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Gordian Quest - Review @ Worthplaying

by Hiddenx, 2022-06-17 15:01:43

Worthplaying checked out deck-builder Gordian Quest:

PC Review - 'Gordian Quest'

With a unique blend of tactical combat, strategic gameplay, and boisterous animated heroes, Gordian Quests takes players on a journey to defeat an ultimate evil plaguing the land.

It takes a lot to make a deck-builder stand out these days. Some attempt to alter the playing field, others add action elements, and others try unusual mechanics. One of my favorite methods is incorporating deck-building into a larger campaign-driven game, like Griftlands or Steamworld: Quest. Gordian Quest is the latest of these, and its long time spent in Early Access really shows. It isn't perfect, but it is one of the heftiest deck-builders on the market.

Gordian Quest is effectively a combination RPG and deck-builder game. You gather a party of heroes and go out adventuring, progressively fighting harder battles unless you retreat to base, all in the name of advancing the story and earning that precious loot. The general structure is straightforward but less linear than many other games in the genre. There's a plot but it's "go and defeat evil" stuff that offers enough to be interesting but not stand out. The gameplay is where it's at.

Combat is a deck-builder through and through. At the start of battle, each character rolls an initiative dice, and then friends and foes take turns beating the living crud out of each other based on their initiative order. Every character draws a random selection of cards from their deck and can expend energy to use them. This allows you to build up defense, damage enemies, or use buffs and debuffs. Since this is a team game, there's an emphasis on making sure abilities synergize with one another, since status effects are way more powerful if multiple people can exploit them.

[...]

Overall, Gordian Quest is fun deck-builder that's similar to a Griftlands-style campaign that's absolutely packed with content. It goes all-in on the RPG elements, which is both its greatest strength and biggest flaw. It's not as addictive as some of the strongest games in the genre, but it's still fun to play. I wish the developers had trimmed off some of the fat, but since they didn't, it means that you're getting a game with tons of content for a very reasonable price.

Score: 8.0/10

Information about

Gordian Quest

SP/MP: Single-player
Setting: Fantasy
Genre: Card-Based RPG
Platform: PC
Release: Released


Details