Shroom and Gloom

I only played one run. And I won on that run. So maybe I'm biased, but this game just feels fun to play. The art style oozes charm. The spooky vibes feel claustrophobic. The final boss genuinely intimidated with how it looms over the camera and you have to literally look up at it to see its whole form. As for the gameplay, I love the dynamic between having a camp/explore deck and a combat deck. My explore deck was pretty terrible by the end game, I think, but my combat was so juiced that it didn't end up mattering. The final boss game mechanics were also fantastic at providing a "wow" factor and intimidation factor on a first playthrough. The sheer amount of hp it has, followed up with a negative curse on top of it made me wonder how I was ever supposed to beat it. Then the gimmick of the fight revealed itself and I was hooked. This game is just so charming and I'm writing this review in the hopes it can convince others to support the game so the devs can put even more love into it.

Seeing Devolver Digital as the publisher usually means a fantastic game and with pretty much all of the games I own that are published by them, I enjoy the time I spend on these games. Having played just over 5,5 hours with just the first deck and beating the boss, I can confidently say I do not put Shroom and Gloom in the same category. I've watched some YouTubers play the game's demo and wishlisted and bought it because of that. Now that the full release is here and a lot has changed, let me explain: The positives: - First and foremost: the art style is absolutely great. The 2,5D cartoony-Tim Burton style gives a unique vibe to the game which isn't experienced in most other games. The animations are pretty simplistic, but don't take any points away. - Choices: picking certain options completely changes the way you go about your run which can make it very enjoyable to see the differences, the way you can scale and modify low-level cards into absolute one-hit wonders is great. - Combinations: proccing cards is very satisfying and if previous choices are made well, you can make cards one-hit wonders or just insane strong. I know it's not many positives, but that's also why I'm not recommending this game.. The negatives: - Pacing and text: I find the pacing of certain elements very annoying, walking through the tunnels takes too long, things popping up and going down again are very slow, the end game screen takes too long to give you the actual summary of your run. It's an accumulation of annoyances which makes it feel like it's just dragging you along too much. Not to forget the 'humoristic' text, loading tips, card descriptions and things the merchant say; it's just not funny. It's very annoying and over-the-top millennial humor which is funny when you're on discord but not when you try to play a game. - RNG: At every first door, you have the possibility to dig, but in 9 runs, I've only gotten the shovel at the first door once. I've had multiple runs without good damage cards which made it impossible to upgrade properly. This really needs to be fixed. - Scaling: Sure the first area is somewhat easy to clear, second area is noticeably more difficult but the last area? Gah-lee what a poopstorm. There is very little fun to be found in how this is handled. - Bosses: They can actually just get lost with this dumb mechanic. Oh, you've beaten this boss? Don't think so, have fun with the next evolution where it gets more health and does more damage. Killed that? Have fun with another evolution. It's just a cheap way to make a boss fight take longer and it's sad. - No click-to-play: Even in these 5,5 hours of playing, always having to drag the cards to PRECISELY where they need to be is infuriating. I've missclicked many a time because I was JUST over the left or right edge. Just let me click the darn card and click whatever the target should be. Even with the early access/release discount, this has been a waste of money and I'm very sad I play this many hours before getting a refund.