First impressions thread

First of all, thanks for the invite, I was like a kid at Xmas when the mail arrived!

I love the look and feel of the game, the way the play flows and the couple of in-jokes I caught made me chuckle.

I thought the tutorial told you most things you needed to know - I was wrong footed by the "one card per turn" even if I had more than one character, I didn't think it was one card per party per turn.

My only gripes about the game play are minor ones:

• The idea of facing with cone spells is a bit confusing, it was a bit of trial and error when I wanted to use a fire spell "on the diagonal" so to speak.
• Sometimes I'd like to rotate the board to see what's going on better, as part of my facing issue was to do with the camera angle and seeing the marked spaces. Maybe what I really need is a "Hide Party" button to show just the spell-caster and the zone of effect?
• My other gotcha for the fire spells was I expected the damage to take place whilst I was playing my cards but it's when you refresh your hand. Once I saw it in action, it made sense.
• The lack of divine weapons so far is a hindrance to my cleric. I have a mule full of wizard kit, no (useful) Cleric gear, but no doubt it'll even out in the long term.
• Question - can a Lvl 2 character use a Lvl 4 weapon etc.? It wasn't clear to me the relationship between character level and item level.
• I am curious as to when things 'unlock' i.e. an armour slot for my warrior. If I knew roughly when it unlocked, I'd have a better idea about keeping that set of gear I have stashed for now or sell it?

You might want to make passing reference to Pizza Slices!

OK, enough chat, I'm off to see what I can break!

 

As requested a first impressions without reading any other comments.

The gameplay feels really good, and the different items and cards really give me the feeling that there are lots of possibillities to make fun and good decks. Also the amount of items on low levels alone is almost scary, in a good way.
The gameplay mechanics are easy to understand, and selecting targets works very well.
The artwork that is there is really good, and the style of the art and text really speak to my imagination.
The tutorial is clear and not too long, the only thing i missed was an explanation of where your character will face after moving, but it might be in there and i might just have missed it. Anyway it was very easy to figure out once i started looking for an indication of that, so maybe it needs no explaining.
My biggest problem on this first day was that i could not clear the second level 2 adventure, and i thought i had to wait untill the old adventures opened again to get more items and levels to clear that one. Luckily i tried a level 3 adventure just to see what enemies where there, and completed it without major problems. After that moment in which i thought the gameplay time would be limited untill you grinded enough experience and items, i was very very happy to see you can keep playing for a long time before you have to wait for exhausted scenarios to refresh, if at all.
I love the combat. And really enjoy the many interesting items and cards. I think deckbuilding is going to be lots of fun on higher levels.

My overall first impressions are really positive, i had very high hopes for this game. And even after waiting for a year after first hearing about cardhunter, this game is already very close to what were my highest hopes.
So my compliments on the work done so far, you have made a very fun and addicting game, and i hope you can keep this high level of quality going.

 

Hmm... it seems to be a tactical turn-based card game of some description.

(you said *first* impressions )

I've not had much time to play yet and have only just unlocked the "five new areas" after getting my Keep, but so far it seems really slick.

Most pages of the game load very slowly for me, but this was expected. Honestly, with as much as my computer loathes Flash it's a minor miracle that the darn thing runs at all! Still, the main map, the shop (Axes and Things), the Tavern, Startington Keep, and the splash page for each module segment load very slow (in varying degrees; the main map far more so than the Keep, the Keep much worse than the Tavern, and so on). Once I actually get into a battle, though, it has been smooth as a baby's bottom thus far. Once the board and characters load it is actually incredibly quick and smooth to play out the battle, and I've encountered no problems with it yet. Once the battle's over and we're back to the between-mission splash page or worse, the main map, it's back to slow loading again. Nothing too restrictive, but it's a part of my first impression.

The deck management is fairly simple, though (likely due to my "low" resolution?) so little of the item hoard or character sheet is on the screen at any on time that it can be difficult to get items to equip. Or to see much of anything, without significant clicking and dragging of the screen. I realize that 1024x768 isn't the standard anymore and most people run with resolutions far in excess of that, but it would be nice if the character/deck management and character selection (in the Tavern) screens scaled better for lower resolutions. This may just be me being far too picky, though.

Some things about blocking were unintuitive to me, and I ended up wasting a Utility (not Attack) card that I thought would save my bacon only to have it negated entirely by a Weak Block. It was not at all obvious to me at first (though, looking back, I probably should have known) and it was quite the shock when it happened. I still have a lot of trouble mentally rectifying how a shield stops my Telekinesis, but... alright. :|

At any rate, off to play more of the Beta and search for some actual bugs to report!

 

Love the game!

I really enjoy playing it.
Today I will play it a few hours and see if I can give a feedback.

 

Have you considered doing a "Second impressions thread" or "More considered impressions thread"? Because I'm getting a deeper understanding of this game. Or, at least, of one specific point:

When newcomers arrive in this game and ask old folks "Hey, how do I get good at this?" the answer will be "Learn your counters."

Lots of folks have been commenting on the challenge of facing armor cards. I just beat my head against the Parry card, in specific, for about 7 different retries in Rescue from Shieldhaven Prison. And in all cases, the answer is "Re-spec with the proper counters."

Sometimes, you just need to swap 1-range melee for 2-range. Sometimes, you just need to swap regular for penetrating. But sometimes, you might put serious thought into restarting the quest with more wizards so you can multiply the incineration on those stupid Parry-users.

