Quick Opinion: Enyo, Super Dungeon Tactics, Shadowverse

This should have been called the Mobile Opinion, but Super Dungeon Tactics is not a mobile game for some reason so its just an ordinary Quick Opinion. Here we go!

Enyo

I stumbled upon Enyo by accident while looking for something new to kill time with while in the subway. I was eyeing Enyo for some time now but was hesitant for some reason. This time though I downloaded it and thanks god for that, because this game is probably one of the best on mobile right now. 

Enyo is by the guys behind Card Crawl - Tinytouchtales and they have bet on dungeon crawl again, but with roguelike elements and turn based actions. 

What makes Enyo different from most roguelikes you will see is the way you battle your foes. With Tyr from NerdsBaloney we had a discussion once that roguelikes are a lot like puzzles and Enyo is even more like a puzzle than your normal roguelike. Here you have four actions from which you can perform one per turn and then your enemies act. What is most interesting is that you have no mean to deal direct damage to your enemies. You will have to either push/hook them into the lava or into spiked walls. 

But be careful as your enemies are not puny nor stupid. Among them you will see archers, bomb hurling devils, charging Minotaurs and even foes which can hook you into the lava! The game is floor based and deeper you get the better, but enemies also become stronger. When you die, you start from the beginning. 

What I dislike about the game is that it has the same problem as Card Crawl - parts of the game are locked behind paywalls and you can play only "basic variant" of the game if you do not want to pay. Still the game has a lot to offer for free and if you like it you can always pay for the full game. 

Official site
Google Play
iTunes

Shadowverse

CCGs are in huge rise in recent years and for now it does not look like they are going to stop. True, not all are good, probably not even half of them, but when something good comes out it is quickly slapped on the board and thoroughly dissected by the community. If it is good enough it is loved if not...quickly forgotten.
Shadowverse lucky for its creators falls in the first category - loved and is now happily enjoying its success. What makes it different from the countless Hearthstone/MTG clones? Anime boobs. No, I am kidding, I mean there are a lot of anime boobs in the game, but it is actually worth it to play it because of its gameplay and not the boobs.
I will cut the usual stuff as all are contained in Shadowverse - boosters, ladder, PvE campaigns(with all classes, great to grasp the basics) - and will go directly to the main thing which sets Shadowverse apart from its competition. Your cards can evolve. When a card evolves it gains stats, abilities and the chance to trade blows with enemy creature. Each player can evolve certain amount of times depending on being first or second. I am sure the more experienced CCG players among you can already imagine the changes in tempo and strategies card evolution brings. On top of that each hero in the game has its own ability which usually has high synergy with his/her class cards, giving even more depth to the game.
If you are tired of Hearthstone but are looking for something similar(Duelyst and Gwent feel too different to you) I suggest you to try Shadowverse. It is good and not even nearly as RNG as Hearthstone.

Official Site
Steam
Google Play
iTunes

Super Dungeon Tactics

As I mentioned at the beginning this game would be nice on mobile in my opinion, but here it is, on PC. Not that it is a bad thing. Anyway, on to the game itself!
With Super Dungeon Tactics I went through whole change of hearth as at the beginning when I started playing I disliked it a lot. And I am still not sure why I continued playing it, but I did and it actually turned out to be decent. Allow me tell you more.
Do you like mages, dwarves, barbarians, paladins, rogues and any other stereotype of RPG hero you can think of? Well I hope you do if you are going to play this game, because they are all in there, running adventurer's guild and fighting the darkness in the land of Crystalia. How? Well as the word tactics suggests the fights are indeed turn based and honestly are the best part of the game as everything else is a bit...of a let down. Other than fighting there is a little bit of a story but is nothing special and there is the character management which consists of equipping your characters with the best they can wear. There are two interesting things in Super Dungeon Tactics and they are intertwined together.
The first thing are the battles purely as such. They are interesting, challenging, you feel like accomplishing something when you win. Now they are not too hard, but hard enough to make you think when you are playing. The second part is the small luck element thrown in the game - dice. At start of each round dice are thrown each having the chance to give some boost to your characters, including damage, defense, speed or even the ability to trigger your special skills. Items you equip on your characters manipulate the sides of the dice. What I like the most about these dice is that their results are helpful, but is a lot more important how you will lead your characters than the dice results. These two things together with the instant movement of your characters on the battlefield make the third thing which I like about Super Dungeon Tactics - it feels like a board game.  
Is it worth it? For the hardcore turn-base strategy fans it will feel blank and dull as it does not offer anything between the battles. But...BUT...it is great for a quick fix of some tactical action all of us feel need of sometimes or for people which are just starting with the genre and do not want to jump in the deep from the get go.

