Top 10 reviewed games for 2015

Through 2015 I have written here on this blog about 33 different board and pc games. Today I plan to tell you which of those are the 10 best in my opinion. I mean everything here is my opinion, but just to be clear. I must say that all these 10 games are excellent pieces, I have enjoyed playing them a lot and it was really hard for me to put them in any order.  Here we go:

Number 10 is Invisible Inc. by one of my favourite studios - Klei. The game is turn based stealth action game in which you take control over a team of agents which are ultimately fighting against the global rulers. With its clean gameplay, greatly working game mechanics and beautiful art style Invisible Inc is definitely one of the best made games I have played this year. Full review you can find here.

Number 9 is Age of Decadence by Tower Studios. The game has very interesting and strange setting. It is a mix between the fall of The Roman Empire and post-apocalyptic... By genre AoD is RPG where you will always start from the bottom and will never grow to become a half god, half man killing machine. Because this not the style of the game. Instead you will have to talk your way through mostly anything avoiding any fights. Despite this 100% peaceful playtrough will be impossible and when you have no other choice you will have the pleasure to use very deep and precise battle system. Great choice if you want to play something hard, with interesting story and great gameplay. Detailed review here.

Number 8 is Armello by League of Geeks. In my review of the same game for bigboxgamers I said that Armello is the best digital board game and I still think this is true! The story of the game is that the King is dying and each of the Clans should make so the next King is one of their own. Through out the game you will control one character from Clan of your choice and with many battles or ton of backstab and deceit you will have to make so you're the next who will sit on the throne. And because your oponents will not be enough of treat you will have to also battle the forces of darkness and the Royal Guard if you decide that the shortest path to the throne is the death of the King. Detailed review you can find here.

Number 7 is Ori and the Blind Forest by Moon Studios. Ori is classical adventure metroidvania game in which you play as the lost and later orphaned Ori who tries understand and save the Forest in which he lives. The game has a beautiful hearth melting story and looks gorgeous. Sadly the truth is that the game is for hardcore metroidvania players as it has some very complicated and hard jump puzzles in which you will die again and again and again until you manage to solve it in the end...or just leave the game and never finish it. Which will be big miss on your side as this game is truly great. Read full review here. 

Number 6 is Jotun by Thunder Lotus Games. In it you take control over Thora a young, fearless warriores who have died but not in battle and now she should prove herself in front of the Gods if she wants to ever see Valhala. Jotun is a adventure-exploration game and is for all of you who enjoy hard battles with huge bosses. And when I say hard I mean very very hard. Bosses will kill you with two strikes which is understandable when you are as big as their toe. The other main feature of the game is its atmosphere achieved by it amazing art style and great music and narration. Wholeheartedly I recommend you to try Jotun. Detailed review here.

Some rare gems right there guys and gals. Each and every worthy of your time. But let us continue with the second half of the list which if not else are as good as the first five.

Number 5 is Sunless sea by Failbetter Games. Failbetter became famous with their browser adventure game Fallen London. Sunless sea is taking place in the same dark and mysterious world but focuses on the zee exploration instead of the streets of London. You will take the role of a ship captain who have some goal connected with the zee. During the game you will gather crew, explore, smuggle goods, help the government, get insane and even kill your whole crew...or they you. In Sunless sea there is something very Lovecraftian...the mysteries, the monsters, the characters you meet. This really is one of the most atmospheric games that I have played this year. It does have a bit of a steep learning curve but once you get the hang of it you will quickly sink in the world of Fallen London. Full review you will find here.

Number 4 is Massive Chalice by  Double Fine Productions. In it you are the king of a land surrounded and slowly taken over by the Cadence. Your only hope is to hold it back until the Massive Chalice manages to charge its energies and repel the treat. This you will do by creating and helping the royal bloodlines to survive. In return they will give you their best warriors to fight in a X-COM style turn based battles against the Cadence. Your warriors will level up, learn new skills you will also have the ability to upgrade their equipment. And in rare cases when the best of them die they will leave their legendary weapons for the next generations. Very cool turn based strategy with some very interesting mechanics. Hot recommendation if you are into this kind of games. Detailed review you can read here.

Number 3 is Duelyst by Counterplay. My newest mania! Duelyst is a digital card collecting game with huge twist! Once summoned your creatures turn from cards into "real" monsters which walk around on the board and smack each other. The target of the game is to kill the enemy General. By implementing only one new thing Counterplay have brought so much new things to the genre while at the same time keeping their game quick, competitive and well balanced. If you want something quick like Hearthstone but deeper Duelyst is your game! Full review read here.

