Recent reviews by ᴿᴺᴳ VectorAlpha

I wanted to wait until I had over a thousand hours before I left a review. Hands down, one of my favorite games to play in recent history. I've only now as of late have begun to add the difficulty modifiers and the challenge has been upped, in a sense presenting me with more dynamics to overcome. Ultimately, It's really not that hard to beat the game. I just love the art style, the card combos and variations therein, and of course the different paths you can go each play through (of the standard mode). This game is the natural progression once you have played out Slay the Spire, Monster Train, etc. And for me, it has yet to 'get old', unlike me, who now finds those odd hairs growing off my ears, or more moles than I remember ever having. If your wondering, try it for yourself. Note that there are two other run-through types modes, random team generate and weekly high score runs with random developer create teams and special modifiers. Have fun!

I really REALLY tried to like this game. I would play it often when I first got it. Tried all the characters and different card combos offered for them. And perhaps I'm just not a smart man, Jenny, but I could rarely make it through the first level, much less make my way through any purposely tough opponent. To me, this game was too hard and in the sense of the time I dedicated to trying to like it and get good at card combos, I failed. I have since stopped playing and uninstalled it as a waste of my gaming time. Hence, I cannot recommend. Now, Across the Oberlisk on the other hand...

So I made it all the way the first time through, barely! I only wade through the rivers twice, most of the time I caulked and floated! Bought a mid-sized wagon right at the start. Didn't have the knife, didn't even fish till near the end (near The Dalles I think) and learned right there that fishing would have been the money that I needed to make it for the cash that I never had enough of.
It's pretty much what I was expecting when I bought it at release for 30 bucks, which is a bit pricey unless they plan to do major updates to storyline and equipments, but I'm not holding out for that. It's a fun side-scroller with fairly basic balancing between damages done and having just enough equipment/supply to make it through the next leg. What I call "a quiet game".
Just started my 2nd run, this time bought big wagon and minimal supplies - bait, clothes, medicine, repair kit and a little flour - and a new knife! Fish and sell, fish and sell! Leader got a 6 on Haggle right away, so lucky there to get 2 dollars a fish! So I have that large wagon with 5 star quality, full to the brim with supplies, a solid party (make sure at least one of them comes with the extra $50 at the start so you can get the listed above), and I ride the ferry across the rivers whenever there is one! Think I'm on the second leg of the trek, with over $1000 gold at this point!
How replayable is it? Possibly a few more times but it's fairly repetitive, If they don't do major influx of new content into the game over time then it will get stale as a whole game pretty quick. At that rate I would say 8/10 challenge, 7/10 fun, replay 3/10. Wouldn't pay more than $15 to be honest, but it was a holiday when I bought it so had some time to burn. See you on the trail - until the railroad comes along!

Here's what I'm going to say about KARDS.

It's addictively fun!

The player matching dynamics are truly random. If you put the time into building a deck based on what you gather from the general game play, your "odds" of getting a game matched against a random deck from your opponent is very high! Matches seem to be via your overall Rank as opposed to tit-for-tat card types.

That's not to say people aren't master craftsmen and occasionally you do come upon a deck that somebody has put together out of the "latest" editions (or otherwise) of card releases that shuts you down in a few rounds. But following the basic unspoken concepts of the game - unit type, ability, dispersal, availability (in hand) - you most often get a totally fair match and a good testing of your deck compilation.

Oops, you can see my comment below from March 2021, after the update. It did push the Dynamics of the game more towards other CCGs but I cannot but love the WWII aspect! The fact is that like any CCG, you have to put the time into revising or making new decks to keep up with the latest releases or strategies that peeps use in their decks. You can see by the hours I have into this game - which continues to mean that instead of the other MTGs and Hearth-like CCGs I now naturally gravitate to KARDS. That and TF2. Come join!

This all translates to hours of contemplative, strategic, gloating upon victory and yelling out loud fun!!

Like any CCG ithe game involves composing, building, testing, playing, gaining rank, gaining gold, gaining cards, rebuilding, ad infinitum. In game chat options are a bit limited as there are only set emote statements from a drop down list ("Hello, Well Played, GG, etc") and the friends matching doesn't really allow for any interactive collaboration on deck building. This is a WWII based game, so some knowledge of the RL occurrence might provide you with a little 'heads-up' on what country used what tactics and, ergo, what strategic build you might aim for with that particular countries card composition.

