Mage Mountain

A little unbalanced, but it's early access and fun to play. And it's got STATS

We all know that synergy is the best and most satisfying part of any deckbuilder. Well, this game is ALL SYNERGY!

Mage Mountain is a Roguelike Deckbuilder that is currently in Early Access. When you start, you can transform 3 cards out of the starter cards of 5 block and 5 attack cards; I like this because it gives you an option to how you want to play. Blocking is significant. There are also skills that the cards are affected by; for example, one card might say precision X precision and your current total in parentheses. You can choose to level up a skill, take a card, heal, gold, etc., after each battle. Choose wisely because it is essential to take gold and health. You can use gold at the shop and the tavern in town. The tavern is where you buy skill upgrades; I recommend defense because it is imperative. It is also great to level stealth because that counts as first turn damage. You can also use gem cards in battles to get another gem or spend them at the church or witch. You start each run with a set of scrolls; you can have a max of 3. I recommend saving scrolls for the moments you genuinely need them. Well, you can spend 5 HP at the vampire to get another; if you do this too much, this can cause you to lose a run. You can go over HP, which will add to your max HP, which I find incredible and different. Energy is used to play cards from your hand. The energy you get is determined by the number of cards you have; you start at 2, and the max is 4. Having 12 cards for the 3 energy is highly recommended. When you do not spend some energy, you will get some gold, so you can farm gold if you want. Items are used to boost skills and give special bouns. I think there are 3 stages in this game. When you beat a boss, you get a golden egg and get to the next stage. I recommend fighting all the enemies before taking on the boss, for you can level up skills and get more health, so you have a better chance at beating the boss. Another cool thing is status effects can combine to create a new effect. Lastly, it is great to see a story because not all Roguelikes and Roguelites have stories. I would like to see a hover-over text box for status effects on cards before you take them. So people can see what they do and choose to take the card if they want what that does or not. An option to change settings like volume would be good during runs. It is on the main menu but is not an option during runs. Balance changes are needed because there are some enemies that, if you get them too early, you will mostly die. Overall, I think this is a fun Roguelike Deckbuilder with great potential. I would classify this as a hidden gem. I look forward to future updates. This game is still in Early Access, so I expect it to get better. Find more reviews from me on my Steam curator page: https://store.steampowered.com/curator/42800057-TreeofEmber/ Here is the YouTube video of my first impressions of the game: https://youtu.be/5nM97T7hnJA