Number 2 is Darkest Dungeon by Red Hook Studios. Darkest Dungeosn is a 2D side scrolling roguelike. Roguelike! Not rogueLITE but LIKE! This game will kill you for every small mistake you make. Hell you can even die in the tutorial! Its great! Dark, grim, hard, true enjoyment for the masochistic fans of the genre. In the heavily inspired by Lovecraft world of Darkest Dungeon you will lead a group of heroes into different dungeons ultimately trying to find out what happened to the place. While in the dungeons your characters will die..a lot, but that is the smallest problem. They will also get insane, gain perks both negative and positive, betray their team mates, coward from fights, get phobias and many other things which will let the game kill you off in the most merciless way possible. The worst part? After every fail you see clearly that it is possible to win. Great roguelike. Read full review here.

And now THE number one game reviewed on this blog is........

Pillars of Eternity by Obsidian. Yes, that's right! The newest masterpiece of Obsidian. Pillars is cRPG game in the best traditions of this genre. It has epic turn based battles, deep character development and story that grabs and does not let you until you don't finish it. What impressed me mostly in the game is how well it is written. Every dialogue, every book you find lying on a dusty floor in some forgotten ruin. Not to mention that every word you say matters. You can literally decide the outcome of more than few future meetings in the first few hours of the game. And while I think that if you don't try to read every line in this game you have missed like 90% of it I cannot skip the fact how well the battles are done. You didn't read your whole line before selecting it - too bad this whole town don't like you. You didn't activated your skill at the right time...oh well your whole party is dead.... You decide which is worse. Really, really good game I must really nit-pick to find any flaws in this piece. Full review you will find here.

Honourable mentions: Rebel Galaxy and Mordheim: City of the Damned. Both seem to be great games, but both are massive, massive time sinkers and I just didn't have the time to finish and review them, so I leave them out of this Top 10 list. 

With this list I'm not trying to say that any of this game is better than Wild Hunt, Fallout or...whatever triple A title took the top of different lists that are posted all over the place. This is simply the best 10 games that were reviewed here on the blog. If I have reviewed Witcher or Fallout they might have been in this list. Actually Witcher would have been for sure. But...yeah. Enoy this list, I hope you like it and have a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! 

Armello - EN

On 22nd of January in Steam appeared a new addition to the very popular Early Access, which allows you as you're aware to play games while they're still in development. Now I rarely use Early Access and usually use only to mark things which to follow. But in this case the game I'm about to tell you about grabbed my interest so hard that I couldn't resist. Armello looked like the perfect combination between boardgames and modern technology.

"From the Rat to the Bear
The Clans declared
Time has come
To take the Throne"

I think that this short quote pretty well tells you what the objective of the game is. But although it seems that all agree on what must be done Armello is not a co-operative game. In fact it is just the opposite. But first let's tell you more about the Clans.

"From Great Horrors
Great Heroes emerge"

The Four Clans have chosen their Heroes and they will have to defeat all dangers that the world will throw at them. And on top of that they will have to face the other clans.

The Chosen ones are:

• Thane of the Wolf Clan - The Wolfs are the knights of Armello, they're fair, honest, proud and their only task is to protect the Clan. If for that the King must be killed, so be it.
• Sana of the Bear Clan - The Bears are the oldest Clan in Armello, heirs of the ancient Druids. This Clan has served the Throne for many years, but the most important thing for them always has been to protect the world of Armello. And now the corruption of the King is threatening this world.
• Mercurio of the Rat Clan - The Rats are the most numerous clan and this is their biggest straight. They're everywhere. There is no event in the Kingdom without a Rat present. There is no crime without a Rat sniffing around. With the huge amount of money and influence that they have, The Rats are the rulers in shadow.
• Amber of the Rabbit Clan - The Rabbits were the first who found the underground treasures of Armello. And took them for themselves, fashioning them into beautiful jewellery and mighty weapons. This allowed them to stood together with the other Clans.

When you're ready with choosing a character it’s time to leave your clan grounds and try to save the Kingdom. But your time is limited! The corruption eats the King and he is dying. If your Clan is not the most influent when he is gone, you will have missed your chance. But if the influence race doesn't fit your taste there is another way - sneak into the palace, pass by the Guards and stand against the King. But don't underestimate him, The Lion might be sick, but he will be no easy opponent. To do this you will have to prepare yourselves. This you can do by completing Clan quests and gathering equipment.

"Sana was walking through the forest. The Sun was setting behind the threes. Worry had grasped the bear's heart, because she has heard rumours about disappearing Bears in those forests, but there were no clues who might have done this. It could have been the Rats or the Rabbits....suddenly there were noise on her right! Sana turned ready to defend herself. Towards her was running Amber from the Rabbits, but there was something wrong, her sword was sheathed, her eyes were filled with fear.

