Recent reviews by Daemonicus

It's a fun time killer with your favourite Marvel characters - simple to pick up but a fair bit of depth to it (depending on your available cards). The game can be quite fun and interesting, with the exception of playing against very popular decks on a frequent basis. Casual players like myself will always be behind in newly released cards and it will take you time and effort to unlock new cards.

I find the monetization in this game to be quite atrocious, especially if it's mainly card variants (+ a few others like avatars) and is truly not worth spending so much or at all. If you can get over this and enjoy the game with the slow trickle of the latest card unlocks, you'll have a good time as it's a solid card game. If you're willing to grind you can reach infinite rank with quite basic decks and smart plays.

Received this game for free, and I've played it since the beta days. The character designs are quirky and level designs vary a lot. Different maps contain different elements that impacts each round differently (see-saw or underwater map) that encourages player to experiment on their tactics/play styles.
It has sufficient depth despite the straight forward gameplay. Playing against other players/friend is where the main fun lies (despite my losing streak). Some maps are a lot more entertaining and interesting than others. This applies to certain characters as well. The single-player story is pretty simple as well. All in all a simple, fun, & entertaining game.

A great take on the Roguelike genre - those who love Slay the Spire will enjoy this too. It has plenty of strategies to experiment via the 5 different races, each with 2 different leaders/playstyles. I've lost hours to this game just by restarting random runs, not forgetting to mention the game has really good soundtrack. You won't go wrong with this choice!

I was writing reviews for my more recent games but saw this in my list of games - and thought I'd leave a quick review for this little gem that I had so much fun with over the past decade. I played this extensively on and off steam - I truly loved the map generation and dungeon delving aspect of the game I would create worlds just to explore it. I will probably replay it one more time once the 1.4 patch is released. There's so much Co-op fun to be had in this game: exploring, building and fighting with buddies - or just solo it, it's equally satisfying. The different biomes (environments) and their local bestiary are a delight to face & drops are entertaining. If I had a career playing/reviewing games this would be one of those I'd gladly replay every now and then. This game has so much love put into it, and mods make it a totally new experience with different enemies and items. You have seasonal events, floating islands, visit the underworld and fight a multitude of bosses. All this, plus how dirt cheap it is on sale. Truly recommended - not for everyone, but if you can appreciate it, Terraria is truly enjoyable.

This is one of my favourite deck building roguelikes and is my fall back game whenever I'm bored. Choose from 4 different characters (3 to be unlocked) with different battle styles - each with even more in-depth builds/play styles. You ascend the spire one level at a time fighting bosses, elites and multitudes of normal enemies per level while encountering events, treasures and shops - you plot you path to ascend the tower, adapting and changing your path based on the situation. Each battle rewards players with cards to build their deck with, potions and relics (Elites or greater). Relics are the game-changers, where it ranges from mundane one time bonuses to game changing effects like the ability to gain cards from the other characters. The game provides players with a great amount of control and choice - which is well balanced by the randomness aspect of roguelikes. I can't wait for this game to be released on mobiles. I have only beaten the game once with all characters and highest ascendancy is 4 for Ironclad.

Pros

• Characters are unique and fun to play
  
• Excellent UI design - simple in design and conveys all required information
  
• Relics are well designed and balanced they never feel overpowered
  
• Great control over combination of relics and cards determine your play style
  
• Potions (only consumable in game) are very impactful depending on the enemy
  
• Diverse range of enemy types and design, some truly testing your build efficiency
  
• Love the soundtrack and sound effects are excellent
  
• Constant decision making keeps players engrossed
  
• Continue from where one stopped during a run
  
• Game can be modded

Cons

• Card rewards can be accidentally skipped or wrongly selected if players are impatient
  
• Randomness can still end a great run - random stage bosses could be the exact counter for your current build, applies to even normal enemies
  
• Random rewards can hamper a good run if not able to obtain necessary cards for intended build
  
• Some runs can be truly abysmal with no chance of recovery
  
• Enemy encounters may provide a big difficulty spike, unless one has a super versatile deck

Neutral Points

• Graphics are cartoon-ish, but fits the atmosphere
  
• Most defeats feel like its the players fault rather than the current hand of cards - occasionally that one card in your deck never appears when you need it to
  
• Minimal character animations

TLDR
This deck building roguelike has spawned many clones, but few live up to how fun this is. This game is very easy to pick up but has so much depth - the game re-playability is just so addictive. I did not regret buying this at full price, and definitely say this is a must buy on-sale. It'll be out on mobile (hopefully this year) and I'm just waiting to purchase it. This is a very satisfying game - be it a 15 mins playtime or 3 hours continuous restarts.

