Steam+ Deals Mega Thread (All PC Gaming Deals)

Neuro5i5

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This thread will attempt to provide a place to discuss past/present/future PC gaming deals. While mainly focusing on Steam games, any standout sales may also be presented. I will not be updating every Daily/Weekly/etc. sale. The tools to help individuals become a smarter shopper will be provided below.

See this POST for links to store sale pages, threads of interest and other tools to help you become a more informed PC game shopper.
 
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pouring-out-liquor.gif

james_m_ward.jpg


Damn Jim Ward (creator of Deities & Demigods, Gamma World and Metamorphosis Alpha) died 3 days ago. Damn. Not many of the OGs left, remember him auctioning at GenCon when it was in MKE at Mecca/Milwaukee Auditorium back in the day.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_M._Ward
 
After that I didn't and still don't care much for the "romance" in rpg games
Good news then: You don't need to care about an optional item for an optional aspect you don't like anyway in an RPG game ;)
That's how the first game is. You can load a previous game or start a new one
Yeah, the issue is that DD2 doesn't allow for the "start a new one" option. Once you've launched the game and made a character, you're locked in forever. It's a baffling design decision.

But, for all that, I put in a few more hours tonight and fully enjoyed running around the countryside, going dagger-ham on goblins with my Rogue and listening to my pawns yammer about chests and apples that they found for me. Performance, for me, was fine and even in the NPC filled capital city, I was getting 70-80 fps at 1440p which is good enough for me. Pity that Capcom fumbled the perception out of the gate but that's on them.
 
I gotta weigh in on Dragon's Dogma. I'm a little late to the party and have just sunk 140 hours into the original game this year. First time playing. At first I was a little underwhelmed, but I really started liking the ability to continually customize your class and the pawn system is really unique.

I finished the game and immediately started a New Game+ (the new game very oddly does not have one, I understand). I never start a New Game+ on.. pretty much anything. I'm one and done on 99% of the games I play. Ain't got time fo that. Having built a Sorcerer in the first game (amazing magic implementation) I wanted to try to switch to a Magick Archer.

I was loving the game at that point, but when I finally got around to Bitterblack Isle.... well I was completely caught off guard by how well the game plays in that indoor environment. The huge, epic bosses. The somber, ominous mood of it all. It was very Souls-like. I'm already thinking about my next playthrough. Overall, it snuck up on me and I came away loving the whole package.

On DD2: I'm seeing that it has a single play state? That's how the first game is. You can load a previous game or start a new one, but the new game is going to overwrite your save. The game desperately needs a second. That's so Capcom.

The MTX I've seen has me unconcerned. The things that can be bought for cash are readily available in the game. In the first game your appearance can be changed unlimited times for a cost (RC, I think). Your outfits, of course, can be changed at will. Rift Crystals are plentiful.

I do hope they eliminate the stupid layers of DRM. That's gotta improve performance alone. I also hope they have some content like Bitterblack Isle.

It’s weird because when playing the base game you are thinking this game is different but it takes a little bit then it really catches your attention and becomes a little addictive. Overall the base game is really good but when you start playing the DLC it’s when the game becomes really good. It may be one of the best DLCs ever released and is actually better than the base game which I thought was amazing in itself. It almost feels like a different game on Bitterblack Isle. I have not play Dragons Dogma 2 yet but I’m hoping they release a DLC for it that tries to change the formula of the base game and can surpass the base game itself.
 
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Just saw this Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Laptop for $700 w/ free shipping (before tax):
-> https://shop.asus.com/us/rog/90nr09u1-m00ec0-rog-zephyrus-g14-2022.html

Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 Laptop:
Specs = Ryzen 7 6800HS, 14″ QHD+ (2560×1600) @ 120Hz, 16 GB RAM*, 1TB SSD, RX 6800-S with 8gb VRAM.

* NOTES on the 16gb RAM total in there:
-> You have 8gb on-board & 8gb SODIMM (for a total of 16gb RAM).
-> B/c of the 8gb on-board stuck there, the max-RAM count that's allowed on this is a total of 24gb RAM on an upgrade
(i.e. replace the 8gb SODIMM with a 16gb SODIMM stick tops).
 
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Yeah, the issue is that DD2 doesn't allow for the "start a new one" option. Once you've launched the game and made a character, you're locked in forever. It's a baffling design decision.

Oh haha! It's such an obvious thing that should exist, there's no way they... forgot or something.
 
Dragon's Dogma II.

IGN's Guide on how DD2's Microtransactions & how they work, how its systems work, and more:

Modder finds DLSS3 support for Frame Generation in DD2's files hidden:
-> https://www.ign.com/articles/dragon...3-implementation-for-rtx-40-series-gpu-owners

Notes on the DLSS3 Mod:
- Modder found in the DD2 database a set-up hidden there for DLSS3 support in DD2 (i.e. it hasn't been implemented yet by Capcom, but planned).
- DLSS3 is only supported by Nvidia RTX 4000 series GPU's right now though.
- PureDark, who often does his own DLSS2 & DLSS3 implementation mods, made a DLSS3 mod for DD2.
- Uses are reporting 20-30fps improvements with it.
 
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So much confusion over DD2. . .

Yes, you can change your appearances via items from the in-game rift store. It costs you nothing but time played in the game. I'm sitting on 4k RC and have only spent any of it on hiring other pawns. The only thing you can not change is your race (human/beastren). Whether that's possible from the MTX voucher or not, I have no clue because mine is sitting in storage probably never to be used.

Yes, the game has a NG+. It's your traditional NG+, no strings attached reset all quests/items in the world. Everything else carries over (including port crystals so make sure you grab all 5 each playthrough).

DO NOTE WHERE YOU GOT YOUR FIRST SEEKER'S TOKEN. There's an optional questline that will only be possible to complete if you remember where you picked it up. I got lucky and was able to figure mine out from the streaming I had done, or else I'd probably have been screwed for my first playthrough.

Also, there's already a PC mod that lets you buy all the MTX items from the first town for gold. Completely by-passes paid DLC so everyone can calm there tits now.

BREAKING NEWS: patch comes out this week to add start new game a la how the first game handled this. The pawn guild items are getting increased to 99 so now there's absolutely no need for MTX and you can reroll your furry as many times as you want.
 
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If Capcom had a recent track record of good behavior, I might feel a little bad about the review bombing Dragon's Dogma 2 is getting. Instead in the last year they've been adding DRM to old games and breaking them and calling modding the same as cheating and trying to get rid of it so they can sell more cosmetic DLC. So seeing a new release appearing to be flooded with restrictions and DLC is coming to an audience already primed as having been treated poorly. And honestly, the way it's happened is probably ideal - they take a bit of a black eye which might make them or others rethink some things, but the game is a massive success so they and the industry can also see that there's plenty of demand for games like this.
 
Deck Builder fest ... A new slew of demos.

I have a ton of demo reviews from the last Next Fest

I'll have to look through the demos but I've played loads and loads of these I'm sure. I claimed the free stuff at least. Also if anyone has questions of these games I've played many of them, so I'll answer what I can.

Speaking of rogue lites on of my favorites of the last few years (got the itch.io release) is Slice & Dice one of my favorite dice rogue lite games and has newly released on Steam. It has a lot of luck and strategy but is very fun for how minimal it seems. I've played it and beat it a lot on itch.io so I'll pass on the Steam release, but I highly recommend it.

Steam
 
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Evil Genius 2 is 95% off on steam, including the deluxe edition which includes all DLC. I bought the deluxe even though I got the base game from a humble bundle, so it feels kinda dirty. Lowest the season pass has been was like $14.99..

Not sure if this is a mistake or something. The base game being so cheap I can get, but the deluxe being that cheap is weird considering the DLC hasn't had any big sales before
 
Evil Genius 2 is 95% off on steam, including the deluxe edition which includes all DLC. I bought the deluxe even though I got the base game from a humble bundle, so it feels kinda dirty. Lowest the season pass has been was like $14.99..

Not sure if this is a mistake or something. The base game being so cheap I can get, but the deluxe being that cheap is weird considering the DLC hasn't had any big sales before

At $2/$3 it doesn't really seem like a price error since they have never lowered the base game prices and as you mentioned it has been bundled before. Is it any good? Reviews seem wishy-washy. It kinda looks like something I might like but recently I've been bouncing off of base builders because they all seem about the same in the beginning and they all start out so slow.

Edit: GMG has the first one on sale for 78 cents which is almost more tempting though I'll probably end up with both https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/evil-genius/
 
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At $2/$3 it doesn't really seem like a price error since they have never lowered the base game prices and as you mentioned it has been bundled before. Is it any good? Reviews seem wishy-washy. It kinda looks like something I might like but recently I've been bouncing off of base builders because they all seem about the same in the beginning and they all start out so slow.

Edit: GMG has the first one on sale for 78 cents which is almost more tempting though I'll probably end up with both https://www.greenmangaming.com/games/evil-genius/
Haven't played it myself but I've heard mixed things about it. I was mainly interested in the deluxe because it makes the DLC so cheap. I'm tired of the whole deluxe edition being much cheaper than buying the DLC individually practice publishers seem to love to do though. I'm guessing this is the cheapest the DLC will go for outside of a bundle.
 
I am also on the fence about Evil Genius 2, I was worried it wouldn’t play on a steamdeck but according to protondb it seems to play just fine. Decisions decisions 🤔

Edit: Screw it, bought it.
 
A much ado about poo... here comes a Demo Dump™. I've played 100 demos since we last had one of these posts, so you'll hopefully find something.

