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Cardnarok: Raid with the Gods is a roguelite deckbuilder.
[h1]Battles[/h1]
Are turn-based. You have three heroes, whereas there can be up to four enemies. It works like many other deckbuilders. You have three AP, five cards in your hand and you draw a new card each turn. Whenever your draw pile is empty, all discarded cards will be shuffled back into your draw pile.
One of the main mechanics is "Swap". The Hero in the middle of your team is the only can that can use cards. You're free to swap your heroes as many times as you want per turn. Every time you swap them, the ability of the hero in the middle gets activated (Get X shield, next attack does more damage, etc.). There is a small chance that "Opportunity" gets activated. If so, one enemy will attack you instantly so there's a risk of swapping too much.
[h1]A run[/h1]
Consists of an adventurer map and several expeditions with battles, events, and a merchant. You start on the adventurer map - it's like a board game (think of monopoly). You roll the dice, your hero moves on the board and gets whatever it is on the field. You need to roll all the dices you have (you get more by doing expeditions or buying them in the shop). After you've used all your dice, you need to go on an expedition.
An expedition is like a map with different nodes like in Slay the Spire and the likes. You choose your way to the boss and need to fight several battles (including elite battles). Your heroes HP carry over from battle to battle and can be recovered with items outside of battles or cards within battles. After the expedition, they get healed again. If all of your heroes die within an expedition, you get back on the adventure map.
A run consists of several expeditions (f.e. 8). After that, you will face the unknown…
[h1]Leveling up[/h1]
Heroes gain EXP after battles but you can also level them up with EXP dust. Moving on the adventurer board, the level up will increase. I will give an example: before doing the first expedition, you will have a smaller level cap (let's say level 4) and you level up your heroes to level 2 with EXP dust. Then you go into an expedition. After three battles, all of your heroes already reached level 4. After that, they can't level up more because you need to increase the level cap on the adventurer board.
Each level increases the heroes' stats as well as (sometimes) unlocks new abilities.
[h1]Meta Progression[/h1]
You can unlock several new Heroes, all with different abilities and artifacts which will carry over into the next run. You can also upgrade those artifacts with orbs. Aside from that, you can unlock higher difficulties.
[h1]The Good[/h1][list]
[*]It's tactical demanding. While I first thought the game is way too easy, I fastly experienced the opposite. It's actually hard and tactical demanding. You always ask yourself if you should swap characters, rather heal, do damage or build up a shield, etc. and this also goes for outside of battles. You will carefully think about which node you should do next, which items to use, etc.
[*]The swap mechanic works very well and is a very good idea. I like it a lot. Paired with abilities this is an innovative way to spice things up.
[*]The level-up system is fun. I like the idea of increasing the cap first to level up more. It brings something more interactive into leveling up.[/list]
[h1]The Bad[/h1][list]
[*]Cards. While I love deckbuilder I think this is the wrong genre for this kind of game. It would be a lot more fun if it would just be a turn-based strategy game, each hero has different abilities and attacks and you need to swap them around, etc. Why? Because there aren't many cards in the game. In my playtime, there were fewer cards than comparable deckbuilders show you within the first 10 minutes of playtime. Yeah, you acquire some new cards here and there, but it feels shallow. Because of this, the game feels barebones when it comes to battles. Not that it isn't tactical demanding through.
[*]The balance. The idea of leveling up (increase the level cap first, etc.) is very good and a lot of fun but enemies scale with you. This means it feels like you did not achieve ANYTHING. Numbers get bigger but that's it. Sure, you will get a few new abilities but the same goes for enemies.
[*]The font is pretty ugly. It's just a small detail but the UI overall seems pretty cheap. Nothing big, but the overall atmosphere suffers because of it.[/list]
[h1]Conclusion[/h1]
Cardnarok: Raid of the Gods is a fun roguelite deckbuilder. The way how a run works are neat, the level-up system feels great and the swap mechanic spices things up. It's also tactical demanding which is a big plus overall. What I very much don't like about the game is the deckbuilder part. It doesn't feel like a proper deckbuilder, there are way too few cards and while the idea of leveling up is great, it just feels unnecessary because enemies scale up with you. I did not have the feeling of achieving anything because of it.
All in all, I would recommend the game to casual fans of roguelike deckbuilder for a reduced price (50% sale).
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