Northwind

Great game. In around 9 runs, I haven't run into any balance issues like a couple of negative reviews had referenced. I constantly feel like each run is challenging, yet beatable, starting with the very first run. The game might feel extra hard for people who aren't good at managing mana in Magic the Gathering; I was a pro player in Magic years ago, so it may be that I have an affinity for this game that some people won't have, but for me it feels perfect. I love the innovations in this game vs Slay the Spire clones. I like the combat clash instead of block/attack cards. I love the leveling up idea and implementation. I love what you can do at each Outpost. I pretty much always feel like the gold/bones/scales resources are tight, which means meaningful decisions.

Early-game? Extremely punishing. Mid-game? Exhausting? Late-game? Keep hitting 'Abandon Run' until decent cards help you start *Early-game, if at all. Overall? Serial lack of balance where mid-tier enemies with maybe just ONE ability, along with one minor minion tagging along with them splits your initial deck-load between offsetting **MASSIVE** enemy damage, getting your resources **STOLEN** as a rinky-dink enemy ability so you can't afford anything in town or random inexpensive events (you read that right, even cheap stuff will drain you, again choices between survival and no money), or as aforementioned constantly hitting 'Abandon Run'. "Balance as we go" patching means dying 10,000 times before the developer thinks static enemy passives that wipe runs (and not just one type of enemy, each enemy has a particular angle i.e. less draws per turn, clogging your hand-draw with random cards, disabling hand-loads from status conditions, enemies gaining flat x-damage per turn before multiplicatively and arbitrarily gaining INSANE amounts of damage) is worth "patching". This game thinks it's the Dark Souls of Rogue-likes/lites, but it's not. It's a passion project where the de…

I recommend this with a caveat. I'm playing it right before the devs overhaul the mana system to be very different than it currently is. They must have gotten a bunch of a feedback about how it was dogwater or something, because the new system is VERY different, and I don't actually think its better. That being said, the new system is also fine, just less interesting. Both systems are interesting enough that it shows the devs have real design chops, and despite being a genuine EA game (bugs are present, work is being done etc etc) its a lot of fun. Maybe wait for a sale if you don't want to pay for an unfinished game, or wait for launch. Good luck devs!

Very good right now, even during EA. The can only expand and improve the game in the future, and it'll be a banger. Watch my video review below and skip to the end if you want the summary. First impressions review: https://youtube.com/live/S5Xa6LOCFvo

Looking forward to some updates.

Been looking for a good roguelike for awhile and have been seriously enjoying this one. Solid CGL all around