As We Descend

This game has great art and polished control. I feel like the mouse controls have everything I need to comfortably play the game. Gameplay has a lot of good things going for it so far. My favorite part of it is the art and interactions within the world. Npcs are interesting and offer a variety of upgrades. You get a team of helpers that act as your number of actions per day/wave and you get to recruit some unique ones later in the game. I haven't gotten too far into the game but I would love to be able to grow and progress the starter helpers. edit: The next two criticism is actually addressed by the Guild faction path. Its playstyle is much more AP generous and reliant on combo effects. They have more utility so it feels more consistent to play and build them. The game is still in early access but the only thing I really have a problem with is the early game balance and action points balance. I noticed that the starting characters have too many movement cards. Sure they are important and you definitely want them to avoid some attacks but the starting lineup is not balanced imo. Maybe if movement granted draws or recycling points or combat effects like armor, it could make them better utility versus being a 50/50 thing where you need it or it ruins your draw. The second thing is, you start with only 3 ap so some cards that cost 2 don't feel that strong especially without a retain effect in the early game. It's unnecessarily hard to combo skills together since you draw so few cards and only have 3 ap most of the time. It's really easy to combo your lantern with certain units though. I know that there's an option to increase this in the settings but it doesn't change that the intended method of play is actually quite restrictive. Despite this, I find that the skills are really fun to figure out. Lastly, I think that the starter cards should get two upgrade paths so they could be worth upgrading with synergy in mind. They are typically good, but the problem is you already have to know what you are building right when you recruit your unit. It is a roguelike so trial and error is expected but I feel like part of the charm of roguelikes is the ability to craft your run on the fly but the units kits already feel like a premade deck. You either have the units or you don't. But that might change as I get farther in the game. The game is still very polished and well done even in early access. And for its price, it's an easy recommend. It's not as casual as many players would like it to be, but it's still a very good game.