Draft of Darkness

The game as a true charm to it, and it's being supported by the developers to this day which is a great thing. After playing three hours of the game upon purchase, I don't actually want to continue playing, I think about it but something turns me off from the game. I think that thing is micromanagement. The game is a mix between card battle rogue like and survival turn based RPG, something like Slay The Spire meets Stalker. This is where the big turn off comes from, every card you play has the option to be played as intended with an extra cost such as, bullets, batteries, syringes and the like. Resources you can scavenge for, the alternate use is a basic bash attack if you only want to consume the equivalent of mana/stamina for a particular type of weapon that must be equipped on the character. So a pistole ability that shoots three times at three random enemies could cost 2 energy and 1 bullet, but if you dont have the bullet it converts to a bash attack that does a base 4 damage to an enemy a single time. So now your not only equipping and collecting cards, but your managing resources to actually use those cards beyond a basic deal X damage bash attack. This is what turns me off, I don't want to micromanage resources that are consumed/required to use a card as intended, I think this is a mechanic too far that ruins the game for me.

awesome

探索による装備アイテムの更新や各種リソース管理が重要なRPG寄りのローグライクデッキ構築。 この手のゲームにしてはストーリーに力が入っており、プレイヤーはニューゲームごとにタイムループしながら協力者を見つけ、世界を覆う"ダークネス"の謎を探っていくことになる。 サイバーパンクな世界観に90年代のビデオゲームを彷彿とさせる荒いグラフィックがとても良くマッチしている。 選択式のプレイヤーキャラクターに加えて道中でNPCを勧誘することで前衛3人+控え1人の計4人までのパーティを組むことになる。 キャラごとに使用可能武器がいくつか決まっており、武器に紐づくスキルカードでデッキを組むのが今作のデッキシステム。 スキルカードは戦闘報酬に加え、ショップやランダムイベントで得ることができ、強化・削除などおなじみのシステムも搭載されている。 装備アイテムは武器(右手/左手)・防具(頭/胴/足)と多め。装備を更新すると目に見えて与える/受けるダメージが変わるため、ゲームクリアまで探索のモチベーションが途切れず遊べる。 ストーリーモードの難易度は選択方式。ノーマルではしっかり探索しながらデッキや装備を準備すれば毎回ゲームクリアできる程度のゆるめの作り。 とはいえ雑にやっているとその辺の雑魚にHPをどんどん削られ、攻撃に使うリソースも足りなくなるのでゲームバランスは良い。 また、特殊なプレイ目標が設定される高難易度のチャレンジモードも10種類以上用意されている。 RPGの探索・装備更新によるキャラ強化が好きな人に特におすすめ。

ダークでグロテスクでチープなデッキビルドローグライクRPG B級感溢れるクォリティの高いチープ演出でホラー感は控えめです 難易度はイージーだと銃弾や燃料など豊富なリソースでヒャッハー出来ますが 高難易度になるほどリソースが足りなくなりより息ぐるしさが増す様な感じです UI周りはやや分かりづらく少し面倒な感じはありますが 慣れれば問題ないレベルだと思います ストーリーは正直自分には面倒な要素でした 周回前提のアンロック要素がやや面倒ではありますが 自分である程度ルールを決めて遊べるカスタムランは非常に面白かったです B級ホラーなポストアポカリプスでローグなダンジョンRPGがやりたいという人にはオススメです

A diamond in the rough. The premise alone is enough to perk one's interest: survival horror mixed with a turn-based deck builder. The atmosphere is oppressive, filled with radioactive cities, moldering apartments, grungy sewers, and decaying hospitals. This is a world that's verging not in collapse (That's already happened), but with human extinction. Everything looks grimy and dirty, seen through a grainy, pixelated lens. The world maps do not have music; instead, it's composed of people coughing, shuffling around, and the occasional growl/snarl of a monster. Music doesn't start until the player bumps into an enemy reminiscent of games like Persona 3-5, and the music has a distinct Silent Hill influence: noisy and industrial. The enemies and bosses themselves would not look out of place in the earlier Silent Hill games. There's even a little flair of Resident Evil (zombies and mutants) and Half-life (military enemies whose radio cuts out when killed) enemies. The deckbuilding is classic choose one of three cards after battle. During a player's turn, they have points that they can use for cards that allow for defense, attack, healing, and buffing or debuffing. Some cards might use one of several resources found while scouring the world for supplies: chemical (ammo, special cards, and for healing), bullets (ammo, special cards, and sometimes for blocking), shotgun shells (ammo and special cards), crossbow arrows (ammo and special cards), and gas (ammo and special cards) Some of the characters play better than others, with Jake being possibly the least fun from my experience. Ammo corresponds to weapon types, and only for use with cards that share that weapon type. If you do not equip the proper weapon type, the card that corresponds to it won't work. Gear and upgrading/pruning decks is a huge part of the challenge. There's side quests, several characters, trophies (Think relics from Slay the Spire), and unique cards, items, perks, and areas to unlock. There's a decent amount of replay for the asking price of only 15 bucks. Sounds great, right? However, the game is a diamond in the rough. It's not a perfect experience. The way some quests are solved can be downright obtuse at times. Status effects were confusing at first: some only persist in combat, while others persist for a given foot count in the overworld. The opening stories for the various characters are pretty great, with Rene (a Jack-o-lantern masked and chainsaw wielding vigilante) being a personal favorite. However, the overall main story is a confused mix of old tropes blended together, with lots of story notes to uncover. It doesn't know if it wants to be supernatural, horror science fiction, or some virtual reality nightmare. I played more for the adventure itself than for one of the main endings. With this all said and done, I do highly recommend this game, even at full price. It's a unique take on survival horror with a ton of unlockable stuff. I haven't even gotten into progression, challenges, and the roaming boss battle. There's a lot to dig in here. The game takes some patience to understand fully. A single playthrough may not win you over, but the second or third one will likely click.

