Spellsword Cards: Demontide

Sometimes I think what's happening with Steam and why there are so many negatives. One reviewer says that 'it needs a pass over with someone who understands card games'. Really, mate? Dev has just designed the whole card system and is good at it. Dev is often active and updates the game, but it seems that you want to push him away. The game is good, it has a really interesting character development, cool story and well-designed battles in which you have to tune your deck. It is a deep system, not crossing the line of 'read the fine print', check the guide here to see it yourself: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1679431787 My only gripes are with UI as the cards in bottom right are too small to read unless you click on them. But otherwise it is perfectly functional. This is much more content that you can usually get for the price of 5 USD. I really hope there soon will be an alternative to Steam where such devs can flourish.

The first hour of the campaign was enjoyable and when I started to noticed glitches, I checked the other play mode. Puzzle is as disappointing as can be, no real puzzle to be found. Arena has no sense of balance. Randomly get something broken or die within a couple level. Gauntlet is a bad version of Slay the spire. The 5 starting character all have bad mechanic, some cards don't work for your class and the "monster" you encounter are just the same deck as the 5 class with random power attached. Most card that are not found in the campaign also doesn't work as advertised (card upgrade especially). By the time I checked everything just a little, I was past the 2h checkpoint for refund. Restarted the campaign with another class combo to check it out, might get a little enjoyment back. TLDR: If it was marked as early access I could understand, as most of what I could check seemed half-baked at best. At least they are still updating, but the road might be long.

Attractive and easy to learn card game with clean art. I believe I've played through most of the current campaign and the puzzle mode in about 5 hours. Some replay value there if you like trying out different classes, I guess, but multiclassing early seems to be a n00b trap. Could do well with a wiki listing all the possible cards gained at each class level-up, since picking the best 3 skill cards for your desired playstyle appears to be the most important choice you'll make. With some experience with the game the puzzle mode is disappointingly simple, and there are still some bugs or recent changes(?) you might stumble into, but nothing that keeps you from enjoying the game. I'd certainly give a thumbs up if it were marked Early Access (dev promises more to come). There does seem to be a lot of playtime possibly locked behind the roguelike game modes, but I haven't spent much time there yet, since I've been enjoying developing my deck in campaign mode. Much better value than a movie ticket, but you need to be comfortable with random gameplay if you're expecting to get full value when compared with other titles under $10.

I like the game, but the devs gave up on it before finishing.

I like the graphics and base mechanics of this game very much. I like card games where cards act as units/weapons, they can be very deep strategically. However, I can't recommend as the difficulty is simply INSANE. So much so that it takes all enjoyment out of the game. I am stuck at the first location, can't make a dent in enemies. Have the devs tried playing their own creation? Did they really think that enemies making more than 10 dmg/attack are okay when the player's hero's max life is 16? And did they think that it was okay to have enemies AND minions with 20+ life when the best weapons accessible to level 2 heroes make 4-5 damage (which can be doubled for one or two turns if you happen upon the right card)? I am talking about level 2 enemies. Mind-boggling.

I have not played Campaign, Gauntlet, Puzzles, but I played Arena. This is a excellent little game if your burning some time, want to think a little and hopefully not get blown up by spells. If I am taking a break from a competitive game or just want to loosen up some strategic thought I just jump in. Games go quick, AI is semi hard semi not depending on the circumstances, in Arena it is predictable most of the time, but that doesn't make it less challenging especially since the AI's life totals rise after each match and mine do not. ( I have 40 HP the AI has around 203 right now) Soon as I bought the game I didn't read any rules or anything I just fired up arena and was able to figure out how the game worked in under 5 games. I only built 3 decks, the first two were failures from the get go, the third is a spicy one current 15 wins and 2 losses (at 3 losses you lose that run, RUNS CAN BE SAVED after a match and you can come back to them next time as long as you didn't hit the 3 losses) *THIS IS HOW ARENA WORKS* Was able to find a nice little combo in the 3rd deck, but I found in the 2 losses the AI had combos that create auto losses I can't defend against, my deck doesn't work that way I have only 2 outs against those decks, which is fine it will help me tune for next time. Creatures are interesting so are spells and abilities/artifacts/runes/weapons, some depth and simple art but your playing for the experience and for the price I think it is a fun experience. Is this a grindfest no, its a slugfest, is it a battle of wits not really (atleast in what I've played so far) its can I expose and kill you quicker then you can me. You want to just mellow out before bed, or stir yourself up before you start something and want to get a few brain shots and body shots in, this is your buddy.

