First impressions thread

My first impression is mixed. Here are a couple of points:

Liked
1) The style is clean and fun. Its easy to get around and the look up feature on jargon (i.e. I can click on "keep" in a card to get a description) is great for new players learning the ropes. The illustrations are great and the art style is a huge plus.

2) The tutorial does an okay job of explaining the basic mechanics and rules of the game. Maybe a little too hand holdy but its pretty quick to get through and does the job. so I would like to see a demo area where you can try out new cards before you go into battle rather then having to figure out how it works in the middle of battle.


Didn't Like
1)The difficulty feels random from level to level. Level 1 to the level 2 caves is a great example of this . In fact, I skipped the level 2 caves after becoming frustrated by the insane reach and natural armor of the trolls. I just replayed the level 1 and level 3 workshop level until I gained more levels and better items. It looks like you have to a specific load out for each adventure in order to make it. This can be an issue for starting players who have a limited selection of items.

2)The right items can be a pain to get and this prevents even being able to attempt certain caves. The wizard cave trolls is a great example. I had to wait till I could find my own enough reach weapons to even do damage. It took me 5 days of grinding before my local shop finally had something I could use. During the 5 day grind fest, I considered just walking away from the game since repeating the same missions over and over started to bore me.


On The Fence
1) I'm not sure how I feel about enemies being able to move as a single group. I think it limits my options as a player since I basically wait till the enemy has wasted all their moves before i do any serious attacking. I think it makes sense to have some enemies that can do this, but all feels overkill and more like an unfair advantage to an already struggling player.

2) I have a love/hate relationship with card selection. Nothing is more infuriating then receiving nothing but movement and armor cards for an attacking warrior and/or wizard. It feels like a wasted turn and makes it hard to stratigize. I would like to see the option of the player being able to draw from different pools of cards: Movement, Attack, and Defend. You would still be limited to the same number for cards on a draw and the draws on still random, but the end user can at least have a little more say in what they want to do and plan accordingly. The unknown luck factor is still present (you draw an attack card but you don't know which attack you will draw), but ii takes out the "GODDAMN YOU BULL**** CARDS!" factor I find myself screaming at the screen when I pull useless cards that lead to a party wipe.

 

early levels are a pain in the ass when it matters to draw attack cards. When you'll unlock more weapon slot the situation would be better.

 

Actually, a first level character has a higher % of attacks than an 18th. Two weapons and a boot is 4:1 attack. After you get all the slots it is 1:1 (barring the odd attack on your boots or skill).

I'd love it if the three cards went from Move-Random-Random to Move-Attack-Random. I don't like playing the Stand Here With Four Armor Cards game.

 

i had serious unluck problems with attack cards on level 4/6 (see my topic)

 

"More cards" doesn't address the issue of not drawing any attack draws at the start of a round. The number of Defense, traits, negative, and movement cards will also increase as Dorque has pointed out.


I like Dorque's idea of move, attack, random.

 

It does address the issue if you build your deck right. Use more cards that have only attacks instead of special ability cards. It won't keep you from drawing 0 attacks once in a while but it will reduce it.

 

Not really since the whole point is that you don't get any attack cards.

 

I assume he meant use more weapons or possibly items but wrote cards it would make more sense both in the context of his sentence and the context of the game.

 

Ya, use weapons with more attack cards and less abilities. You can also try to use defense items with less cards that are stronger, if that is how some of them work.

 

I think all non-weapon items have three cards. (I could certainly be wrong about that.)

 

You draw a new card when you play a special ability so that's not an issue. The issue is not drawing any attack cards or a variety of different cards at the start of a round. Thanks for the suggestions but I still stand by my first impressions. I think the current setup makes it awkward for initial playing and planning.

 

First impression without beta

When I first hear about it I think "OMG I have to play this!" It looked great but as gamer with caution I know that "not every thing that look good is good" there is plenty of games that one could use as an example but anyway the concept of the game matches perfectly with the art style wich is great, I like the attention that Jon and the team give to us fans with the sneak peek of the cards, deck builder, etc

Well now First impression IN beta

In the beginning I love it was easy to learn and pretty simple interface but after a few hours I bump in a trouble that is brutal (yeah I mean brutal) difference of dificulty right away! the first 1 and 2 dungeons was easy but the lvl 3 dungeon was very hard, obviously I win, but my god that make me sweat, lvl 4 dungeons? no way! the problem is that is ok having hard dungeons but you shouldnt make a game with 1-2 are easy 3-4 are very hard! you have to had a in between point or many people will get frustrated and just quit playing. A really easy way to fix this is making dungeons and color them so it will be: Lvl 4 dungeon (green colored) easy and lvl 4 dungeon (red) Hard, or another way will maybe be making 3 dungeons for lvl so it can be Lvl 4 dungeon (green) easy, Lvl 4 dungeon (yellow) normal, Lvl 4 dungeon (red) hard. You can make the easy loot sucks and the hard be a good one

Anyway, I'm really enjoying the game but to tell the true I think the best potential is in co-op, because lets be serious! when was the time that you play a board rpg alone? I will love to join with my friends in a big dungeon (maybe with just 1 character per player? so we can be 3 at the time?)

 

I dont like the drawing from different pools, it will dump down the gameplay I feel.

Another idea could be a mulligan like magic: Give the option of discarding all three drawn cards in order to draw two new, IF there is no attack card in the lot. (Exception you cant discard 'black' cards this way, if you still want to mulligan you can then discard the two others to draw 1)

 

mulligan is a nice idea.

 

I wrote out my first impressions in real-time as I first tried the game. Here they are:

Onboarding experience is quite good – easy to follow and very well paced.

Loot system seems nice

Telekineses froze the game after asking me to select a target (during The Shaman’s Hut)
Reconnecting was pretty confusing as the flavor text I got seemed to be the victory text, but in fact the game believed I failed and needed to retry. (This turned out not to be a reconnect issue, but is true whenever you fail and need to re-try, which happened to me several times as I kept drawing move cards and they never seemed to miss on their block rolls.)

Still can’t beat the Shaman’s Hut encounter … don’t see any way to level up my party either … giving up out of frustration now.

 

Mind if I get your key since your giving up ? jk

 

How do you unbox something without a box?