Recent reviews by Henry

What's described here on the store page is just not the degree of content that is in the game. There's hardly any variety. These items that exist you pick once and that's it. Then it's the same cycle of upgrades over and over again. There's basically no decision since almost every upgrade is a DPS increase. I did something to the effect of 4 runs - 2 wins and 2 losses. My builds felt the exact same both runs except that I chose a different main weapon which changed mostly just how things looked. Yeah, there's like 4 or 5 abilities for your Q-E-R keys, but

The actual progress of the gameplay loop doesn't feel different enough, either. The scaling of enemies is so minimal that your scaling is also minimal. Maybe if you compare only the beginning to the very endpoint is there a major difference. Otherwise, you just watch a number go from like 12 to 20 by the end of the run. I'm not saying it needs to go to 10,000,000. But it would be nice to see a lot more meaningful scaling.

There's also some sort of sigil system - the one I remember best was a bonus of 5% to lightning damage for each lightning sigil, and this item gave 2 sigils. Ok, 10% bonus is cool, but I don't think I ever saw these sigils again after that upgrade.

I know it's early access, but it feels like alpha access, honestly. I'm disappointed about how much customization was mentioned on the store page just to find out there is basically none. Also, the dragon is so incredibly useless. Yeah, it lets you fly above enemies and make a quick getaway - but for being such a pivotal point of the game, it doesn't do anything. You just collect and use potions for like, 5 seconds. And then you collect the potions for another 5 seconds.

It's just way too shallow - to the point I requested a refund.
Maybe when this game comes out of EA it will have a much better slew of content, but for now, it's incredibly barren, boring, and bland.

I will say though, the soundtrack and sound effects are pretty solid. The dev truly nailed that aspect!

Good relaxing fun. Scratches any TCG itch you may have without having to spend thousands on children's cardboard.

I've since changed my mind since progressing further in the game. I can't really recommend this in good faith.
Unless I've missed some game-changing piece of content - this game is a big snoozefest after you play like 3 hours. It becomes a big slog of constantly auto-buying to high tier dice. The problem? Where I'm at now, it takes at least 20 hours. As far as I'm aware, there are no upgrades to make the autobuy faster, no upgrades to make the lowest tier dice better - as in tier 1 changes into tier 2 by default or something. I'm just losing steam on waiting for these upgrades to finish constantly. I don't feel like letting this game run for 20+ hours just to get a singular dice upgrade and then restart the process all over again.

Everything else i said below is still true - this is probably the closest thing to a decent idle game this developer has made, so it's great progress. But something needs to change because the new shine wears off just after the refund period ends - isn't that a little strange?

Original Thoughts below:
It has a lot more meat than the previous games from this dev. I'm enjoying my time so far. It's simple, fairly clean, and straightforward.
The components of an idle game are more robust than previous ventures as well. A true ascension system that pushes progress - as well as a combination mechanism that drives the game forward.

I'm looking forward to going deeper into the game - Only through ascension 2 so far!

Base game was amazing with one of the most balanced rogue-likes out there.

DLC made it even better with expanded content and new features.

This game is a gem for any 'survivor' fan. Genuinely, top-notch work.

I really like it - the art style is fun. The progression system is fun. The theme is satisfying. The colors and how circles are represented (highlight if you're in or dim if you're out) is awesome.

There's a lot of good things going on here.

However, I can't recommend this in good conscience while this game fails to load half the time on startup while I'm booting it on a 4070. The menus are slow to respond as well. It needs some major tweaks to performance - and then it will be an absolute gem.

Coming up on an hour of gameplay: I'm surprised at just how good of a time I'm having.

The skill tree makes it feel like my choices matter. I'm sure you could sit down and make a spreadsheet of the absolute most optimal way to spend your skill points - but the choices you make even this early really feel like they are viable in different builds. You aren't just stuck to 1 build of starter skills off the get go. I really like that.

The progress is steady whether you wanna check on it every 5 minutes or actively click. I really do think this balance is good so far (again, only coming up on my first hour of gameplay - very well could change). But I'm finding myself mixing the two styles and seeing steady progress on the walls and upgrading my skills.

The side quests are a nice little distraction with solid rewards as well. Skipping them is a huge detriment - and playing them out gives you a couple funny lines of dialogue.

I'm truly impressed so far - and am looking forward to finishing this game out so long as things stay steady the way they have been! I'm expecting to find some soft-walls here and there, that's just the way incrementals go. But this game feels great so far, the polish is there, and the satisfying loop is as well. I don't think there's any resetting? But maybe there is and I just don't know about it yet? Looking forward to finding out!

