[h1] TLDR [/h1]
Heistgeist impresses with its immersive story and characters. The artwork and deck-based combat are rich & addictive but the overall enjoyment is affected by game balancing, info lapses and linearity.
[h1] Intro[/h1]
It seems like there are more and more deck-based combat games these days, and while I’m not crazy about them, there was something about this 2D cyberpunk heist game that caught my eye. I was a big fan of Invisible Inc. when it debuted, and hoped for more of the same. At first glance, you couldn’t tell that this game has east european / slavic roots, until you start hacking and notice some of the program names in your deck. The main characters’ names also seem unique and unusual. None of this bothered me though, I found it refreshing.
You play the leader of a gang trying to recover a valuable device, “the prototype” from a previous failed mission. There is no character generation; you have to play “Razor girl” and the subsequent teammates she recruits.
The roguelike campaign (consisting of heists) is completely linear. The heist is broken into phases, which involve decision points, combat, or hacking, depending on the stage of the story you’re at. As you progress, you edge closer to the objective, which varies.
Despite the slavic/eastern european setting, all characters are voiced in perfect English (albeit appropriately accented). There’s even a dog in the team whom you can chat with if you wish. In terms of tactics, you can purchase upgrades to your cyberware and base stats. This is CRUCIAL. There is no way you can advance (beyond the first task) or complete heists without enhancements. The heists yield cash, cards for your deck, and other goodies.
Once you recruit the captain, you gain access to the black market, and can buy cards or cyberware to enhance your abilities. By “your” I mean Razor girl and any other team members (notably Zoya). Combat itself is pretty standard in terms of deck-based games of the genre. Cards are drawn and discarded, then utilized against the target of your choice; once you run out, the whole deck gets re-shuffled and the process begins again. Combat cards can be modified and enhanced, if you receive duplicates. You can also create combos by playing them in a certain order. The number of turns continue until you or your enemies are defeated.
In hacking, the objectives are a little different. Some obstacles can be destroyed; others need to be captured, and others get enhanced or reduced in strength depending on the card and the environment. Your primary objective is to capture the node (there can be more than one), and there may be secondary objectives as well. Once complete, you can “jack out” (good thing the designers didn’t say “jack off”).
I have to say that I hit a wall on the “Road to Hell” heist. It was extremely difficult to pass the 2 bounty hunters. It seemed like I could no longer proceed based on the enhancements / deck I had, and the only option would have been to start a new profile, because there was no way to access the black market (to buy / try out other upgrades or cards) or load the last intermission. After multiple attempts, I finally figured out a way to beat them, but it required very specific conditions (frankly, too specific to be fun).
[h1] Likes [/h1]
[b] + Overall, the gameplay (heists) are fun. I prefer hacking to fighting, as the former is very well balanced, and they never throw at you what you can’t handle. [/b]
[b] + The voiceovers are simply excellent. I can’t stress this enough. You’d think there’d be some weirdness in translations or whatever, but there were none. The characters are believable, and you can tell they’re not recycling voice actors in multiple roles. [/b]
[b] + The art is great. Everything is 2D, which is fine if rendered properly. All the characters look authentic, and you get a real gritty, noir, cyberpunk feel that comes across. [/b]
[b] + Battles can be fun, if you win. Playing cards in specific combos can yield significant results, and combat cards can be modified (enhanced) [/b]
[b] + Combat cards can be won, bought and upgraded, while hacking cards and cyberware can only be purchased. You can also increase deck sizes (your total number of cards), or hand sizes (the number of cards you draw each turn). [/b]
[h1] Dislikes[/h1]
[b] - The game is completely linear. Locations on the map yield nothing of interest when you visit (why even bother making these tasks an option?) and decision points during a heist don’t really make much of a difference either. [/b]
[b] - Game balancing needs to be improved. Your bare bones character is seriously under-powered and initially pathetic .. Rewards from successful heists are paltry, so you’re still limited in your purchasing options for more than half of the game (I stopped at day 15). By then, your enemies’ stats and decks are usually better than yours, and they ALWAYS outnumber you. You also cannot sell excess cards or cyberware for cash. Some combat cards don’t work right. Benefits like “stealth” make opponents miss their physical attacks, but SOMEHOW, their negative conditions still get passed onto your character. How does this make sense? In every other game I’ve played, “stealth” means you cannot be hit, by anything, until the turn is over or you attack first. But here, my “stealthed” character still had “bleed”, “burn”, “slow”, etc. even though the physical attacks missed. [/b]
[b] - I got stuck at around day 15 on a battle against 3 enemies (2 bounty hunters), which included a boss with almost 3x my HP, could continuously heal himself, and deal “injury cards” to me (this reduces the size of your hand till you have nothing but lousy, feeble responses in battle). I ran the scenario multiple times with edited decks, and finally beat them, but I shouldn’t have to do this (see game balancing above). [/b]
[b] - The roguelike features negatively affect what could have been a really enjoyable game. You’re not able to reload a saved game to try different deck / cyberware options without having to re-do the ENTIRE heist from scratch, which is a major pain, or worse yet, start the game from scratch with a new profile. [/b]
[b] - There is insufficient info on things like deck editing, which you have to figure out yourself. Multiple cards are stacked, and you have to pay attention to notice this and figure it out yourself. There should also be an in-game glossary on various conditions like “burn”, “toxic”, etc. without having to buy an item first and waste precious resources.. [/b]
[h1] Undecided [/h1]
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[*] The game has a 30-day clock, or time limit. Granted, I haven’t finished it, so I don’t know what happens after, but being open-ended might have been more fun, and have more replay value. Based on steam achievements, there appear to be about 10 heists. Note: “replay value” versus “frustrated repetition because you cannot advance” – there’s a major difference. But this is the nature of roguelikes; in some forms it’s palatable, in others, it can be really annoying.
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[h1] Verdict [/h1]
Heistgeist could have been so much better. It seems like hacking is perfectly balanced, but the fights are not. I’m not sure if this is intentional, or coincidental; either way, the balancing could be better: more loot (cash and drops), less uneven fights, enhanceable MC stats, better save/load points (e.g. being able to access the black market while on heists), etc.
That said, I still like Heistgeist, but as it stands, it barely makes the cut. I’d wait for a sale to try it out.
5.0 / 10.0