- Run! - The Rabbit shouted while darting past the Bear. But Sana had no time to follow as the huge Bane was already upon her..."

Armello is separated in two big parts - Day and Night. Few things depend on those phases of the game. For example dice roll results, Bane spawning and Declarations.

Banes and The Kings Guards are the "neutral" sides in the game. The Banes are enemies of all and The Guard minding their own business most of the time. But they can jump on you if you enter the Castle or someone chooses the right Declaration. At some point you may even be forced to attack them because they have the habit of standing in your way. But be careful they're strong opponents in the beginning of the game.

"Mercurio was just passing through the small town when he heard some noise nearby. The Rat sneaked in that direction and peeked carefully behind the corner while one of his hands was resting on his long dagger. There he saw the source of the noise. Thane of the Wolfs and Amber of the Rabbits were fighting. The Wolf skilfully swinging his sword, but the smaller Rabbit was easily avoiding all his attacks..."

The battles in Armello are done by rolling dice. The idea is very similar to the one in The Witcher - if you roll more swords than your opponents rolled shields you score hits and vice versa. There are also some differences and strategies, but I'll let you find them by yourself. The results from the battles are also few - you kill your opponent and win 1 prestige point for that(unless he is a Guard, then you lose 1), your fight ends without a winner, then nothing happens or you die in which case you lose 1 prestige point and respawn at your starting position. The one who have most prestige when The King dies is the winner.

Digital boardgame

League of Geeks unlike others have utilized at 100% the resources of modern devices and computers. Armello is fully 3D, every character is fully animated with his own moving, attacking and defending animation. The board, cards and characters are various and unique, also well drawn. Now I agree that this kind of puts the game further from "classic boardgames", but at the other hand it turns it into something that is enjoyable to play on the computer. It might even attract players who don't play boardgames.

Players interaction

When the game is competitive its very important the scale on which players can interact with each other or with other words how much you can hinder them. In Armello this is main part of the game, there are a ton of ways to make it harder for the other players. Starting with simple things like taking their towns and choose nasty Declarations and get to poison apples, stealing items,  laying traps and ambushes. The big amount of interactions is probably the reason why killing players give you prestige. Because believe me, the game can easily turn from peaceful questing to vicious head-hunt.

Conclusion

Armello is great combination between classic adventure boardgame and a PC game. In it you will control one character bit it will not be just some pawn on the board but it will stride, fight and defend. At the same time you have limited actions per turn, roll dice and play cards.  

But it's not only beautiful to look at, it is also pleasure to play it, because even in this early stage the game have polished and various gameplay, because of the pre-generated board and different characters playstyle.

In my humble opinion Armello is a link that may make fans of both PC and boardgames to sit and play something together.

The game as always you will find on the links bellow. 

Let your Clan be victorious!

Links:

Official site

Steam

Myths at war - The end of the Age of Men!

This time I intend to remind you that this blog is not only about video games, but also about boardgames. Here some of you will say "But you wrote about some digital board games recently, we remember." , but what I mean are "real boardgames" like Dungeon Raiders and Discworld: Witches.

Today I will tell you about Myths at War! Designed by Francisco Gallego Arredondo and published by GMD, Myths at War is a game where you will build your own deck and will summon armies of Gods and Warriors who will fight against each other. Sounds familiar? Well it has almost nothing to do with the one you are thinking.

Myths at War has 6 sets released so far and each one introduces a new faction composed of Gods and mortals. The main idea is to create decks from those sets and fight against each other with them. The winner is the first who get to 30 points(power cubes). Here comes the first difference with other similar CG games - players don't have health points. Neither do their creatures. But I'm getting ahead of myself. First the cards themselves.

Each set includes two pantheon cards, 20 gods cards(characters,events and resources) and 30 designs. The sum of these numbers is also the minimum size of your deck - 51. Pantheons are cards which will define your strategy, because they are a must and there are only two of them for each faction. They will also tell you with how much power cubes you start and will mark your Pantheon are, but more for that later.
The gods cards include characters which are Gods, Mortals and Summoners. The Gods are powerful cards from which you can have only one in your deck. Mortals are limited to maximum of two and are used for sacrifices for the Gods or to help each other and be stronger together. Summoners are also mortals which are the only ones who can use Incantations which are something similar to equipments but reduce the characters statistics and give them new abilities.
Events are cards which together with the others from the Gods deck form your Oracles from where you will reveal cards. when event is revealed it resolves immediately. They can be both positive or negative and will be main part of your strategy.
Resources are special cards which will help you to accumulate more power cubes which are both resource and victory points.

