Gridlocke

[h1] A Card Game KING review [/h1] Gridlock is a well designed, byte sized deckbuilder where you can control one of 3 factions. The card aspect of Gridlock revolves around acquiring new cards and removing one card after each battle, allowing players to maintain a lean deck. However, the discard is not shuffled so you have to win each battle before your deck runs out (but you're likely to die before that). Cards that you play are units with special abilities, buffs or debuffs and there are simple combos that you can do but nothing super complex. One interesting mechanic is that your hand is not discarded so you can keep cards you want for later and only draw until your hand limit. The tactical, grid combat aspect of the game consists of battles fought on a very small grid with two rows, one for ranged and one for melee with the ability to move units around with energy used for playing cards. It's a simple, but elegant system that works. One thing to note is that units can attack the turn they are placed so you will take damage, but your hitpoints reset after each battle. All in all, solid and relatively quick tactical deckbuilder with some unique mechanics. There are, however, a few things I disliked. The biggest of them are the perks. After certain milestones, you will be offered a perk with a substantial bonus but with a big drawback as well. This are not optional and sometimes the benefits don't make up for the drawbacks. So instead of getting stronger you can actually get weaker, and it often felt like choosing the lesser evil, which should never be the case with upgrades. Second flaw of the game is that it does not do a good job of signaling what debuffs the unit has. You need to select a unit to see that info as there are no other visual cues. There were a lot of times I didn't move my melee unit that transformed into a ranged one, to the ranged row, simply because I have forgotten about it and there is nothing indicating that it changed. Other than that, the font is hard to read (but doesn't matter later) and the music is a bit to distracting but these are minor issues. There is one other mechanic in the game that, for a cost, allows you to see what the opponents plans to play for their next turn. Unfortunately what could have added a new layer of decision making, can be entirely ignored as the AI can still change their plan after you play some cards, making it a meaningless investment. [h1][b]The positive[/b] [/h1] + Solid tactical battles with micro-decisions on every turn. + Simple but engaging deckbuilding with 3 different factions. [h1][b]The neutral[/b][/h1] * Hard to read font and distracting music. * The animations could be quicker seeing as it's meant to be a quicker game. [h1][b]The negative[/b][/h1] - Upgrades come with drawbacks and often it feels like choosing a lesser evil instead of being an exciting moment. [h1][b]Conclusion:[/b] [/h1] Gridlocke tries to distill grid-based combat and deckbuilders to its essentials and succeeds in creating a pocket version of both that are fun to play and can be played in short gaming sessions. [code] [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/36948155-Card-Game-KING/] FOR MORE REVIEWS ABOUT CARD GAMES, CHECK OUT OUR CURATOR PAGE: [b]CARD GAME KING [/b][/url] or [url=https://twitter.com/TheCardGameKing][b]TWITTER[/b][/url][/code]