Before I get started - I just first of all would like to thank you the developers for the beta access and allowing me to play the game. This was a very appreciated opportunity. Since you did allow me beta access I figured I should at least give a good post on my thoughts on opinion of the game. The good: -The basic game mechanics are new and unique. I certainly haven't played any other game like it. -The game mechanics are well polished - I can't think of any real bug or error in the game that I've encountered really at all. -There is a good level of challenge - my characters are just about to turn level 18. Many levels I've had to regear to rethink my strategy (especially the monkey levels that start around 16 or so). Not sure if this is good or bad: -Cardhunter does not feel like a card game at all. I'm sure part of this is intentional as it incorporates other mechanics past a pure card game. I have another more pure card game that I play often (Clash of Dragons) that is one of my favorites. I say it doesn't feel like a card game because there is none of that joy which comes with landing that epic or legendary card. Since the cards are linked in weapon or armor groups and those groups that have a good card also often come with a bad card for balance - it really doesn't seems like many of the rare weapons etc. are much better than the normals. Sometimes those rare weapons don't seem much better at all which detracts from the whole joy of good weapon drop. -I can't say the sound or music was bad but I just turned it all off after a little while. The not so good: -Now that I'm at level at just about level 18, I'm completely bored with the game. Part of it is linked to the balanced item issue I mention above. Maybe it's because the story isn't all the way in there yet. But I don't really care about my characters. The quests don't really seem interesting or epic and I the items and cards don't really seem all that cool. This is my biggest complaint and it's a big one because I don't really want to keep playing and I wouldn't really go on to recommend it to anyone. There are lot of good games competing for time - this game has the potential to be more fun but it's not very fun or immersive right now. -This is my opinion but the love story between the teenager and the pizza girl doesn't really work and seems to overall detract from the game. I know it's supposed to be funny or cute but it doesn't really work. It's an annoyance and I think the game would be much better without it completely. If I knew I was going to be playing a game about a nerdy teen's difficulty in dealing with his older brother and his crush on a pizza girl I'd likely not start to play. -The boards seem really small to be decently tactical. Sometime it works to your advantage when chasing down and cornering that one elemental but seems confined at most all other times. Why not hallways and corridors where you open a room or several rooms. I wouldn't mind scrolling the map back and forth - it the spaces were connected and you had to make sure not go to far or you'd pull another group - it would add even more to the tactics. - The boards also seem as though they are not a real place but just a game board. This also takes away from the immersion and lets you know that you are just playing a game. Very different from say a real D&D adventure where they go to great lengths to make a castle a castle or forest a forest etc. - The armor system doesn't seem to work well. If I try to get my warrior to tank (and he's a dwarf), he just gets his butt kicked right away. You can go several turns without pulling any armor or just a week card - seems like you should be able to set a stance or something where your player are guaranteed to pull an armor (or weapon attack in an offensive stance). Also the resistant armor my mage has seems like it's the best in the game since almost all ranged attacks are elemental which it negates- the minute she pulls it, it's sure win for that battle as long as she stays out of melee. Seems like there should be more items like the curiasses etc. that can stay in the hand and not count against cards. - Seems like very little combo potential in the cards. Such as if you hit with this card, it will double damage on the next or the mage can buff or encant the warrior, or a certain strike make the next 2 penetrating etc.. Maybe spell charging - just doesn't have the combos that make other games fun. There are obviously some - but I usually ran without them since they were so weak. This is what also just makes it so boring add or switch items. -There is a general lack of Area of Effect abilities for the players. Just chop and a couple cones for the mage (maybe acid spray). The monsters seem to have some these but they don't seem to drop for your supposedly epic heros. - Where is charm, fear or turn undead abilities? Suggestions: - It would be nice to have some kind of crafting system where you could combine the cards from several weapons to make one that suits you. If each card had a number of points and you would be limited by your level as to how may points you add to weapon based on your party's level. May disassemble cards from a weapon by selecting 2 cards to keep and then destroy the weapon and maybe several of the cards from it at random. - It would be good to have some unique and cool items drop once in while. I think the kobold killer club early on was the closest I got to that. Blades or items with special effects or special names would be ever so cool to break the monotony. Even if it was just emote when you use it or equip it - like the "the blade seems to call out your name as you equip" or "cuts deeply as seeks blood". This stuff would just be more fun. -Relating to the point above - the action of the game is also somewhat uninteresting. If you hit someone you just see the damage counter it would be cool to have a bit more (I know this is a bit much to ask) some animation of lighting bolt flying across the room or just see the card being electrified or something. Even just an announcement on a particular good hit - like "awesome hit" would just make it more fun. Maybe even if the monster said something funny when hit hard sometimes. Just something less dry.
Lots of good feedback here. I just wanted to address the two "not so good" I've quoted above. As for card combos, it's funny that you use the damage doubling and the buffing the warrior as two specific example. We have Unholy Wellspring for a single large buff and lots of frenzy cards including Mass Frenzy. For the double damage card we have All Out Attack which does exactly that. People are even concerned that it multiplies the damage because having two of them in hand will not be 3x damage, it will instead be 4x damage (x2, then x2 again). Perhaps you just haven't given it enough time to get some more interesting items. I'll agree with you though that the Items, outside of just being card holders, aren't involved in the games at all. That sort of interesting item, character building etc generally goes with adventure or RPGs. This is actually much more of a tactics/puzzle game. I can say that game asses suggest being able to go up to level 50 so I wouldn't count them out just yet as far as the story goes, but who knows. And if it's not your cup of tea, better to go get some coffee I guess. Have you tried multiplayer at all?
Thank you for your reply Blindsight - I mainly want to add as far as combos go is that I understand the game has them but they are very limited and few and far between. Also because of the way attacks are grouped you may even see a good card but that it's tied down to a bunch of cards that make your character overall less powerful so you end up passing on it. I certainly used boiling armor and keep that as a regular but often with ones like Frenzy I ended up dropping these because I had to choose between heals and frenzy and heals were always overwhelmingly more useful especially because the warrior is generally weakest char (or he was in all my games - the mage can snipe to win and the cleric can hide and heal up - this logic usually dominated if you wanted to pass some of the harder bouts). Double damage may have been a bad example - however it's rarity and or and that it needs to drop on weapon or item that is otherwise useful limits its benefit. Many of the decent cards are like this. As far as not seeing enough of the game - I've played through to 18 so if it hasn't come yet - why would I wait more?
Yeah, there aren't a ton of true combo cards because you only play one card per turn. There are plenty of buffs to various other spells and situations though, like the class skills for instance. True, there are a lot of items in the game so it may take a while to get a large number of them, or duplicates of the ones you really want to use. I totally understand the issue with feeling like cards you want to use aren't on items with other cards you want to use. The nature of the beast I'm afraid. This is really more of a tactics game than a card game (which is why there are less combos). Why would you wait more for items? Well if you have a build you want to try (in multiplayer for instance) or a new party you wanted to run through the campaign then seeking out a specific item or two might be worth it. Depends on what you want out of the game and what you enjoy about it really. I'm currently doing all of the drawback quests and it can be rough because I don'y have many cards with drawbacks! It's been fun though.