The designs deck include equipment and actions. The first are item cards which you equip to your characters and they boost them. There are faction bound items and also items which cost less for certain characters or give them abilities. The actions are one time use cards which can have various effects on the game. They have different control effects so to say. For example they will exhaust other cards, kill characters, remove cubes etc.

Building a deck might be a taunting task at first.  And it may even look like there are not many strategies in every faction, but once you become familiar with the cards and play few games you will see more and more strategies within the decks. Battle oriented decks, cubes control, Incantation/Actions heavy are just few of the options.

Now that you have an idea about the cards let me guide you through a round of Myths at War.

When all players(up to 5 by the way...I don't recommend it though you will hate the game if you play it with five) are ready with their decks everyone put their Pantheon cards on the table, take as much starting cubes as shown on the Pantheon card. Next to the card will be your Pantheon area. After that shuffle and separate the Gods deck into four face down piles. It is not necessary for those to be even just start from right to left and put one card in each until you run out of cards. These will be your Oracles. When all players have their Oracles ready, shuffle your Designs deck and draw 5 cards. This is your starting hand. When all this is ready decide who will be first player. MaW have its own complicated way to decide who is first but everything will do so the way is up to you.

First phase is revealing the Oracles. Everyone in order flip the top cards on all of their Oracles and then they can discard one card from the Oracles which doesn't have any cubes on it.

Next is Transfer phase, this is probably one of the most important phases if not the most important. During Transfer you will move cubes from your reserve to characters and resources or from characters who already have cubes to other characters. Remember that only cards with cubes equal to their cost can enter your Pantheon. Transfer is also done in order and each next player have one more transfer than the previous player - the first player have one, the second two etc. You can transfer as much cubes as you want per transfer action. If any cards have their cost paid with cubes they are moved in play(in your Pantheon). All characters keep their cubes while any resources in play have theirs removed back to the common pool.

When the Transfer is completed is time for Influence phase. In this phase you have two basic actions which you can always take - Equip and Meditate. Equip allows you any number of times to equip one item to one creature after paying its cost. Equipments are played from your hand. Meditate gives you the option to tire(tap, sorry Wizards, please don't sue me) one character and take two cubes from the common pool. Other than that you can play and/or use any actions and abilities which say that take effect in the Influence phase. Important to rembeber is that players alternate in playing cards until one of them passes two times in a row. Influence is the time for last preparations between the clash between your armies. Last chance to disable this one scary God or get in play your own monster of character. When everybody are done with this phase is time for...

Confrontation is the long waited clash of sorcery and steel. Players in turns asign characters to the battlefield. All characters which are in the Pantheon can be asign if they have at least one power cube on them. This is the cost for entering the battlefield. When everybody have asign what they want to the battle is time to see who wins. All players count the force of all their characters on the battlefield. Tired characters count for half of their force. Exhausted chracters and such with negative force do not count. The player with lowest force remove from his pool as much power cubes as is the difference between him and his opponent.

After the end of the battle all creatures are returned to your Pantheon. All effects that don't specify continiuos effects are removed; each player draws one card from their Designs deck; any Tired creatures are returned to normal state. The player on the left is the new first player.

This continues until one player have 30 power cubes in his reserve or until only one player have any power cubes.

Conclusion

This was one very long explanation. Sorry about it, but I think that without it you would have no idea what I'm talking about. Now that you have an idea let me tell you what I think of the game. 

I will start with the components and the rulebook. The cards are well made with nice and thematic drawings. Unique for each faction. Unlike them the rulebook is...horrible! May be one of the worst rulebooks I have ever read! Its worse even than the rulebook of Heroes of Might & Magic. The rules are written in two languages and are eleven pages long...eleven! For a game this complicated! I have no idea what GDM have thought when they have written this rulebook... There is even some difference between the wording in the rules and on the cards! Anyway after some guessing and some research on the internet I have figured how to play the game. And oh boy was it worth it?! Myths at War is amazing!

Through the years I have played a good amount of CCG games(HEX, Hearthstone, Duel of Champions, Infinity Wars, Duelyst are some of the more famous ones) and while most of them offer some difference from the original formula(MTG) they are heavily based on it. Players have health points, they need some sort of mana to play cards, cards kill each other in battle. Myths at War is nothing like that and I love this about it. There is basically no board control here because every turn all creatures return to your Pantheon and you need to keep them supplied if you want to bring them to battle again next turn. Because of this well running engine which produce stable amount of cubes for you is extremely important.  These mechanics turn Myths into a lot more strategic and harder game. 

Renowned Explorers International Society - What did you say?!

Do you like a lot of talking in games? Do you like fighting with words? If you do, keep going! If you don't...read on, see what you are missing. 

