I am giving this game a positive review, while also spelling out what might be the most damning criticism possible.

To start on a positive note: I quickly became obsessed with this game and its very deep system of customization. My 90 hours played only scratches the surface of the effect it had on me. I probably spent 6+ hours a day just theory-crafting in my head, playing with the vast space of possibilities. I really enjoyed the time I spent with it and I retire from the game with no ill will. (Also: the music is very good, and the graphics have a kitschy charm to them.)

The criticism: A game with infinite rules is essentially the same thing as a game with no rules. As you advance to the higher levels, it becomes a herculean task just trying to comprehend what is happening in combat. There are 12 creatures in a battle, each with 3 or more traits, plus dozens of different buffs and debuffs, hundreds of character perks, hundreds of spells, artifact slots, realm effects, etc etc etc. The fights become like Rube Goldberg machines, where you select a single option from a menu, setting off some unknowable cascade of events, during which truly anything could happen. By the time you get to make another input, perhaps every creature on the field has died and come back to life multiple times, every stat on every creature has increased or decreased by tremendous amounts, some trait (somewhere) has triggered and now the enemy creatures are immune to everything you do. After a while, you stop asking "wait, why did that happen?" Trying to follow the logic behind it all is a fool's errand. You resign yourself to whatever the outcome is, and say "damn, that's crazy, all right." When you win, you just feel lucky that the enemy team didn't have some card up their sleeve to destroy you at the last second. When you lose, you shrug your shoulders; how were you supposed to know that would happen?

In spite of all this, I actually recommend the game still. There is a truly incredible amount of content, and it's extremely engaging, comparable to something like Magic: The Gathering, where seeing a single line of rules text can get your wheels turning, leading to anything from a modest improvement to your strategy, up to a completely new approach unlike any you've tried before. Eventually it falls over like a 15-dimensional house of cards, but perhaps that's to be expected.

I am giving this game a positive review, while also spelling out what might be the most damning criticism possible. To start on a positive note: I quickly became obsessed with this game and its very deep system of customization. My 90 hours played only scratches the surface of the effect it had on me. I probably spent 6+ hours a day just theory-crafting in my head, playing with the vast space of possibilities. I really enjoyed the time I spent with it and I retire from the game with no ill will. (Also: the music is very good, and the graphics have a kitschy charm to them.) The criticism: A game with infinite rules is essentially the same thing as a game with no rules. As you advance to the higher levels, it becomes a herculean task just trying to comprehend what is happening in combat. There are 12 creatures in a battle, each with 3 or more traits, plus dozens of different buffs and debuffs, hundreds of character perks, hundreds of spells, artifact slots, realm effects, etc etc etc. The fights become like Rube Goldberg machines, where you select a single option from a menu, setting off some unknowable cascade of events, during which truly anything could happen. By the time you get to make another input, perhaps every creature on the field has died and come back to life multiple times, every stat on every creature has increased or decreased by tremendous amounts, some trait (somewhere) has triggered and now the enemy creatures are immune to everything you do. After a while, you stop asking "wait, why did that happen?" Trying to follow the logic behind it all is a fool's errand. You resign yourself to whatever the outcome is, and say "damn, that's crazy, all right." When you win, you just feel lucky that the enemy team didn't have some card up their sleeve to destroy you at the last second. When you lose, you shrug your shoulders; how were you supposed to know that would happen? In spite of all this, I actually recommend the game still. There is a truly incredible amount of content, and it's extremely engaging, comparable to something like Magic: The Gathering, where seeing a single line of rules text can get your wheels turning, leading to anything from a modest improvement to your strategy, up to a completely new approach unlike any you've tried before. Eventually it falls over like a 15-dimensional house of cards, but perhaps that's to be expected.