bag as it doubles the number of Cosmic Cubes at play. These cubes determine your season rank, and I let out many cackling laughs watching my opponents snap only for me to steal victory from them with an Odin or Devil Dinosaur. If you or your opponent does snap and you don’t think you can actually win based on the cards in your hand, you do have the option to escape while losing only the number of Cosmic Cubes currently in play.

Let's talk Mister Money

With all this talk about Cosmic Cubes, I should address the many different systems and currencies in place here. Marvel Snap has two main currencies: gold and credits. Gold can be purchased with real money—it can also be earned in-game—to spend in the shop on credits or variants of the cards that are already in your possession. Card variants do not provide any benefit over the standard version; they’re just an opportunity to let the game’s artists get really creative with their beautiful artwork.

Credits are used to upgrade the rarity of cards, which in turn, increases your collection level. The more you build your collection level, the more cards you’ll unlock. Though predetermined at first, the cards you unlock with your collection will eventually be randomized, and it can be a punch to the gut to play against those with powerful cards you haven’t unlocked yet.

Unless there is some wild caveat I’m missing, players should be able to earn every card available in the core game by increasing their collection level. Arguably, this levels the playing field a bit, as all deck builds have an element of chance associated with them. However, if somebody manages to pull The Infinuat, that might give them an insurmountable advantage. With so many cards still missing from my collection, it’s tough to say right now just how balanced this game is. I would like to think the people behind Hearthstone know what they’re doing, but even Magic the Gathering is still creating cards that later get smacked with the ban hammer.

Seasons in the Sunspot

As is the case with many popular free-to-play mobile games, Marvel Snap is making its money with a season pass. Right now, there is a Symbiote Invasion season that'll give you access to Miles Morales. Variants for Carnage and Spider-Woman are part of the season as well, and the latter is particularly handy as she siphons power from cards played against her. If you can hit level 50, you'll unlock a variant for Morales, but you’ll need to pony up $10 and level your way up through the pass to get it.

Increasing your season pass level goes a bit slower than I would like. The only expedient way to do it is by completing daily and seasonal challenges, but these unlock over time. After speed-running through the first two chapters of the Symbiote Invasion, I was left twiddling my thumbs and fine-tuning my deck until the third set of challenges unlocked. While you're obviously encouraged to keep playing and winning those Cosmic Cubes, just beating your opponent provides a pitiful amount of XP. I guess when there are just 50 levels of unique rewards to the season pass, they don't want players powering their way through it.

And yet, that’s what I’ve been doing for the past week or so with Marvel Snap. At work and at home, I just can't put it down. With its structure and speed, it doesn’t feel as tactical as some of the other card games I’ve played, but it finds a way to be satisfying in its brevity. I really have no complaints about Marvel Snap with the Early Access period. Here’s to hoping that remains true now that it’s in general release.

_{[This Early Access review is based on a code provided by the publisher.]}

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All the singulaladies, all the singulaladies

If there is one thing my Apple Arcade subscription has taught me over the past few years, it’s that games designed around gacha mechanics don’t necessarily have to be the type of whale-hunting monstrosities that result in terrible YouTube “influencers” bragging about how they can’t play anybody online anymore because they spent $100,000 in it. Games like World of Demons and Star Trek: Legends are enjoyable gacha games in part because you don’t have menus popping up constantly goading you into dropping cash in them. With that monetary incentive removed from these titles, players are free to enjoy the actual gameplay without worrying they’ll miss out on something huge if they don’t buy a loot box or start a game-specific subscription service.

That’s the idea behind Super Bullet Break, a new deck-building RPG with roguelike elements releasing tomorrow for PS4, Switch, and PC. It has all the makings of a game Belgian politicians would trot out on the chamber floor to publicly chastise. But because it’s not free to play and everything is included with the price of purchase, you’re left with a fun and fast gacha game that won’t ask you to break the bank.

Just try not to break your controller while playing it.

Super Bullet Break (PC, PS4 [reviewed], Nintendo Switch)
Developer: BeXide Inc.
Publisher: PQube
Released: August 12, 2022
MSRP: $19.99

The world of video games is in danger and it’s up to three expert gamers—Akari, Hikaru, and Sumire—to save the day. Our trio of heroines is contacted by a mysterious AI known as Nayuta who needs their help fixing some of the most popular games on the market that have become corrupted. In each of these games hides a Singulalady that is unleashing buggos on these digital worlds, changing how the characters act within them. To save the day and save these games, the girls will have to investigate, which in Super Bullet Break means working your way across a randomly generated map fighting monsters.