In Renowned Explorers's 19th century you lead a team of novice explorers who want to become rich and famous. To achieve their goal they will have to complete five missions and climb the ladder of the explorer's Society. The ladder is a static Leaderboard with the names of different characters from the game. At the top await you the most successful and famous explorer Rivaleux. Who is...well probably not as good as everyone thinks, let's say it that way. 

The game does not have much more story to it. Every expedition is stand alone and has its own small story. Your objective is also every time the same - to reach the location of different archaeological or mysterious sites where usually a final battle will ensue. If you win you will get the artifact guarded at the site and will complete your mission successfully. But that is like 10% of each expedition, because while you are looking for the path to your objective you will encounter all kind of challenges. For example you might stumble upon the tracks of other artifacts and mysteries, each bringing you more and more fame. While stumbling through thick jungles or trying not to die of thirst in hot deserts you will do different skill checks which if you win you might improve your characters, find hidden paths, get assistance from locals, get access to shops, survive certain death or even uncover ancient mysteries.

Imagine it like a light choose your own adventure mixed with rogue-lite with a lot of skill checks. The skill checks by the way are not done with dices but instead with a slot machine with only two symbols - success and fail. The higher the level of your skill the more successes you have in the machine and vice verse.

Now let me tell you about the real talking that this game is about! While you explore the ruins in various famous sites around the Earth you will often have to fight be for your life, be for a valuable relic. In the turn-based battles you will have three choices - Aggresive, Devious and Friendly. 

First is your everyday brawl - you are smacking people over the heads, shoot them with guns and slice them with sharp and pointy things. The second is all about breaking your enemy's spirit by offending him with words. This kind of attacks will give different negative conditions to all who are affected by them. They may become depressed and sad for example, which will reduce their stats and resistances. And the third is all about showing people how beautiful the world is. If you're playing Friendly you will make your enemies so happy and confident that they may actually leave the fight convinced that your cause is the best! Be careful though as Friendly will heal and buff your team mates but it will also improve your enemies stats. The best part? You can combine these styles which will cause different moods on the battlefield affecting everyone present. Things can be Peaceful or become Tense, Provocative, Hostile or even Dire. Each of these moods as already mentioned will buff or debuff characters so its really important to learn and use them to your advantage. Also the way you finish your battle will sometimes have additional effects. For example your enemy might give you something if you impress them with your attitude or mysterious stranger may appear and reward you if your style suits him.

With each challenge successfully completed your characters will gain experience and you will have chance to improve their battle and adventure abilities. The first will serve you in battle(not kidding!) while the second will be your best friend while wandering through dangerous lands. These are also the ones used for skill checks.

Every time you finish an expedition (successfully or not) you will return to the Headquarters of the Explorers's Society where you will be able to spend your renown, science and money to improve your team and prepare it for the next mission. 
If after the fifth expedition you are not first in the Society's List you have failed to win and will have to start from the beginning. If your lose all the spirit of your Team also lose. This might happen during battle, by failing challenges or due to hunger.

Renowned explorers is a game made to be played multiple times until you learn how to play it ultimately. It has some original mechanics which with some older ones are working great together. And when you master it you can try its expert mode where you will be able to save only when quitting.

The game also has some sense of humor, nice compelling graphics and a ton of characters with which to experiment while trying to figure the best strategy.

Conclusion

Renowned Explorers is a great mixture of an adventure game and turn-based battles. It also includes a bunch of innovative and interesting mechanics. The spotlight being the ability to defeat your opponents by using only words(good or bad ones, the choice is yours). Together with its graphics and sense of humor this makes a good game which you will like for sure if you are into adventures and searching for lost ruins and treasures. But don't let the first impression of the game to confuse you it is not easy and it will definitely take time to master it.

Where to find it:

Steam

GoG

Official site

Runestone Keeper - How will you die?

There is something masochistic in roguelikes especially in the really hard ones. You die and then try again and then die again and again until no end. You don't play to win; you play to see how far you will get. Not to mention that they are neither fair nor friendly, they just try to kill you. In their era few subgenres emerged but probably one got a good portion of attention - the coffee roguelikes. Those were and still are quick short roguelikes in which you can complete a run in your coffee break. One of the more famous ones being probably Desktop Dungeons. Today I will tell you about another game from this subgenre - Runestone Keeper. Done by Blackfire Games and released on 3rd of March 2015 Runestone Keeper brings together some of the best characteristics of the genre.

