[h1] A Diamond In The Rough [/h1]
First and foremost, I need to disclose that I got a free review copy of this game, but this review is not paid and is my unbiased opinion. [b] If you want a TL;DR: The game is off to a good start for early access. It needs a fair bit of polishing, but the devs are very active and seem committed to fixing its flaws. [/b]
[h1] The Good: [/h1]
[b] - Lots of fresh, new ideas. [/b] If you've played a lot of roguelike-deckbuilders like I have, you'll be happy to know that this game takes a lot of the existing stuff that works, and adds on a lot of its own new mechanics. One of the biggest things it introduces are weapons that can be charged up by banishing/exhausting cards from your hand to do powerful attacks. Another idea it introduces is having the battlefield have a front, middle, and back grid, and your position/enemy positions on it can interact with cards in different ways.
[b] - More Options When Selecting Cards. [/b] The current card reward system is a vast improvement over its previous iteration. When you win a battle, you get shown six cards, and can choose to add up to two of them to your deck, letting you build your run a bit faster than a game like Slay The Spire.
[b] - A Good Soundtrack. [/b] It may not be as memorable as the spectacular orchestrated music from Library Of Runia or Monster Train, but Theseus Protocol delivers very chill music, similar to Slay The Spire. I'd be interested in buying a copy of the soundtrack if it was available as DLC or on Bandcamp.
[b] - Stylish Visuals. [/b] While the anime artstyle may not be for everyone, it's pretty well-done here, with fully detailed backgrounds and unique enemy designs.
[b] - "You are already dead." [/b] Unlike in a lot of rougelike-deckbuilders, this game leaves a visual indicator over an enemy when they're going to die from a status effect before they can act, which makes playing status effect based decks more convenient.
[h1] The Neutral: [/h1]
[b] - The UI Is A Bit Cluttered. [/b] It feels like they went for a minimalist design that allows you to see the game's background art better, but unfortunately, it does lead to most of the important information being scattered around the edges of the screen and clumped weirdly. A great example of this being unintuitive is the fact that the counter for how much energy/mana you have is the same button as the "End Turn" button. (It seems this was not the case earlier in development, since the store screenshots show a different, and frankly better UI.)
[b] - The Translation Is Rough In Some Spots. [/b] This is not a big deal since it seems the devs are working to improve on stuff that isn't translated well. For the most part, everything is pretty smooth, but you might run into some oddly translated phrases or explanations, or spots where spaces are missing.
[h1] The Bad: [/h1]
[b] - Events Are Currently Terrible. [/b] Unlike in Slay The Spire or Monster Train, where an event means you'll get a short bit of text with some story and typically 2-3 options at the end, each of which have a clear impact on what will happen if you pick them; events in Theseus Protocol involve multiple pages of rambling story with no context, that end in several choices with no indication on what they mean.
For example, I got an event called "Protector Of Law Of The Jungle" which involved me meeting with a business man about "protecting consortium secrets", then randomly listening to an AI making a daily announcement about dreams controlling me, and I had to answer the question "What stays in the sky at 6 PM?". Even though I had several options to answer the question, I have no idea what any of them had to do with the business man, or what was going to happen if I picked them.
[b] - There's Too Many Cards. [/b] In Monster Train, each clan has 40~ unique cards. In Slay The Spire, each character has 75~ unique cards. In Theseus Protocol, the starting character has over 150 cards, and the other unlockable character currently has over 110 cards.
Having a lot of variety is nice, but with so many different ones you can get, all of which have different gimmicks, it's a bit difficult to make a coherent strategy.
[b] - Unavoidable Damage. [/b] The main way you block damage is by playing defensive cards that give you shield. Shield blocks damage until the start of your next turn. Lots of enemies will apply a status effect to you on their turn, which triggers and deals damage to you at the start of your turn. It deals this damage [i] after [/i] your shield is removed, which means you'll continually lose health with no way to avoid it. This game in general uses this status effect a lot, and it's really not fun.
[b] - Enemy Health Can Be Hard To See. [/b] Most enemies start the game with Armor, which is a permanent version of Shield, and doesn't go away unless you attack them. However, enemies also give themselves Shield to block your attacks, and when they have [i] any shield at all [/i], the game stops telling you how much armor they have. You can mouse over their armor icon to see how much there is, but it's a completely unnecessary step to have to keep checking shield, armor, and health of multiple enemies at once, while trying to do mental math on if you can kill them.
[h1] So, Is It Worth It? [/h1]
In my opinion, the game is off to a good start, and is worth checking out. After a few beta updates, the game is in a better spot than it was at first launch, but its flaws do detract from it a bit. I'd give it a solid 7/10 the way it stands right now, but it seems like the developers are working hard to improve the game, and I'll continue to update my review whenever they make large changes to the game and its balance.
If you're on the fence about getting this game, it's at least worth putting it on your wishlist, then coming back in a few months to check it out once it's been refined further.
