ARC SEED

I went into this game expecting a card based Into the Breach where positioning and movement were just as critical as dealing damage and taking out enemies. The reality is far from this. The problem starts with visual clarity. The camera angle means that the buildings block anticipated enemy movements/attacks. The devs have made buildings more transparent when they're blocking your view, but it just adds to the visual noise. Enemy design and communicating information to the player. In a game like this you also expect to slowly learn enemy behaviour, strengths & weaknesses. There's no meaningful way to figure out what a particular enemy type does/doesn't do (at least nothing that's immediately obvious). I had a map with 4 enemies; all identical, but they all had different maximum health. Why? Are some more powerful than the rest? Different attacks? I wouldn't be able to tell you, I just targeted the lowest health one first and worked my way up. The economy. At the end of every level you're given cash to spend (sometimes with card/equipment rewards). The problems starts with how the game handles taking damage. If your mech takes damage during a battle, you have to spend a stupid amount of cash (even with economy upgrades) fixing it up. This creates so many flow on problems. One, no map can build up tension because the game is tuned around damage being carried forward; not each battle being a tug of war. Two, creating a decision of either healing or investing means little when the resource rewards aren't enough to do either effectively. You can lose 4 HP after a battle and not have enough cash rewarded after the match to heal your mech. These things don't sound problematic on the surface but they create a rich get richer gameplay loop, you're either doing so well you don't need to heal so you can invest aggressively in upgrades, or you're spiralling down with no room for recovery. The art style is gorgeous, but the game itself lacks depth and replayability. I am conscious that this is an indie developer and I hate leaving a negative review. So I will say this, if you love the art style give this a shot, you might enjoy it more than I did.