My score is anything 5 and below is bad. For 6-7, those are ones that I personally won't wishlist, but won't also "ignore" in case they come around. Everything 8-10 are wish listed items and 9+ is something you should really, really try.

It's been a bit, so here's the raw list first:
Indika
5​
Yes
44​
Completed
7​
The story and setting are awesome, but the gameplay was not great
Hollowbody
5​
Yes
51​
Completed
8​
Modern PS2 horror game; pretty good work for one person
Final Fantasy XIV
7​
No
180​
Abandoned
6​
I can't sit through 100 hrs of boredom to "get to the good stuff"
Glasshouse
5​
No
22​
Abandoned
6​
Nother Disco Elysium-esque game, iscrutable writing, though
Until Then
5​
Yes
77​
Completed
8​
Feels similar to "A Space of the Unbound," slow start but great writing!
Genforge 2 Infestation
5​
No
50​
Abandoned
8​
Interesting classic CRPG with monster creation and turn based combat
STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R
7​
No
98​
Abandoned
9​
Solid JRPG remake, love the 2x features and QOL, kinda easy?
Bears In Space
5​
No
13​
Abandoned
4​
Nauseating FPS
Kingsgrave
5​
Yes
26​
Completed
5​
Okay Zelda style game, kinda tedious though
Rollers of the Realm
5​
Yes
25​
Completed
6​
RPG Pinball, its very low budget and I don't care about the story
Through the Nightmares
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
6​
Limbo-like but with a weird size control mechanics w/ physics, nah
Gorgon Shield
7​
no
33​
Abandoned
6​
Solid combat puzzle game with unique gameplay, just has no hook
Alruna and the Necro-Industrialists
8​
No
37​
Abandoned
3​
Great aesthetics, but dev wants to make a game with bad controlers on purpose
Godsvivors
5​
No
9​
Abandoned
3​
A bad one of those
Toastercide
5​
No
3​
Abandoned
3​
Neat concept, but wonky physics game for streamers is wonky physics game
Shoomer Booter
2​
No
1​
Abandoned
1​
Incomplete
Omnibullet
5​
Yes
31​
Completed
9​
Automatic Puzzle Tower Defense, but it's secretly a factory-synthesizer for music!
Dragonero
5​
No
7​
Abandoned
3​
Really poorly put together, feels unfinished as a demo even
Our Adventurer Guild
6​
No
97​
Abandoned
9​
Anime Darkest Dungeon with happier vibes; poor art, but great gameplay
Umbratica Tactics
6​
No
41​
Abandoned
6​
So close to something good; demo was released too early and its lacking in features
Nerd Survivors
7​
Yes
88​
Completed
6​
Most abilities are random direction, making strategy almost nothing; very grindy
The Book: Gunsmith's Battles Echoes
5​
No
2​
Abandoned
2​
20 bullets and enemies are bullet sponges… it's bad
Golf VS Zombies
5​
No
2​
Abandoned
2​
Double Bogie
Axiom of Maria
5​
Yes
37​
Completed
8​
Devil May Cry/Bayonetta made by one man team; great voice acting!
Captain Velvet Meteor: The Jump+ Dimensions
5​
No
4​
Abandoned
5​
Uninteresting artstyle and gameplay mechanics
Union of Gnomes
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
2​
Card game with bad cards; dev says "change starter deck" as a tip for the first battle
Defenders of the Omniverse
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
4​
Chuggly survivors-like
Skelethrone: The Chronicles of Ericona
5​
No
8​
Abandoned
4​
Blasphemous At Home™
Taka Taka
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
5​
Not my kind of rhythm game
Twilight Memoria : Freedom
5​
No
4​
Abandoned
3​
Phone Game RPG put on PC, bad
FloraMancer : Seeds and Spells
5​
No
8​
Abandoned
6​
One man's cozy is another's boring
Paris Transylvania
5​
No
81​
Abandoned
6​
Get Peglin instead
Secrets of Grindea
5​
Yes
75​
Completed
8​
Very fun Action RPG
Mimic Logic
5​
No
16​
Abandoned
7​
Fun Puzzle RPG using deductive logic
Acid Planet: Prologue
5​
Yes
30​
Completed
7​
TD meets Survivors-like, its fun
Ankora: Lost Days - Prologue
5​
No
3​
Abandoned
3​
Bad controls and weird camera
Apotheorasis • Lab of the Blind Gods | Prologue
5​
No
3​
Abandoned
5​
Not my thing
Battle Grid: Prologue
5​
No
7​
Abandoned
4​
Clunky, slow, and ugly to look at
Creeping Deck: Pharaoh's Curse Prologue
5​
No
8​
Abandoned
5​
Slay the Spire at home
Champion Shift: Prologue
5​
No
55​
Completed
5​
Buggy mess, but cool concept (ancient heroes turn into cars!)
Crystal Guardians Prologue
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
5​
Generic looking, no controls remap, tedious tutorial
Deadlink: Prologue
5​
Yes
61​
Completed
8​
Lol, I own the actual full game…
Rebel Transmute
5​
No
26​
Abandoned
6​
Close to something good, but I dislike the very harsh dark souls death mechanics
Dead Weight
5​
No
3​
Abandoned
3​
Barely functional, maybe stolen music? Not fun regardless
Black Gunner Wukong: Prologue
8​
Yes
192​
Completed
9​
The right kind of stupid I like, it's a 3D survivor game
Death Roads: Tournament Prologue
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
5​
Hurts my eyes to look at, way to "technical" to pick up an dplay
EMPTY SHELL: PROLOGUE
5​
No
22​
Abandoned
8​
Oh, that's fun. Lofi survival horro, I'm down
Throne of Bone
5​
Yes
37​
Completed
8​
Really fun, solid, necromantic deckbuilder
Ruindog:prologue
5​
No
67​
Completed
7​
Risk of Rain 2-clone but still really fun
CRUX
5​
No
13​
Abandoned
3​
BAD boomer shooter
1 Million Zombies
5​
No
7​
Abandoned
5​
Shoot zombies
VOIN
5​
Yes
174​
Completed
9​
Rough start, but gets real good; FPS dark souls with fun exploration
SUPER 56
4​
Yes
39​
Completed
10​
Wario Ware done right, awesome
Rift Saviours
5​
No
18​
Abandoned
5​
Bland
Be My Horde
5​
Yes
26​
Completed
6​
It's okay, relying hard on goth mommy vibes
Empyrean Swarm
5​
No
12​
Abandoned
5​
Tedious, main weapons have a very long, annoying cooldown
Technocide
5​
No
39​
Abandoned
6​
Just a bit too hard and unforgiving, bad controller support
希望之城 The City Of Hope
5​
No
132​
Abandoned
8​
Fun Tower Defense Grinding Game
Leaf Blower Man: This Game Blows!
5​
No
5​
Completed
7​
Fun, free game
Drop the Dice
5​
No
1​
Abandoned
4​
Math… French Math…
KinnikuNeko: SUPER MUSCLE CAT
5​
Yes
27​
Completed
9​
₍˄·͈༝·͈˄₍˄·͈༝·͈˄( ͒ ु•·̫• ू ͒)˄·͈༝·͈˄₎˄·͈༝·͈˄₎ Cat flex
Sorry We're Closed
5​
Yes
32​
Completed
9​
Very strong indie old school RE game with some Killer 7 vibes?
W.A.N.D. Project
5​
No
51​
Abandoned
6​
So close to something good; the mechanics are great, but you never get any power
99 Waves
5​
No
47​
Abandoned
5​
Grind Cells, but with no exploration; side scrolling survivors? Bad.
Whisper Mountain Outbreak
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
5​
Pixel RE Outbreak, nah
DurDanto
5​
No
3​
Abandoned
3​
Bad
Dungeon No Dungeon: Tyrant's Endgame
5​
No
10​
Completed
5​
Dungeon Chess Match 3 Puzzle game? Confused...
Gravity Castle
5​
No
8​
Abandoned
6​
Neat puzzler, but the main gimmick feels poorly devised in the UI, counterintuitive
Thyria
5​
No
3​
Abandoned
5​
Walls of text; no gameplay, just mechanics to start…
Blu : Chronicles of Talpa
5​
No
9​
Abandoned
5​
Functional, but not fun
My Familiar
3​
Yes
73​
Completed
8​
Really fun, weird JRPG; funk isekai featuring weird critters and guns
Endless Tactics
6​
No
7​
Abandoned
2​
Barely functional, too early of a demo, no sound
Lost For Swords
5​
No
60​
Abandoned
7​
Roguelike Dungeon Crawler with Cards, it's pretty keen
KILL THE WITCH
7​
No
32​
Abandoned
5​
Too hard; like, so hard and tedious time wasting elements, the first boss is nuts
Upheaval
5​
No
11​
Abandoned
5​
There are better text RPGs
Fairtravel Battle
5​
No
7​
Abandoned
6​
Indie Magic the Gathering, not my thing
Spellcard Academy
5​
No
35​
Abandoned
5​
Poor graphics, poor sound, okay gameplay
Dungeon Clawler
7​
Yes
156​
Completed
7​
Lots of promise, but needs a lot of work; crane game roguelike is fun!
Wild City
5​
No
204​
Abandoned
9​
Hex-based deckbuilder using nature (food chain stuff), lots of fun! Just couldn't win…
Sealed in Wax
5​
No
21​
Abandoned
6​
A very chill card game set in a storybook, but it lacks a hook
Stop The Slimes
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
5​
It’s a tower defense game, yo
Stratum Descent
5​
Yes
21​
Completed
6​
Nearly there, very solid foundation, but needs something a bit more
Stray Path
5​
No
58​
Abandoned
9​
Stray Path is Freecell as Balatro is to Poker; really fun, just not perfect like Balatro
Magic of Spring
5​
No
38​
Abandoned
6​
Looks great, but made me feel stupid and its very slow
Sylvana's Chronicles
5​
No
6​
Abandoned
3​
Unfinished
h8machine
8​
No
17​
Abandoned
3​
Real time with pause cardgame isn't for me; it's lulz though
Devil Slot Machine
5​
No
2​
Abandoned
4​
Uncertain what to do and it's not user friendly
Fay's Factory
5​
Yes
50​
Completed
8​
Unique Factory-based Spellbattling with narrative roleplay (dice) mechanics, interesting
Vault of the Void
5​
No
101​
Abandoned
9​
Great Deckbuilder, lots of wombo-combo bullshittery
Daydam Knight
5​
No
5​
Abandoned
4​
Nope
Perfect Dice
7​
No
83​
Abandoned
4​
Awful tutorial, frustrating dice strategy, I could write a long post on this alone…
Guardian Tactics: Deck of the Chosen
5​
Yes
60​
Completed
8​
Weird little Pokemon-esque monster battler using push pull mechanics
BattleJuice Alchemist
7​
No
9​
Abandoned
4​
Nah
Kind Nature
5​
No
37​
Abandoned
5​
Interesting idea, but the combat gameplay isn't very fun
Grow the Seed
5​
No
22​
Abandoned
5​
Blah
Veil of Madness
5​
No
31​
Abandoned
2​
Broken
Towerful Defense: A Rogue TD
8​
No
33​
Abandoned
3​
Barely anything there, its hollow
The Dark Horde
5​
No
2​
Abandoned
2​
Trash, AI Art
Once Upon a Rogue's Tale
5​
No
38​
Abandoned
6​
Looks nice, sounds nice, plays well, but didn't click with me
Zet Zillions
8​
Yes
111​
Completed
9​
Disgaea Sci-Fi Deckbuilder; Slay the Spire meets trash and junk merging madness

