Recent reviews by Quamosthy

An absolute gem of a roguelike deckbuilding game that feels both familiar and fresh, Astrea takes the bones of the genre (plotting a path through rooms in three chapters, drafting, choosing run buffs for synergies throughout the run) and clothes it in some very clever mechanics that really make it stand out. The two most notable of these are the dice and the damage system which are wonderfully interconnected.

Instead of drafting cards, you draft dice. On the very surface, it seems like a mechanic just to add a frustrating layer of RNG to a very strategy-heavy type of game, but the deeper workings of it have just as much, if not more tactical complexity than drafting cards. Dice are broken up into four 'rarities': safe, balanced, risky and epic. Each non-boss combat gives you three dice options to draft, one of each of the first three categories, with epic dice reserved for boss rewards or rare events. Safe dice have weak effects, but 5-6 of the faces are beneficial, non-mandatory actions. Balanced have stronger effects, but only have 3-4 faces with those effects on them, with the others being mandatory negative actions. Following that, risky dice only have 1-2 beneficial faces, but have very powerful effects. The RNG of literally rolling the dice is balanced by being offered numerous means of playing around or even playing with the drawbacks. You can reroll, discard or even rig the dice just to name a few.

The mandatory faces of the dice tie in to the other main mechanic of Astrea, its 'damage' system. Rather than a straightforward HP-system, Astrea uses the idea of 'purification' and 'corruption' as a stand in for both enemy and player health. Purify actions reduce corruption to 'damage' enemies, but the same action can often be played on yourself instead to effectively heal you. Corruption is the other side of the same coin, healing enemies but damaging you. Balanced and Risky dice will have various corrupt actions on them, and you can't simply opt to not play them. Any negative action like that is considered mandatory, and all dice with such faces must be played before you end the turn. Who you play them on and which order is left up to you, and as your corruption increases you unlock actions tied to points on your meter, with the stronger effects usually placed closer to the end. These actions aren't rolled, and can be triggered multiple times a turn with clever play.

TL;DR: Astrea is a very clever twist on the deckbuilding roguelike, with a HP tug-o-war and uses dice to add a layer of strategy, rather than detract from it with excessive randomness.

I'll be perfectly transparent. I do genuinely really like Hunt: Showdown, but I cannot in good faith recommend it. I know I'm really not that great at the game (I'm a career 3-star, so by this game's standard the low end of average), but therein lies the complaint that has me now dropping the game until something is done. The matchmaking, at least in OCE (the only place I can play without 230+ ping), is horrific.

In my usual playgroup of fellow 3-stars, in almost every single lobby there are non-solo 5-star players, sometimes entire trios of them. The skill gap is such that I have had the game open for a whole hour for technically no actual gameplay; I load into a match, and the moment another team notices mine, one of us is immediately dead with the rest soon to follow. Lower skill players are being straight-up farmed, though this is not the fault of the high skill players.

This unfortunately has a nasty side effect. The in-game money for purchasing weapons, tools and other helpful items is predominantly earned from successful missions. This means that it's a frustrating case often of the rich getting richer, as these high-skill players have less real competition (and likely less fun), but the inverse is also true. Lower skill players are easily forced into using objectively inferior gear because they simply can't reliably afford anything else.

Until the matchmaking is fixed, I cannot recommend this game.

Given my playtime in Armello, I guess it's high time to finally post a review for it. While I do definitely recommend it, this game is also not without its flaws which maybe be a no-sell for some.

As evidenced by the fact I have played way too much of this game, it is incredibly fun... at least in multiplayer. The single player is unfortunately lackluster, but this being a digital board game so focused on interaction it doesn't measure up. The tutorial is fantastic for teaching the basics, and the singleplayer good for achievement hunting or maybe testing some builds, but that aside I would highly advise going for multiplayer.

Speaking of; the multiplayer itself can be an absolute blast. The game gives you enough communication options to let others know of basic intentions (please don't kill me, truce, threatening, thanks and more) which allows for a diplomatic playstyle if that's more your pace. It depends heavily on who you're playing with, but you'll often be able to work out of they're receptive to that pretty quick. Outside of that, while there are a *lot* of DLC characters, anyone is perfectly capable of winning with any character, even the eight from the base game. You'll probably often hear complaints about Fang as an offensive behemoth or whatnot, but in my experience that can be mitigated. That said, some of the rings are DLC, so be aware of that.

A common complaint I've seen is how RNG heavy the game is, and to an extent I would agree. I don't think it's anywhere near as egregious as some say, but an aspect of randomness and luck is present. Combat is resolved by dice, equipment, spells and other actions are determined by cards (drawn from three separate decks, each with a distinct category) and even the game map itself is random. However, a huge part of this luck can be mitigated, or at least turned to your favour. Combat modifiers like items (and to a lesser extent, certain spells) become increasingly relevant in the mid- to late-game and while you could get unlucky and not manage to draw any good items *or* succeed in any quests to earn you a decent treasure, that's pretty rare. The randomness of the decks is mitigated by a mechanic where you can 'burn' cards to lock in a result on one of your die. This serves the purpose of making combat/peril resolution more reliable as well as offering a means of emptying your hand of cards so it doesn't stagnate.

Despite how much I love the overall game system, there is one particular random part of the game that I absolutely despise. The Stranger. He's a follower that will be rarely auto-equipped upon exploring a dungeon, and if you have a full party of followers he *will* overwrite one of them. Followers are more often than not hard-earned rewards from quests, so losing one is frequently a pretty huge blow. As if that weren't bad enough, at the beginning of every turn he will move you in a random direction. The number of times I or someone else in a game has been outright killed by being moved onto a swamp while on low HP or into a stone circle while corrupt and therefore losing their entire turn before it truly begins is, while low, high enough for it to be a point of frustration for me.

Overall, I'd highly recommend this game if you'd like a solid digital board game with a fun mix of strategy and RNG.

Wingspan is a lovely game that I've thoroughly enjoyed so far. The music is beautiful, the art incredible and the game itself quite engaging and has a fair bit of strategy to it from what I've played. To me, it strikes a fantastic balance of being incredibly chill, but that general tone being backed by something more than a walking simulator.

I only picked up this game because of how thoroughly I enjoy Slay the Spire; and though this game has a lot of similarities in gameplay, the shell of it is different enough to feel fresh. The various ways you can approach a single problem is easily the standout of my experience, whether by negotiation, combat or a mix of both. From what I've played, I can definitely recommend this one if you like the deckbuilding style of Slay the Spire, but crave a little more story to accompany it.