[h3]RANKING:[/h3] [table] [tr] [td] [h3][strike]AVOID | FLAWED[/strike] | [b]MAYBE[/b] | [strike]WORTHWHILE | COMPELLING | UNMISSABLE [/strike] [/h3] [/td] [/tr] [/table] [h3]SYNOPSIS:[/h3] [table] [tr] [th][b]ASSESSMENT:[/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] ARC SEED is a playable, albeit unsophisticated mecha themed roguelike with an addictive quality. TBT encounters are light, yet delightful due to a simple game-loop conducive to fast-paced gameplay, a sprinkling of purposeful mecha configuration & the combination of several progression paths. Combat mechanics are sufficiently varied, but without enough spread to make deckbuilding fulfil promised depth. Offering only a whiff of synergy & alternate strategies. Encounters can feel simplistic & the heavy reuse of assets give it a repetitive look & feel. Game modes blur into the same experience on many levels. While it ticks many boxes, it could to do with being flushed out more than it has been. A title that will [b]MAYBE[/b] appeal to a certain type of gamer. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]STATUS:[/b][/td] [td]'Full' version released on 17 Sept though one more content update aims to give more depth to pilot/mecha customisation & the card deck, & QoL [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]APPEAL:[/b][/td] [td]For fans of low budget roguelikes who don't mind their games rough around the edges & enjoy robust card driven tactical gameplay [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td][b]VALUE:[/b][/td] [td]Suggest getting it on at least 25% sale due to it's repetitive nature [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Key provided by the developer through my curator [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/40556040-The-Irregular-Gamer/][b]THE IRREGULAR GAMER[/b] [/url] | Click to follow & get updates[/quote] [i]More info below....[/i] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3581761715 [h3]HIGHLIGHTS:[/h3] 🟡 GAMEMODES come in x4 guises. Standard ROGUELIKE across x4 acts with linked & branched encounters. A story-driven CAMPAIGN mode with x2 difficulties with flexible pilot & mecha selection prior to encounters. RL variant with rotating card deck offers a different challenge. Harder NEW GAME+ mode extends longevity. 🟡 Tight GAMELOOP is perfect for short-lived encounters & fast-paced gameplay. With the sequence of turn-limited duels & trader visits providing rewards to upgrade the current mech, pilot & card deck. 🟡 TBT COMBAT is delightful once a good enough deck has been built up. Fought on compact battlefields, complexity comes primarily through card use, generating damage multiplying combos, increasing energy to increase actions in a turn or managing battery power to extend turn limits. Buildings are used to break Line-of-Sight & avoid attacks. Previews of the enemy action allows for tactical adjustment. 🟡 PROGRESSION works on x4 levels. Some are weaker than others. Individual mecha UPGRADES define durability, actions & endurance scale quite well. EQUIPMENT defines capabilities, is interchangeable & so remains relevant throughout. RESEARCH has x3 trees which work well until maxed out, not scaling adequately to the end of a game mode. The DECK remains constantly customisable, with multiple avenues to purchase or find more. The ARC PASS is a strategic meter that grows with XP gained from playing. It unlocks a wealth of varied upgrades, pilots, mecha & strategic abilities. 🟡 STABILITY is very good. Only crashed the once while organising my substantial pile of 50+ cards. Likelihood of more is low, but probable as others previously reported reoccurring crashes during transitions. These seem fixed. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3581710833 [h3]OFF TARGET:[/h3] ⚪ DECK-BUILDING is steeped with meaningful cards that use a variety of useful & interesting mechanics. An amalgamation of standard, limited, disposable & cards that grow with use. Alternate deck building strategies are limited. As are synergies due to few damage types. Including: ranged vs melee attacks, tanky builds, healing & augmented capabilities. Action blocking cards can be drawn depending on circumstances. Damage comes in the form of surgical strikes, area-of-effect or chained & *specials*. ⚪ ENCOUNTERS come in several guises: regular, elite & boss battles. Use similar scripted enemy compositions around certain points of a run. Regular reuse of the same maps give them a generic feel. Trader & reward nodes allow the purchase or choice of card(s) from a selection. ⚪ ENEMIES come in several guises, but could do with a few more varied types. Along with standard, fliers, those that split into components, those with drones are the tankier bosses. Of which some cause their own unique tactical problems. Alongside their capability to cause damage, they can generate shields, repair, duplicate, drain, teleport & more. ⚪ AI can be deadly in some encounters or harmless in others. Much depends on the player's deck or hand. Will attack & put up shields. Position them favourably sometimes. Use special abilities. Lacks coordination. Annoyingly will sometimes waste some of its very limited actions. ⚪ REPLAY VALUE is unsurprisingly okay primarily due to the number of game modes, however the reuse of the content, small number of maps & limited pool of enemies give the game a samey look & very repetitive feel. The campaign just felt like replaying the core run with only minor differences. ⚪ x4 game modes suggest decent LONGEVITY were it not for insignificant differences between each of them. Lacks achievements also. ⚪ AUDIOVISUALS are okay. ARTSTYLE is cartoonish giving it an anime quality. Reinforced with the occasion inscreen vids like an 80s cartoon & a basic SOUNDTRACK. ANIMATIONS are clunky & could be better due to the lack of frames used by moving mecha. While weapons use the same action sequence by class. AUDIOEFFECTS are purely functional. ⚪ PRODUCTION is Indie level. Of the few BUGS encountered one locked up the game. The others did not impact the experience much. - GRAPPLING CARD goes into an infinite loop if used against Sahaquiel Sentinel. On end turn none of the cards could be played. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3581711997 [h3]SHORTCOMINGS:[/h3] 🟤 With Fire & Weak being the only COMBAT STATES applied through cards, there is not enough. Would love to see more of these & the cards to take advantage of related synergies. 🟤 Due to several factors the game cannot shake off its REPETITIVE feel. Each mode is essentially a variant of the same core run. ENCOUNTERS are essentially the same battle with SECONDARY OBJECTIVES not offering much to change this. Reused MAPS give it a Deja vu look. Mechas don't offer enough differences. Pilots only offer a single starting difference & do not grow. 🟤 UI is well-organised, but feels clunky. Tooltips do not cover every element. Possible actions can be unclear as buildings block hexes due to the fixed camera angle. The use of shaded colours takes getting used to. The card hand does not scale with large numbers relying on a clunky scroll system. There is no filter or sort options to arrange cards. 🟤 OPTIMISATION is okay but left running performance slows & stutters. Possibly suggesting a memory leak. 🟤 Is MISSING a lore-filled ledger updated with every new encounter. A way to actively discard cards from the hand at cost. A way to draw cards when hand is empty. To inject unused energy into the next turn without wasting it. [table][tr] [td]Click for:[/td] [td][h1][url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/TheIrregularGamer/discussions/0/600791791480957873/]Full Review[/url][/h1][/td] [/tr][/table] [table] [tr] [td][b]REVIEWED WITH:[/b][/td] [td]Build v 1.0.1 INTEL i5 6600 3.3GHz, 8GB RAM, GTX970 4GB @ scaled to 1920x1080 fullscreen, EVO850 SSD [/td] [/tr] [/table] [quote=]Thank you for reading[/quote]

