I found this game highly enjoyable, and more than that highly challenging.

That's not to say that the game is difficult, it's just very complex, and in that you get this great sense of how fair the game can be. Especially with my time playing other PVP games like hearthstone and the like, you come to realize how unfair RNG mechanics are. Well Prismata doesn't have those. It's pure strategy, pure skill, and above all else, purely fair.

There's zero pay to win aspects. All of the microtransactions are for cosmetics, or to unlock additional single player content. But wait, you may be saying, I have to pay to unlock single player content? Yes, but it's much like the tell tall episodic games or the like. You get a hell of a lot for free. I'm told the base game will be free to play when it leaves early access, I got a beta invite code for signing up.

I think that's one of the most impressive aspects of the game to me, is how non selfish and greedy the game feels when it comes to the microtransaction aspect. After seeing so many games bleed users with keys, lootboxes, powerups, and the most powerful units hidden behind rare RNG chance.... this game is just refreshingly honest and open. Oh, you'd better believe I spent some shards to unlock the "America" drone skin. :D But did I have to? No!

So lets talk about the actual game itself for a moment. There's two ways to play, pvp and pve.

PVP is probably the meat of the game for most players, and again, the fairness comes out and is rather obvious. The 'deck' of units is created semi randomly, and then both players draw from that deck of potential cards. No player has an advantage of overpowered units or cards. In addition each game is going to be a little different, because you don't know what units will be available until you get into the game. So there's no overpowered deck builds, no one turn kill strategies, no 'meta' defining plays. Each game plays out with turn by turn evolution of the battle. Which again is so amazingly refreshing. Another thing that's a fantastic addition is the 'time bank' mechanic. When you're in a battle if you take your turn very quickly, you start to 'bank' some of the spare time you had in your turn, which you can then use in later turns if you have to take a longer turn or need extra time to think. It encourages you to be tactical and thoughtful, but also play quickly and not just waste your time if you know what you want to do. Why don't all card / pvp games include a mechanic like this ?!

The PvE or single player is functionally the same game, but finds a rather interesting visual novel experienced wrapped around the core game mechanics. It gets quite challenging, I'm not going to lie, as soon as you start to get to the end of episode 1. I found myself going back several turns and undoing plays or even restarting the whole match trying to figure out the optimal play style to get through some really tough challenges. On top of the story "campaign" mode there's challenges and training puzzles that task you to figure out how to win a scenario in a set time, or with set resources.

Again, all of this for one single base price.

I guess if I had to have any criticism, it would be that the method of unlocking skins / microtransactions does feel a LITTLE bit random. But again you do have to keep in mind that since these are just cosmetic items and actually have no effect on the game, it doesn't REALLY matter. Right? RIGHT ? :D

I find this game WELL worth the $25 price tag, and the developers are giving away free EA keys in their discord, and I'm also told this is going free to play when it leaves EA. So, really, do you have a good reason NOT to check this out? No, you do not. It's a hell of a ride and a hell of a lot of fun.

I found this game highly enjoyable, and more than that highly challenging. That's not to say that the game is difficult, it's just very complex, and in that you get this great sense of how fair the game can be. Especially with my time playing other PVP games like hearthstone and the like, you come to realize how unfair RNG mechanics are. Well Prismata doesn't have those. It's pure strategy, pure skill, and above all else, purely fair. There's zero pay to win aspects. All of the microtransactions are for cosmetics, or to unlock additional single player content. But wait, you may be saying, I have to pay to unlock single player content? Yes, but it's much like the tell tall episodic games or the like. You get a hell of a lot for free. I'm told the base game will be free to play when it leaves early access, I got a beta invite code for signing up. I think that's one of the most impressive aspects of the game to me, is how non selfish and greedy the game feels when it comes to the microtransaction aspect. After seeing so many games bleed users with keys, lootboxes, powerups, and the most powerful units hidden behind rare RNG chance.... this game is just refreshingly honest and open. Oh, you'd better believe I spent some shards to unlock the "America" drone skin. :D But did I have to? No! So lets talk about the actual game itself for a moment. There's two ways to play, pvp and pve. PVP is probably the meat of the game for most players, and again, the fairness comes out and is rather obvious. The 'deck' of units is created semi randomly, and then both players draw from that deck of potential cards. No player has an advantage of overpowered units or cards. In addition each game is going to be a little different, because you don't know what units will be available until you get into the game. So there's no overpowered deck builds, no one turn kill strategies, no 'meta' defining plays. Each game plays out with turn by turn evolution of the battle. Which again is so amazingly refreshing. Another thing that's a fantastic addition is the 'time bank' mechanic. When you're in a battle if you take your turn very quickly, you start to 'bank' some of the spare time you had in your turn, which you can then use in later turns if you have to take a longer turn or need extra time to think. It encourages you to be tactical and thoughtful, but also play quickly and not just waste your time if you know what you want to do. Why don't all card / pvp games include a mechanic like this ?! The PvE or single player is functionally the same game, but finds a rather interesting visual novel experienced wrapped around the core game mechanics. It gets quite challenging, I'm not going to lie, as soon as you start to get to the end of episode 1. I found myself going back several turns and undoing plays or even restarting the whole match trying to figure out the optimal play style to get through some really tough challenges. On top of the story "campaign" mode there's challenges and training puzzles that task you to figure out how to win a scenario in a set time, or with set resources. Again, all of this for one single base price. I guess if I had to have any criticism, it would be that the method of unlocking skins / microtransactions does feel a LITTLE bit random. But again you do have to keep in mind that since these are just cosmetic items and actually have no effect on the game, it doesn't REALLY matter. Right? RIGHT ? :D I find this game WELL worth the $25 price tag, and the developers are giving away free EA keys in their discord, and I'm also told this is going free to play when it leaves EA. So, really, do you have a good reason NOT to check this out? No, you do not. It's a hell of a ride and a hell of a lot of fun.