The Killing Stone

I had my doubts going in, but I find this to be both challenging and satisfying. Normally I'm not a 'card game' player, but this really tickles me in a way that Gwent or Hearthstone never did.

Pretty deep card battler mechanics, and even deeper story. Exploring the spooky mansion is cool too. Sacrifice me, devil daddy!!

Very interesting and stylish game. The excellent use of shadows, mysterious style of dialogue and occult themes give the game a rich atmosphere. The deck-building is super fun and unique too, you build multiple decks to save for a mega run that they're going to add by end of early access.

While there can be some improvements, overall, this is an excellent game. Some highlights for me are: a.) Superb Voice Acting. b.) Intuitive yet complex gameplay. c.) Engrossing story premise. 2c.) I am absolutely in love with the story so far. I will update this review as I get deeper into the game but as it stands I am impressed with Question, and hope to see more games of similar quality from them as time goes on.

I really like this game. I think it's exceptional. I want more people to play it so we can all yell about it. The writing is phenomenal. I chose the 17th century English option and I found it absolutely beautiful to read and listen to; I think it is deliberately written to be poetic (although it's hard to disentangle that from the language of that time period sounding poetic to modern ears in general!) and it has the effect of heightening the emotion and atmosphere while still effectively communicating important plot details. Related to that: the voice acting is genuinely some of the best I've ever heard. And the story! It's just the right balance of revelation and mystery to get me immediately bought in to the feeling of being genuinely, viscerally tempted to risk everything to learn hidden secrets. I've also gotten sincerely attached to my "clients" and invested in helping them -- not that I don't have stars in my eyes for the characters who have endangered/are endangering them! I am also a big fan of the music and the art direction! I think the animations of the first character you meet are particularly good. He moves like exactly what I understand him to be, if that makes any sense at all. The gameplay is fun! I have only limited experience with deck building games, so I'm not the best person to evaluate the mechanics, but I'm having a good time. I will say that the rituals can be pretty swing-y between being very difficult and very easy, and I'm interested to see what balance changes will be introduced between now and the final release. What I find most enjoyable here is how the card games tie into the atmosphere and narrative, like how each of the Pacts has a name that implies something about the character it belongs to and/or just has generally sick occult vibes, while simultaneously alluding to the Pact's mechanical theme. I think the best spoiler-free way I can sum up why I like this game is that its creators have a strong, specific artistic vision, and they've done a ton of research and carefully crafted the narrative to achieve that vision. There's nothing that eats my brain like a story that feels like its creators really care about it, like making This Story about This Time and This Place and These Themes with These Vibes is more important than achieving the broadest appeal or whatever. I think there are many people who would bounce right off this game, for example, because they might find its themes disturbing or unrelatable, and that is totally fine because things that are made with intention are never for everyone. For me, it fits into a Killing Stone shaped hole in my brain that I didn't know was there, and I'm so glad it exists.

A devious mix of Monster Train-esque card battles, ominous faustian bargains, and contract negotiations with various demons. I wish the game had full voice acting for all the characters and demons but recording two whole separate tracks, one for period-accurate English and one for modern dialect, is probably really time consuming and expensive, and what VO is there is incredible. Emma Gregory kills it.

Still early, but enjoy much of what the game has offered so far. The premise is great, the voice acting is superb, and the gameplay seems like it will give me a lot of options and strategies as I get deeper into the rituals/challenges offered so far.

I will be the first to say that I am not the target audience for this game; I don't usually have much patience with deck builders. However, this one is an exception, and I will keep on playing it - the presentation is fantastic, the voice acting is remarkable (Liam O'Brien in perhaps his best game voice role to date), and the writing is terrific. On those merits alone, I would recommend playing this. Gameplay wise, it is absolutely interesting (even though, again, I am not personally the target audience for games of this genre). There is a lot of strategy involved with each battle in each "ritual" as the game calls them, and the difficulty feels just right; challenging, but never impossible. For the atmosphere, the writing, and the voice acting alone, this game is definitely something I'd recommend. If you enjoy deck building games, getting The Killing Stone is an absolute must - you won't be sorry that you did!

Very cool aesthetic, similar to darkest dungeon but with spire-like gameplay

I've only cracked the surface on this, but I am already loving the vibes. It's like Inscryption, but you're dealing with the devil from ancient history. The game offers the choice between modern English and shakespearean English (with modern subtitles) and I super recommend the latter. The card game itself seems promisingly deep, but man, this would be worth it just for the story and the atmosphere. (Also works perfectly on Linux with the default Proton settings)