It's just incredible. Whilst I'm not the biggest fan of roguelikes, I do love a good card builder. And survival horror is my favorite genre of video game hands down. So far, DoT does a lot of heavy lifting for you, like it does in a lot of roguelike card builders I've seen. It's extremely abusable in both The Black Book and Tainted Grail: Conquest (not to be mistaken with the Tainted Grail: The Fall of Avalon), and whilst it's not outright broken here, it did carry me through my first encounter with Daemon who I succesfully defeated by stacking bleed on top of his stupid goat head. I'm pretty sure you're supposed to run away from him, but I managed none the less. We'll see how DoT fares for me in the future, as I'm still only comfortable at leaving the appartments reliably yet. The world is oozing with atmosphere, and its building is simply impeccable. It's a very conspiracy ridden cyberpunk, lovecraftian setting as though HP himself wrote it using the original Deus Ex as inspiration. Also, yes it has themes. If you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then it offers you the examination of what our post-capitalist, technofeudalist hellscape of a world could eventually lead to, all under the guise of "freeing us from our chains". In the end we all know who the real monsters are, and it isn't ourselves, but it certainly is some of us. I might update the review once I beat the game, but I thought that the developers deserved my vote right now, as I've played too many indie games with low triple digit reviews, which is just a shame to be quite honest. Do yourself a favor and buy Draft of Darkness. Especially if you're into rogulike deck builders and survival horror games. And especially, especially if you're into cerebral games.

[table] [tr] [th] [b]✔️ The Good [/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Survival Horror Vibe[/u]: The dark atmosphere combined with a grungy PS1-style aesthetic perfectly captures a classic 90s survival horror feel. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Progression Loop[/u]: Earning credits to purchase booster packs between runs allows you to unlock new cards and customize distinct playstyles. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Resource Management[/u]: Balancing scarce ammo, batteries, and chemicals adds a genuinely tense layer of survival strategy to the standard deckbuilder formula. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Conserve Mechanic[/u]: The ability to strip ammo requirements from cards to use weapons for basic melee attacks is a clever fallback system when you run out of resources. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Character Variety[/u]: Different heroes specialize in separate weapon classes like guns, knives, and syringes, keeping separate runs feeling quite distinct. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Grid Exploration[/u]: Moving tile-by-tile through dark, procedurally generated environments to scavenge for supplies creates an engaging exploration dynamic. [/td] [/tr] [/table] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3727610745 [table] [tr] [th] [b]❌ The Bad [/b][/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Vague Terminology[/u]: Certain card terms, status conditions, and player stats like Handiness, Agility, or Intelligence lack clear definitions in the info menu. This makes choosing stat tradeoffs during reward events feel like pure guesswork since you cannot inspect them before committing. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Confusing Combat Systems[/u]: Core mechanics like Layering and the Timeline mechanic are poorly explained. For example, It is never obvious how "conditions" relate to buffs and debuffs, and when there is a timeline tie between your companion and an enemy, the enemy inexplicably goes first. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Blind Choices[/u]: Major narrative consequences are completely obscured before you make a decision. For example, the game does not warn you that a choice like sacrificing a companion will instantly spike the Darkness meter to Level 15, which often times triggers a unavoidable boss fight. [/td] [/tr] [/table] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3727611053 [table] [tr] [th] ⚠️The Ugly [/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Punishing UI Flaws[/u]: If you use a card like Search in the Dark and accidentally close the selection window, the card and your spent batteries are completely consumed while giving you absolutely zero cards in return. This happens often in a lot of the UI elements. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Broken Timeline Bar[/u]: The turn order timeline is deeply unreliable. You can see your characters listed as next or appearing multiple times, yet they still get skipped, while enemies regularly chain consecutive actions with completely fresh energy bars. [/td] [/tr] [tr] [td] • [u]Unwarned Run Killers[/u]: Monumental narrative choices completely obscure their catastrophic consequences. For example, the game allows you to sacrifice a companion without giving any prior warning that doing so will instantly spike the map's Darkness meter to Level 15. [/td] [/tr] [/table] https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3727611579 [table] [tr] [th] [b] Current Price 💰[/b] [/th] [th] [b] Historical Low 📉[/b] [/th] [th] [b] ⛔️ Worth the price? ✅[/b] [/th] [/tr] [tr] [td] $14.99 [/td] [td] $5.99 [/td] [td] ✅ Worth grabbing at a deep discount ~$5 if you can stomach some mechanical clunkiness. [/td] [/tr] [/table] [hr][/hr] [h1]Overall Score: [/h1] [h3] 7.1/10 [/h3]

bad

Really cool, similar to Darkest Dungeon but with more customisation and horror elements.

インディーゲームらしさがあってすごい好き 調整が偏っている部分もあるが、周回していくと各武器の印象変わっていって奥が深い 実績上エンディングまで到達している人は少ないが、外国の方がガイドを作ってくれているので安心