Second Second , Strategic Roguelite Deckbuilder
0Disclosure: This game copy was bought by the reviewer. I should also mention this is mainly to showcase the campaign missions as a few recent changes have been made to the Standard Mode, adding a level selection from 1-10 (thankfully, given the over all difficulty).
A world's best warrior survives his home planet's destruction, a CEO finds himself blamed for supplying the weapons, and an exiled warrior is sent to eliminate the survivor. Your deck is your only means of survival as you gain cards to power it and unlock slots through ancient tech stations. Instead of focusing on random card selection, you forge the deck of your choice and rely on the improvements or disabilities to overcome your foes. Each card requires time to use, which makes the enemy just as dangerous as you (and thankfully makes the use of full health for each fight viable). Completing achievements also unlock new starting cards for your character for better build opportunities. The main issues with the game boil down to how quick abilities appear to activate for the enemy. Instead of being used at the end of the cycle, it looks to be used once drawn, which can lead to terribly quick deaths with no time to react. This might be due to the actual skills, but 9 times out of 10 they activate before you can even get a chance to read them. Either way, the difficulty spike is noticeable and thankfully the standard mode received a much needed re-haul to make surviving the first sector plausible.
It is a unique take on the deckbuilding formula with each attack type adding something new to the table. The enemy types are a bit repetitive, but the backgrounds, model animations and particle effects really sell the sci-fi atmosphere. I am still not sure how to measure the content with the price, but if this happens to go on sale for a modest discount, I wouldn't see an issue in picking it up. Just expect a more challenging take over something like Slay the Spire due mainly to the lack of starting options.