KARDS has pretty much moved me away from other current CCGs and that's something I am grateful to experience. I didn't think any game would pull me away from Hearth-Crack, but here it is! Enjoy!

Update August 2021 - As you can see, I have over 500 hours now. This is hands down one of my favorite games to play, You know, in those little burst of time that one may have... an hour here, 30 minutes here. I don't dive as deep as I could, as in any CCG deserves, but being a long time card deck builder I have my decks that put out and even tend to generally keep up with the new releases and all the new tricks that those inspire when making a new deck. Granted, the competitive matches often places you against a higher level (play if you think your deck can handle it as you move forward in development) or a gold digger from another country (which I play because hey, I'm an American), but persistence and want make for the best of decks you can build. Each month I get a little better with minimum of effort and no offense to the developers but with only the cards I win and not any purchase. And besides, I love the subject matter and ergo, the image depictions and background history of the unit. Thumbs up to the game designers!

Verdict: a must have for card builders, WWII history buffs and anyone who would like a game they can visit for a few hours a week and still excel and have fun! See you inside!

Since I have over 600 hours, I'm changing rating to Yes, play it. But with Caveats... So, my decks are solid, but whenever your in queue for score, if you start making progress on your level, the next game is predictably 1 or 2 or more levels higher than yours. Advice - given the current "random" factor of the programmers code - just quit out and take the loss. No excuse for you having to play 2 or more levels higher than yours, especially when your on a level roll. Should be more equal the 2nd time queued, but not always. In essence, I find myself playing this game on two plateaus: 1st is playing against the BS unfair level pairing - just because I am winning on my level doesn't mean mean I want to "see if my deck can stand up to a level 2 or 3 higher than mine" (that's what the no-level general deck play is 'suppose' to be). Prefer a straight up level-to-level game play with my decks, especially when in score mode. If I go against AI because no same levels are available to play against me, then so be it. That will allow a little more competitive score level game play - so at least I get a chance in a month - as opposed to the programmed 'keep the deck/level down 'cause ese is making some level progress' kinda mode we currently find ourselves in. Nuff said.

Well, spent some Christmas monies and sat down to get into another fine RPG and level-up gaming goodness. These blissfully ignorant anticipations were quickly dashed - as you can see I only have a few hours of game play. Sure, forgiveness up front because it's in development and early access. Leeway because I read about 1/3 of the how to and being an experienced gamer just jumped on in to get down and dirty. The setup and map listings are fine. Not a lot of definition on the map in way of colorization and fill-in, but no problem,

What hurt most was the actual game play mechanics. Perhaps this IS because I never played the board game before, or because I wasn't familiar with the exact turn-play sequence but whatever the case I ran out of cards and died (exhausted?) quickly. I had played the rogue and mage who have fewer cards in general so I thought it was just party balance. So i went back and chose some characters one would probably start out in an actual RPG - the Brute/Tank and the archer-like dude - both of whom have a lot of cards in comparison to the other classes. I went north this time to the "easier" route (I went east the first time which shows as more scenario/monsters) and blissfully walked in thinking no problemo. The adventure said 2 scenarios with easy monsters and was balancing card use much better as I began to work my way through. But after two doors and increasing creature encounters I once again found myself - naturally to the game mechanics - out of cards again and dying of exhaustion. The indication bar for this first of 2 scenarios still showed over half of the total creatures I would ultimately encounter here!

Summarized, it looks to me as either a rinse and repeat heavy learning curve or an unreasonably disadvantage to the player. The new encounter monsters in each room do not have the disadvantage I have going in as my cards are inevitably depleted (burned for scenario) and even resting doesn't help much as I am discarding cards still in my hand to retrieve the shrinking pile of cards still available to retrieve. So for me the game seems too much of a struggle to balance your few ever shrinking action/card abilities vs. the ever going creature encounters just to make it through 1 scenario. I like to learn the mechanics of my character abilities as I play and apply those "learned skills" to progress my way through whatever the game may throw at me. In this case - for me - the depleting mechanics were too difficult to master as an inherent learning curve and instead portrayed itself to be a challenge which took away from a nice relaxing learn-as-you-go RPG game play that I guess I am either used to or expecting to find. My two cents.

I'm not sure why you would play this game: It's free, it's populated, and it's some of the best FPS time you will ever play in your life! Be sure to have a good mic with which to complain, keep your drink full, and then dive in and forget what the sun looks like! I'll see you in re-spawn! Go now!