How to die...as far as possible

You take in the role of adventurer who is seeking what force lies beneath the dungeon. To learn that you need to first reach its end. The problem? Well, there is whole army of monsters and traps ridden rooms between you and your target. The main mechanic of the game and the games look really remind me of Desktop Dungeon. In both games you have a room which is covered in darkness and you must find the entrance to the next level, killing any monster between you and it. Or all monsters if you are feeling extra strong today. The monsters are nothing more than a square with the three base stats on a tile in the room but are they terrifying when you find them?! I mean have you been in a room with three rare monsters all of them attacking on every turn? Then you don't know the despair that one feels in such moment.

As I mentioned the battles are turn-based. You hit them, they hit you and this continues until one of you dies. At your disposal you will have many different weapons with which to whack your enemies as well as skills, items and the occasional help of a god. The items are one time use and will allow you to manipulate the monsters in different ways. For example you will be able to freeze them, reduce their stats, turn them into stone, kill certain types instantly and so on. Occasionally you will also find altars of different gods. On them you will be able to prey for the gods help. Different gods will give you different kinds of powers. The god of war will give you bonus attack, the god of gold will make it easier for you to gather gold etc. This is always at prise, also the god you have worshiped will put you to tests which based on your actions may have various results. Oh...and don't try to worship multiple gods, they take this very personally and do not like it. Once you worship a god while in the dungeon his altar will be also build at the entrance so you will be able to prey before starting a run.

In the dungeon you will also encounter all sorts of devices which will help you most of the time. Those will vary from ballistas that you can shoot at revealed monsters to shrines that reveal monsters and/or traps near them. And because this might not be enough there are also random events that might happen to you. You may accidentally burst into a monster inn or find the notes of famous alchemic. The events will have different outcomes based on their type and your actions. Sometimes they will even be helpful.

What tries to put Runestone Keeper aside is its runes mechanic. You will start with certain number of runes, separated in three grades - bronze, silver and gold. The runes can be used for two things - to increase the stats of your character or to customize the run you are about to do by activating different effects which will make it harder, but give you more points. Points are useless though unless you are into score attacks or something like that. 

When not trying to die in murky corridors you will have the chance to upgrade your starting area by unlocking shops and buying skills and items. 

All this will of course lead to nothing else but your death...sooner or later, it matters not.

Slowly crawling...

This was about the fun part, now about the not so fun...the game has unlockable characters and this is always cool. Something new to look forward to, something new to try. All great, right? Well...not exactly. It is extremely hard to unlock new characters. They are almost like end game content that you may or may not get; it depends on how long the game will keep you interested. And it will not be long enough. Because while it’s not a bad game: it is well made, it looks good and has interesting mechanics, it does not offer enough for the players to play it until they reach the 10th floor on the third difficulty only to unlock a character about who they know nothing. 

Conclusion

If you are a fan of roguelikes Runekeeper will definetely remind you why you have loved this genre. It has nice pixel graphics, interesting mechanics and the most important for game in the genre - its actively trying to kill you.

The donwside of it is that it have hard time keeping you interested as it quickly spends the things you can do in the game and the unlockables are too hard(or I am not hardcore enough...).

Where to find it:

Steam

Official site

Age of Decadence - "You are about to die and we salute you!"

Usually I start my reviews telling you what the game I will talk about, reminds me of. This time I have nothing to say. Age of Decadence is post-apocalyptic, Ancient Rome inspired RPG in which you try to survive and if Fate allows, reveal the mystery that torments all. 

The game is made by Iron Tower Studio, it was released in October 2015 and as many previous games that offer something different quickly grabbed the interest of many people.

Here you probably ask "Ok, what is so different about it? “ When you begin a new game there is message which starts with "Welcome, dear adventurer! You are about to die and we salute you!" and then it explains how the game works. The fact that this message exists and the developers have decided that the players will need it says enough about how different this game is. But let me give you more details. And even if what I'm about to tell you doesn't sound really unique to you by itself, imagine it with the other characteristics of the game. 

The first thing is that you are not a demigod killing machine in fact unless you choose some of the more fighting oriented classes like the mercenary or the Pretorian you will even try not to get in fight, because you will simply die. And even if you are a mercenary or battle oriented Pretorian you will still try not to get in fights against more than two enemies. 

Second thing which sets Age of Decadence apart is its decision making. There are a lot of games that try to use decisions and make them really important but sadly many fail. In AoD every word you speak matters it can mean the favour of the ruling House or your throat slit. Interesting here is that NPCs not only remember what you said to them but they can (as well as you) to lie or even betray you and they will if they see fit to. In this game in general promises words of honour, betrayal, lies and oaths are something serious and  you may get in serious trouble if you are not careful. Here NPCs are not some weaklings who only give you quests, no, they actually hold a lot more power than you do. And they are not your friends. In other words it simulates dealing with people frightfully accurate. 

