Poker Quest: Swords and Spades

There's no doubt this is a very well designed game with massive amount of replayability through sheer amount of item combination, playable characters, and various encounters. In that scale, it might even surpass Slay the Spire or any other deck builders in the market, and I understand that it's a difficult game to balance, but the lack of damage mitigation and availability of healing is frustrating even for a seasoned deck building fan. I adore the RNG in all of these and never get frustrated for losing to pure RNG but at this state of the game, where it will no longer receive any balance, I can't recommend the game.

Take a while to wrap my slow ass brain around it all, but off to a good start. For £1.27 absolutely. Get it quick before the sale ends.

There's something really fun and exciting about a long, high-stakes RPG-esque deckbuilding campaign that's constantly challenging and full of interesting cards and some really fun minigames. But ultimately I cannot recommend such a glacially-slow, addictive game with clunky gameplay and no story.

Fun game with balancing issues

It's really clunky and balanced for boring. This is something that could be solved by mods, but i am assuming they don't exist as at the time of writing i see one mod in the work shop. Not enough options or diversity of choice is offered. Emphasized by the low hand size start. Who wants to play through six combats using only two card poker hands to power some of the most mundane boring and poorly balanced skills i have seen in a card game in my life. And to be clear the balance doesn't make it hard, just means there are obvious hyper strong choices you must pick as you repeatedly draw two card hands... then three card hands... I don't really see what people see in this game to give it the thumbs up.

Poker Quest: Swords and Spades is one of the most inventive roguelike deckbuilders in recent years because it takes the familiar rules of poker and transforms them into the foundation for an entire fantasy strategy game. Instead of relying on traditional collectible cards with predefined attacks and abilities, the game builds its combat system around standard playing cards and poker hands. Every battle revolves around managing suits, combinations, probabilities, and card efficiency while exploring dangerous fantasy environments filled with monsters, treasure, and randomized encounters. What initially sounds like a strange gimmick quickly reveals itself as a surprisingly deep and highly addictive strategy experience that feels unlike almost anything else in the genre. The core gameplay revolves around using poker hands to activate equipment, attacks, spells, and defensive abilities during turn-based combat. Pairs, straights, flushes, and other combinations are not just scoring systems here but essential tactical resources that determine how effectively players can use their gear. This creates an unusual but extremely satisfying combat structure where every card draw matters. Player…