Labyrinth - Preview @ God Is A Geek

God is a Geek have checked out the card collectible game Labyrinth.

Labyrinth is still in alpha, and it shows. The frame rate is pretty low at all detail levels, and there are balancing issues with some cards being next to useless, and the bosses being overpowered. The development team are well aware of this, and have already issued a patch that has improved the frame rate at lower settings, and also lowered boss health slightly, giving you more of a chance to put up a fight.

Another curious omission is the lack of a ‘pass’ button. For instance, you might be too far away from an enemy after moving for you to attack, or even for them to attack you, so you’ll want to just skip your turn as to not waste a card. This is odd because a gameplay clip on YouTube shows a pass button in place next to the each hero’s hand, yet in the current build it is absent. Not the end of the world, granted, but with a finite amount of cards to draw from, wasting cards isn’t good strategy, which is a fundamental part of tactical RPGs.

What there is here, though, is a lot of promise. The game looks decent and has a great collect-them-all hook that comes with the CCG style of game. It just needs a little bit more development time to iron out the niggles, and an implementation of a tutorial to help to people grasp the basics. It’s not really fair to compare it to the likes of Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering because Labyrinth ploughs its own furrow, and Free Range Games has created a neat little game here, and one that I sincerely hope it lives up to its potential.

Thanks Eye.