Very fun game
Wed Jan 01 2020 Purple Skates 88My friend has this in table top version and invariably demolishes me when we play. I downloaded this to improve my real life game. I like the game play, the art, and the animations. Even the sound effects are cute. Dawnsinger’s song makes me feel accomplished every time I buy her. The online option is fun, but I wish there were a ranking system for players. I don’t mind playing any skill level, but every match I play, my opponent quits, with the exception of my real life friends when we set up a match. I do appreciate that they stick an AI in the quitters place, but still annoying. Also, there are not often online games available, people just have not caught on to the fun.
Thanks for a fun and reasonably priced ap.
Update: recently I was having some glitches. I deleted the app and downloaded it again. I thought the expansions were lost and Imwas sad. Then I found a setting tab that said restore purchases and they are back. Seems to be working well. I still love this game. I play nearly every day. I only wish there were more people playing online.
Great game, but it crashes all the time
Sat Jun 06 2020 WiddlewadeI absolutely love this game. I own a bunch of the actual cards, and was ecstatic to see the app. Only problem is that the game crashes constantly. I’m playing on an iPad Air, and it the crashes between turns a lot. Especially right before end game scoring. Nothing is more annoying than having to reload the game right at the end. I tried playing it on my phone, but the writing is too small for my old eyes. Would give it the full 5* treatment if the crashing issues were fixed. Oh, and I’d love to see more expansions!
Does not follow the rules
Thu Oct 01 2020 ParamesisOn nearly all accounts, this is a great adaptation and a great app. The biggest problem I have is it does not respect the rules for the planting phase. The rules do not state that you are required to push until you have 3 decay symbols, but this is what the app will do automatically without your input and there is no way to disable it. Most of the time, this is what you want to do, but not always. If you have some cards in your deck with multiple decay symbols and you already have two visible, the app will force you to spoil. Some cards in the Vale of the Wild, namely Wolf Rider and Beastbrother Hunter, give you mana or VP tokens the fewer cards you have in your field. If this is the first card in your field, it could be a good decision to stop immediately, even if you have no decay symbols present, but the app doesn’t give you that option. This happened in my last game and was very frustrating. These aren’t rare edge cases; some cards and strategies around them are much weaker in the app than they are in the real game.
Relaxing and engaging
Thu May 14 2020 KiPhishThis game is such a pleasure to play. Although it may seem daunting at first, it’s easy to learn with plenty of depth. The AI seems to play at a great level and the graphics are gorgeous. I will be playing this for a long time and plan on buying all the expansions. I really hope they address the few issues listed below and release even more expansions.
Pros:
1. Amazing art direction (would love to have an option to always have the cards animate instead of only when it’s hovered over)
2. Easy to learn, hard to master
3. Great AI (I always love a challenge and appreciate when devs take the time to program competent AI’s)
4. Unique deck building gameplay
5. First expansion included for free
Cons:
1. Cannot lock camera onto middle overview position while scrolling through and buying cards (I really want to play with a zoomed out camera on my iPad to utilize the bigger screen space)
2. Crashes in extended gameplay sessions (~1.5 hours with 3rd gen iPad Air. Memory leak? Game does do autosaves though)
3. Cannot view deck composition (maybe intentional? You can see the discard pile and calculate. But if that’s the case, you might as well just let players see what’s left in the deck... I don’t particularly find digging through the discard pile to be fun)
Even with these cons, this is definitely a recommended buy. I’m happy to have discovered it.
Near perfect game with only synchronous play
Mon Nov 11 2019 BEinCOThis game has got to be one of the cooler deck builders in the past few years. My friend and I *love* the deck building mechanic where you can craft semi-custom cards with a different top, middle, and bottom card section. Highly recommended!
My only complaint against the game is a lack of asynchronous multiplayer: both my friend and I have to be sitting down and logged in at the same time to play. Deck builders make a perfect async multiplayer game in most cases, and I’m not sure why they don’t have the ability to do that here though. This would be a 5-star staple in my game collection if they add some way to play our turns throughout the day instead of synchronously. If the devs read these reviews: please add this kind of multiplayer ability!
