Cardpocalypse

my fav genre, I like this game. so here long review, I wrote at nearly 100% the game. [h3] You can't collect 'em all [/h3] Store page says that. That made me hesitate, because I like deck building, so I want to access to 100% card pool. Still bought the game because of CCG RPG itch. Game campaign is structured in 5 days(long day, if you do side activities) at school. Monday to Friday, Day1 works like a tutorial. Early game is okayish because of novelty. The limited card pool problem is kick in around day2-3. The game has (equal) card trading system, so it kind of forces you to choose what you will play and will not. I decided to ditch a blue faction(aggro, tempo, swarming theme, I like playing control), so I trade blue card with other 3 factions. This is not feel good. Day2-3 is kind of stale and I thought I should quit or not, but the game is okayish, so still push on in hope of it will get better. Day 4-5 is when the game shine, true fun begins. I got hooked. You get to select 1/3 rules everytime you beat a Champ to suit your playstyle. You still gradually get more cards with more fun effects. In this stage, your card pool is big enough to build different, varied decks. So in the end, You can't collect them all, but you get around ~70%. good enough Day5 also has more contents for you to play with your big card pool now. something like optional duels that harder than story bosses, duel with specfic condition to hunt achievments. [h3] what you should, maybe, know [/h3] Everyone playthroughs is different, depend on every choices you make. I like playing control, so my card pool is consist of 3 factions without blue color. When making a choice, I incline to control card and rules. I can beat all the contents, hoarding Stickers, only used a tiny bit. They are limited consumable to upgrade your cards like stat buff or give a new keyword ability. Something like when you hoarding potions when playing turn-based JRPG. You can also use Stickers to do achievements. When it pops, reload your save to hoarding again. If you are an acheivement hunter, you should read all before playing, so you will have some knowledge in making choice to pop a achievement and managing save reloading. I don't care much and prefer playing game blindly, but still got all nearly 100%, so it's not so hard. I think only 1-3 that are hard to pop and you have to do 2nd playthrough. something like 100% win rate [h3] the card game [/h3] Core gameplay is based on Hearthstone(HS). There are 3 card types. 1) Champ, HS Hero, 30HP AT1, 1 ability At 15 HP, Champ will go Mega!, trigger 1 ability, upgraded ability, AT+1 Champ is what make this game different from other HS-based. You build your deck around Champ ability. Permanent AT also make minion trading different. You have no free face attck, but also there is Ambush keyword for that. 2) Minion, same as HS 3) Mutation, similar to HS Secret, but it can trigger in your turn, so it can also effectively function as Spell. Every Mutation cost 1. Some Mutations have strong effect, so so much tempo swing. --- [b] good, what I like [/b] [list] [*]card battle and deck building [*]Story is fun and humorous [*]Chars are likable [*]This game aesthetic and humor maybe turns off someone, but I like it. Power Pets are funny, but also cool. [*]music [/list] [b] okay [/b] [list] [*]missed opportunity for new game+ to collect cards you ditch in 1st playthrough and battle upgraded opponents [*]The game is designed to do 2nd playthrough, but don't have quality of life features to support that. can't skip cutscene, back and forth fetch quests, etc [*]Story battle is too easy and very different from Challenges. Challenges are hard, because they abuse heavy Sticker upgrade. Battle difficulty should come from smarter AI play, not because of more busted cards. [/list] [b] bad [/b] [list] [*]Control is below industry standard like dev don't play PC games(maybe, this game origin is on Apple Arcade) or ran out of fund or lazy, out of passion. You have 3 control schemes : mouse, keyboard, controller. Normally it is M/KB and controller. Keyboard control is also trash. Who use INS, DEL, etc in playing games. and no key binding, Game have keyboard shortcuts, but don't tell you. [*]UI, UX could be improved. Example for something that are meh, you don't see this much in other games. You hover your mouse on a card in your deck then menu pop up. You can't directly interact with it. You can't click left from page 1 to quickly turn to last page. Card collection filter could be improved. Fast travel could be faster. [*]too many little, not game breaking, annoying bugs. Something that you can solve like back and re-enter again. Maybe because of possibilities of rule choice, so it's hard to coding or dev ran out of fund [/list] This game is so much fun and addicting on day4-5. There is frequently 80% sale. For me, Campaign alone is well worth 80% sale price. There is also Rogue-Like mode that I don't try yet. more value