The combat here has its roots in the CCG genre. As you adventure through each corrupted game, you earn bullets to use in battle. These bullets are usually represented by a cute anime girl with a predetermined set of skills. Some only attack your opponents, some attack and heal in the same move, and some can have their skills altered by other bullets in your deck. Once a bullet is used in battle, it’s sent to the discard pile until your deck reshuffles. With more than 160 bullets to unlock, you can build a pretty eclectic and powerful deck.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ODxiWAOluU

Don't blow in these cartridges

Collecting the right bullets for your deck is important, but you’ll also want to pay attention to the cartridges they’re attached to. Each bullet you obtain is paired with a randomly selected cartridge that has active or passive skills that can alter the bullet’s effectiveness or provide buffs for the player. Cartridges are not permanently tied to a bullet, and you’ll often encounter two of the same bullets with different cartridges attached.

The key to making it through this game is building your deck with the best bullet and cartridge combinations. But doing so has its hurdles. First, outside of a few that can be purchased in shops and those you get for defeating bosses, all of the bullets you earn in Super Bullet Break are random. Second, you can only carry a limited number in your deck. Finally, because this game is a roguelike, you lose all of your earned bullets when you either fall in battle or free one of the games from a Singulalady’s control, reverting your deck back to its original build that's determined by which of the heroines you choose to play as.

That final point really bothered me for my first few run attempts. “Monochrome Tactics,” the first game you’re trying to save from a Singulalady’s control, is shockingly tough for what is essentially the tutorial mission of the game. Looking at my log of attempts, I actually failed this map 11 times before beating it. Maybe it was my poor luck with bullet pulls, my unfamiliarity with how this all worked, or maybe my deck never shuffled in my favor, but that opening investigation nearly had me smashing my $70 controller in frustration.

Difficulty dropoff

Imagine my surprise when I beat the next three games within this game in a single go. The difficulty went straight out the window the second Super Bullet Break started introducing gimmicks to groupings of cards. These gimmicks, like the enemy-delaying ‘Heartsplosion,’ can easily turn the tide of battle in your favor. In fact, some of these gimmicks are so powerful I didn’t even have to strategize with my deck. I just played whatever bullets were in my hand and watched my enemies meet their demise. “Monochrome Tactics” is without any gimmicks, and I can’t quite figure out why the developers decided on throwing players directly into the deep end rather than sticking it later in the campaign to craft something of a logical difficulty curve.

As headache-inducing as those first 11 failed attempts were, I will say they got me to look at Super Bullet Break in a more laid-back light. It took me a while to realize this, but this is a very noncommittal game. When you’re always starting from scratch, no matter if you beat the final boss or lose to the first grunt to cross your path, the game becomes something akin to solitaire: something you play for fun or to pass the time. In fact, I wish I would have requested a Switch review code for this because, win or lose, this is the type of game I would have loved to have played in bed each night before going to sleep.

If you want to find true enjoyment in Super Bullet Break, don't go into it thinking it's going to be anything substantial. Like the free-to-play gacha games that inspired it, it's a very casual experience with a win-some/lose-some philosophy that I found to be refreshing. This won't be a game I have deep memories of in a year's time, but for now, it's a pleasant palate cleanser to the heftier games that demand a lot more of my time, energy, and concentration.

_{[This review is based on a retail build of the game provided by the publisher.]}

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Now you can take Dicey Dungeons on the go

Dicey Dungeons is one of those "if you know, you know" indie games — it's garnered something of a cult following over the past three years that it's been out, and for good reason (we gave it a 10 in our review). The charming visuals, unique concept, and engaging gameplay have made the game a continued success, and after some releases for Nintendo Switch and Xbox, Dicey Dungeons is finally getting a mobile release for iOS and Android. In addition to the new platform, the game is also getting a free DLC update called Reunion, which will give players 4-5 hours of new gameplay released in six episodes.

The game's creator Terry Cavanagh dropped the news earlier today on his Twitter — he's also known for creating other titles like VVVVVV and Super Hexagon. Cavanagh has secured his spot as a prolific game designer in the indie space, so it's really cool to see his games continue to have life and community surrounding them long after their releases.

https://twitter.com/terrycavanagh/status/1545076959444717569

Not only will Dicey Dungeons run well on mobile devices, but its gameplay actually suits the platform really well. Roguelikes are great to play in short bursts, and since it's turn-based, you don't have to be glued to the screen every second if you don't want to be. That makes Dicey Dungeons perfect for playing on your phone during a commute, or when you're waiting at the DMV, or when you're doing literally anything else.

Cavanagh even confirmed in the replies to his initial tweet that you can easily stop in the middle of a run and continue it later without losing any of your progress.

Dicey Dungeons is available for $4.99 on iOS and Android, and the free DLC update is live now as well. The game's composer Chipzel also released the DLC soundtrack on Bandcamp if you want to take a listen to that as well.

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CD Projekt's new take on Gwent is out very soon

Gwent is back on the table, as CD Projekt Red reveals a new style of The Witcher card game is coming very soon. Gwent: Rogue Mage takes a deckbuilding, roguelike approach to Gwent, and it's out for PC, Android, and iOS on July 7.

