Recent reviews by fleems

Good game, brings me back to the 90s à la Vampire Survivors.

I did notice one bug though, with Giovanna I cleared the Weeny Bridge but it didn't register.
I have yet to clear the '5' stage of the Milk Factory, that might be it?

Good game so far.

I think for an Early Access people cannot really complain about balance, it's a first draft and people compare it to a fully developed StS 1. "Powering up" in Act 1 is a default StS1 tactic. Yes, things are unbalanced - but it is also a new learning curve for most. I think it is a bad idea to "force" a build, my playstyle is adapting on how I progress, not my first Rare. And with the plethora of new cards, you are gambling a lot if you don't.

Good move on the Multiplayer, I really love it. Hellcard didn't quite scratch that itch, but it got close. There is also a popular mod that allows it on StS1, so yea, good move.

I like the extra buff at the beginning of each Act, these can be very strong. I like how they can interact with Strikes and Defends. I really like it. Sometimes it's absolute garbage, agreed, welcome to deckbuilding games.

I really love the Sly mechanic, it "perfectly fits" the Silent. I just adore this class in Multiplayer.

I don't like adding Status cards with the Defect, it's a horrible mechanic in terms of probabilities. Voltaic is very very good, maybe even OP. I would like to see more options in terms of 'Rainbow' and I am not sure if I like Focus being a 'per turn' effect as opposed to cards like Defragment (it's the only one atm afaik).

The Necrobinder I want to like, buffing up Osty seems like a solid tactic every time. Not big of a fan of Doom, it triggers at the end of the enemies turn. Stacking it requires a bit too many cards, but it's fun when you get there.

The Regent uses Stars in addition to Energy. which is a difficult balancing act - you are forced to go for cards that generate Stars which are not always that good (RNG-on-RNG dependent). This is further limited by the amount of cards drawn and Energy required to spend in order to gain Stars. But I think it's quite fun buffing up my Sword, but that is really Power dependent (you need multiple cards for it to work) and costs 2 Energy.

The Ironclad sees an increase of paying with HP, I don't like that all. A Rare Power card, lose 1 life, gain 8 block? Hard pass. Maybe it might be better to take 'damage' instead of life loss, this damage can scale up more easily. I like Dominate, it gives Strength equal to Vulnerable. But yea, Ironclad could use balancing the most IMO. I tried going infinite with Haymaker and Pommel Strikes, but that was hard to do. Some powers are definitely much more worse than others.

Yes, it is punishing in the beginning (those 4 wurms as Elite in Act 1 are very tough, but we (2 Silent) managed to beat them on A9 comfortably), and the game does (as always) punish you for bad choices and/or loitering your deck. Yes, Sometimes you have a rough start, bait cards (Sword In Ink) that lead to nowhere. But that is kinda how it goes, no? Prioritize Block over Damage and hope for some key cards.

I would like to see a bit more gold gain from monsters, it leads to a bit more room to build a deck (or remove a card). Treasure Map is nice, Eternal curses suck in a good way. I think the ? events are solid in regards to Transforming/card removal. But yes, the added mechanics make the game a bit more RNGish, but it's early access, let them handle the feedback after this first draft. Especially after supplying a very good first game.

8/10

Very good game for an Early Access, it has all the good elements. Good gunplay on the ground, space fights are good, I like the power grid a lot and the emergencies are cool - and the game looks very good too. I really like the grappling and the jet pack is perfectly fast.

It's plays like Wild Gate but way more fleshed out and much better aerial combat, Barotrauma-esque and Deep Rock Galactic elements combined in a Helldivers 2 galaxy map with Slay the Spire/FTL map progression.

But opening and closing the airlock is hassle - make it so that the second door opens/closes automatically. You want the Materia but collecting it is a bit of a chore. The buddy bot would be an awesome helper in this.

When it comes to grappling, I love the speed and the ease but it is hard to sometimes to lock on a grappling point when you come from the other side. Maybe it's better to place the initial grappling point at the side of the construct instead being inside on the ground. The speed of the jet pack doesn't help in this scenario :)

Fix. Your. Servers.

MM gets even worse when you hit C-rank, I can't even find games or queue with friends.

EDIT: Alright, servers fixed afaik

10 hours for 3 bucks, sure. Don't idle too much, if you are waiting too long - just prestige.

I enjoy the game, designing your own Hogwarts is a pretty cool concept. People make the comparison with ONI (Oxygen Not Included) but this game is more casual with less elements. Except the repetitiveness kicks in quite hard when you finish your school. The advanced task priority works, but not as intuitive as one might hope. I had some issues with automatic feeding and taking care of the "biggest" creature which adds a good layer of tediousness (requires to be fed, petted and "another thing" on a regular basis).

Combat is ok, wouldn't expect too much from it. You have to do quite a few along the way so it's good that its quick and fast. I don't have a lot of Staff because I don't need that many, once you have your Staff optimized (max level in 2 schools for example) there isn't really much to it. Other game elements have this too, Endgame is not so much fun as I'd hoped.

The one thing I really dislike is that I have to manually summon each student (2 hours), it becomes a real chore because the best way to level your (low-level) Relics is by giving them to your Students. And if you don't, you are not doing anything except wait for Quests to finish (which take too long). So you want this cycle of new Students to keep the game going or else it becomes a boring school quite fast.

I think what would make this game really shine is an automatic flow of (increasingly) new students where the challenge lies in having enough food, sleeping quarters and schools/teachers and classrooms. This way your school is never really finished and would work towards a true school of majestic grandeur. Have new students have a quirk with in-house effects (accidentally summoned a Demon because his father is Cthulhu?). And explosions, make Alchemy blow up and accidentally have another "Founder" or a long lost Wizard (or a Balrog). Maybe some random secret entrances as an event hook?

Make the Underground more appealing or interesting once you have tunneled through a few. It's the perfect location to build and teach Geomancy for example. I just stack it with Chests with stuff I have in overabundance. I think it can be utilized better, because once you get the upgrade for Wands, you just portal in and out.

And please, make it easier to swap out/allocate Relics, I don't want to scroll and click forever. Some Relics don't even show, so you have to manually select and Deattune and then it pops up.

Cool game, cool story, kara-té; I do recommend.

The infinite resources make this game a casual but very enjoyable experience.
It is complex enough to be entertaining and the Dimension storage is a genius addition in 1.0.

Mods are available, if you like this but want more optimization, Factorio is a really good alternative.
Vice versa, if you are looking for a building game but enemies or pollution gets you down? Satisfactory turns that frown upside down.

I really enjoy the game with my current 267 hours, albeit I do play it with a friend. Teamwork makes the dream work.

Its not free, it's Pay to Play; or 8 hour wait time until you can play your next game, which is ludicrous. The best thing yet; they ban people for having multiple accounts. I mean, how hobo low can you go?

Devolved capitalistic monkeys, squeezing quality from the world for a buck.
They ruined MTG too. Stop giving money to Hasbro.

Go to a site like warzone.com (previously WarLight) and play Risk there. He's an individual who made a really good alternative with a bunch of game modes and everything, all for free.

Pretty good for Early Access, content is on par with Hades 1