The game is great fun for the first 15 or so hours - with a diverse set of characters; each with their own roles in the story. The mech control is very arcadey with a simple control scheme of WASD + Space to jump, double tap to fly & CTRL to descend. The mech configuration is slightly complex but not too daunting for casual gamers. Mech configuration is divided into a few components: head, body, left arm, right arm, legs and processor - the last being more of an add on to complement the build. The mech can wield a weapon in each arm (not seen any two-handed weapons) and two more spare weapons on the back (Left/Right Pylons), a shoulder weapon and a backpack/support item. This set of configurations provides a diverse range of builds from purely melee build, to a good mix of short to long range weapons. The story took around 20 hours to complete with a little grinding on side missions. The story is somewhat okay but becomes a slog near the end - as enemy mechs become bullet sponges even with the best weapons available at that point.

Pros

• Mech designs look cool
  
• Plenty of mech customisation available - decals, colours, parts - clear & simple UI design
  
• Big range of weapons and their upgraded versions
  
• Plenty of builds - melee only, mix and match or purely long range devastators are all viable (depending on enemy)
  
• Nice range of fodder enemies
  
• Interesting NPC mech compositions that reflect their personality
  
• Decent music and sound effect + voice acting
  
• Short loading time and consistently good performance

Cons

• Fodder enemies drop ammo on death, which makes fighting bullet sponge enemies one on one a nightmare - if using ammo based weapons only
  
• Story missions feel extremely repetitive near the end with bullet sponge enemies
  
• Final boss fight uninteresting compared to other bosses
  
• Upgrade path is unclear & encourages hoarding of equipment
  
• Discovery missions post-story has a high difficulty spike [Playing solo]
  
• Some equipment drops were never used or seemed pointless in builds [E.g Gun-arms]
  
• Only one or two boss fights has breakable components that changed battle behaviour - inconsistent design
  
• Variants for specific weapons (E.g. damage difference of a few points, but with customisation slot instead) does not add much
  
• Did not touch weapon/armour customisation slots at all till after the final boss - personally felt it was irrelevant
  
• Penalties in some missions for destroying destructible buildings encourages users to avoid these game components

Neutral Points

• Money quickly loses value later in game
  
• Weapon upgrades are drops, personally prefer research based upgrades vs random drops
  
• 70% of battles are button spamming or holding button the mouse buttons till enemies are destroyed
  
• Boss research grinding to unlock equipment feels pointless
  
• Speedy enemies cover so much distance too quickly it becomes a chore to keep them in your reticle
  
• Annoying way to heal as players required to stay in a healing dome/bubble
  
• Underused pilot [out of mech] game mechanic - not as fun as piloting a mech
  
• Boring map designs - most open maps are similar as they're basically arenas, except the facility-based maps
  
• Most NPC behaviour are the same, making them very predictable after a while

TLDR
Game is great fun during the discovery stages until past 70% of the game when it starts getting bogged down by bullet sponges/annoying enemies. It's a great game with simple game mechanics for mecha fans, but I would recommend this game on a sale for those who are patient.

For an early access game, I'm a happy buyer. The gameplay loop is very satisfying and I'm constantly looking forward to the next update to test out new builds or just have some fun. Each time I load up the game I can't stop myself from playing one more round - each session takes about 15-20 mins and time just melts away. Take this review with a grain of salt as the game is still in development and new changes may sway my opinion the other direction, but for now I'm really enjoying this game with the latest update for even more random fun.

Pros

• Graphics and design looks great
  
• Controls are tight and responsive
  
• Gameplay loop is simple, fun and addictive
  
• Encourages experimentation of builds
  
• Sound effects are great and really improves the immersion
  
• Good variation of enemy types
  
• One more round syndrome inducing

Cons

• Like all games with random elements - some runs can be really tough once rerolls are gone
  
• Taking the 'wrong' upgrade will end your current run
  
• Controls design is for the physics element in the game and takes a while to get used to, especially if expecting WASD
  
• Some upgrades feel mandatory - terrible damage output otherwise
  
• May feel stale if re-using builds - limited/repetitive gameplay might be boring to some

Neutral

• Limited environmental hazards
  
• Limited soundtrack
  
• Lack of background variation
  
• Build efficiency - some builds just feel superior than others
  
• Some weapon feel underpowered - for me: triple shot and tendrils - or may not have found a way to build it efficiently
  
• Suggestion: Default 'W' to accelerate | 'Spacebar' to shoot for KB + M

TLDR
I would definitely recommend this game (especially on sale) as I enjoy the current design this game is taking. Like all roguelike genres, expect plenty of shooting+evolving, dying and restarting. If that's for you, this is a great game.