IGN revealed the game this morning, as a standalone expansion of Gwent. It will have the same core mechanics, but operate a bit differently; first and foremost, it's a roguelike.

Players start with a set of cards in their deck, focusing on certain playstyles. Then more cards can be added as more nodes on the map are explored. Experience gained over the course of each run goes towards increasing the pool and strength of cards available in each run.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqkwt6BZPjM

Speaking to IGN, game director Vladimir Tortsov said it would take more than 30 hours to do everything in Gwent: Rogue Mage, with loops that can take up to an hour. Runs are paced by either getting to the last boss or perishing along the way.

The cards tell a story

Gwent: Rogue Mage has some story elements, too. Its set "hundreds of years" before Geralt of Rivia, the protagonist of The Witcher games and Gwent aficionado, was born. Players step into the shoes of a mage named Alzur as he tries to create the first witcher. Alongside bouts of Gwent, there are also tough choices to make, Places of Power, and other ways to strengthen your deck each run.

While Tortsov says it's not as extensive as The Witcher games or other media, it's also not the focus. It's seemingly all about Gwent, and offering an offline, single-player option for those craving some rows and bluffing.

Considering Thronebreaker, a single-player Gwent campaign, seemed pretty well-received, it's cool to see more single-player exploration of the Gwent board. And since the next Witcher game is likely still a ways away, this might at least sate that Gwent craving for now.

The standard version of Gwent: Rogue Mage is out tomorrow, July 7, for $9.99 on Android, iOS, and PC. A premium edition, which includes in-game skins, cosmetics, and card packs, will run $19.99.

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Check out the Steam demo

Slay the Spire has eaten through a few hundred hours of my time, and ever since I've been scouring Steam for another great deckbuilding roguelike. While the crossover subgenre is relatively small, we're seeing more and more of them these days, including the new cyberpunk kung fu-themed title Nitro Kid. The game was revealed today during the PC Gaming Showcase, and I've already added it to my wish list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qsr3GPYa9I0

The trailer shows off bombastic action gameplay (or at least how bombastic card-based play can be) as the player climbs through the floors of a giant skyscraper that has been taken over by an evil megacorporation. The soundtrack features over thirty Synthwave tracks that have been composed specifically for Nitro Kid, which should add to the game's exciting atmosphere as well.

We don't have a release window for Nitro Kid just yet, but there is a demo currently available to download on its Steam page.

The post Nitro Kid puts a cyberpunk kung fu spin on the deckbuilder roguelike appeared first on Destructoid.

Get ready for the deckbuilding roguelike of your dreams

One of my favorite parts of my job is when I get to gush about the games I love, and no one can do anything to stop me. Slay the Spire is one of those cases.

Throughout the two-plus years we've been in quarantine, I've gone through phases where games absolutely consume my life. First it was Hades, and after clocking nearly 400 hours in that game, I finally decided to retire it. I have brief stints with both Stardew Valley and Breath of the Wild, which were both replays of comfort games, so they don't fully count. The next game that consumed my every waking hour, though, was Slay the Spire, which just so happens to be one of April's free PlayStation Plus games, and I need everyone to know how freaking amazing it is.

Here's a crash course: Slay the Spire is a deckbuilding roguelike, which is such a fun combination of genres it makes me wish there were more of them out there. The main premise is that there's this giant vertical spire you have to climb to the top of, floor by floor, encountering enemies, friends, and other surprises along the way.

It's kind of similar to FTL: Faster than Light in that you can see a map of the entire area between encounters, so you can plan your route accordingly. It's also like FTL because there are tons of random encounters that can really hurt you or help you depending on what you get. You slowly accumulate cards as you climb higher, and with any luck, build your deck full of super-powerful combos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9SZUtyYSOjQ

Gameplay specifics

You can play one of three classes: the Ironclad, a tanky fighter-type that uses blood magic in a high-risk, high-reward type of build, the Silent, which plays like a traditional rogue character with shivs and poison damage, and the Defect, which is a robot character that summons orbs with different abilities in combat (that last one is hard to explain succinctly, but it's one of the most creative combat mechanics I've seen in a game like this, and makes him my favorite class to play by far). There is also a fourth class that unlocks after you've played for a while, the Watcher, a monk-style character who enters stances of Calm and Wrath in extra high-risk, high-reward gameplay. She can be fun, but it's harder to get further with her due to how difficult she can be to play.

What really makes Slay the Spire stand out for me, though, are the relics. They're random objects that you can acquire that have powerful abilities, and they're far and away my favorite part of the game. Their powers range from giving extra gold or healing to making you deal more damage to helping you draw more cards per turn. The more you collect in a run, the more likely you are to get crazy overpowered, and those runs make for an insanely fun time.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="3333"] _{[Image Source: MegaCrit]}[/caption]

You get out what you put in

It's one of those games that gets more fun the more you play it. Getting to know the decks super well is a huge advantage, because you're able to craft the perfect build from the get-go. You also unlock new cards, relics, and potions as you go, most of which are specific to the class you're playing, which means if you plan around them, they can break your build in the best way.

