Dominova

[quote] Please consider following my [url=https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41005226/]Curation page[/url]. I cover a wide range of genres both paid and unpaid, providing unbiased opinions as well as regular giveaway events. [/quote] [b]Video Review TBD[/b] https://youtu.be/0AzpabLnmsU [h2]There Are Some Forced Problems[/h2] I get it. Let's take Balatro's style, the genre where you gamble for the highest score in the fewest moves, and blend it with not cards, not dice or puzzles, but the timeless game of Dominoes. What you end up with is surprisingly one of the best ideas in recent memory. It's deceptively challenging, but not always in a fun way. The difficulty feels unbalanced, heavily leaning into deep strategy with permanent debuffs and modifiers that can force failure if you don't play along. In my 5 hours with the game, I've never once won on normal mode, no matter the modifiers, no matter the build. Each time I come back, it feels like the difficulty spikes exponentially, with punishing mechanics like losing all of my placement tile points because I didn’t sacrifice my domino tiles to the meteorites. Meanwhile, other runs have given me over 40 movement points and a 50% discount on all tiles... and I still failed because I decked out before I could even beat the final boss when I was on the path to victory! Then there's the complexity of some decks, like those that allow for turn-one KO victories, effectively winning an entire run in a single move. While I can't see that being all that fun given the already high difficulty, it's exactly this kind of unexpected depth that keeps me coming back. Constant failure and near-successes are strangely compelling. Every time I fail, I feel the urge to try again, and that sense of accomplishment when I finally succeed will feel incredibly rewarding and of course the atmosphere here is quite chill and universal. [h2]How To Play[/h2] I feel like most people only know about toppling dominoes over after stacking them into towers. It's very basic rules. You match color to color or value to value, chain the comboes and score the points with the help of joker effects while avoiding negative modifiers. Each tier has 3 attempts and if you fail to meet that quota, you die. Fun! [h2]Conclusion[/h2] I don't really like Balatro, but I do like games that are innovative with their remixing and blending on niche concepts and making them fun and engaging. Everything you do here is permanant. Did you burn a tile? It's burnt for the entire run, heal it with a heart tile. Many modifiers are like this and then there are boss fights that end up making it even harder by making it harder to use upgrades or even heals, many shop effects help and also can screw you over, so it does make you really think. Definitely worth checking out if you're into strategy!

A fun little game that keeps you going time and time again. Nice to play if you want to listen to something in the background.

Super addictive and with enough game modes to potentially enjoy for a hundred hours! Levels get lenghtier as you rank up, but that adds to the difficulty.

This game is great. It is VERY fun. A lot of rougelites have been coming out because of Balatros fame and i think this is the only one ive played so far that could compare to it. Equal quality id say. I honestly like dominova a little more as theres more things going on. Different builds, playstyles, everything feels fair. If you lose its based on YOUR skill and NOT rng (as much as other games). This game is awesome. BUY IT!

Nice

this game is extremely addicting