Ways of Alchemy

This is a really neat game. In the veign of cultist simulator which is one of my all time favourites. And at launch despite some bugs I'd call this a bit close to that game. Cultist simulator is still better though. So why am I not recommending the game? Well they added some updates that I originally liked until I started a new game. A winter holiday update in particular added some events that you just can't deal with at all at the start of the game. It sorta makes it really ♥♥♥♥♥♥ to start from scratch right now, and this has been here since the start of the year so. Well who knows if it'll get patched. Just not a great experience right now. Real bummer as I enjoy the game and was looking forward to starting from scratch again after a long break.

Further development seems to have been abandoned while game-breaking bugs still exist. Not worth your time.

This is the wierd cousin of cultist simulator, the one that is fun to have around once in a while but don't want to know what he gets up to on the day-to-day. I liked it enough to finish a game and even get the achivos but i'm never coming back. First of all the game is too grindy, specialy at the end game, even with spirits and homunculous automaticaly giving you materials the game can turn into a slogfest. Second, the game is not hard. After you understand the mechanics and keep your cards organised the game is not hard at all. In fact i'm writing this review while letting the game run so i can get the achivos from starving and from dying that are the only once i got left. I even used the royal pardon before finishing my run dispite not needing it just for the achivo. But in the end this game didn't do enough for me, i'm living a positive review because i know people like me will find som enjoyment but if you don't like this kind of games this one won't change your mind.

I was not about to write a negative review, but then they decided to just pump out a bogus moneygrab DLC after months of silence. Reckon I'd do the same and break the silence. tl;dr — Yeah you like Stacklands and similar games so this one is a no brainer? I know, but please AVOID. Wait for updates to QoL and bug fixes, you have been warned. Enjoyable for the first hours and then the tediousness starts. There are some things that can be automated but they are few and in large unimportant. There are so many ingredients that are a pain to acquire, but you need them a lot and progress very rarely give you anything interesting or new. You just keep getting upgrades for the same 5 buildings over and over and over again. By far the most annoying thing is how slow selling is while you need the money. Next to this they should add multiple simple QoL things such as PAUSING THE FRIGGIN GAME when the next stage of an expedition needs input. I failed dozens of expeditions because I was doing other stuff then forgot it was waiting for me to help them. Either way, there is a gem hidden in this game. Sadly the devs gave up on extracting it, rather burying it further in the dirt with the dumbes…

It's a fun card came that you can put over a dozen hours into. Sadly, I got bored before I could finish it. This is not an indictment of the game, I just don't like card games much to begin with. So why did I buy it, you might be asking? Easy, it was on sale.

❌❌❌ I expected a game about alchemy to be alchemically accurate, but this is clearly the work of an amateur that doesn't actually understand anything about it. Disappointed, and refunded.