The shorter list of 8-10 scores, with links, are here:
Hollowbody
5​
Yes
51​
Completed
8​
Modern PS2 horror game; pretty good work for one person
Until Then
5​
Yes
77​
Completed
8​
Feels similar to "A Space of the Unbound," slow start but great writing!
Genforge 2 Infestation
5​
No
50​
Abandoned
8​
Interesting classic CRPG with monster creation and turn based combat
STAR OCEAN THE SECOND STORY R
7​
No
98​
Abandoned
9​
Solid JRPG remake, love the 2x features and QOL, kinda easy?
Omnibullet
5​
Yes
31​
Completed
9​
Automatic Puzzle Tower Defense, but it's secretly a factory-synthesizer for music!
Our Adventurer Guild
6​
No
97​
Abandoned
9​
Anime Darkest Dungeon with happier vibes; poor art, but great gameplay
Axiom of Maria
5​
Yes
37​
Completed
8​
Devil May Cry/Bayonetta made by one man team; great voice acting!
Secrets of Grindea
5​
Yes
75​
Completed
8​
Very fun Action RPG
Deadlink: Prologue
5​
Yes
61​
Completed
8​
Lol, I own the actual full game…
Black Gunner Wukong: Prologue
8​
Yes
192​
Completed
9​
The right kind of stupid I like, it's a 3D survivor game
EMPTY SHELL: PROLOGUE
5​
No
22​
Abandoned
8​
Oh, that's fun. Lofi survival horro, I'm down
Throne of Bone
5​
Yes
37​
Completed
8​
Really fun, solid, necromantic deckbuilder
VOIN
5​
Yes
174​
Completed
9​
Rough start, but gets real good; FPS dark souls with fun exploration
SUPER 56
4​
Yes
39​
Completed
10​
Wario Ware done right, awesome
希望之城 The City Of Hope
5​
No
132​
Abandoned
8​
Fun Tower Defense Grinding Game
KinnikuNeko: SUPER MUSCLE CAT
5​
Yes
27​
Completed
9​
₍˄·͈༝·͈˄₍˄·͈༝·͈˄( ͒ ु•·̫• ू ͒)˄·͈༝·͈˄₎˄·͈༝·͈˄₎ Cat flex
Sorry We're Closed
5​
Yes
32​
Completed
9​
Very strong indie old school RE game with some Killer 7 vibes?
My Familiar
3​
Yes
73​
Completed
8​
Really fun, weird JRPG; funk isekai featuring weird critters and guns
Wild City
5​
No
204​
Abandoned
9​
Hex-based deckbuilder using nature (food chain stuff), lots of fun! Just couldn't win…
Stray Path
5​
No
58​
Abandoned
9​
Stray Path is Freecell as Balatro is to Poker; really fun, just not perfect like Balatro
Fay's Factory
5​
Yes
50​
Completed
8​
Unique Factory-based Spellbattling with narrative roleplay (dice) mechanics, interesting
Vault of the Void
5​
No
101​
Abandoned
9​
Great Deckbuilder, lots of wombo-combo bullshittery
Guardian Tactics: Deck of the Chosen
5​
Yes
60​
Completed
8​
Weird little Pokemon-esque monster battler using push pull mechanics
Zet Zillions
8​
Yes
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Completed
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Disgaea Sci-Fi Deckbuilder; Slay the Spire meets trash and junk merging madness

The TL;DR list

Since last post, I have played 3710 minutes, or nearly 62 hours, of demos. Lots of fun doing it, some frustration, and a little dissapointment. I've helped squash a few bugs, given dozens of devs feedback, and hopefully landed a few additional sales or wishlists for some of my favorites.

Enjoy the games!
 
I'm going to demo dump by the weekend for Deck Builders mainly, but so far I've played mostly forgettable meh type games. Look forward to it everyone! Also downloading some that I don't remember playing but are already on my wish list. Hopefully that means new demos, but who knows I lose track of demos over time.
 
I played Chillquarium for 50 hours, I might have gotten a bit addicted. Now that I'm at a really grindy end-game where to get the last rare variants of fish takes forever and is RNG, I'm starting to lose interest. So I switched to Stardew Valley. I successfully modded out the harsh default colors and it looks much more bearable now.
 
Went Deluxe on Evil Genius 2 last night b/c it includes the Season Pass. For $1 more, no brainer.
Don't forget to add the 2 other DLC-freebies to your account too.

I think I still got Evil Genius 1 backlogged on GOG. Was it given away there or something? Don't recall buying it.

Also been playing SCARS Above from one of the recent Humble Bundles. It's a sci-fi & horror-based shooter/action-adventure/Souls-like. You're a scientist & engineer named Kate and she's trying to find out why she's on this weird alien planet, as her ship w/ many of hew crew-mates got taken down. Genre-wise, there's a more emphasis on the shooter/action-adventure stuff, as you do lots of shooting & some easy puzzle-solving, not say stat, skill and number-crunching. You will learn skills & craft stuff, as you go along - but don't expect to sink lots of points into that stuff as this ain't a RPG.

For the Souls-like part: you do have these Big Obelisk-like things for Save points there and when you hit them, it respawns everything back (like a Souls-like does - these are your Bonfires here, more or less). You also have environments that you need to use to your advantage (i.e. you have an electric-gun, so shoot this at water but don't stand in water - you'll do more extra damage on certain enemies). A lot of enemies have weakness points - so you need to use the right weapon to defeat them much easier & exploit that. Game's running at 1080p maxed-out looks great & runs very well at max on my RTX 3060-based laptop, at often 50-60fps.

I'm having a blast with it (SCARS Above), some 7 hours in.
 
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Hellgate: Redemption (a.k.a. Hallgate 2 Hellgate 2).

Holy smokes! Hellgate 2!

Bill Roper (Formerly of Blizzard with D1 and D2 & then formed Flagship Studios for Hellgate: London) has formed a new studio.
Lunacy Games is the name of the new studio.
They've all signed a deal w/ Hanbit (Who now holds & owns the IP) to work on a brand-new Hellgate game, code-named Hellgate: Redemption.
This is a AAA ARPG/looter-shooter that will be on the Unreal Engine 5.

From RockPaperShotgun:
-> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/hellgate-londons-original-creator-announces-new-hellgate-game
 
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Hellgate London weirdly predicted almost all of the gaming trends of the last 5-10 years, it just didn't do them well enough at the time. Of course now most of those trends are overdone and getting backlash, so it's the perfect time for them to try and fail again! 🤣
 
I know I was just making a quick throwaway joke, but damn, I’m gonna need some ointment for that burn.

Thing is: if you were Jerry (Seinfeld), you'd probably still be sitting on your crazy pile of $1 billion of money or so and never have to work again & you so could be laughing away at someone like myself, nowhere as rich as that. That ($1 billion worth) is so the dream.
 
I liked it in the 90's when Seinfeld was dating that 17yo girl and their picture made the newspaper.

it was like "oh wow yeah, this guy DGAF." He's supposed to be like your buddy; that character you see on TV which you can relate to. But then you quickly remember that all these people (the elites, esp political ones) live in a totally different universe.
 
Ghostrunner 2 is $9.99 in the complete the set bundle on steam if you already own the first one. Historical low, will probably be humble bundled though

EDIT: Looks like it was a price mistake, it's now been corrected
 
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Hellgate: Redemption (a.k.a. Hallgate 2 Hellgate 2).

Holy smokes! Hellgate 2!