The main problem with this game is that it isn't balanced very well. 90% of the fights are very one sided. Only a few did i feel like it was a challenge. When you aren't mowing down enemies you are getting absolutely destroyed. Several of these fights boiled down to "I can win if the opponent doesn't play that one card in their deck". Too many times I would come across an enemy with a gimmick of "you can't use a type of card or you insta lose". Which makes it hard if your deck is geared around those types of cards. For example, one fight you take 10 damage every time you equip a weapon. If that was you entire play you were focusing on you are just screwed. Then there are a few fights that are just next level BS. This one fight with an Ice demon i have yet to beat. It can summon an ice wall with guard every turn with out using a card so you can't attack it direct with your creatures or weapon until it is out of the way. The issue is that if there are ever more than 3 or more creatures the enemy can do 6 damage to your hero and all your creatures with a skill. So you can't get through their defenses with your creatures or weapons because they summon them too quickly and are nuking all your creatures down with a turn or two. Then you can't just focus fire the enemy with your spells because it has innate resistances and immunities to certain damage. So your spells that would normally hit for 8 points now are only doing like 3 points. You'll be dead long before you make any major damage. Level ups are so infrequent and there is no good way to get exp outside of quest that choosing the wrong class to level up in will seriously hinder you for the entire game. In fact the game tell you to choose warrior for your first level and that is arguably one of the weakest classes. There are two other modes besides campaign. Arena and Gauntlet. Arena is fine, you make a deck from randomly chosen cards and see how many times you can win. There is no progression after completing a run so after a few times you've seen everything this mode has to offer. Gauntlet has you navigating through a map that has a series of fights, events and shops that can improve your deck. The main issues are that all of the fights are so slow, upgrades are far and few between and the strategy to deck building is to throw as many cards into your deck. The worst decision is to not add a card to your deck after every battle. Even if the card is crappy because if you don't you'll lose your first "elite battle". Elite battles aren't tougher then a normal battle, The enemy just have a crap ton of health and if you aren't cramming as many cards into your deck you'll run out and you'll just have to sit there while the enemy whittles your health away. Spent over 20 turn fighting an elite enemy because we both ran out of cards and I had one creature left on the field just chipping away at its health. If you don't have any abilities that draw card you'll quickly be top decking as battle draw to crawl. TL/TR Game could be good if it fixed some of these balancing issues.

I honestly can't recommend this game. There are far too many opponents with endless cards of the same one opponent that is armored and has to be defeated before the opponent hero can be attacked. There is absolutely no fun or challenge in it if the opponent has apparently unlimited armored guards to break through. At this rate, I feel like this game was a complete waste of time and money.

游戏还是不错的，可是后面的难度也太变态了吧！ 每个回合对我方所有人造成回合数的伤害，而且还是固有技能可以无消耗无限使用。。。 场上每死一个随从得到三点治疗，这也就算了，他还能每个回合召唤影魔，这两个技能同样是无消耗无限使用。。。 玩到后面发现对面全是神技，而且还都是很多属性伤害免疫，真的是不给活路啊。。。

So I liked DungeonTop and Spellsword Cards: Origin but this game feels like the dud in the pack. This is my view following an hour and a half in the campaign... The Good: - Cards are well varied and have a nice distinctive art-style. - Solid looking and intuitive progression system. - Hearthstone inspired game-play. - Quite well presented overall, albeit with limited production values. The Bad: - Stuck on the campaign - not able to defeat the second boss because vastly underpowered. Game doesn't give me enough XP in side-battles to level-up. Feels unbalanced. - Sound is atrocious: music abruptly stops and starts its loop; no sound when navigating through menus or wandering around map; killing the main opponent gives a painfully distorted, crackly sound effect. I have yet to play the other modes but the "bad" makes this game a deal-breaker so far. This game has a lot of promise so I will change the review to a positive if I can find a way to progress in the campaign and/or the other mode manages to redeem it.