Personal Rating: Meh : 3/10
Value for money: Fairly Priced
Play-time: N/A

Pros:
- Graphics are really great : Terminator marines look great and menacing
- Enemies does look interesting - when you can see them clearly
- Dark, atmospheric theme
- Melee weapons feedback is weighty
- Bugs fixed for the enhanced edition, better performance

Cons:
- Balancing the lore and gameplay killed the fun of playing an elite terminator marine
- Enemies blend somewhat with background
- Things get too hectic, too quickly
- AI teammates are terrible
- Starter abilities feel very lackluster
- Movement and pacing feels so slow
- Good theme, but boring map design (often too big and slow traversing makes it worse)
- Game mechanic design are mediocre
- Combat feels fun at time, but does not give you the power fantasy to fit the theme

I played through several hours on the non-enhanced version, which had bugs like see-through terrain, and this feels like a big step forward.

That being said, this game doesn't achieve the feel of being a terminator marine. I read a lot of Warhammer 40k novels, mainly on space marines - what I read and what the game provides feels very disconnected. Marines are meant to be a power house, and the terminator marines should be equivalent to a walking tank. However, it feels like they chose to contradict the established lore (Armour repairs by an apothecary injection, mass spamming of abilities by librarians, terminator being limited to walking through corridors, enemy dealing so much damage with peashooters). I understand this is for gameplay purposes and to not make players feel overpowered from the get go, but this kills the game theme for me. I have not encountered any co-op elements (crowd-control/disabling individual characters) like in L4D2, which makes it so monotonous just killing hordes of genestealers while navigating corridors. I did encounter one variant which exploded into a puddle of purple flames; probably have not played far enough into the campaign to discover more enemy types.

The campaign missions does not interest me and I will not rate it - slight variations to the coop game types of going to a destination and performing an action. The AI teammates are terrible: they can stare at enemies for a good 2-3 seconds while the xenomorph closes the gap and claws away 20% of their health before they start shooting. Teammates stand in the way of locking doors or walk in front of your reticle when you're firing. Enemies can spawn from various places, and if you're unlucky enough to trigger them while walking past a spawn time and get swamped, there's little you can do about it. When one of your elite teammates are killed you get a casual commentary similar to "Brother Reducial will fight no more" - which doesn't give them any character besides being replaceable fodder. I usually play games solo and have not tested playing co-op, which I think would be a lot better than the AI teammates (as long as they're not trolls locking the doors on you). I would not recommend the game if you're a fan of the books/lore as that was sacrificed for better cooperative gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately, I'd recommend Vermintide 2 over this game anytime.

Personal Rating: Must Play : 9/10
Value for money: Priced a bit expensive, a must buy on discount
Play-time:- Campaign: 20 - 35+ hours depending on skill/gear balance / Multiplayer: Endless until you've farmed everything

Pros:
- Very accessible for new comers to genre, lots of quality of life change to series
- 14 different weapons, quite a number which plays very differently
- Gorgeous graphics and huge maps
- NPC feel very different, though play little purpose in game/story - except your buddy palico
- Decent keyboard and mouse controls for a game with strong history on controller focus
- Controllers support for those who dislike playing with kb+m
- Slower, harder but more rewarding combat (Versus Dauntless more arcadey/action oriented playstyle)
- Has just the right amount of depth without being too complex
- Great support for builds and tips available, min-maxs players will enjot their time
- Grindy fun, if you enjoy it
- Fun events, even has a Witcher 3 & DMC collaboration events
- Great for playing solo or multi-player
- A fair number of multiplayer games available to join anytime
- Monster are different enough in patterns to always keep you on your toes
- Very atmospheric, and fun to watch monsters battle each other (turf wars)
- Sound design is great: monster roars, sound effects and music does not disappoint
- Game rewards twitch reaction and skill
- Mods are available for the PC, though no official support

Cons:
- Requires a decent computer to play
- A lot fewer monsters compared to previous games
- Re-occuring events are time based, somewhat annoying, especially if you're after that one specific event
- Wonky match making / multiplayer / connectivity still
- RNG plays a great part in loot rewards - decorations, monster drops, Kulve Taroth
- Short play through, if your goal is to beat the story only
- Story used as an excuse to hunt everything, this is no Titanafall 2
- Weapon designs aren't as cool or interesting in this iteration
- Weird story design - friends are not able to join mission until criteria is met (unfriendly co-op aspect)
- Multiplayer difficulty scaling - If you're disconnected in a multiplayer game, get to solo the extra difficulty
- PC version receives updates slower than console counterpart
- Vegans and monster lovers should avoid this game

I am quite biased to Monster Hunter, which I had picked up when it first appeared on the Nintendo 3DS.
This game is not without its flaws, but I feel the pros far outweight it. The game feels a lot more streamlined than previous iterations and is a large step forward. I played about 75% of the time solo, and had equally as much fun on multiplayer.