Circles spin.
Number go up.
Big fun.
Reset.
Circles spin.
Number go up.
Bigger fun.

October is nearly ended - there's been some decent updates. But I feel like meaningful progression hasn't returned yet. Forge times are insanely long, even with forge heroes with the new update. Don't get me wrong - being able to upgrade the tier of forged equipment is great. But the dev needs to pick between longer forge times or increased ingot cost. You can't neuter us with both. It turns any deep run into multiple hours of gathering the resources and forging the item. I'm not saying a deep run shouldn't last a long time, but I shouldn't need to spend 10 hours forging one item in tier 3 without the heroes. It's a little egregious.

Otherwise - the dev's effort is definitely there. Things are moving in the right direction. We just need to fine tune and continue the polish. I genuinely do look forward to new content - but I'm still going to leave this as a do not recommend because I genuinely don't think a new player will be grabbed with the current state of things.

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October is here, and so is a little update: I still can't recommend this game to anyone in a general sense. If you're a clicker/idler game fan, you're probably OK to play it. Lots of bugs and crashes have been fixed. There's definitely still some glaring issues that pop up (looking at you - boss health bug) but it's in a fairly playable state right now with minimal impact to enjoyment. I'm leaving it on do not recommend right now though because a casual gaming fan would not even remotely enjoy this experience. As more work is done, I'm very happy to change this - the dev is working hard I can clearly see, we just have some more steps to go before the polish is truly shining.

Updating again after more play time:
I definitely want the dev to have credit for continuing to update and work on this and release small fixes here and there. But right now it's in a realm of one crash bug gets fixed just for a new one to pop up. I'll walk away from the game for 2 minutes to grab a drink out of the fridge, come back and it crashed. I'll be upgrading my cards, suddenly it black screens and crashes. I know it's EA, so there's bound to be bugs, but it's just frustrating to see them fixed only for there to be new sources. I'm sure the dev is working on it, but it's really tough to play right now with these consistent crashes.

Why are we not allowed to turn off the eye-aggravating soup that is the damage numbers over enemies? Absolutely adds nothing to the game except eye strain. - Option to reduce/remove have been added. Far later than they should have been, but better late than never.

Adding an additional thought after playing more: Why is clicks even a system? You breeze through the amount needed for everything before even coming close to the number of clicks required. I had everything well before reaching even E50 gold, when the lowest amount of gold for one of the bonuses is E100, I think. I just don't get why this is even a thing that maxes out after 20 minutes of gameplay and is never used again? Unless there's a thing to reset it and buff it. Why isn't there a store in there to spend the clicks and gain some permanent bonuses??


Game is super laggy. - Major improvements have been made, but still more work needs to be done.

Some of the tutorials are broken. (Currently mine is the "hovering mouse over tips button - 1. Where the heck is the button? 2. Why is it not highlighted? 3. I've hovered over every possible option, why won't this tutorial go away?) - I actually just figured this out after a short while. The problem was I didn't have any cards to upgrade with cash, you had to upgrade them with the secondary currency first. Glad that the tooltip obscures the entirety of that upgrade panel, though. Again, needs a big fix, but maybe the tooltips aren't actually broken, just super poorly placed.

Very pay to win.

I can get over pay to win, but I can't get over the game being laggy and the tutorials being broken. Dev needs to put some serious work in, and then I'll be happy to change things if they improve.

I don't know why this is at mostly negative, honestly. I've been having a blast for the 2 hours I played, even got 2 victories!

The RNG is a bit heavy, but the devs have said they're working on the fine-tuning. So it'll only get better. Very possible to win, and honestly not that hard to spot the combos and whatnot. The game is funny and enjoyable.

I will say, the price is a little steep. If this had been a $12 game opening with 10% off I think it would've taken off even more-so. But hey, that's a personal opinion. I do think I'll be getting $15 worth of enjoyment out of it, so I'm not too worried.

I'm going to recommend this, but with the caveat that you really, REALLY enjoy the VS game style. This game isn't bad by any means, but it's kind of more of the same? I'm not getting the super unique feel like you can with other games in this genre.

I've played this game a couple hours, I've had fun, it's not a bad game, but it's not an insanely amazing game, if that makes sense?
I hope either continued development helps it feel unique as updates come through, or the workshop can allow that. There's a good structure here, I just think the potential is untapped. I'm leaving a yes I recommend, as a general stance because it truly was fun the little bit I've played. I just don't see myself sinking hours and hours into it like I have with some other games in the genre.