Where it Shines:
Card System - 9/10
Replayability - 8/10
Custom Runs - 7/10
The Good:
StS is undoubtedly the gold standard for Rogue Like Deckbuilders. It deserves the praise it gets, for the most part.
Runs feel satisfying, you learn quickly, and the relics, shops, events, cards, etc, all feel really fun. It's definitely the "Just one more run..." game.
The game on steam also has an incredible modding community and there are tons of extra characters, modes, modifiers, and other changes to breathe life into the game once it gets stale.
The Bad:
For all it's praises, the game really does have a lot of flaws. It's easy to just 4 star review this and move on, but I want to highlight areas where I think it really desperately needs some attention.
- music is serviceable, but very generic
- artwork feels like an early 2000's flash game. You'd have expect to see homestarrunner and his gang pop in
- only 4 main characters, half of which are very basic and make runs too easy, the other half of which are overly complicated and runs feel like a coin toss
- good run customization, but the game needs a sandbox mode where you can experiment without restriction
- ported a ton of times over the last 6 years but no real improvements made at all
- some relics and run modifiers just flat out suck. Like trash garbage, unusable.
Summary:
So is it good or not? I think base StS, although hands down is the best out there, still has flaws that drag it down. However, it's still fun overall to play. Will you get bored of it? Sure, but that could be 20 hours in, 30, 40, 100...it depends on how into it you are. And then you can mod it to get even more life. It's probably the most average game I've put over a hundred hours into and counting, which is maybe why I'm so critical of it. I want it to be better. I want it to sound better, look better, play better. Because people keep making rogue like deckbuilders, and they keep trying to reinvent the wheel when StS has the fundamentals down pat. I just want someone to copy StS and give it the polish it deserves.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite
Card System - 9/10
Replayability - 8/10
Custom Runs - 7/10
The Good:
StS is undoubtedly the gold standard for Rogue Like Deckbuilders. It deserves the praise it gets, for the most part.
Runs feel satisfying, you learn quickly, and the relics, shops, events, cards, etc, all feel really fun. It's definitely the "Just one more run..." game.
The game on steam also has an incredible modding community and there are tons of extra characters, modes, modifiers, and other changes to breathe life into the game once it gets stale.
The Bad:
For all it's praises, the game really does have a lot of flaws. It's easy to just 4 star review this and move on, but I want to highlight areas where I think it really desperately needs some attention.
- music is serviceable, but very generic
- artwork feels like an early 2000's flash game. You'd have expect to see homestarrunner and his gang pop in
- only 4 main characters, half of which are very basic and make runs too easy, the other half of which are overly complicated and runs feel like a coin toss
- good run customization, but the game needs a sandbox mode where you can experiment without restriction
- ported a ton of times over the last 6 years but no real improvements made at all
- some relics and run modifiers just flat out suck. Like trash garbage, unusable.
Summary:
So is it good or not? I think base StS, although hands down is the best out there, still has flaws that drag it down. However, it's still fun overall to play. Will you get bored of it? Sure, but that could be 20 hours in, 30, 40, 100...it depends on how into it you are. And then you can mod it to get even more life. It's probably the most average game I've put over a hundred hours into and counting, which is maybe why I'm so critical of it. I want it to be better. I want it to sound better, look better, play better. Because people keep making rogue like deckbuilders, and they keep trying to reinvent the wheel when StS has the fundamentals down pat. I just want someone to copy StS and give it the polish it deserves.
Note on my ratings:
Treat my stars like Michelin Stars - just having one means the game is worth playing in some way.
1/2 ⭐: hot trash garbage, since you can't do zero stars here
⭐: below average, needs work
⭐⭐: average
⭐⭐⭐: pretty good
⭐⭐⭐⭐: excellent
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐: all time favourite