Bill Roper (Formerly of Blizzard with D1 and D2 & then formed Flagship Studios for Hellgate: London) has formed a new studio.
Lunacy Games is the name of the new studio.
They've all signed a deal w/ Hanbit (Who now holds & owns the IP) to work on a brand-new Hellgate game, code-named Hellgate: Redemption.
This is a AAA ARPG/looter-shooter that will be on the Unreal Engine 5.

From RockPaperShotgun:
-> https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/hellgate-londons-original-creator-announces-new-hellgate-game
I was part of closed beta with my guild for that and prior to launch, I was the only one left even playing and quit. I knew it was a trainwreck of graphics over substance, but lots of people got suckered into buying the $500 package with lifetime sub. As it turns out, the lifetime was about 6 months.
 
I was part of closed beta with my guild for that and prior to launch, I was the only one left even playing and quit. I knew it was a trainwreck of graphics over substance, but lots of people got suckered into buying the $500 package with lifetime sub. As it turns out, the lifetime was about 6 months.
You got Flagshipped. My old roommate and I started up flagshipped.com just to shit all over the game, its long gone now but it caused a little stir in the small community back in the day.
 
I finally completed all the demos I was going to do for the deck builder fest. There was lot less to like for me here as I didn't have too many very high ratings. For my scale 6 is an okay at best game, 7 is good and 8+ is really good. Star Deck was my favorite game of the lot other than some funky graphics the gameplay was fun and a bit different. It will have a Kickstarter in April. Knights in Tight Spaces and Madcap Mosaic were both pretty fun although I'd probably only get them on higher sale prices. The other games that passed the pretty fun rating were Death of a Wish, Lucky Mayor, Once Upon a Rogue's Tale, Skogdal, and Stellar Orphans.

Acolyte of the Altar – 18 minutes. This one is a deckbuilder kind of similar to Hearthstone except your opponents are massive monsters with abilities. You try to beat them getting 1 energy a turn added to the pool until you take them down. This one had decent graphics and sounds, but felt a bit too straightforward and hard to change the inevitable (likely losing after a point). Not a fan of this one, but it felt very polished at least. 5.5/10

Attack on Hex Island – 7 minutes. This one is a hex based game where you play hexes with arrows and power values. According to where they point they take another hex (not protected by an arrow in that direction or some dice are rolled). This is really basic looking, feeling and just is no Tetra Master, of which it is inspired from. Nothing exciting here and the whole game felt very mobile game like. 5.5/10

Become the Moon – 5 minutes. This one is a 3 developer Hearthstone kind of game where everything auto battles from left to right. You don’t get increasing mana in your pool like that though. Everything auto battles and eventually the enemy is taken out. The graphics were decent enough. 5.5/10

Cards We’re Dealt – 11 minutes. This one is a first-person card getting shadow chasing horror game thing. It is so clunky and you can get a gun with one bullet as well. The atmosphere is decent, but I didn’t have fun and I couldn’t figure out how to get to the next level with the keycard I found. 5/10

Cyber Paradise – 9 minutes. An extremely clunky 2D action game with level up elements and cards, I think. This one feels super indie with decent enough graphics, but it just isn’t very fun to play. The fighting felt very clunky for sure, although it’s not the worse. 5/10

Death of a Wish – 18 minutes beat first boss after 3 tries. This one is an interesting souls like kind of where parrying is very important (dodging towards an opponent). This one has a very interesting minimalistic kind of style, but it’s not old school feeling. It’s just very artsy. The sound was excellent in this with good sounds for attacks and such. There is a rewind thing, but it’s not like Prince of Persia and more like go back to the beginning of a battle. It’s not amazing, but it’s alright. I’m probably not in the major wheel park for this type of game, but it feels like a good 2D action overhead souls game. 7/10

Decked In Love – About 5 minutes. This one is a weird card game where you try to take out rivals and do good things to lay ladies. It’s an 18+ game with AI generated art/voice I believe and probably other things. The AI stuff takes me out of the game and the UI is atrocious. It’s hard to tell what anything does and the icons are too small on cards. You basically click and drag cards that do things to other cards to beat them or solve them. You also can just click on cards to beat them somehow with time ticking up. Really didn’t like this and really do not want to see games with loads of AI art in the future. It just doesn’t feel awesome and I’d rather have more rougher art than these things. The gameplay is confusing which brings everything down. 5/10

Dice & Fold – 10 minutes. Just a kind of simple very basic feeling other than the art dice rolling game. You start rolling 2 and can put them in opponents’ slots to kill them (including count down ones) and your own character to use their skill. There is also a thing on the side where you can put dice 1 through 6 to get a gold coin once every slot is filled. This is really basic and you also get skills. I’m not sure how to get more dice, and the store was a joke where your coins I think appear on screen and you drag them one at a time to pay off an item. My coins fell off the screen my last shop. This was gimmicky and felt stupid. Overall, it needs a lot of polish, but the graphics are good. The gameplay was a bit boring overall IMHO. 6/10

Dire Destiny: Time Travel – 10 minutes. This one is a F2P kind of Slay the Spire like with mobile like graphics in a weird first-person mode where you drag up cards. It feels slower and not as clean as STS’s gameplay. Just felt slow, pretty basic, I didn’t see the enemy intentions (which makes it worse than STS). Good enough for F2P, but I wouldn’t put money into it. 5/10

Dungeon Clawler – 11 minutes beat one level fully. This one is a dungeon crawling claw machine rogue lite where you do a claw machine, pick up icons that attack, defend, get coins, etc... and try to beat up enemies. Overall, it’s very simple and was a bit boring, but it’s unique at least. The graphics were alright and the music was quite annoying. I would probably get it bundled or very cheap, but I’m not sure of the staying power of it. 6/10

Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers – 30 minutes finished demo. This is a Blackjack rogue lite game and is similar to Balatro including pretty basic graphics. In this one you play Blackjack and try to deal damage. If you or your op busts the amount of the winner is done such as 21 in Blackjack (21 total in cards), otherwise the winner closest to 21 deals the difference in damage. This was alright although a little boring. It’s pretty mindless but it’s fun enough. I would get it mainly cheap or in a bundle, but it’s no Balatro. 6/10

Fairtravel Battle – 5 minutes completed demo. This feels like a F2P mobile CCG game. The gameplay is similar to Hearthstone (more like the WOW TCG from way back when) and has okay graphics for things. The clicking and dragging to zones feels messy and should be something more obvious. It was okay, but I wasn’t excited at all. 5/10

Guardian Tactics: Deck of the Chosen – 5 minutes lost first battle. This one has 3 Pokémon type monsters where they are in 3 slots on the field and can move up and down them with cards and also do attacks according to cards. This felt like a mess and monsters had a lot of HP that was slowly whittled down. Really didn’t like this one at all. Also felt a bit mobile game feeling. 5/10

Hero.EXE – 10 minutes. This one is a very indie looking and feeling Mega Man Battle Network inspired game. It plays alright enough although the animations and way things look to see where attacks will hit aren’t always obvious. Still, it’s pretty fun if it a bit janky. I would get it in a heavier sale or in a bundle. 6/10

Isle of Swaps – 15 minutes. This one was an indie Pokémon card game type game. The main thing is collecting and battling cards to fill out your binder. I don’t totally get all the stations of the battle, but this one was aight. The card art mimicked the Pokémon TCG quite a bit. The rest of the art is simple but nice. It’s mainly just going around, doing events, trading cards, and beating stuff to swap/get cards. Not a bad one, though not totally amazing either. We need more Pokémon TCG like games in video game form. 6.5/10

IT Startup: Tech Fodder – 4 minutes completed tutorial and part of one battle. This one is a UI mess. It has where you play developers and they gain burnout and turn out project points. You need a certain amount to win. You play versus 2 opponents. The card art is pretty cool, but the gameplay itself feels unintuitive and having 2 players makes play feel worse. I liked parts of this, but I just was getting confused and not having much fun. 5/10

Kamigami: Clash of the Gods – 21 minutes. This one is a deck building board game thing where your units are cards on the field shown as circles. You play units to get devotion which plays more stuff which hopefully lets you win. You need to have devotion to also move around the board, attack things and also cast spells. The art is excellent for the cards. The gameplay is a snore IMHO and the AI played very poorly in the first battle. I like the idea of energy and area control with cards, but it’s not done well here. Tries to do too much for my good. Also, the story is a snore about getting sucked into a Greek era and playing card games with the goddess Athena at your side. There is potential, but this would only be a bundle game for me. Giving a slightly higher score as I liked the art. 6/10

KinnikuNeko: SUPER MUSCLE CAT – 18 minutes completed two levels. This one is about a big muscular cat who goes around 2D action platformer beat em up style and you collect junk like stars and occasional upgrades to your muscles. You also can have the little girl take off your speedo to turn you into a cat to go faster (it can run) and also climb things. This one is weird and looks good, but I didn’t think it was very fun. It felt very Japanese weird and it played OK enough although the jumping felt floaty overall as was some of the beat em up action. This would only be a bundle game for me. 6/10

Knights in Tight Spaces – 9 minutes completed all tutorials. This is another game similar to and from the Fight in Tight Spaces developer. In this one you play medieval characters and use their positioning and such to defeat enemies. You actual have multiple characters in this one which do support attacks if they’re positioned correctly. Choosing cards for different characters is not super clean and one of the characters in the demo (the brawler) was a red very similar to the enemy characters. I don’t like the graphics as much in this compared to their previous game, but they still look nice and have decent animations. I can see myself getting this somewhere down the line as I liked the original game a decent amount. It is more of a heavier sale game or bundle game for me, but it feels good like the original. The follow up attacks actually make it more like a tactical RPG type game like Disgaea honestly. 7.5/10

