This sure was a trip.
It starts off as a card game with roguelike elements, with an eerie and fascinating atmosphere. This is what is shown in all the promotional material for the game, and is by far the best part of the game. The card mechanics are well thought out, and they are introduced in a digestible manner. After a few runs of hardship and defeats, you learn all the ins and outs, and you are more than capable of constructing a decent deck. On every death, you also get an opportunity to design a card (an OP card, if you're smart about it), which you can then find in subsequent runs.
You play against a creepy, all-knowing being, who acts sort of like a DnD dungeon master. The atmosphere is thick, creepy, visceral. Your "damage points" are teeth that get put on an old-fashioned scale that determines who is winning each match, you get the opportunity to pull out one of your own teeth to tip the scale in your advantage, you have to sacrifice your weaker cards in order to play stronger ones, while your soon-to-be sacrificial victims quiver in fear. This is brilliant!
On top of that, you are free to leave the game board and walk around this being's cabin, that has some puzzles (old-school resident evil-like puzzles) sprinkled around. These puzzles give you new cards and clues on how to escape the "prison" of the game loop.
Then you finally do, and defeat the boss. Had the game stopped here, it would have been a nice, polished gem of a game.
Unfortunately it doesn't end here. After this point, the game goes meta. I can't say too much without spoiling, but just know that there is much more to this game than just this first part. And the rest of the game is nowhere near as fun and balanced. Card combat starts to feel like a afterthought, and difficulty plummets to almost zero.
Partly, this is intentional (at least, I assume). You are more compelled to get to the bottom of the great mistery behind the game, so difficult and engaging combat would probably feel like a drag. But, counter-intuitively, this "second part" is also where the game dumps a boatload of new, imbalanced and half-baked card mechanics, that you can basically just ignore as you steamroll your enemy.
I was pretty engaged by the overarching "big intrigue" that permeates the whole game, with the exception of a few parts where I felt that the game tries too much to be clever and "meta".
Had difficulty and mechanics remained consistent throughout the experience, I would have adored this game. As it stands, it still gets a good grade for its incredible ideas and narrative, that are unfortunately held back by questionable game design decisions in the second half.
If you like metacommentary, card gaming, and creepypastas, this is the game for you!
It starts off as a card game with roguelike elements, with an eerie and fascinating atmosphere. This is what is shown in all the promotional material for the game, and is by far the best part of the game. The card mechanics are well thought out, and they are introduced in a digestible manner. After a few runs of hardship and defeats, you learn all the ins and outs, and you are more than capable of constructing a decent deck. On every death, you also get an opportunity to design a card (an OP card, if you're smart about it), which you can then find in subsequent runs.
You play against a creepy, all-knowing being, who acts sort of like a DnD dungeon master. The atmosphere is thick, creepy, visceral. Your "damage points" are teeth that get put on an old-fashioned scale that determines who is winning each match, you get the opportunity to pull out one of your own teeth to tip the scale in your advantage, you have to sacrifice your weaker cards in order to play stronger ones, while your soon-to-be sacrificial victims quiver in fear. This is brilliant!
On top of that, you are free to leave the game board and walk around this being's cabin, that has some puzzles (old-school resident evil-like puzzles) sprinkled around. These puzzles give you new cards and clues on how to escape the "prison" of the game loop.
Then you finally do, and defeat the boss. Had the game stopped here, it would have been a nice, polished gem of a game.
Unfortunately it doesn't end here. After this point, the game goes meta. I can't say too much without spoiling, but just know that there is much more to this game than just this first part. And the rest of the game is nowhere near as fun and balanced. Card combat starts to feel like a afterthought, and difficulty plummets to almost zero.
Partly, this is intentional (at least, I assume). You are more compelled to get to the bottom of the great mistery behind the game, so difficult and engaging combat would probably feel like a drag. But, counter-intuitively, this "second part" is also where the game dumps a boatload of new, imbalanced and half-baked card mechanics, that you can basically just ignore as you steamroll your enemy.
I was pretty engaged by the overarching "big intrigue" that permeates the whole game, with the exception of a few parts where I felt that the game tries too much to be clever and "meta".
Had difficulty and mechanics remained consistent throughout the experience, I would have adored this game. As it stands, it still gets a good grade for its incredible ideas and narrative, that are unfortunately held back by questionable game design decisions in the second half.
If you like metacommentary, card gaming, and creepypastas, this is the game for you!