Recent reviews by Phrased

I put off buying this game for such a long time, I got this game 3 days ago and iv allready played 55+ hours.

Only writing a review to do my part to mitigate the idiots who expected a hearthstone clone review bombing the economy model.

Also it costs like $1000 to build a competitive deck in MTG.
You need to spend like $250 in hearthstone to get enough dust to build a competitive deck (or spend like 400+ hours grinding).
In Artificat the game is so well balanced you can build a competitive deck with pretty much the base cards. And thats just for 2 of the 6 game modes, the other 4 you dont need any deck.

I have 20+ hours allready and I havn't even used a ticket or opened a pack yet, as im waiting till i become better at casual phantom draft then use my packs and tickets for keepers draft. Gauntlet is incredibly fun and something you never get to do in other card games. You basicly choose one of 6 balanced decks and compete with others who have access to the exact same 6 decks, its actually amazing. People review bombing this game are just idiots and you can tell by everyone with over 10 hours in the game saying how amazing.
Rant over.

Not only one of the best free to play games on steam but probably one of the best games on steam all together.

Incredibly deep yet incredibly simple turn based strategy game.

Alot of people will try to compare this to hearthstone and they would he right to. Their are alot of similarities. How ever, using a grid system instead of 2 sides of a board to place your cards adds an unrivalled level of depth.

The way they have balanced the cards has created a system where there is multiple win conditions, and multiple ways to achieve each win condition.

Every faction (class) has 2 generals with different bloodline spells (your classes spell) creating multiple play styles for each faction. Yet some how they have managed to get every playstyle for every faction to feel unique and compliment the lore and look of the faction.

The ladders seasons reset at the end of every month giving substantial rewards, and the game seems to be very generous in terms of card packs, gold and spirit (dust) rewards.

Because of these things, strategy plays a much more important role then draw or calibre of deck. Almost every game is challenging and rewarding. And unlike hearthstone where it was easy to play "optimally" and lost to either bad card draws or better decks, in Duelyst, every game I lose is because I make mistakes. And whats incredible is how often you can make mistakes and how you can actively see then cost you every game.

TLDR; Incredible game, And there is no reason not to try it.

It's like a deeper civ without that boring late game war mechanic.

The community is toxic. The game itself fills you with rage and hate.
Like right now I am so angry, I have never been this angry at anything other then dota. And this happens alot.
Do not waste your time on this game. Probably one of the worst games ever made.

Watching it as an e-sport is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ amazing though.

Yes. Yes. And Yes.

Don't expect your hand to beld or a linear path at all. It's not.

You do some story missions, then you do factions missions, then back to the story missions, then do another factions missions. So much. at 40 hours I had done like 1/4 of the story missions, and completed 2 out of like 10 factions missions. (the companions and the dark brotherhood). There is so much to do. Gotta say it took me about 4 times to get into it though.

I cannot even begin to describe how good this game is. Download the demo and see for yourself. I played the demo many times through before I bought the game.

The best Rockstar game I have ever played, And i loved Red Dead, GTA4 and GTA5. Seriously, amazing graphics, gameplay, story and action. Alot different to the first 2. But still amazing. Get this on a steam sale, you will not regret it.

I played this before i got internet in my new place, About 20 hours in, finally got internet and the game reset itself, i lost my save and the steam hours logged. Unfortunate, But that was a really good 20 hours. This game is fun, really fun. It has you thinking and scratching your head, sometimes it can be frustrating, but when you beat a difficult mission your really satisified.

In this game you train soldiers, and they start to level up and become better the more you use them, and when one dies, you seriously feel remorse. Like your hugely impacted when one of your men die. All those hours put in training and leveling up that guy is gone and you gotta find someone else to take his spot.

If you can pick this up on a steam sale, I seriously recomend it.

This is the best RPG I have played in a long time. Don't be fooled by the "its so hard" premise behind it. Yes you do die alot, but that doesnt count as dying. True dying in this game is when you die, then you die again before you can pick up the XP you lost on your last death. So yes it is hard like everyone says, but deffinetly playable, its not as intimidating as you'd think. Next time my girl's out of town im going to give this a good proper playthrough. (only played about 10 hours on my first playthrough).