Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder

It's a rogue-like deck builder but it just feels like I'm just playing games with numbers. I get in the end most games are that, but there's usually a variety of strategies, this just feels like matching up particular numbers in particular ways. Do you want the red numbers or the blue numbers? Well, it depends on what the solitaire gameplay looks like at that moment. You can play it almost algorithmically, with a faint touch of randomness from the draw of the cards. It doesn't feel especially deep, the fights don't feel especially meaningful, I wasn't engrossed by lore. It was just... bleh. I didn't play long. Maybe I missed some awesome dept that came when you ground the game long enough to unlock some other characters, I don' tknow. It failed to grab me. It's not a bad game. It wasn't offensively bad. It just wasn't a great game, and I see nobody else left a review, so I thought I might as well. It's effectively a solitaire game with neat art and there's some cleverness to it, but if you want a game like this, I say get Slay the Spire instead. If you don't believe me, wait for a sale. $5 or $10. Not $20.

I have mixed feelings. The game ranks between 3 and 4 stars. The game has a good atmosphere - the graphics and music do their job. While the journey deep into the circles of hell and the battles look really good, the city of Nadir is a bit different from this atmosphere. The expansion tree, which cannot be hidden, obscures the view of Nadir, and the buildings constructed are a bit lackluster - sometimes nothing changes (e.g. when we expand the set of cards for a given hero). Well, I also have a problem with the characters. Because although the gameplay is fun and addictive (just one more fight syndrome), in my case it only applies to Joan of Arc. Playing as Vlad and Cortez, who are unlocked later, is more difficult. These characters deal too little damage, so you should choose other strategies, which, however, prolong the duels and make the fights tiring. After several failures, I abandoned the characters of Vlad and Cortez and conquered the entire Abyss with Joanna. She is the bravest of the three! Vlad and Cortez are for geeks. I also found a few typos (Polish) and ambiguities in the game. OK, since it's an indie game, the studio is new, and I had fun playing Joanna (well-balanced enemies), I'll give it a 4 as an incentive.

+ Interesting concept for a setting + Amazing artwork across the board + Multiple playable characters + Base of operations for permanent upgrades - 0 voice acting - Gameplay like Slay the Spire but more complicated - Enemies have way too much health which is tedious - Most enemies not visually distinct enough