SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

Pros: (+) Good artstyle (+) Playable, competent Cons: (-) The combat isn't satisfying or exciting (-) The cards' effects are extremely basic and uninspired (-) The animations are slow and don't flow, instead there is always this pause between attacks, etc. (-) Dialogues and story are... well, present (-) The UI is very lacking The worst thing is also the lack of good feedback, like, you can make a very basic game, but with good sound feedback or meaty animations, you can squeeze more out of a game. This game lacks that satisfaction you get from doing even basic stuff, I honestly feel like the devs just didn't know how to develop this game and the result is something very basic and uninspired, even in the presentation department. There are plenty other, much more interesting deck builders out there.

4 star game with "OpenCritic Rating: STRONG", seriously? This time it's me who doesn't get the point. It's a deck building game with 5 different characters, but you can't (and you don't have to) play with all of them at the same moment. You're running through fantasy world, chasing something you don't even have to understand, and there is no challenge. There are too many cards that you can use in your deck, but I managed to get through 95%+ of the game with 3 basic cards per character. Attack, spell and heal. Repeat. Do it again. And repeat. That was it. No thinking or any strategy needed. There was even no need to try any different cards (I did, but soon switched back to those 3 cards). Just run, fight, and repeat. Victory, whoa!!! Repleayabilty: 0. PS: Not even saying that all enemies are simple stupid.

The progression of the game is more or less on rails, and the story is fairly neoteni and forgettable. However I actually really enjoyed this game, and was sad to finish it. This was my first game that used a "randomly drawn cards for possible actions" mechanic, and it learned I *really* enjoy this concept. Normal turn based games always seem initially appealing to me, but quickly become tedious. Even systems with more innovative turn based mechanics like octopath traveller quickly lose their luster for me. Card battlers on the other hand make every turn a puzzle to solve, and as you learn what works and what doesn't, strategic decisions can start to be made as well in regards to deckbuilding. I am now solidly hooked on the mechanic, and have taken to exploring games with similar mechanics. So even with SW:quest being what it is, I'm quite thankful for having played it and would recommend it to others who are new to card battlers on this basis. I definitely mirror the "Good, But Not Great" summary of another reviewer.

A mostly competently executed card-management combat-RPG in the Steamworld astetic. Positives : - Like all Steamworld games, the world and characters look great. The sentient junkyard mystique really hums. - Your deck is eight cards for each of three characters. Weak cards grant a metacurrency that strong cards consume. It's fun balancing the risk of not having enough metacurrency vs not being strong enough or giving one character basic moves so another gets their specials. - Elements that complicate the game are introduced thematically and over the first few levels, not too slow but with plenty of time to grok. Negatives : - Pacing. Moment-to-moment game speed is ..tolerable.. if you hold the fast forward button through the whole game. - Pacing. It is an RPG with levels, where your XP-per-battle goes from ~1/3 a level's worth to ~1/50th a level's worth once you're "par" for the environment/stage. At that point you'll reliably win fights, but you're not quickly wiping the floor with the enemies, so the already slow battles become slogs. - PACING! The button to skip a cutscene, doesn't. It cuts character text until the next movement or effect, but then resumes character text. So it takes what feels like a minute of clicking the Skip button to actually get to the end of cutscenes you've already seen. - Nash-esque deck builds. When you've found a deck that works, it's pretty reliable, and the game becomes waiting through predictable combats over and over and over. You *CAN* 'find your fun' and try out different builds to see what is broke and what isn't, but since buying and upgrading cards costs currency you're kind of on a path unless you want to grind ~even more~. - Plot's a bit aimless. Exposition, A to B, find clue for C. Exposition, B to C, find clue for D. I quit a few hours in, halfway through Act 2. You might enjoy it more than I did though, if you don't mind a somewhat slow, low-difficulty grind.

As a massive XCOM fan, I felt misled by the comparisons of Heist to XCOM. As a Magic: The Gathering enthusiast, Hand of Gilgamech left me similarly unsatisfied, but if you like SteamWorld and are into or curious about deck builders, you'll probably like Hand of Gilgamech. Of the five characters you will unlock, you will select three of them to make your party. Each character has a pool of cards, of which you will select eight to contribute to your deck, so your deck will have 24 cards. On each turn during a card battle, you draw to build a hand of six cards. You can discard and redraw two cards on your turn to improve your hand and you will play up to three cards. If you play three cards of the same character, you will get an additional effect that is defined by the weapon that character has equipped. Some cards have synergy with another character so playing those cards in the same turn will improve their performance, but you'll miss out on the bonus effect from playing three cards from the same character. Basic cards will build Steam Pressure in addition to their effect and other ability cards consume this Steam Pressure in order to be played. Enemies will play cards and build and consume Steam Pressure on their turns. I really liked the ability to improve my hand by discarding and redrawing two cards. Unlike in M:tG where discarded cards are basically forfeited, discarded cards in Hand of Gilgamech are shuffled back into your deck so you can redraw them later when you may have more need for them. Too few of the cards had effects that could be combined into combos and those combos were underwhelming. It was fun for these combos to drop an entire enemy party in short order, but there weren't enough interactions between cards to pull off dazzling combos that truly rewarded careful deck building, risk taking, and smart plays. Lacking this satisfying feedback, the mechanics don't rise above good for me, but I enjoyed my 50 hours with Hand of Gilgamech.