In the end game it crashes at the end of almost every battle before the results screen causing you to replay the battles. Crashes in many other screen transitions as well. I have averaged 17 crashes in 4 hours. This needs much more testing and debugging before calling it a 1.0 release. What I was able to play was simple and fun but the amount of crashes are unacceptable.

this game is clearly unbalanced, and not fully thought through, the visual elements are unclear, starting with the different types of cards you can use, there is no explanation between the difference between scrapping and discarding, the difference between a passive card that can be equipped to your build and a card you can use in combat is between light gray and darker gray. the inhabited buildings have no signifiers unless you are actively targetting them, so that if you throw and enemy into something you cant be sure it has people in it. the range markers for skills are hard to see, the are of effect of abilities is incredibly unclear. the economy of the game is broken, where its incredibly easy to build something that will win every fight on 1 turn before the enemy gets to act, including bosses. because of this multiple interesting enemy designs are not really explored. if the economy problem was fixed some of the enemy designs would be absolutely broken, an enemy that duplicates itself at full HP every turn, means that if you can't delete the first one, on turn one of take two out on turn 2, you will be outscaled without a chance of getting back into the game. the max energy resource is largely meaningless. there is no real energy cost balance built into the skills, there is no risk of running out unless you are very clearly doing something wrong. even when chaining 20 or more cards in a row, I never felt like I needed to have more energy. the evacuation mechanic. you score more points for evacuating people out of the city, and get penalties for destroying buildings full of civilians. problem is, the rewards for missing the secondary objective for losing no more than 100 civilians is not big enough (1 extra card usually out of a choice of 3 commons) when you are being rewarded the same way all over the game. you already get a free card reward for finishing the mission. you also get access to a shop after every mission. which can be upgraded to show better results than any mission rewards. except for the last boss. the flying boss requires a set of tools that is not required of any other enemy or level in the game. it is immune to over half of the attacks in the game, sometimes because they are melee attacks, sometimes because of bugs. the map tiles are literally 50% buildings meaning that you will need to have a way to teleport, or destroy buildings (most weapons will not let you target buildings) this makes this particularly frustrating. over all, good idea, nice art assets and some animations, could really use some play testing and re-design

Very unpolished, not much is explained and most things are pretty basic ... dodge and attack and try to keep enough health until the end of a battle.

Neon Genesis Evangelion meets Into the Breach, with a card deck that determines which attacks and abilities are at your disposal each round. I love the animations and aesthetics. Very cool! I enjoy being able to customize and level up the mech and its systems. Even at this early stage, this game has a really good combat system in place. A few bugs here and there, but otherwise, its a pretty solid Early Access title that you should totally check out if you are a fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion, or enjoyed Into the Breach.

Fun little mech card rogue game. I would recommend it for $10, not $15 however (I did snag this on sale). It could use some work. I think the animations are cool, but it definitely needs some more.

A real love letter to evangalion I cream every time I play it

It's got the vibes of Neon Genesis Evangelion, but the gameplay is a mix of Into The Breach and Fights in Tight Spaces -- two of my favourite games. If you like either of them, you'll probably like this too. My one criticism so far is that it's quite hard to work out *why* certain things happen. It could do with more clarity around what enemy attacks are going to do and how they do it, the way ITB does.

The gameplay and the flavor are all very solid. It's a fun, tactical RPG about mechs fighting alien invaders. For $10 I think you do get a lot of value, my one wish is that the production value was a little higher. I would loved to have paid more money if the presentation, animations, VFX, SFX we're more robust.