Third thing is that the game is not linear...at all! There is no wrong way to do quests and progress through the story. There are easier ways and harder ones, but they all work. The freedom that the vast dialogue trees give you is mesmerizing. You can make crafty plots, trick people, organize assassinations, lie, betray, be loyal, honourable, peaceful, intimidating, knowledgeable and many more. And all those are ways in which you can play Age of Decadence. I have not tried it, but I believe that the game can be beaten without unsheathing your weapon at all. 

These are the key features of the game which charmed me and actually made me write this review. All those are done really well and click together in great way. If those does not sound like your cup of tea you may stop reading here, because there is no real point to continue as from here I will talk about the world of AoD and some other game mechanics like skills and types of skill points.

Let's start with the world. I tend to start my reviews with some lore but this time I deranged a little.
There has been war between the Empire and some mysterious race. Pressed against the wall the Empire used arcane arts to call for help... and such came. And although in the end the enemy was defeated the Empire fell, engulfing the whole world in chaos and darkness. Now few Houses and few Guilds try to hold what is left of this civilization while at the same time they try to rule all the others. Your role is to help those who now have power to find the answers of all unanswered questions about the destruction of the world. Who? Why? How? All those questions lie before you. 

The world is really well fleshed out. There is definitely the feeling of decay and darkness in the atmosphere. Every city has its own character, every House its own way of acting. There are a lot of characters to talk with, good amount of places to explore and visit. Also a lot if items to choose from to equip your character. Starting from daggers to spears and from cloaks and tunics to heavy armors and shields. What you will use depends only on your choice and your skills which lead us to the next interesting part of the game - skills and experience.

The skill variety in Age of Decadence is also great. You will be able to learn everything from how to smack people with all kind of sharp tools to how to disguise and present yourself as someone else or craft a complicated alchemical concoction. The more advanced your skills are the more experience you will need to level them up. And while there are no levels in the game you will get experience while progressing through the story. Depending on your actions you will get combat skill points, civil skill points or general skill points. The first two you can use only for your combat or civil skills and the third type you can use for both. This way of character development rewards focused builds and at the same time allows some variety to increase your chance of survival in the harsh world of AoD.

Something else that really impressed me and I do not remember to have seen it in other games is that when you choose one character you  can and will meet the others as NPCs in the starting town. For example if your choice is assassin your first task will be to kill a merchant, but you will have to go through his bodyguard. At the same time you can choose to start as this very same merchant or bodyguard and then you will have to deal with the assassin that comes for you.

Mentioning assassins and bodyguards may be its time to tell you more about the battle mechanics of the game.  Battles in Age of Decadence are turn-based and use action points where more powerful attacks and heavier weapons need more AP.  That of course is not all. In the battles there is as much detail as in everything else. When you attack you will have choice of what attack to perform. Based on where you aim - in the leg, head or the arm you you will be able to choose between attacks that can deal more damage, but have less accuracy and weaker but easier ones as well as disarming, whirlwinds, flurries, decreasing your opponents’ accuracy, mobility action points etc. Still battles will be the hardest way of solving matters on top of that optional fights will be even harder so think twice before jumping at someone.

Conclusion

Age of Decadence is RPG like no other. I remember playing its early versions and it impressed me even back then, now when I had more time and the full game it easily left me speechless. The atmosphere of uncertainty, the betrayal and death waiting behind every corner. The genuine feeling of a decaying Empire, falling apart while everybody with power fight to rule all that is left. And on top of that the games perfect mechanics. Everything starting from the vast dialogue trees to the skills to the decisions just clicks together making one perfect whole.

But despite seeing it as something great I can easily see why people may not like it. Age of Decadence does not look good - it is isometric and lacks any eye candies. There is very little action in the game and by action I mean fighting. It’s just not a game about killing people; it’s a game about deceiving them. There is a lot of reading in it. It actually reminds me of Pillars of Eternity, because if you don't read you will miss half of the game, not to mention that you will not know what to do. But at the same time AoD is very different game, because of the freedom it gives you. See praising it again, even when I try I cannot speak badly about it. I think this says enough.

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam

Duelyst - Blending genres like noone else

This review is out of date as since it is written the game has changed. It still provides decent information about Duelyst but it misses some key features and some described here are changed. 

Have you seen Star Wars, the original, old movies? Do you remember the cool hologram chess that they had in one of them? I always had dreamed for one of those as it looked really cool. When I started playing CCGs especially digital ones this dream expanded and now I wanted the creatures that I summon to look more alive and not just cards on the table. Basically I wanted Yu-Gi-Oh the anime into a video game! It might sounds a bit lame to some of you, but think about it - your favorite creatures from Hearthstone moving, smacking each other before your eyes. Your massive green beasts in Magic charging at your opponent! Sounds cool, right? Now you can experience this in the new creation of Counterplay Games - Duelyst.

