It could have not been discounted to a number that is 6.66
Well, to begin with, here is your disclaimer. THIS GAME IS FALSELY ADVERTISED AS HAVING DECK-BUILDING ELEMENTS. It does not. It has deck-building elements as muc has Path of Exile, or the original Diablo. The cards that you find simply represent active and passive skills. There is no actual deck-building, no card-game mechanics such as drawing, playing cards, or even getting random cards from a deck with skills. These are skills that you place in one of 10 available slots. If the game had a typical progression system it would not be any different. The game itself is a Diablo clone. I do not mean it as "The game is a hack'n'slash" I meant it literally. you are in a small town besieged by demons. There is Deckard Cain, there is the Butcher, there is the mad priest guy or whatever. In the end you fight a big demon in hell. All of this takes place in the besement of a church. And even the end of the game is one-to-one ripoff of the ending of the original Diablo. Even though it is hiding under a thin blanket of homorous irony, it barely manages to hide the fact that it is an uninspired ripoff of a 30-year-old game. The enemies you fight are more or less copies of enemies from Diablo1 and 2. There is almost no original thought put into it. By the game's description, I was expecting some impressive type of a hybrid game, but is is just more of the same. As far as teh game is considered, it is more-or-less mediocre. If you are expecting some invetive meta-breaking game - stay away from this. If you are expecting some inspired, filled with imagination project - stay away from it. If you are expecting a bland rehash of Diablo I, you can do worse than this game. I had some fun times with it, but it should not be advertised as having deck-building elemnts, since it does not. The cards are just a theme, not an actual gameplay mechanic.
The game is fun. There is a lot of variety in monsters and three, freely, available masters, which is reasonable enough. The humour in the game is entertaining and there are a few events, like the hydra puking out a character, that really had me laughing. If viewed as a mind-boggling puzzle, the game can be quite entertaining. Generally, I believe its rating of 3.5 is quite accurate, and I give it 4 instead of 3 stars, just because there are a lot of single-star reviews who bash the game for receiving it for free. I do not like the fact that your creatures, even when leveled to the max, are weak and pathetic. Most times, your monsters will get to play 1 turn, and oftentimes they just get instakilled without playing. You can mitigate the damage by matching enemy attacks with the right reistences, but that gives your monsters 1, at best, 2 turns to play. Just like Darkest Dungeon it feels like a game that bullies you just because it can. For both games, the main driving point is not player entertainment, but player frustration. In plain language, you play it until you have had enough bull****, uninstall, and never look back at the game. The main character's progression is also painfully slow. After a campaign on 100% diffciculty you get one skill point to allocate. Considering that a campaing can last ove an hour, it would be good to expedite level progression a little. As I mentioned, there are three available characters, so there is no need to be stingy. If your monsters weren't made of glass, and if you could choose the layout of your dungeon, and the order in which you place the rooms, it would have been quite good. As it is now, it is just one step away from being classified as an autobattler. Go watch a few video reviews and gameplay videos and make your decision. If you like games that irritate you, this will probably be good for you. If you like games that entertain you, then go look for something else.
A simple and relaxing dungeon crawler. The combat system is extremely simplistic and the best strategy is to attack, move back, and repeat. If you are looking for mindless fun, get the game. If you are looking for in-depth combat and character progression, try another title.
If you have played Shadowhand you know what to expect. Play solitaire to gain attack power and bonk enemy on the head. There are a few items and passive abilities mixed in the lot too. If you have no played Shadowhand, please, go watch a gameplay video or a review, as the game is pretty specific and may not be to your liking. I recommend the game, but I loved Shadowhand to begin with.
The game is not good. There are instakill pitfalls with no autosave. There is a fairly limited character progression. All of the combat is just one ambush after another with zero creativity. There are a lot of other problems with the game that you can see in other people's reviews. I have no idea what they attempted to achieve, but making a fun, enjoyable game was probably not among their plans.
The first few hours of the game were fun, exploring different possibilities, encountering new enemies, meeting bosses for the first time. It was quite the enjoyable experience. But the more I palyed it, the more the game's flaws became apparent. To beat the later elites, the final bosses, or the FINAL_FINAL boss, only a few builds are viable per character. When the game was being designed they decided that you have a few core skills and many cards that work as suport for them to one extent or another. This is not bad, that is how card games work. The problem is that to make one of the viable builds, you have to get the right cards. -> You can not prebuild decks. everything is done run for run. You get random cards and work with what you have. This means, that even if you know what to do, the game will simply not allow you to do it, thanks to bad RNG. -> There is a shop, but it also RNG heavy, you cannot choose what cards you get, you cannot lock any cards, you cannot order cards to be available next time you meet the merchant. There is no way to ensure that you will be able to build a functional deck on time. -> The purpose of the game is to try out different things... I get it, but I have been trying out different things for over 40 hours, that is two days of non-stop playing with whatever shtuff the game decides to throw my way. It grows old quickly, I know what works and what doesn ot work for me, but I am not allowed to do it. For every character I have a few builds that work, but often times I do not get all of the cards needed to make them viable. So I die and I have to restart. The biggest gripe I have with the game are the boss relics. You fight a difficult enemy and what you get in return is a monkey paw. It gives you some benefit but at the expense of something else. Normal relics from common chests do not do this. Two stars, only becuse the soundtrack is good. Buy the music and avoid the game.
There are a few items in the game's description which can be considered as misleading: -> Claims HUNDREDS of hours of gameplay. What you actually get is 5-10 minutes of gameplay repeated ad nauseum. The game is ridiculously grindy and there is not much variety in what you do. As another reviewer pointed out it is just pressing 1-2-3-3, then you go to the tavern and you press 1-2, Then you go to the library and press 2-3-4 and then 5 to restock books. -> Claims hundreds of race/class combinations. While technically true, the only difference is in some passive skills, nothing else. Everyone reacts to you the same way, no matter what your race is. The story is the same, no matter what your race is. Gameplay, the 1-2-3-3 experience, is the same for absolutely every class/race combination. -> The skill-based crafting system is not skill-based at all, as it still relies on random chance for the stats. You have zero control over what stats and what amount of them the item will have. -> The description claims that you get to travel through "vast dungeons" yet there is not a single line of description for them, besides a random-generated name. -> The Arena system is just a time waster. Zero in-game or out of game benefit to it. -> If you find the word "potato" for the most hilarious thing ever thought, you will have a great time with the game's humor. -> Leveling is an extremely tedious grindfest. It is also unreliable. Enemies from higher-level zones often give the same, or less, experience than those from previous zones. The level requirements are also unreliable, as there is a great chance of just getting one or two-shotted at the appropriate level. You character dies and dozens of hours are flushed down the toilet. Why do I give it 4 stars then? Because if endless grinding is your thing, this game is perfect for you. It is a competently made game, just a very niche title. It would also be good if they changed the description to something a bit more honest.