LuckLand – 21 minutes beat a few levels. This is a mobile feeling clone of Luck Be a Landlord. There is a lot of icons that you unlock and you spin and get some generic numbers to beat enemies in a few turns. There is usually a few rounds each level and, in the end, you get some achievements and some new icons. This is very, very generic although it plays fine. It’s just not exciting at all and the icons are not exciting at all. Would only get bundled, but it plays well. 5.5/10

Lucky Mayor – 22 minutes completed trial. This one is another clone of Luck Be a Landlord except instead of a slot machine we have cards of people who come out and make groups. Each person may give some money, produce things, consume things, transform things, enhance things or have other powers. You can add citizens every turn to keep trying to get more money which after an amount of turns you have to pay (similar to Luck Be a Landlord) and get some bonuses from that. The graphics are pretty good, the music a little repetitive and the sound is pretty good other than an obnoxious nose that sounds like a coke can opening. Overall I feel this doesn’t feel as strong as Luck Be a Landlord, as I don’t think there are any passive items, but it is fun and I would get it on a heavier sale or bundled. 7/10

Madcap Mosaic – 23 minutes completed a run. This one is a strange game where you generally start with mainly swords/shields which each give 5 of attack and shielding. You face a monster and move around a board know as your mosaic which has all these icons on it. You generally have 3 moves a turn and what you go over activates. Generally, you see what the opponents are going to hit you with and try to move accordingly. You can and will shuffle sometimes using up 2 movement because once tiles are used they’re ruined I think the term is. You also have two traits which influence stuff that happens when tiles are taken. In battles you keep going getting stuff until you or your opponent is dead. Then you get to the pretty ugly choose a tile screen after choosing 2 tiles to exchange. You could look around and try to get tiles that fit your traits or strategy. Many are hidden, so this only goes so far. You just keep fighting different enemies with different stats and some have abilities as well. The graphics and music are pretty bare bones, but it’s not terrible. I enjoyed this and it is cheap, but I’m not sure of the staying power. It is really simple to play though. I would love to get it bundled, but I might just get it and try the full thing out under 2 hours and decide if I want to refund it, as it’s on sale currently. 7.5/10

Mildred’s Tarot Battle – 6 minutes. This one is about an old lady who wants to fight to keep herself out of a nursing home, I think. It has average music with decent graphics. In this one you choose tarot and the enemy attacks with traits and you also try to attack them with traits they don’t defend against. The little icons are way too small and sometimes hard to read. Both players in the battle I played had 100 HP and the battles are super slow. The concept is interesting, but if every battle is this long, I’ll get bored way too quickly. Not a fan of this one. 5/10

Mori Carta – 30 minutes got bored during the run. This one is like a rogue lite Tinder simulator no joke. In this you get certain cards and the enemy you’re fighting get certain cards. You draw all of them and try to mitigate the enemy cards which are always drawn with energy and also shield which lasts until the end of the shuffle. This game is weird and you’re swiping right and left on each card sometimes getting different choices or upgrades. The character I played got energy on upgrades, so it was worth getting those powerful and bursting down an enemy. Some cards have quick and will come up first when shuffled. Others are slow and will come up last. The graphics and sound are okay. I’ve heard the RNG gets ridiculous in the main game, but the demo is relatively balanced. It gets boring quickly and it feels more like Dominion the board game, except in that game you get victory point cards and action cards. This one you just use the same ones over and over and maybe some upgrades. Overall, I think the game is OK enough and plays easily enough (it feels mobile like with the swiping though). I would only get this bundled, but it has potential likely ruined by RNG and imbalance according to other Steam reviewers. 6/10

Novus Orbis – 10 minutes defeated one elite enemy. This one is a kind of interesting looking somewhat Slay the Spire feeling rogue lite deckbuilding game. This has pretty good anime-ish graphics and some okay music. The quirk of this one is a combo system where certain numbers played in order give a combo with maybe more effects and getting a full combo triggers some special condition. Also, every card you play counts down the enemies. What I HATE about this is that the intent is only shown right before they’re sending it at you. I also am not 100% sure if the intents were just basic looking and didn’t show values for attacks/defends, but I never knew what was coming at me. Overall, this feels okay, but is missing polish and quality of life things like knowing what is coming at you from the enemies. 5.5/10

Once Upon a Rogue's Tale – 18 minutes. This one you play storybook characters such as Red Riding Hood in the demo. You have cards and abilities per character (3 abilities per character and a passive) and throw a certain number of dice which have sides. Some are obvious for things (a green bow side which can be used for attack skills), and others aren’t obvious (some red monster thing or a crown?). I wasn’t totally sure what each side can be used for, and which sides are more generic, as you get a reroll a turn. The story I could care less about, but it’s trying to be a storybook tale similar to Rogue Lords. I liked this game for the most part, but it could use a little polishing and maybe some slight better gameplay. Also, you can get up to 2 allies which make your choices harder. Once you go down the game ends. The graphics and sounds are quite good quality as well. Other than confusing iconography at times and also confusing intents from enemies the game seemed solid enough. 7/10

Reboot Heroes – 4 minutes completed 2 battles. I really didn’t like this one. It’s an auto battler mixed with a deck builder. You have 6 slots I think and program them and go against the enemy. It’s really repetitive already and everything felt unpolished although I liked the art a bit. Also going with the auto battler thing some cards have elements and if you get 3 or more in your program deck you get bonuses. I got my butt kicked almost dying in the first battle and I couldn’t tell you why this happened at all. Not for me. 5/10

Sealed in Wax – 1 minute. Good music, very confusing iconography with a very confusing tutorial. This is more a puzzle game than a deck builder, but you can build a deck for each level. This looks unique, but I just didn’t know what I was doing at all. I see potential, but I need to see others play it or something first. 5/10

Secret Summoner – 3 minutes. This one is a weird one where you summon monsters as the protagonist’s mom and set them up to beat enemies. This was okay enough with good graphics and music/sound, but the controls and the looks from summoning and stuff are where the shortcomings come in. You should be able to controls most things with the mouse, but I couldn’t control the speed well. It seems like okay auto battler type thing where you just manipulate things with your own summons. Not my style, but it is a bit original at least. 6/10

Skogdal – 28 minutes. This was one of the strangest rogue lite deck builders I played from these demos. It’s about some suburban areas looking kind of poor with this weird cutout art style and some kind of rocking music. You can get followers and beat up on some people. The enemies all felt pretty different and got harder as you went through areas, which offer up interactions including just looking at things and talking to people. This one feels a bit unpolished, but offers up a cool alternative style. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was how to get rid of followers, as you can only have 2, I believe and if you have more follower cards, they’re dead cards. Also, I wasn’t sure how much cards I would get a turn, but you can use increasing amounts of energy (starting at one) to draw cards. This was a lot of fun honestly and I loved the style of the game. It feels very indie, but I would get it bundled or cheaper. 7/10

Star Deck – 30 minutes lost against likely demo boss. This one is about some guy who wants revenge after people take his brother I believe and he needs fuel which is why you go after a boss to beat to get fuel in the first area. This is very Slay the Spire like and feels very indie. You get 2 weapons of which you get cards centered around them. If you have a gun, you need to reload and multiple shot cards cannot be used unless you have the ammo. The screen shaking is a bit annoying with attacks. You can counter stuff and it does seem to stack between turns. You pretty much kill stuff, and some enemy intentions are varied like 12-18 attack damage. The UI is very busy and the map is kind of messy as well, but this has some style. When you win a fight you hip thrust the dead enemies which is silly. I have to mention the graphics, which are very stylish but simple as well. I like the effects when you do attacks other than the screen shaking. The music is also very electronic and has some vocal tracks. It’s quite cool honestly and quite a bit different, similar to Skogdal’s music that set a mood. This will have a Kickstarter as well in early April after cancelling their first, aiming for a lower goal. I may actually support them as this was my type of deck builder. It needs polishing, but it has something cool going for it including some hard difficulty with the boss. 8/10

Stellar Orphans – 19 minutes. This one is a deck builder that feels like a board game where you start with a crew that does different things. You only get the resources for a turn and the store refreshes every turn. You can use generic money resources to look at events in the future. Pretty much you’re trying to accomplish your mission, while also surviving and fending off crises in the form of cards. It’s pretty wild and can be hard. You can also hold back a card for a future turn, and you will with some of the crisis events costs. I liked this one enough although I’ll probably wait till it’s fully released before getting it, or until it’s bundled. 7/10

Stray Path – 6 minutes. This was a pretty basic playing and looking game. In this one you have stats and you click on enemies to attack them until they lose all health or you lose all health and lose the run. This one is pretty basic overall although you want to kill things to get gold, but many are very dangerous. I did like 3 runs and lost them quickly in the 6 minutes. This one doesn’t feel balanced at all towards you. I would likely only get it bundled. 5.5/10

TAnima – 18 minutes did one run and died. This one is a kind of traditional rogue like where you play some old man and are trying to open the last door or something. Pretty much it’s kind of more actioney as you can throw your weapon and must move around and even jump over enemies. The enemies are very HP spongey and take quite a few hits. The UI is pretty bad honestly, and doesn’t seem made for higher resolutions, although it supports many. The text and the way things look on screen just make everything a little harder. Enemies flash the areas they are going to attack and you have to quick reflexes to dodge or jump over them or something. The story is just there, and I forgot to mention the rooms where you need to dodge like electricity or something on the wall. These were not fun at all. Also reading the mini map is terrible and it looks like an old ASCII rogue like map, but this also makes it hard to read. I see potential at least. Overall, this feels OK enough and I would get it bundled, but it feels unpolished and the graphics need some changing IMHO. 6/10

