I generally don't like Roguelikes and this game has, sadly, not been an exception to that rule. The most damming flaw is that there is no way to save mid run. A run generally takes about 45 minutes, which is long enough that I can be interrupted by any event in my life. I cannot simply close down the program and open it at the same place where I left off. This flaw is honestly unforgivable. Beyond that flaw, the game is hard. Very hard. I usually dislike roguelikes because I rely on memorizing patterns and making use of that memorization. There's simply too many random events, and too much useless information thrown at me for me to be able to get my bearings and take command of the space. For one thing, a lot of units are marked as "Doomed" and this would be important in the multi-round Gwent games played in Thronebreaker or witcher 3. But in Rogue Mage, since every game is a single round, this information is worse than meaningless. It adds unnecessary visual clutter to the playspace and makes it harder to understand. Also, it's just plain too hard. Full stop no further elaboration required. I tried to like it, but after several hours and many runs, I'm mentally exhausted and not in a good way. I tried walking away from the game and coming back more refreshed several times, and I find that it's simply not enjoyable being beaten about the brain. That being said, I managed to beat the initial frost dragon on the second try, unfortunately, as losing the card that let me do resurrections put a severe crimp in my strategy and singled a major difficulty bump. The cards and character portraits are beautifully drawn. The graphical effects are OK. The playing boards are visually boring.
