Runespell: Overture

This is more of a card-battler style of game than it is a mostly casual deck building game, though there are elements of selecting cards to boost your abilities in the games. It is an interesting mix of solitaire style card layout for you and your opponent, yet you must mix and match cards to create a poker hand in order to do deal damage. If there is a chest, you need to create the hand it asks for in order to open it an gain access to different types of cards; each type either does a different kind of damage or provides you with a different type of defence. There are a few levels to the cards, so you have stronger capabilities as the game progresses and the enemies get tougher to fight. It is simple enough mechanically, though there is a little luck as it all depends on what cards are turned over and what cards the enemy will select. As with poker the higher scoring hands take more time and patience to set up, though being able to take unmatched cards from your opponent's board helps a little. The casual side of play drops off a little as you need to keep track of cards a little for when you are setting up for a hand, which may mean putting in a bit more thinking than your were wanting to do in a more laid back game. Taking damage build up your 'rage' pool, another name for mana, which grants you the ability to cast any of the spells you have gained access to either though allies or acquiring the card. You gain these cards by winning battles or spending the limited silver you get at a merchant; it is good you can customise your combat to your play style somewhat, however the computer tends to be on the more aggressive side which means you can end up in a race to deal damage rather than bother defending. The story is simple enough; you are an unnamed being who has no idea how they arrived in the area or why they are there, only they have a destiny to fulfil. Don't let the simplicity fool you, there has been a lot of effort to ground the story in history and has used the tale of Beowolf for inspiration. Gives the story some way to stand out from the rest of the casual games. Visually a lot of thought has gone into the design of the map, characters and cut scenes in order to create a blizzard wrought land and yet have enough of a colour palette to distinguish all the elements from a bleak winter setting. It is mostly a 2D game, though there are some basic 3D models during the combat, which is where the charm of this game lies - I could leave the 3D models. The sound choices are gorgeous and fit with the mystical vibe of the setting; they are mostly calming and ethereal, though are played on a loop when in the map. It can get a bit repetitive after a while, mostly during combat, where most of the game play takes place. The repetitiveness is why I have given a thumbs down due to how much time is spent in combat and mostly making the same poker hands. As much as I liked this game, it is rather easy to want some variety after a while. I wish there was a neutral option as I am sure some people might no have as much of a problem with the repetitiveness as I did. In addition, I am going to have to not recommend based on how much grinding you need to do in order to get some achievements. It doesn't feel like the right game to have grinding, though I do understand the game needs some way to have progression, so sits in a weird spot of not completely casual but a bit too casual to require the time investment you might need to get all the achievements.

Actually pretty cool. If you got 7 bucks to spare, try this weird Poker campaign RPG. Story is kinda compelling.

Hey thats pretty fun

Вроде интересная штука, солитер который использует правила покера, а не косынки + можешь воровать карты у врага + разные пасивки и атакующие магии. Интересный сюжет. НО... игра не сохраняется. Начинал уже раза 3-4. Жалко...

Fun, but short.

Mixed but positive review. The poker mechanic where you can see and steal your opponent's cards is very creative and a lot of fun...at first. After awhile it gets very old and you basically want to stop playing forever as there's little change in the playstyle as you progress. Fortunately, the game doesn't quite wear out it's welcome and then you've beaten it. There's a Continue+ option after doing so, but the enemies aren't scaled at all to your 2nd run loadout so it's very easy and dull. At this point you've already had enough of the poker gimmick, anyway. The lack of multiplayer, minigames, game balance, and more makes this a tough sell at full price. The overly dramatic music was actually pretty good. I had a bug where just the music cut out for the final battle, and it definitely was missing something without it. The Inventory and Store interface was pretty bad. For example when buying spells you can't see the price when clicking in the active card area at the top. You never really get hints as to what types of enemy skills that you need to prepare for, so I mostly went with: Health Buff, RP Buff, Healing spell, +4 AP spell, and 3 allies. That pretty much covered most situations, and I only had trouble with the second 2,000 health boss, otherwise the rest was easy once you got the hang of it. 6/10 - get it on sale and enjoy it for a few hours, but know that it doesn't much better as you keep playing.

Runespell: Overture is a forgotten artifact from 2011 that combines poker mechanics with RPG elements in a way that's just novel enough to be interesting but too shallow to be memorable. Its "mostly positive" reviews suggest a game that delivers exactly what it promises—no more, no less—to a niche audience willing to accept its limitations. Play it if you want to experience the digital equivalent of finding a dusty board game in your grandparents' attic—briefly entertaining but ultimately a reminder of how quickly our diversions become obsolete.