Tempus Rail – 27 minutes completed demo (one full train run through after defeating boss). This one is way too gimmicky for its own good. It also commits the sin of boring me outright at the beginning by having a long cutscene in the beginning with a hard-to-understand narrator and no subtitles. Even if there were subs, the backstory seemed really boring for what I understood. In this one for no reason, you have first-person walking parts before you go through doors and fight 3D rendered enemies with cards Slay the Spire style. The first-person segments added nothing and it would have been better just clicking on thing and moving 3D style if they wanted to keep it. The environments are barren of things to interact with. The voice acting is also hard to understand and seems a bit low. The systems are pretty easy and you try to shoot down enemies. It’s not complicated although the main boss had way too much HP. This needs a lot of work, and I think it needs to scale back instead to get a better game. 5.5/10

Union of Gnomes – 20 minutes fully completed 1 level. This one is a trying to be loud and silly one about gnomes getting revenge after the Snow White of their world sang to many of them and took control of their minds and used them as slaves. This game is pretty nice looking and has the weird system where you have a limited mana pool, but you may not get mana every turn. There are specific mana gnomes that do it (upgrade them immediately when you can). There is ranged, melee and support gnomes that may or may not cost mana or other things like discarding cards. The music and sound are OK enough but just very loud and blaring. In the beginning it sounded like a blasting bassoon or something like that with some orchestra. The game isn’t crazy hard, but has some challenge. Another WTF thing is every node you go through STS costs a set value of sausages according to your party. I think is to limit the cards you get, but it’s a horrible system and if you have too many gnomes, you lose sausages fast and when they go to 0 every node traversed makes a gnome card faint and be not available. Honestly this has potential, but need cleaning up in the systems a bit, and better sound/music that isn’t just blaring in your ears. Overall, I would get it bundled only. 6/10

Veil of Madness – 9 minutes walked through whole area and couldn’t go on. This is yet another first-person walking around fighting things (in this case monsters) card style. This one feels more dungeon crawler style and is really annoying for moving around and interacting with things. This should really be streamlined as the moving around with the mouse adds very little and just makes movement a lot more clunky. The monsters are a bit hard to predict, but you have so little cards at first that you play the same cards just about every turn. This has potential as the atmosphere and graphics are really cool. The battles and movement aren’t though. I think it’s trying to do a bit too much, and should maybe just turn into a dungeon crawler with some investigation scenes for items/story and battles a little more straight forward. 5.5/10

Wild Seasons – Confusing but very interesting deck building game where the cards of your deck are flowers in a garden. You must water them between battles as unwatered things wither. You want to wither weeds, and I think that’s how you get rid of them. Otherwise, you get 2 actions in a battle and cards have stars in their cost. This can leave you at a low star state (no idea what it does as the description was cut off on my screen) or high star state where your stuff does x2 the effect. You can rest to remove the star effects and start over as going over the star counts hurts your person I believe. The graphics are pretty good and the music is ethereal and excellent. I want to recommend this and will but it needs more polishing in the UI and explaining the mechanics. I’m still not 100% sure how to do all the watering and taking care of my garden. Also, the map is very busy mainly with stuff I don’t know how to interpret. There is a lot of potential here, and I’ll keep my eye on it, but for now it’s only a bundle game. 6/10
 
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Free games

BOOMEROAD
DORONKO WANKO
NOTTOLOT https://store.steampowered.com/app/2512830/NOTTOLOT/
 
I finally completed all the demos I was going to do for the deck builder fest. There was lot less to like for me here as I didn't have too many very high ratings. For my scale 6 is an okay at best game, 7 is good and 8+ is really good. Star Deck was my favorite game of the lot other than some funky graphics the gameplay was fun and a bit different. It will have a Kickstarter in April. Knights in Tight Spaces and Madcap Mosaic were both pretty fun although I'd probably only get them on higher sale prices. The other games that passed the pretty fun rating were Death of a Wish, Lucky Mayor, Once Upon a Rogue's Tale, Skogdal, and Stellar Orphans.

Acolyte of the Altar – 18 minutes. This one is a deckbuilder kind of similar to Hearthstone except your opponents are massive monsters with abilities. You try to beat them getting 1 energy a turn added to the pool until you take them down. This one had decent graphics and sounds, but felt a bit too straightforward and hard to change the inevitable (likely losing after a point). Not a fan of this one, but it felt very polished at least. 5.5/10

Attack on Hex Island – 7 minutes. This one is a hex based game where you play hexes with arrows and power values. According to where they point they take another hex (not protected by an arrow in that direction or some dice are rolled). This is really basic looking, feeling and just is no Tetra Master, of which it is inspired from. Nothing exciting here and the whole game felt very mobile game like. 5.5/10

Become the Moon – 5 minutes. This one is a 3 developer Hearthstone kind of game where everything auto battles from left to right. You don’t get increasing mana in your pool like that though. Everything auto battles and eventually the enemy is taken out. The graphics were decent enough. 5.5/10

Cards We’re Dealt – 11 minutes. This one is a first-person card getting shadow chasing horror game thing. It is so clunky and you can get a gun with one bullet as well. The atmosphere is decent, but I didn’t have fun and I couldn’t figure out how to get to the next level with the keycard I found. 5/10

Cyber Paradise – 9 minutes. An extremely clunky 2D action game with level up elements and cards, I think. This one feels super indie with decent enough graphics, but it just isn’t very fun to play. The fighting felt very clunky for sure, although it’s not the worse. 5/10

Death of a Wish – 18 minutes beat first boss after 3 tries. This one is an interesting souls like kind of where parrying is very important (dodging towards an opponent). This one has a very interesting minimalistic kind of style, but it’s not old school feeling. It’s just very artsy. The sound was excellent in this with good sounds for attacks and such. There is a rewind thing, but it’s not like Prince of Persia and more like go back to the beginning of a battle. It’s not amazing, but it’s alright. I’m probably not in the major wheel park for this type of game, but it feels like a good 2D action overhead souls game. 7/10

Decked In Love – About 5 minutes. This one is a weird card game where you try to take out rivals and do good things to lay ladies. It’s an 18+ game with AI generated art/voice I believe and probably other things. The AI stuff takes me out of the game and the UI is atrocious. It’s hard to tell what anything does and the icons are too small on cards. You basically click and drag cards that do things to other cards to beat them or solve them. You also can just click on cards to beat them somehow with time ticking up. Really didn’t like this and really do not want to see games with loads of AI art in the future. It just doesn’t feel awesome and I’d rather have more rougher art than these things. The gameplay is confusing which brings everything down. 5/10

Dice & Fold – 10 minutes. Just a kind of simple very basic feeling other than the art dice rolling game. You start rolling 2 and can put them in opponents’ slots to kill them (including count down ones) and your own character to use their skill. There is also a thing on the side where you can put dice 1 through 6 to get a gold coin once every slot is filled. This is really basic and you also get skills. I’m not sure how to get more dice, and the store was a joke where your coins I think appear on screen and you drag them one at a time to pay off an item. My coins fell off the screen my last shop. This was gimmicky and felt stupid. Overall, it needs a lot of polish, but the graphics are good. The gameplay was a bit boring overall IMHO. 6/10

Dire Destiny: Time Travel – 10 minutes. This one is a F2P kind of Slay the Spire like with mobile like graphics in a weird first-person mode where you drag up cards. It feels slower and not as clean as STS’s gameplay. Just felt slow, pretty basic, I didn’t see the enemy intentions (which makes it worse than STS). Good enough for F2P, but I wouldn’t put money into it. 5/10

Dungeon Clawler – 11 minutes beat one level fully. This one is a dungeon crawling claw machine rogue lite where you do a claw machine, pick up icons that attack, defend, get coins, etc... and try to beat up enemies. Overall, it’s very simple and was a bit boring, but it’s unique at least. The graphics were alright and the music was quite annoying. I would probably get it bundled or very cheap, but I’m not sure of the staying power of it. 6/10

Dungeons & Degenerate Gamblers – 30 minutes finished demo. This is a Blackjack rogue lite game and is similar to Balatro including pretty basic graphics. In this one you play Blackjack and try to deal damage. If you or your op busts the amount of the winner is done such as 21 in Blackjack (21 total in cards), otherwise the winner closest to 21 deals the difference in damage. This was alright although a little boring. It’s pretty mindless but it’s fun enough. I would get it mainly cheap or in a bundle, but it’s no Balatro. 6/10

Fairtravel Battle – 5 minutes completed demo. This feels like a F2P mobile CCG game. The gameplay is similar to Hearthstone (more like the WOW TCG from way back when) and has okay graphics for things. The clicking and dragging to zones feels messy and should be something more obvious. It was okay, but I wasn’t excited at all. 5/10

Guardian Tactics: Deck of the Chosen – 5 minutes lost first battle. This one has 3 Pokémon type monsters where they are in 3 slots on the field and can move up and down them with cards and also do attacks according to cards. This felt like a mess and monsters had a lot of HP that was slowly whittled down. Really didn’t like this one at all. Also felt a bit mobile game feeling. 5/10

Hero.EXE – 10 minutes. This one is a very indie looking and feeling Mega Man Battle Network inspired game. It plays alright enough although the animations and way things look to see where attacks will hit aren’t always obvious. Still, it’s pretty fun if it a bit janky. I would get it in a heavier sale or in a bundle. 6/10

