Flaregate Network

A solid game building off the improvised mechanics of Keystone, which I still play today. Play cards to send units, build structures, buff units or take explosive actions. Easy to pick up, but the more you look the more depth there is. Do you align your cards timing wise, but risk the opportunity cost? Do you build to be able to make a focused stratagem of your own, or do you ensure you have answers for an opponents strategy? The dev obviously has passion and dedication, their discord server is active, and they still update Keystone which was the mod that this is the stand alone game for. I'm glad to see they've been able to convert from modding to full game, that is not an easy measure by any means. They obviously have a ton of ideas, and an understanding of how part of the fun of any game is creating interesting combos and interactions. Plus it looks like they've avoided the trap of taking the easy path of slop, so massive props for them. They keep patches coming, and explain their thought process, so you can be sure this is a product and a person worth supporting. Music is a little repetitive, but for a first time dev its very reasonable, and its not an annoying repetitive. All in all, definitely recommend as its own game, and recommend more because the dev deserves support as well. Thank you standarddevguy.

UPDATE at 10hr's: Yes game is still not fun, which sucks because this can be very very good. Very little deck control (adding removing) Cannot find cards that work together before dying. I have no idea how many waves or what's coming. Flaregate Network is a fun game with a lot of potential, but it can also be incredibly punishing at times. The storyline isn't anything groundbreaking, and many of its themes feel familiar, but it's intriguing enough to keep me invested and wanting to see what happens next. The gameplay is where the game shines. There's a satisfying challenge here, and I generally enjoy difficult games that require strategy and planning. That said, the difficulty can sometimes feel unfair rather than rewarding. One of the biggest issues is the lack of information provided to the player. Enemy intentions are often unclear, and unless I've missed it somewhere, there doesn't seem to be a turn counter or a clear way to anticipate what's coming next. When you're still learning the mechanics, this creates situations where defeat feels unavoidable rather than earned. I've also run into stages that seem impossible to complete with the cards and perks currently available. Whether this is a balance issue or simply a knowledge gap remains to be seen, but it can be frustrating when progression feels gated by factors outside the player's control. Another issue is that some cards don't appear to properly reflect additional stats, bonuses, or unit interactions. This makes it difficult to make informed strategic decisions and can lead to confusion about whether certain effects are working as intended. A major question I keep asking is: when do I unlock new content? The game's progression system could do a better job communicating upcoming rewards, unlocks, and milestones. Knowing what I'm working toward would make setbacks much easier to accept. One thing that surprised me is how little feels new compared to the demo. The demo was fantastic and offered a substantial amount of content, which set high expectations for the full release. So far, I haven't encountered enough new content to make the full version feel significantly different from what I already experienced during the demo. That doesn't mean there isn't more to discover, but the early impression is that the jump from demo to full game feels smaller than expected. The main reason I paid $15 for the game, was because of the demo. Despite these frustrations, I'm still playing because the core gameplay loop is genuinely fun. The challenge is engaging, the story is interesting enough to keep me invested, and the game clearly has a solid foundation. However, the difficulty can feel overly punishing, progression isn't communicated very well, some cards need clearer descriptions, and the full release currently doesn't seem to offer much beyond what was already available in the excellent demo. At $15, I don't regret the purchase, but I do hope future updates add more content, improve balance, and provide better information to players. Right now, Flaregate Network feels like a game with a lot of promise that's still missing a few pieces needed to fully realize its potential. Will this be another abandoned project? I don't know. Reading the discussion on steam, the dev seems engaged, but not very open to suggestions. Not all suggestions are good :-) Score: 6.5/10 — Fun and addictive, but occasionally frustrating and in need of additional content and quality-of-life improvements.

