Gordian Quest

This game was obviously abandoned on here. The Steam version received patch 1.4.8 back in February, while the version here hasn't seen an update in YEARS.

In recent months, I suddenly have a thing for deck-builder games. I've always liked role-playing games, so Gordian Quest seemed worth a try. It's a decent game overall. It has a good amount of RPG elements, including different classes, leveling stats, magic items, and character abilities. And the deck-building adds some flavor and randomness to the game. The art style is okay, the story is quite forgettable, and the battles can be tense and enjoyable. However, by the end of the first act (there are 4), you've seen everything the game has to offer. By that time, most of the item drops are trash, you probably already have the best cards, and the monsters are both predictable and repetitious. Fortunately, the boss fights are interesting--the last one is ridiculously hard--and upgrading cards and stats can be fun, though I never really got the hang of crafting and enchanting things. Once you've finished the main campaign, there is a Realm Mode that allows you to play a random map with a big boss at the end, but its largely more of the same and probably will not hold anyone's interest long. Ultimately, this is worth a try if you like RPG games and deck builders, but don't expect anything amazing or fresh. Definitely wait for a sale. Pros: +Different character classes +DnD role-playing flavor +Combat is engaging, often requiring a strategy +Boss fights are generally interesting and intense +Decent risk-reward system Cons: -Story line is not especially interesting -Character appearance cannot be customized -There are a good number of poorly explained systems at work (crafting, camping, enchanting, etc.) -Way too many trash cards, items, and skills -A few instances of the game stopping in a fight and requiring a reload

Review for Early Access version 101n. This is a GEM of a game that combines several great genres and makes them even better with a very unique formula as well as many new ideas! Raises the bar on all these genres at once. Classic "Just One More Turn All Nighter". Pleasantly reminiscent of classics like Darkest Dungeon, Iratus, Guild of Dungeoneering, Fire Emblem and various RPGs, it also has really great new concepts and mechanics. As if they took the best elements of the best games, mixed them together and said, "This is great, but we can make it even better". They did. DEVELOPERS - PLEASE JUST ONE REQUEST - Add an option for random damage,guard,status,etc magnitudes. I almost didn't buy this game because of the lack of random damage. Too predictable. Maybe a slider from 0% to 100% specifying the degree of randomness for skill values. So, 0% would be no randomness, as it is now. 100% would be random from 0 to double the calculated value. 30% would be random range 70% to 130%. The game already supports some game play options and has quite a bit of randomness in other facets such as skill tests, so please add these randomness options for damage,guard,burn,poison,etc. Games like Panzer Corps did this to satisfy both those who like a chess like experience and those who prefer more unpredictability. An option to randomize initiative order each round instead of just the first would also add some great tension and unpredictability. Would be fun to be able to customize my starting Hero by choosing their 3 skill domains, initial attribute scores, name and picture. Some of the awesome features : Great graphics, sound and music. Clean fast user interface and game play. Nice dialog interactions and skill tests. Awesome skill system. Fantastic tactical combats. Helpful tool tips and status icons Great replayability Nice item customization with gems Thanks for this classic! Really looking forward more and more content!!!

[b] Target Audience: [/b] Slay the Spire, RPG fans who like choice [I] [/i] [b] Summary: [/b] Please note, I've played about 100+ hours on Steam when it released, and received a review code for it. Gordian Quest is filled with content that will make any sort of more tabletop/traditional RPG fan water at the mouth: but doing enough to stand out from its competitors. To say you have a lot of choices and mechanics might be one of the biggest understatements of the century here, but I what I truly appreciate is the delicate balance that the developers were able to achieve (even if it has some flaws). The fact is, when you add more mechanics, classes, and options, the harder it is to get something that isn't exploitable, and Gordian Quest is somehow able to do it. I love the different classes and how you can shape them in a lot of ways, and the addition of the SP points on top of AP adds another layer of intrigue that kept me thinking through each battle. Weapons and armor felt great to get a new ones of at every corner, and really I don't want to be typing this review but would rather be playing the game. Does it have some flaws? Many of them minor, having to do with the story and music not really standing out in any sort of way, and the game at times has so many mechanics that even a veteran of the genre can get overwhelmed, or even forget that it even exists. Granted, you have so many options to deal with that mistake that you can easily recover, and the different difficulties do a fantastic job of giving layers to experiment and challenge with. It's a game that I warn you to buy however. It will eat up your free time. [b]Review Video: [/b] https://youtu.be/V4RsiowuMlg

This game seemed like the dream combination or roguelike deckbuilding and turn-based strategy-RPG but it becomes apparent that the deckbuilding aspect comes last within those elements. That might be fine for other players but I was hoping for the main focus to be deckbuilding. This game does a lot of things right, though. So if you want a game that flaunts great resource management, tactical depth, 2D graphics, the feeling of progression, amount of content and borrowing from old school CRPGs, then you've come to the right place. There's a story mode, endless Realm mode, in-game codex and on top of modifiers such as difficulty to really suit your taste. All this initially enticed me to play the game but I went in the wrong assumption that this was a deckbuilder. It's not. The cards are there to just play your characters' moves and steer you in a particular direction for builds. The meat of the combat is actually the positioning, turn order and just choosing the cards that will quickly get enemies to 0 HP. There's no deck building from scratch, earning new cards from battles, rarity tier of cards, a "universal" deck for all characters and not enough synergy cards that work universally. In fact, the game comes pre-defined with a deck per character with those character build specialisations, which actually lock off and restrict the kinds of cards they can use, which is an unbelievably stupid mechanic. I was hoping to assign ANY deck to ANY character, making my own deck from scratch, applying universal synergies and hoping most of the game's mechanics would revolve around the cards and not resource management. I don't want supplies or runes to worry about, but cards in my deck that would INSTEAD offset those resources. The deckbuilding aspect feels tacked on top of an already good tactical game, I think the game would be better off if they ditched it and went with traditional levelling up with skills and perks.