Isle of Swaps – 15 minutes. This one was an indie Pokémon card game type game. The main thing is collecting and battling cards to fill out your binder. I don’t totally get all the stations of the battle, but this one was aight. The card art mimicked the Pokémon TCG quite a bit. The rest of the art is simple but nice. It’s mainly just going around, doing events, trading cards, and beating stuff to swap/get cards. Not a bad one, though not totally amazing either. We need more Pokémon TCG like games in video game form. 6.5/10

IT Startup: Tech Fodder – 4 minutes completed tutorial and part of one battle. This one is a UI mess. It has where you play developers and they gain burnout and turn out project points. You need a certain amount to win. You play versus 2 opponents. The card art is pretty cool, but the gameplay itself feels unintuitive and having 2 players makes play feel worse. I liked parts of this, but I just was getting confused and not having much fun. 5/10

Kamigami: Clash of the Gods – 21 minutes. This one is a deck building board game thing where your units are cards on the field shown as circles. You play units to get devotion which plays more stuff which hopefully lets you win. You need to have devotion to also move around the board, attack things and also cast spells. The art is excellent for the cards. The gameplay is a snore IMHO and the AI played very poorly in the first battle. I like the idea of energy and area control with cards, but it’s not done well here. Tries to do too much for my good. Also, the story is a snore about getting sucked into a Greek era and playing card games with the goddess Athena at your side. There is potential, but this would only be a bundle game for me. Giving a slightly higher score as I liked the art. 6/10

KinnikuNeko: SUPER MUSCLE CAT – 18 minutes completed two levels. This one is about a big muscular cat who goes around 2D action platformer beat em up style and you collect junk like stars and occasional upgrades to your muscles. You also can have the little girl take off your speedo to turn you into a cat to go faster (it can run) and also climb things. This one is weird and looks good, but I didn’t think it was very fun. It felt very Japanese weird and it played OK enough although the jumping felt floaty overall as was some of the beat em up action. This would only be a bundle game for me. 6/10

Knights in Tight Spaces – 9 minutes completed all tutorials. This is another game similar to and from the Fight in Tight Spaces developer. In this one you play medieval characters and use their positioning and such to defeat enemies. You actual have multiple characters in this one which do support attacks if they’re positioned correctly. Choosing cards for different characters is not super clean and one of the characters in the demo (the brawler) was a red very similar to the enemy characters. I don’t like the graphics as much in this compared to their previous game, but they still look nice and have decent animations. I can see myself getting this somewhere down the line as I liked the original game a decent amount. It is more of a heavier sale game or bundle game for me, but it feels good like the original. The follow up attacks actually make it more like a tactical RPG type game like Disgaea honestly. 7.5/10

LuckLand – 21 minutes beat a few levels. This is a mobile feeling clone of Luck Be a Landlord. There is a lot of icons that you unlock and you spin and get some generic numbers to beat enemies in a few turns. There is usually a few rounds each level and, in the end, you get some achievements and some new icons. This is very, very generic although it plays fine. It’s just not exciting at all and the icons are not exciting at all. Would only get bundled, but it plays well. 5.5/10

Lucky Mayor – 22 minutes completed trial. This one is another clone of Luck Be a Landlord except instead of a slot machine we have cards of people who come out and make groups. Each person may give some money, produce things, consume things, transform things, enhance things or have other powers. You can add citizens every turn to keep trying to get more money which after an amount of turns you have to pay (similar to Luck Be a Landlord) and get some bonuses from that. The graphics are pretty good, the music a little repetitive and the sound is pretty good other than an obnoxious nose that sounds like a coke can opening. Overall I feel this doesn’t feel as strong as Luck Be a Landlord, as I don’t think there are any passive items, but it is fun and I would get it on a heavier sale or bundled. 7/10

Madcap Mosaic – 23 minutes completed a run. This one is a strange game where you generally start with mainly swords/shields which each give 5 of attack and shielding. You face a monster and move around a board know as your mosaic which has all these icons on it. You generally have 3 moves a turn and what you go over activates. Generally, you see what the opponents are going to hit you with and try to move accordingly. You can and will shuffle sometimes using up 2 movement because once tiles are used they’re ruined I think the term is. You also have two traits which influence stuff that happens when tiles are taken. In battles you keep going getting stuff until you or your opponent is dead. Then you get to the pretty ugly choose a tile screen after choosing 2 tiles to exchange. You could look around and try to get tiles that fit your traits or strategy. Many are hidden, so this only goes so far. You just keep fighting different enemies with different stats and some have abilities as well. The graphics and music are pretty bare bones, but it’s not terrible. I enjoyed this and it is cheap, but I’m not sure of the staying power. It is really simple to play though. I would love to get it bundled, but I might just get it and try the full thing out under 2 hours and decide if I want to refund it, as it’s on sale currently. 7.5/10

Mildred’s Tarot Battle – 6 minutes. This one is about an old lady who wants to fight to keep herself out of a nursing home, I think. It has average music with decent graphics. In this one you choose tarot and the enemy attacks with traits and you also try to attack them with traits they don’t defend against. The little icons are way too small and sometimes hard to read. Both players in the battle I played had 100 HP and the battles are super slow. The concept is interesting, but if every battle is this long, I’ll get bored way too quickly. Not a fan of this one. 5/10

Mori Carta – 30 minutes got bored during the run. This one is like a rogue lite Tinder simulator no joke. In this you get certain cards and the enemy you’re fighting get certain cards. You draw all of them and try to mitigate the enemy cards which are always drawn with energy and also shield which lasts until the end of the shuffle. This game is weird and you’re swiping right and left on each card sometimes getting different choices or upgrades. The character I played got energy on upgrades, so it was worth getting those powerful and bursting down an enemy. Some cards have quick and will come up first when shuffled. Others are slow and will come up last. The graphics and sound are okay. I’ve heard the RNG gets ridiculous in the main game, but the demo is relatively balanced. It gets boring quickly and it feels more like Dominion the board game, except in that game you get victory point cards and action cards. This one you just use the same ones over and over and maybe some upgrades. Overall, I think the game is OK enough and plays easily enough (it feels mobile like with the swiping though). I would only get this bundled, but it has potential likely ruined by RNG and imbalance according to other Steam reviewers. 6/10

Northwind – 3 minutes. I usually don’t rate things I quit mid tutorial but this felt like a really bad Slay the Spire like. The graphics were just average but the game consisted of playing attacks that become cumulative at the end of term to beat the enemies total or something. There were also energy effects that gave more attack and maybe more energy. I was so confused and it felt very unpolished. Felt very mobile like as well. 4.5/10

Novus Orbis – 10 minutes defeated one elite enemy. This one is a kind of interesting looking somewhat Slay the Spire feeling rogue lite deckbuilding game. This has pretty good anime-ish graphics and some okay music. The quirk of this one is a combo system where certain numbers played in order give a combo with maybe more effects and getting a full combo triggers some special condition. Also, every card you play counts down the enemies. What I HATE about this is that the intent is only shown right before they’re sending it at you. I also am not 100% sure if the intents were just basic looking and didn’t show values for attacks/defends, but I never knew what was coming at me. Overall, this feels okay, but is missing polish and quality of life things like knowing what is coming at you from the enemies. 5.5/10

Once Upon a Rogue's Tale – 18 minutes. This one you play storybook characters such as Red Riding Hood in the demo. You have cards and abilities per character (3 abilities per character and a passive) and throw a certain number of dice which have sides. Some are obvious for things (a green bow side which can be used for attack skills), and others aren’t obvious (some red monster thing or a crown?). I wasn’t totally sure what each side can be used for, and which sides are more generic, as you get a reroll a turn. The story I could care less about, but it’s trying to be a storybook tale similar to Rogue Lords. I liked this game for the most part, but it could use a little polishing and maybe some slight better gameplay. Also, you can get up to 2 allies which make your choices harder. Once you go down the game ends. The graphics and sounds are quite good quality as well. Other than confusing iconography at times and also confusing intents from enemies the game seemed solid enough. 7/10

Reboot Heroes – 4 minutes completed 2 battles. I really didn’t like this one. It’s an auto battler mixed with a deck builder. You have 6 slots I think and program them and go against the enemy. It’s really repetitive already and everything felt unpolished although I liked the art a bit. Also going with the auto battler thing some cards have elements and if you get 3 or more in your program deck you get bonuses. I got my butt kicked almost dying in the first battle and I couldn’t tell you why this happened at all. Not for me. 5/10

Sealed in Wax – 1 minute. Good music, very confusing iconography with a very confusing tutorial. This is more a puzzle game than a deck builder, but you can build a deck for each level. This looks unique, but I just didn’t know what I was doing at all. I see potential, but I need to see others play it or something first. 5/10

Secret Summoner – 3 minutes. This one is a weird one where you summon monsters as the protagonist’s mom and set them up to beat enemies. This was okay enough with good graphics and music/sound, but the controls and the looks from summoning and stuff are where the shortcomings come in. You should be able to controls most things with the mouse, but I couldn’t control the speed well. It seems like okay auto battler type thing where you just manipulate things with your own summons. Not my style, but it is a bit original at least. 6/10

Skogdal – 28 minutes. This was one of the strangest rogue lite deck builders I played from these demos. It’s about some suburban areas looking kind of poor with this weird cutout art style and some kind of rocking music. You can get followers and beat up on some people. The enemies all felt pretty different and got harder as you went through areas, which offer up interactions including just looking at things and talking to people. This one feels a bit unpolished, but offers up a cool alternative style. The only thing I wasn’t sure of was how to get rid of followers, as you can only have 2, I believe and if you have more follower cards, they’re dead cards. Also, I wasn’t sure how much cards I would get a turn, but you can use increasing amounts of energy (starting at one) to draw cards. This was a lot of fun honestly and I loved the style of the game. It feels very indie, but I would get it bundled or cheaper. 7/10