Land sakes. Man alive. Other idiomatic expressions like crazy. Blue Manchu, you've made those StarCraft-obsessed "Learn-your-counters"-parroting fanatics look like kids in a sandbox.

 

And in the game...

 

Hi,

Firstly, thanks for the invite, this has been on my watch list for a long time =D

I’m just starting out on the first level 3 adventure, so I thought I’d piece some of my first impressions together.

Aesthetics:
I’m a huge fan of the artwork and game aesthetics; the visual style is beautiful, crisp and clear (a few beta oddities which others have mentioned). There’s also a really friendly vibe to the game, and it’s easy to duck in and out for quick adventures.

The clarity and responsiveness of the UI is excellent; I’ve eagerly tried to play some other card based combat games and been frustrated early on, either by a slow/clunky interface, or by something attempting to show so much on the screen at once it became a chore to even get into the basics of how to control the game, before even learning the simple combat mechanics. Things like scrolling across to view mission info and character info is a lovely touch.

The sounds are also a beautiful compliment to the art, there are satisfying clicks and thunks; coupled with the visual flair/animation, and how things respond to clicks quickly and consistently, it’s a wonderfully immersive experience.

The writing/mission so far text is great, it strikes a good balance between comedic and informative.

I’m a big fan of the comparison that occurs when you’re switching weapons/armour/items, it’s very intuitive and the visuals are great.

Gameplay/ Difficulty:
I’m really, really enjoying playing the game, I realise I’ve rambled a lot above so I’ll try and be more constructive here.

I think the initial tutorial built my confidence a little too high, or perhaps some missions could do with optional hint/strategy suggestions. Probably due to my initially aggressive/brute force play style, I took a hammering in the “Lair of the Trog Wizard” for a few attempts.

The text encouraging me to go and earn some more items, or repeat quests sort of confirmed my belief that I was having a level/equipment problem; in actuality I was just completely wrong about my strategy. A few alterations to my way of thinking about the enemy attacks and planning in advance were all I needed, and now I can easily see why I was getting wiped before. That might just be my lack of experience with this sort of game.

Confusion:
I didn’t realise I could stick higher level weapons on lower level characters e.g. level 1 character can wield s level 4 mace; I wasn’t sure if that behaviour was intentional.

By a similar token to the above, it seemed odd to have level 1 armour I couldn’t wear because the armour slot didn’t exist (and there wasn’t an indication at which level it would unlock).

I wasn’t sure why I could cancel some cards, but not others.

It might become less of an issue with later cards/games, but enemies with multiple armour cards can cause what seems like disproportionate frustration. I’m not really sure if it needs changing, I haven’t played enough.

I might have missed it, but I haven’t quite understood what pizza slices are for yet, I saw I could use them to revive a party in an adventure and I’m sure they’ll have important uses, but the tutorial didn’t make passing mention (again, might have missed it).

I wasn’t entirely clear when the earlier quests would reset so I could do them again (I might have missed it); when I was in a rut with the Trog Wizard (Giggity), I couldn’t really see an easy way to go and level up more (turned out to be my strategy/lack of, that was the problem).

Just an odd note, my assumption was that I’d get XP after each battle, rather than after the total quest; I might have missed that being explicitly stated (I was quite eager to play when I got home).

In summary, I absolutely love what’s in place so far, it’s a charming game to play and the progressions/loot systems are incentive to come back for more. I’m looking forward to progressing further, understanding more strategies, and getting a few multiplayer games under my belt.

Apologies for length.

Keep up the excellent work ^_^

 

I'll reserve this space for when I GET A KEY!!!!

Even though I could probably already post what I'm going to think about it. I'm one of those people who have been waiting for a game like this to come out ever since I've been into gaming.

 

Having just recently completed the level 3 quests, I have to say they were pretty well balanced. They were very challenging, at least in the final confrontations. Earlier battles, not so much... still fun and by no means a cakewalk, but it was certainly that final battle in each where all the drama lay. Just barely scraped by that last golem with my lone surviving character (elven wizard) dashing back and forth for something like ten rounds, desperately trying to keep out of range until I could get lucky and break through those stacked armor cards that almost never seem to fail. The demon portal was relatively simple and blazingly quick in execution by comparison, but had I not won on victory points I likely wouldn't have won at all. Managed to get through both on first attempt; no retry or restart needed. But just barely, which I like!

Add those encounters and their offered opponents to the level 2 Trogs (which I did NOT beat the first time without a couple retries ) and I'm really loving where this game is sitting. Everything past the level 1 introduction encounter is challenging but fair. Entirely beatable, with the right tactics. That introduction, though, could maybe use a bit more to spice it up, because there really is a daunting gap in difficulty between the White Skull Canyon and those nasty Troglodytes. Those first four adventures do a good job of introducing you to game basics, but are not as good at preparing you for the strategic and tactical planning you'll need for even the very next adventure.

...which I suppose is, itself, still part of the tutorial and a good indicator of things to come in it's own, brutal way. I would consider adding more difficulty to those first four adventures, though.

 

Cracking =D

Have to add again that my first impressions thus far are overwelmingly positive; it was a great move to wait until arriving at this point to let us take the game for a spin.

 

First Muliplayer Impression

Not using a pre-built team i.e. from the packs seems to put you at a disadvantage at this point as the gear they have is much superior to that of the majority of "loot based" parties, I think.

Once I get more Pizza, I'll test this empirically. Hint, Hint!

Other than that, Multiplayer is a much of a blast as Single Player, with the added twist of having to deal with fiendish Human players!