Official site
Steam

Pit People - Early impressions - Simply masterful

FIRST! Pit People is in Early Access on Steam. It is not out yet! This is my first impressions from what the Early Access offers. 


I had really hard time starting this impressions article as I really did not know from where to start with Pit People. So I decided to take a very classic approach. Here I go.

Pit People is fast paced RPG adventure game with turn-based battles. Made by The Behemoth the game is still in early access. 
Pit People is a silly game and this is obvious from the start. From the Main Menu to the story, to the art, to the units and items in the game, everything is ridiculous. But each thing is absurd in such a way that when you gather all of them they actually fit together. For example the speech of the characters - they do not say one word which makes sense, but this actually fits with the setting and if they had proper voice over it would have been worse(they do have speech bubbles, do not worry). It may seem random and silly, but Behemoth had very clear idea what they wanted to create. How they fared? Well, read on...

Giant bears, space and blueberries

How many companies can connect the three things above in a single game? I do not know, but Behemoth managed. These three things are the start of the story in the game. A giant space bear attacked the world where the peaceful man named Horatio lived by producing blueberries. Seeming too boring to the bear it ruined his live...Now wanting a revenge Horatio travels the world. Sadly there is only one story quest in the EA version, so I could not really tell how the story goes but from what I saw it looks interesting. Sadly it is the main thing which can make you go through the game and the moment I finished the story quest I quickly felt bored and with nothing to do. Now do not get me wrong there is a lot to explore, side quests and even quest which you can find only on the map. Not to mention the many characters which you can get for your party, but this lead us to...

Parties, monsters and brawls

Brawls does not mean anything just that the battles in Pit People always felt more like brawls to me. Here you should understand one thing - Pit People is a simple game, in every aspect. But because of this it can be really hard sometimes. I know of at least one fight which is really hard and you should be really careful or with a friend to win it. But how parties are formed and how fights happen? As I said - simple. The game will give you five characters to start with and you will have to capture any additional if you want(you will have to). Capturing characters is the main way to increase your hero rooster. To capture someone you have to meet him in battle, leave him be the last alive enemy and snare him in a net. Simple right? You can have six characters in your party, but some will take two spaces and of some you will need two to fill one slot. Those always come in pairs so do not worry, but they are usually weak. 

In the early access there are probably around twenty different characters to recruit, but something which I liked more is that there are no class restrictions. Everyone can be anything if you equip them with the right weapons. Simple. 

I talked a lot about battles and characters, but how battles happen? As I mentioned they are turned based. On your turn you point your character where you want them and then they go, but you cannot tell them who to attack. They will jump at anyone near them, choosing their target at random(among the enemies) so if you want them to attack a specific target you will have to position them in such a way that only the intended target is in their range. Simple but will make you think and plan quite a lot.

Conclusion

Pit People is weird silly game, by the giant Behemoth(you see what I did there?). At first the game may look a bit random and strange but you will realize that all those silly stuff click together really well. In other words the developers had not just poured random ideas in the game, they had clear idea what they wanted to make. 

In it's core Pit People is fast paced RPG adventure game with turn-based battles where you will have to help the poor blueberry farmer Horatio to succeed in his revenge against the horrible space bear. 

The game is still in early access, but its already quite polished and have its core mechanics in place. For now it lacks content and the story quest line will probably be the main thing(aside from the co-op and the 2v2 arena modes) which will make you play the game, but Behemoth have gotten the formula and now they only need to develop its full potential.
The game is not for everyone and its probably even target at very specific audience, but if you like your games a bit silly I recommend you to try Pit People when it is out.

Where to find:

Official site

Steam

Xbox Store