Star Deck – 30 minutes lost against likely demo boss. This one is about some guy who wants revenge after people take his brother I believe and he needs fuel which is why you go after a boss to beat to get fuel in the first area. This is very Slay the Spire like and feels very indie. You get 2 weapons of which you get cards centered around them. If you have a gun, you need to reload and multiple shot cards cannot be used unless you have the ammo. The screen shaking is a bit annoying with attacks. You can counter stuff and it does seem to stack between turns. You pretty much kill stuff, and some enemy intentions are varied like 12-18 attack damage. The UI is very busy and the map is kind of messy as well, but this has some style. When you win a fight you hip thrust the dead enemies which is silly. I have to mention the graphics, which are very stylish but simple as well. I like the effects when you do attacks other than the screen shaking. The music is also very electronic and has some vocal tracks. It’s quite cool honestly and quite a bit different, similar to Skogdal’s music that set a mood. This will have a Kickstarter as well in early April after cancelling their first, aiming for a lower goal. I may actually support them as this was my type of deck builder. It needs polishing, but it has something cool going for it including some hard difficulty with the boss. 8/10

Stellar Orphans – 19 minutes. This one is a deck builder that feels like a board game where you start with a crew that does different things. You only get the resources for a turn and the store refreshes every turn. You can use generic money resources to look at events in the future. Pretty much you’re trying to accomplish your mission, while also surviving and fending off crises in the form of cards. It’s pretty wild and can be hard. You can also hold back a card for a future turn, and you will with some of the crisis events costs. I liked this one enough although I’ll probably wait till it’s fully released before getting it, or until it’s bundled. 7/10

Stray Path – 6 minutes. This was a pretty basic playing and looking game. In this one you have stats and you click on enemies to attack them until they lose all health or you lose all health and lose the run. This one is pretty basic overall although you want to kill things to get gold, but many are very dangerous. I did like 3 runs and lost them quickly in the 6 minutes. This one doesn’t feel balanced at all towards you. I would likely only get it bundled. 5.5/10

TAnima – 18 minutes did one run and died. This one is a kind of traditional rogue like where you play some old man and are trying to open the last door or something. Pretty much it’s kind of more actioney as you can throw your weapon and must move around and even jump over enemies. The enemies are very HP spongey and take quite a few hits. The UI is pretty bad honestly, and doesn’t seem made for higher resolutions, although it supports many. The text and the way things look on screen just make everything a little harder. Enemies flash the areas they are going to attack and you have to quick reflexes to dodge or jump over them or something. The story is just there, and I forgot to mention the rooms where you need to dodge like electricity or something on the wall. These were not fun at all. Also reading the mini map is terrible and it looks like an old ASCII rogue like map, but this also makes it hard to read. I see potential at least. Overall, this feels OK enough and I would get it bundled, but it feels unpolished and the graphics need some changing IMHO. 6/10

Tempus Rail – 27 minutes completed demo (one full train run through after defeating boss). This one is way too gimmicky for its own good. It also commits the sin of boring me outright at the beginning by having a long cutscene in the beginning with a hard-to-understand narrator and no subtitles. Even if there were subs, the backstory seemed really boring for what I understood. In this one for no reason, you have first-person walking parts before you go through doors and fight 3D rendered enemies with cards Slay the Spire style. The first-person segments added nothing and it would have been better just clicking on thing and moving 3D style if they wanted to keep it. The environments are barren of things to interact with. The voice acting is also hard to understand and seems a bit low. The systems are pretty easy and you try to shoot down enemies. It’s not complicated although the main boss had way too much HP. This needs a lot of work, and I think it needs to scale back instead to get a better game. 5.5/10

Union of Gnomes – 20 minutes fully completed 1 level. This one is a trying to be loud and silly one about gnomes getting revenge after the Snow White of their world sang to many of them and took control of their minds and used them as slaves. This game is pretty nice looking and has the weird system where you have a limited mana pool, but you may not get mana every turn. There are specific mana gnomes that do it (upgrade them immediately when you can). There is ranged, melee and support gnomes that may or may not cost mana or other things like discarding cards. The music and sound are OK enough but just very loud and blaring. In the beginning it sounded like a blasting bassoon or something like that with some orchestra. The game isn’t crazy hard, but has some challenge. Another WTF thing is every node you go through STS costs a set value of sausages according to your party. I think is to limit the cards you get, but it’s a horrible system and if you have too many gnomes, you lose sausages fast and when they go to 0 every node traversed makes a gnome card faint and be not available. Honestly this has potential, but need cleaning up in the systems a bit, and better sound/music that isn’t just blaring in your ears. Overall, I would get it bundled only. 6/10

Veil of Madness – 9 minutes walked through whole area and couldn’t go on. This is yet another first-person walking around fighting things (in this case monsters) card style. This one feels more dungeon crawler style and is really annoying for moving around and interacting with things. This should really be streamlined as the moving around with the mouse adds very little and just makes movement a lot more clunky. The monsters are a bit hard to predict, but you have so little cards at first that you play the same cards just about every turn. This has potential as the atmosphere and graphics are really cool. The battles and movement aren’t though. I think it’s trying to do a bit too much, and should maybe just turn into a dungeon crawler with some investigation scenes for items/story and battles a little more straight forward. 5.5/10

Wild Seasons – Confusing but very interesting deck building game where the cards of your deck are flowers in a garden. You must water them between battles as unwatered things wither. You want to wither weeds, and I think that’s how you get rid of them. Otherwise, you get 2 actions in a battle and cards have stars in their cost. This can leave you at a low star state (no idea what it does as the description was cut off on my screen) or high star state where your stuff does x2 the effect. You can rest to remove the star effects and start over as going over the star counts hurts your person I believe. The graphics are pretty good and the music is ethereal and excellent. I want to recommend this and will but it needs more polishing in the UI and explaining the mechanics. I’m still not 100% sure how to do all the watering and taking care of my garden. Also, the map is very busy mainly with stuff I don’t know how to interpret. There is a lot of potential here, and I’ll keep my eye on it, but for now it’s only a bundle game. 6/10
Shame you didn't like Northwind.

It's got a lot of depth and isn't that hard; instead of dealing with traditional block, you have to use mana as a strategic resource to either boost damage later or attack now to mitigate incoming damage.

It also has a unique mechanic for order of cards in your hand mattering. By using that, I was able to manipulate the damage in my hand by buffing certain cards around the card I actually wanted to play into absurd damage.

Plus, the art is Vanillaware inspired. The animation needs more work, but it's really unique stuff.

It's one of my top recommendations. I beat my first playthrough with some unique shenanigans and risking some tight fights going down into single digit HP; trading HP for damage in a later turn by saving mana.

It's also one of the games where the demo was least intrusive, IMO.
 
Shame you didn't like Northwind.

It's got a lot of depth and isn't that hard; instead of dealing with traditional block, you have to use mana as a strategic resource to either boost damage later or attack now to mitigate incoming damage.

It also has a unique mechanic for order of cards in your hand mattering. By using that, I was able to manipulate the damage in my hand by buffing certain cards around the card I actually wanted to play into absurd damage.

Plus, the art is Vanillaware inspired. The animation needs more work, but it's really unique stuff.

It's one of my top recommendations. I beat my first playthrough with some unique shenanigans and risking some tight fights going down into single digit HP; trading HP for damage in a later turn by saving mana.

It's also one of the games where the demo was least intrusive, IMO.

Thanks for pointing it out as I gave it another chance. It popped up later on in the night when I first played it and the tutorial not being as intuitive clouded my judgement. I'm revising my barely review and giving Northwind a 8/10. I beat it after about 50 more minutes and 2 losses (didn't know mechanics will explain below) and third went very well.

For this game I think the tutorial didn't let me know enough, or I just didn't remember. First of all for anyone who plays each card has 3 numbers on it. You start level 1 and do the first numbers of damage. 5 energy lets you level up which not only lets you equip level 2 equipment, but lets you use cards for their 2nd value. 5 more energy will get you your third and final level, which gives the highest numbers on the card. I didn't know this at all and had one equipment dead in my hand because I didn't know how to level up. Leveling up is essential as higher numbers win the game. I do like that most numbers of strength add to the clashing with enemies, and it gets very challenging when you have multiple enemies. You also gain perks that are one use per combat things and generally give one time bonuses such as +3 to damage for a card for the whole battle. Also most normal battles let you choose between an energy card (important to keep a good balance here) and gold. I generally alternate and try to keep at least 40% of my deck to be energy or so.

One very important thing that I don't remember from tutorials is energy persists between rounds. It is very, very important to conserve energy in order to level without being defenseless in a turn. It also is good to not play every card unless there is perks of doing so. This game is a cat and mouse game of leveling up, equipping your hero, defending and attacking when you can and also making sure to mitigate any bad effects coming or junk cards the enemies give. I found out that one of the most important passive effects is the basic get more strength. This not only powers up your card power levels but helps it so you can win clashes of your own to get bonus effects.

The cons of this game are the somewhat bad English at times leading me to reread a cards effect or what an equipment does. This game can use a proofreader. The graphics are also somewhat blurry blown up, but they are nicely done. Also if the tutorial mentioned everything I did, I don't remember it at all, and if so it should be revised to help the players in need.

Overall, Northwind comes out as a very unique and an approachable deck builder that also can be deep at times. The power struggles and leveling up make for some good battles even against easier foes. This also makes it so you don't come into every battle super overpowered, but have to work towards it. I did beat the demo fully and will support the creators hopefully around release.
 
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