How original it could be?

Duelyst is online game which blends turn-based battles with CCG in a great way. Right now the game is in open beta, but even in this state it looks really close to complete and offers to the player good amount of features.

After a short tutorial you will have few game modes to freely choose from.

The first one is Training where you will be able to complete challenges type Beat guy X in one turn. This mode is great for learning different mechanics of the game and earning a good amount of cash to buy few boosters and improve your card collection. There are 45 challenges right now (v0.49) separated in 9 sets of five, every set harder than the previous.

To unlock harder challenges you will have to play certain number of PvP matches first, which bring us to the next mode. For now the PvP in the game is only 1v1 and there is only ranked. It is also season based with rewards for everybody in the leaderboard, based on their best rank in the season. From what I have seen there is good amount of players and you will not have to wait long for an opponent. The 1v1 PvP is also the only way to complete your daily quests which usually revolve around playing certain number of matches with certain faction.

The third game mode is Gauntlet where you will have to fight matches one after another and longer you survive, the better the reward. Great mode to test your skills and decks.

And the last fourth mode of playing is sandbox where you will be able to test your decks against each other playing for both sides.

After I mentioned decks and factions few times already, let me tell you more about them, before we get to the battles themselves. In Duelyst there are seven factions including a neutral one which is the only one that can be combined with others when you make custom decks. Every faction has its own different play style. For example the Songhai are crafty ninjas which will beat you with backstabs, range units and spells; Vetruvian rely on a lot of summoning; Abysal capitalize on sacrificing weaker units to boost stronger ones etc. 

When I was building my custom decks though I noticed a small problem in that the game does not tell you how many of each card you have put in your deck, making following what you have included and what not harder than it should be. It tells you if you add the maximum 3 cards, but it does not if you add less. But other than this small detail I have not seen any problems with the game. It runs smoothly, its stable, has not disconnected me and have not crashed so far.

Now that you know the basics of the game let's talk about the battles! Duelyst uses mana and muligan systems similar to those in Hearthstone. The different mechanic here is that once per turn you can discard one card from you hand and draw a new one. Also you can have maximum of 9 mana.

But what really set Duelyst aside from other similar games are the tactical turn-based battles. In battle every player has his General which is something like a hero or a Planeswalker if you want. Your opponent General is your target. If you kill him you win the game. All generals have the same base stats - two attack and 25 health. Which makes them pretty weak fighters at the beginning of the duel. To boost them you can use spells to equip them different artifacts. Also you will have to summon your first creatures next to your General. After that you can summon new creatures next to other units under your control. When you summon a new creature unless it does not have the Rush ability it will suffer from summoning sickness and it will be unable to act this turn. All creatures and Generals can move only two spaces. Something a little confusing at first, related to movement is that when you choose path for your units it will not show you that they can move diagonally, but they actually can, though one square diagonal movement counts for two spaces. Also all of your units can pass through your other units. Very important thing to remember, I lost few games because I didn't used that and circled around my own creatures. 

As a whole Counterplay Games have done great job in blending CCG with turn-based tactical game. The battles are not only interesting, but they are also fast paced and end quickly.

The way it looks, the way it is

When I heard about Duelyst at first I was really excited as it sounded right up my alley. Then I saw the game for the first time and its pixel graphics almost made me not touch it as I was quite tired of this style already. Thankfully I decided to give it a try and the pixel graphics not only didn't bother me, but I loved them, because they are done masterfully. Duelyst is the second game where I see such detailed and gorgeous sprites (The first is Serpent in the Staglands, for those of you who wandered). And it's not only the sprites. The animations are detailed, well timed, you feel the impact of the strikes; the spells are simply beautiful to watch spirals of fire cascading towards the skies and giant skulls  roaring before horrible curses befall your enemies. What I'm trying to tell you is to not judge it before trying it as it is a lot better than it looks.

Conclusion

When I saw the name of the game I wondered why they have decided to name it Duelyst with "Y", but I thing I know now. This game at first glance looks like something very familiar, but actually it has such great twist to it that it is something absolutely unique. Duelyst has made the greatest dream of countless CCGs players become a reality - to see your summons smash each other on the battlefield. But Counterplay has not just done that they have built upon it, turning the battles in fully fledged tactical ones which in difficulty can be compared to classics like Heroes of Might and Magic or King's Bounty.

If you like turn-based battles and CCG games there is absolutely no reason not to try Duelyst. This game is amazing!

Where to find it:

Official site