If you get tired of grinding in the main campaign, there's also a daily challenge mode where you take a run with special modifiers and compete online against other players for the highest score. I found this to be a really fun challenge, and a great way to switch it up after normal runs started to a get a bit stale. While I also like to play in hours-long marathon sessions, you start fresh with each run, meaning it's perfect to play in little chunks too, if you prefer that.

While Slay the Spire was originally released on the PC, I will say that it makes for an excellent Switch game. Sometimes control schemes don't translate well when a game is ported, but I personally like the Switch controls better. Plus, it even plays well on the touchscreen if you're playing handheld. It's also a great option to play if, like me, you like listening to podcasts when you game every so often.

[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] _{[Image Source: MegaCrit]}[/caption]

What are you waiting for? Just go play it

For having a pretty straightforward premise, I think Slay the Spire does an amazing job of balancing each element just so to make it a finely-tuned, incredibly well designed game.

Of all the games I've obsessed over, it probably has the least amount of content overall, and yet I've still managed to sink 250 hours in and I'm still not tired of it. The game has a cult following, but Slay the Spire deserves to be up there with some of the best indies just based on the quality of its gameplay design alone. I'm also hoping that we can persuade the devs to make a sequel, or at least some DLC, and the more people join the bandwagon, the better the chance is of that happening.

If you're looking for a new title to sink your teeth into this month, you've gotta grab Slay the Spire if you have a PlayStation Plus subscription. If you don't, you should totally just buy this game anyway, because if you ask me, it's totally worth the hype.

The post You need to go play Slay the Spire if you have PlayStation Plus appeared first on Destructoid.

Break the loop again

The looping roguelite Loop Hero is finally making its way to Nintendo Switch. Four Quarters and Devolver Digital announced this morning that Loop Hero will land on the handheld on Dec. 9, 2021.

Loop Hero is currently up on the Switch eShop, where it will run $14.99, though it looks like there's a pre-purchase discount of 10% dropping it to $13.49 at the moment. The rogue-management game got a new trailer today too, highlighting its

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tAqS4kb3pBc

If you didn't check it out earlier this year, Loop Hero is about a world plunged into a timeless void. Rising up as a brave hero, you're able to loop through time on a literal looped path, building monster encampments and villages to lay out your own quest.

It's got elements of management games, deck-builders, auto-battlers, and role-playing games. And it really all clicks together, as evidenced by its sales. And as end-of-the-year conversations in games start up, Loop Hero is definitely one I'm looking forward to revisiting on the Switch, as one of the earlier breakout hits of 2021.

If you want to read more about the making of Loop Hero and how the idea for it even came about, you can check out our feature from earlier this year with the developers.

Loop Hero goes live for Nintendo Switch on Dec. 9, 2021.

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Kick things off with an Arcane tie-in

Legends of Runeterra, a card game that shares its world of Runeterra with League of Legends, has officially revealed its new single-player mode. The Path of Champions is a new way to play PvE in Legends of Runeterra, and the key difference between this and other single-player offerings from LoR is all in the story.

The mode goes live on Nov. 10, but we got a chance to check out some of the content ahead of time. Taking place in the world of Runeterra, the Path of Champions functions like many other single-player deckbuilders. You progress along a path of branching nodes, choosing different routes that might offer upgrades, boons, or unique encounters.

As part of the launch, Riot is celebrating the release of the Arcane series on Netflix with a story-based narrative set in Piltover and Zaun. This was the area we got to check out, as I piloted a Jinx deck through the underworld and up into Piltover.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LQ3wkCknT5I

One big takeaway from this special campaign was the incorporation of story, which made it stand out not just from Runterra's other offerings like the Lab of Legends, but many other run-based deckbuilders. If you like the world of League of Legends and Runeterra in general, Path of Champions really showcases it all in a new light with animated comics and voiceovers.

There are even branching narrative choices, which can result in different endings for your run depending on what you choose. As a fan of the Jinx and Vi-focused narrative that Arcane is zooming in on, it worked pretty well for me.

It may be contingent on whether you enjoy playing the base game of Legends of Runeterra, but the nice part is that Riot's card game is free-to-play. If the idea of a branching run-based mode with lots of League of Legends lore sounds appealing, it's free to download and try out.

A bevy of new content arrives alongside Path of Champions, including a new Mega Event Pass with emotes, guardians, and card backs, as well as some Gilded skins for Arcane-related cards like Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn, Ekko, and Jayce.

Legends of Runeterra will launch its Path of Champions mode on Nov. 10, 2021.

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