Dark Sky

An enjoyable 20 hours of turn based combat. The story line is interesting and the characters do have a little bit of depth. There could be a little bit more lore as they just toss in various species without too much backstory of the overall universe. The leveling up is fairly straight forward but the new and/or unlocked cards don't really bring much more to the game. For the most part, I stuck with the original cards with a few card purchases. The card upgrades were hit or miss. Some upgrades really help while other seemed not to really affect game play much. The game does force you to play all the characters since healing is only really done at level ups. But every character does gain experience whether you use them or not (Thank you!) I had a core of three or four that I mostly ran with but all six are fairly useful. The one exception is the fish-in-a-mech character in which I couldn't figure out how to really gain much flux. It would have been nice to just have a "Gain Flux" card like the "Charge" card that the other character had. This seems to have been a big oversight (or maybe in my run the card just didn't come up). A single run through is enough for me and I will be movi…

This is by far one of the most shallow deckbuilders I've ever played, which is a shame because the systems exist to support something much more robust. Having movement as a defensive option in addition to your standard block cards is interesting, but almost impossible to use in a meaningful way since enemies usually hit your entire side of the field. Card options are incredibly limited and boring. Enemies defense and health drastically outscales player damage, reducing every single fight, no matter how trivial, to a tedious slog of waiting to cycle through your deck enough for kills. There are way better options out there if you want a deckbuilder with some kind of unique spin.

I really wanted to like this game because the story and the environment and especially the character designs are cool. The mechanics of the game are fundamentally sound, but I'm approaching the midway point and the battles have become a slog. The amount of damage party members do barely scale and the best way to take down characters is to attempt chaining the status effects that still aren't explained fully in the tutorial codex. I'm not winning battles because I feel like my deck has improved or focused in any meaningful way despite upgrading as much as I possibly could. I'm winning because I keep retrying the battles (not even boss battles, just regular mid-quest battles where my party members may not start with full health) and taking advantage of the infinite revival mechanic for downed characters and winning via attrition. The deck-building aspect is weak compared to most other deck-building games because there's a more limited pool of cards to choose from. Right now in my game every character has a pool of roughly 10 cards with branching upgrades to choose from, so the flexibility is still limited. And watching as enemies (who also have multiple resistances) throw AOE atta…

Pretty nice Card Battler. The Game oozes Character, especially with Norton playing off pretty much everyone. That Goofball is just too likeable. The Battles are pretty decently balanced and the different Characters have interesting synergy between them. Give it a try!

Dark Sky, developed by Ganymede Games and published by Midwest Games, is a refreshing take on the increasingly crowded deckbuilding genre. Instead of relying on endless roguelike loops, it presents a structured, story-driven adventure that combines tactical positioning, character progression, and card-based combat into a cohesive experience. Set on the troubled world of Wolf Prime, the game invites players into a universe that has been irrevocably changed by a mysterious celestial event. Ships have fallen from the sky, settlements have become isolated, and an unsettling force lingers across the landscape. From the opening moments, the game establishes an atmosphere of curiosity and impending danger, encouraging players to uncover the truth behind the planet's downfall. The story centers on Squig and Norton, two ordinary workers whose lives are disrupted by extraordinary circumstances. Their journey evolves from a simple survival tale into a larger quest involving ancient mysteries, unlikely alliances, and the future of Wolf Prime itself. Throughout the campaign, players recruit additional companions, each contributing unique abilities and personalities that enrich both the narrati…

boring