Honestly a fun game, it's simple to pick up but is easy to lose track of time in. It's a deckbuilder with both a roguelike mode and a campaign mode. The game itself plays by playing cards that have various effects (Units, Structures and actions) Units will appear next turn (this turn if they have rush) and will move from your half of the screen to fight your opponent, structures appear instantly and have a variety of effects ranging from defensive structures, spawners or other kinds of benefits. Actions meanwhile take effect immediately and can either buff your units or damage/affect enemy units. The flow of the game begins with you picking your opening hand and either redrawing it or keeping it, then you will pick which of the two resources to gain; each turn you get to pick a resource so that you can play a card or more in your hand each turn letting you climb up to more expensive and powerful cards. Additionally a lot of the cards belong to particular subfactions which all tend to revolve around a shared gimmick for example one subfaction likes to keep cards in your hand if your opponent has more units than you when you play them which lets you play them every turn if your opponent is overwhelming you. Another subfaction likes to use number manipultion to become incredibly powerful for example adding +1 to all numbers on cards in your hand (aside from cost) or doubling the number of units on a card. All in all is the game perfect? No, but is it bad? Definitely not, This the first proper game that this dev has made and personally I think they've done a fantastic job at making it, I am certainly looking forward to future updates.

This game is honestly really something unique. While it might not be the strongest game in any given genre, it excels at mixing them into something not really seen before, combining deckbuilder, auto-battler, and RTS elements together quite well. I went in expecting something like Keystone (the dev's original card game auto-battler inside of starcraft 2) but it managed to twist the formula in a lot of ways that kept it engaging. There are some really creative cards in here that can lead to some crazy combos (might of the empire my beloved). But what I wasn't expecting at all was a really engaging story. The game is full of morally gray characters whose mistakes and attempts to fix those mistakes bring things from small scale scuffles into a galactic tragedy with a very smooth difficulty curve. While the AI isn't anything fancy during individual missions, they slowly introduce mechanics that challenge your playstyles in interesting ways during the meta-campaign and force you to adapt your strategies, and the "signature strategies" mechanic (cards you are guaranteed to start with) removes a lot of the opening hand RNG card games often struggle with and make the game a lot more strategic. You don't have to rebuild your deck to alter your strategy for each individual mission. The mission variety is genuinely great, especially the puzzle missions which make you really alter your strategies. But the game is good without the story too, and the rougelike mode is a perfect place to experiment with decks if you just want to have fun. Is the game perfect? No. It's slow paced, there is still a lot of RNG, and the music can be a bit repetitive (tho its not bad!) But is it enjoyable? Absolutely. As long as you have the patience to get through it's slow start. I'm in act 3 at time of writing and I'm genuinely hooked. My advice that I strongly encourage is to play the demo first, your save data carries over and you can finish the first act of the story. If it seems up your alley, get the full game, if it doesn't, save yourself 15$. A lot of the negative reviews seem to be from players who just didn't have the game click with them due to its weird mashup of genres when they were expecting more of one - but that's why you can try it out for free and decide for yourself it its your thing. This game isn't everyone's type, but it sure as heck is mine :)

I've been enjoying the demo for months and I'm happy with the full game now that it released. I'm looking forward to more content.