The upcoming expansion pack will be a must buy for me, and we'll have a good few months to review it on the consoles first to truly evaluate it.There were previously demos to give you a taste of the game, which I think they should've added to this as well. The game will need a bit of time for one to understand the nuances; and once you have that part down, you'll truly enjoy the game.

Mastering the fight against any particular monster gives you the rush of satisfaction and this feeling stays all the way till end-game. If you can get over the technical aspect of the cons, this game will not disappoint.

Like many other clicker games, this game is more of the same thing. Either you actively contribute and click or enjoy the game in a more passive manner, like me. I personally don't think it brings much to the game genre, but it's still fun for me to open the game and leave it in the background, checking on the progress on and off.

Things I like about it :

• D&D themed, and characters you'd remember. While I played some D&D theme games when I was younger, I don't really know a lot of characters. The flavour it adds to the game is nice.
  
• Characters feels diverse and most play their respective roles in your build. Upgrades feel meaningful and rarer items you find in loot boxes really contribute to a character's ability. (I've only found a few purple items so far)
  
• New characters they add feels great compared to the characters they replace (to me, at least). Hopefully they'll keep adding in more new guys.
  
• Diverse range of enemies, from beasts to undead to other creatures from the D&D lore.
  
• Game mode variants, where you have some character slots filled up with NPCs that are only a burden. Some make things tougher like the current new event where it spawns enemies that'll only make life harder.
  
• Interactive map: crows flying around or enemies hiding in bushes make things more interesting. You'll be on the look out for them as clicking on them rewards you with gold to speed things up.
  
• When you get a nice build or setup for your characters, it's fun to watch them demolish everything in their path.
  
• Consumables feel useful as they help in your progress for a short period of time like extra gold or added team damage.

Not so fun stuff :

• Some characters like the Bard and Cleric will probably never be taken out as they contribute too much to the overall team damage. The buffs they provide are so useful, you'd be crippled without em.
  
• You'll need to collect gems to buy chests, which in return provides you new items for your characters. The normal chest and gold chest provide very different loot, and buying the normal chest almost doesn't seem worthwhile at all. The rarer items are all only in the gold chests so far. Normal chest has been giving me duplicate items when most of my characters do not even have the common equipment yet.
  
• Scaling chest rewards; if you have an unopened chest, keep it till when you're stalled as they'll give the most returns then. Opening a chest during the start of a run is no beneficial at all. Hoard all your stuff people.
  
• Progression is either great or stalling. Like most clicker games that require you to do a 'reset', you'll encounter a lot of it here as this is the way they designed this game. When you're at a point where you can't seem to earn enough money or deal enough damage through use of consumables, you best bet is to reset, even if you're right at the goal. Then start over again and hope that the reset benefits are enough as you gain more gold on your following run by a certain %.
  
• Some character upgrades (pick 1 out of 2) don't seem worthwhile. Team damage bonuses are so much more useful than say and extra 300k health or healing/shield. You'd be picking the same upgrades over and over each run.
  
• For a D&D themed game, I'd thought the story would be more interesting. It's pretty boring to me.
  
• Missions are more or less the same thing, kill X number of enemies or pick up X number of drops.
  
• Enemies types are either melee or ranged, and only the ranged enemies are truly as issue. This makes the game feel boring.
  
• Character skills can affect the battle's outcome a fair bit and is usually targetted. All of this is beyond control, which makes skill use feel frustrating to totally wasted at times. When an an area of effect skill is used one just a single enemy while a whole bunched up group is right out of range makes me feel really annoyed.

Things I'd like to see implemented/addressed:

• Some levels have background interactivity and some do not. This makes levels that don't feel extra boring. Could consider adding some interactivity in those empty levels. I enjoy hitting the speedy crows. Giant rocahes maybe?
  
• To me, damage > survivalbility anyday. Unless there's a skill that can cause % based damage or some benefit that'll help with drawn out battles, survivalbility will always take a back seat.
  
• I understand income is achieved from buying gold chest, but please at least make normal chest drop less duplicate items for at least the common rarity items. It's not that they're that common to begin with.
  
• Make skills targettable, with balance to compensate (less damage or longer cooldowns, etc) which will at least make upgrades to the active skills a lot more feasible.
  
• Possible character combos to make builds more feasible? Like a triple melee line-up boost or something. Right now it's just empower the strongest character, which is alright, but quite repetitive.

Thank you for reading through this. Have a nice day. =)

Conclusion: The game is fun and I really like the theme as I grew up with it. I think it can do better and the new characters/events are interesting. Give it a go!