Otherwise, still an amazing game. Thanks for releasing this devs!
Better than this game deserves.
Thu Aug 08 2019 Sad PlaneswalkerAside from no asynchronous play, is this is a very well-made app.
However, the game is not good. I wanted to like it, I gave it multiple chances, but alas. It has a 2 major flaws: spoiling feels really bad and sometimes you have to push because otherwise you do nothing on your turn.
The other more serious flaw is that for all the cool effects and mechanics, but this is a race to the bottom. You might think the goal is to build up to get level three cards and the level 2 veils. It is not. The rewards aren’t worth it both on face and the time it takes to cycle through your deck. Synergies are difficult to build because you both need to manage the money and happen to have that exact card drawn when you do, then hope nobody bought it first. I’ve checked, and winning this game doesn’t depend upon on engine building; just slam victory points and exhaust the pool. The best way to play the game is to ignore most of its strategic avenues.
Oh, and the game tier 1 and basic upgrades are hyper limited and starve you for resources. Imagine if dominion had only 6-7 silvers. You win this game by ignoring almost all growth.
Great App, but Limited...
Tue Jun 11 2019 sheppy7One thing I love, it’s digital board games and considering the saved time in shuffling, love Deck-Builders. Beyond being a functional app, this one has great production values. The core game is enjoyable and you get the first expansion for free. Fact is, there’s very little I can complain about. But there are things...
The single player is sparse, forcing you to face down AI opponents with selectable difficulty and this is terrific. Multiplayer is another ding as there are no Pass and Play options. This is a major feature missing for my purposes since the wife and I often play app games against one another during longer waits. Without this feature, this game will get significantly limited play. Which is such a shame.
Amazing Digital Representation!
Mon Oct 26 2020 BrotherBobbyGThis is a great card game unlike any other. It’s sort of a deck-building game, but instead of building your deck with new cards, you’re enhancing the cards in your deck. It’s a card-building game and it’s lots of fun to play.
The tutorial is well designed to help you understand quickly. It’s not complicated, but it’ll take you a couple of tries to get used to it. There is a physical version of the game, and this represents it well managing the scores and the rules very nicely.
I highly recommend this game if you like deck-builders and are interested in trying something a little different.
Great Game, Online Multiplayer Needs Work
Mon Feb 17 2020 ForceLightningFantastic game. Multiplayer is a weak spot...
1) There are few to no available multiplayer matches. Matching finding needs to be retooled.
2) Multiplayer kicks you off online games if you close the app or are idle for too long even with turn time set to off. You should be able to pick up and play an online game with a friend whenever you want... as it stands you have to keep the app open and play it until completion without doing anything else. Matches should be able to be played over days or weeks if needed and saved on a cloud server.
3) Friends list. Needs to happen to challenge friends directly to matches.
4) Multiplayer is buggy and will freeze, kick a player out or just not synch up between players. Has ruined many a game for my wife and I.
Overall great game (I own the table top version as well). Online Multiplayer needs a lot more work to be viable. Thanks!
Addictive gameplay but needs a little love.
Sat Jun 08 2019 icelusxThe Good: First, the gameplay is incredible addictive and they did a great job on the graphics. The tutorial gives a good rundown of the rules.
The Bad:
1. You can’t see your deck composition. The memory component is too much here for what cards you upgraded, etc. and this is a game where if you bust once or twice, you may as well quit and save yourself 20 minutes.
2. The discard screen blocks important information, like what’s available to purchase.
3. The back button is severely limited. Sometimes, even though it’s still your turn, you may not go back.
4. I often forget that it’s the planting phase and try to drag cards down. I suggest creating a stronger focus on the action at hand and getting rid of ditch the glow on purchasable cards.
5. Eats my battery like crazy. Honestly, I may have to get the Steam version because it’s going to kill my iPad.
6. It wasn’t immediately clear to me that I could only purchase 2 cards.
Overall, great game but many of the above are surprising given that they should have been caught in testing.