Я ожидал, что автор хочет уйти от модов для StarCraft 2 в полностью свою игру, чтобы уйти от всех ограничений. Но мы получили абсолютно посредственный крайне деградировавший даже относительно мода продукт. Можно было бы игнорировать этот сомнительный сюжет про злого белого генерала военного преступника, который хочет убить всех женщин и детей, просто потому что он такой плохой. А сильная рыжуля захватывает власть на корабле у черного куколда и сначала присоединяется к восстанию еще одной сильной женщины, а потом летит покорять новую систему с 2 симпами азиатами. Можно было бы игнорировать крайне сомнительную графику, слоты для зданий, юниты с поведением которое заставляет бегать вверх-вниз не атакуя потому что так работает выбор целей, этот же сомнительный выбор целей у всех ракет которые летят как угодно и куда угодно. Но вот деградацию геймплея и карт прощать нельзя. Если в то, что у этого один автор с Battlefront Card Game можно было бы поверить, и то там юниты и здания не ощущались НАСТОЛЬКО скучными, то вот после Keystone это просто ад, был отличный проект с огромным разнообразием в картах, архетипах, эффектах и так далее, с красивыми модельками старкрафта, длинным полем на котором аккуратно разворачиваются все ваши юниты и строения. Тут же уродливые 7 виртуальный слотов которые существуют именно так и в таком виде просто потому что, находятся они все несмотря на бескрайние казалось бы просторы космоса - на микроскопической просто арене, где не развернуться никаким интересным боям и стратегиям. Никакой постройки обороны и десятков зданий, никаких высадок на хайграунд и десанта на вражескую базу, забудьте вообще про все то, за что вы полюбили Кейстоун, разраб от этого полностью отказался. Теперь это битвы скучнейших карточек со скучнейшими юнитами и зданиями просто атакующие друг-друга жалкой анимацией пролетев за пару секунд со своей базы до вашей. Дизайн самих миссий которые вам предстоит играть также ужасен, в большинстве у врага вообще нет "лица" - командующего корабля, вы просто Х раундов убиваете все что он будет разыгрывать, максимально увлекательно, представьте, что вы играете в хартстоун , враг первые 10 ходов ставит существ, а вы проводите время просто убивая каждое существо которое враг поставит без каких либо ограничений и условий. Если вам кажется, что это тупо, поймите, что вы играете с оппонентом примерно одинаковыми по силе картами, которые по сути сухие статы с минимальным разнообразием и эффектами, а вражеский корабль огромная жирная чепуха, которая может бесконечно танчить порционный урон из-за щита и обладает своей собственной атакой. Из-за этого большинство таких матчей вы просто с оппонентом разыгрываете карты размениваясь по итогу к нулю, а после того как ваши колоды закончатся ваши крейсера летят друг-другу и сражаются насмерть. Увлекательный геймплей с самой увлекательной финальной дуэлью (НЕТ). Остальные миссии это сломай Х зданий, выживи Х ходов или заставь все поле своими зданиями. Т.е. вы выполняете скучнейшие на свете задания, скучнейшими на свете картами. Когда вы точно знаете, что разраб умеет лучше и делал лучше, но сознательно лишил свой проект всей той глубины и всех интересных фишек, которыми обладал его старый мод, который он бросил ради вот этого...

Loved the demo and the full release is just more of that!

I think the game is priced too high at $15 [for anyone interested in the rogue-like runs, not the campaign]. The core gameplay loop exists, but the content to justify going through a new run is...lacking. Once you have beaten it once, you'll likely have seen what possible options exist for another run---and it isn't all that enticing. Build variety is too small, the tech tree not all that engaging, and anything "cool" you think you could pull off is buried by forced taking of cards and only one use per card. The game would be much better if cards could recycle in the deck, you could remove cards from your deck, and you weren't forced to take a card. You could argue that this is what makes the game "good" and "challenging" (it's not that challenging), but it doesn't make the game more fun for me---it takes away from its potential. If the game's core structure stays the same, then more factions are needed to justify the cost and increase the hours I'd be willing to put into the game tinkering. I will say the game does exist outside of your typical roguelike deckbuilder---and that was refreshing, but not refreshing enough to keep going.

A vastly original take take on a card game, you play an RTS / Tug of War with cards. Roguelike mode is thoughtful and challenging in many original ways, e.g. the order in which you undertake missions matters, scouting ahead for rewards matters, NOT taking the strongest card sometimes is the correct choice as is NOT playing a card - knowing when to do what based on what is going on on the battlefield is key. Multiple mechanics, multiple ways to win the game. Highly recommend for any card roguelike fan.

I've been waiting for this to come out ever since I saw it on the Keystone loading screen. Having played through a couple more hours of the full game after having completed the Demo several times I really want to say thank you for making this come true. As for highlights, ever since keystone I've been a big fan of Structure decks, so my views are gonna be slightly biased, but I love love LOVE Director Keys (His name is a Halo reference right?) because he basically doubles my structure's output. Him combined with some scaling up on Destroyer Factories and it's absolutely awesome how many ships I can get out. All this to say, I really like this game and look forward to playing more of it.