CUBIC COSMOS

---

There are some games out there that make me wonder if I am playing a work of genius or a terrible experiment of a deranged mind. And no, I am not even talking about some bizarre premise, shocking horror or mind-boggling presentation. It's more about the mechanics. The core experience, so to speak, what is that gameplay loop and how I decipher it to squeeze the fun juice out of it. Especially when I encounter this mild shock in a genre I believe I've seen it all - a roguelike deck-builder.

And then something like CUBIC COSMOS emerges, hits me in the grondle and laughs happily about my confusion. See, I am still a little on the fence. Is this one of the best card battlers I have ever played? Or a shoddy, ramshackle experiment that somehow works, even if I am oft perplexed how exactly...? If you want to know what transfixes me so here is that this game feels like the ultimate deck-builder gumbo. A complete and utter chaos of features. It feels, at times, like if the developers investigated the genre and didn't have the heart to discard ANY mechanics into the bin. This game is a hodgepodge of everything. It's an auto-battler! It's a lane-by-lane combat! It's a deck-builder with modality. There are so many things floating to the surface in this soup that it either is a delicious, rich meal or a bit of sickly slop.

And again - I am not entirely decided on which one it is. So let me break it down for you. The idea is simple on paper. You pick one of many heroes. They bring to the table their unique abilities and cards, some archetype you can expect to roll with. And then you craft your deck. The thing is, it is less about the cards and more about putting them on steroids. Sure! Getting a powerful, important card that can enable your wacky automatic combos is key. But the cards are sort of... alive. Even the most powerful units will eat dirt soon enough if you do not nourish them. Take them to school, cook 'em dinner, read them storybooks to sleep.

That tingle down your spine when the cards keep on flowing and numbers start to litter the screen.

Cards grow with lasting effects. Your goal is to outpace the game's growing difficulty by making sure your priced champions get beefy and fast. On top of raw stats, they also have plenty of abilities with high variability and modality. On kill triggers, on summon. Reactive to spellcasting or the death of minions. Multiplicative magic missiles they cast when a guy on the left eats a spell. Or maybe you cast a particular minion just to instantly kill them off to trigger their powerful on-death effect. Which then triggers an ability of another guy. And that guy, imagine that, cascades some power-ups to your OTHER, other fella. And that naughty lad gets juiced up, let you draw a card, trigger your ability and activates 3 of your relics which now do some crazy shenanigans to the board once more...

I think you get the picture in that jumbled mess of words. CUBIC COSMOS isn't about a neat order of play or finding out a single working engine that feeds itself. It's more about engineering multiple engines that get up and go to work activating other machinery you put in place. The ideal deck would be one where you play one card a turn and see how it makes everything on the board sparkle, shudder, sizzle, and explode. Heck, there are even a hero or two that play almost on full auto! Making most of your units just cast themselves at no cost, attack on their own, going positively haywire with you - the player - being delegated to herding cats. That is, using what spells you have to make sure your unruly children don't hurt themselves before winning combat.

You know what, after careful consideration and reading my own words I am leaning into the "Game is Great" category. It's fun. Like, big time fun. Every time I finish a run I crave to start again. No two runs are the same; there is always a new crazy setup you can develop. Every card can be crucial to your success, every unit can be nourished to be your big killer, a champion of your own creation. Imprint abilities, change their triggers, combo off other units, make your singing machine of destruction. Add to it the fact that there are plenty of heroes, relics, and cards, and you have all the ingredients in place for a pretty darn exciting gameplay.

Game keeps a steady flow of unlocks, always making you itch for just one more run with the new toys.

Nitpicks? Yes. A couple. First of all, the game feels a bit... easy. I wouldn't say it's a complete trifle, especially at the beginning when you are getting the lay of the land. When you learn it's all about those chainable interactions. But in all the runs I had, I blasted through Act 1, chunked Act 2, and barely ever lost a game. Why is that only a nitpick and not a big complaint and point deduction? Because, somehow, it never feels so breezy while you're actually IN the run. I have no clue what skillful artistry and magic the devs put in here, but rarely does any boss encounter feel easy. Even if it is, even if it clicks effortlessly and your cards bit by bit tore the enemy forces down, there is always this dynamic exchange going on - swift losses replaced quickly. New cards smashing on the table. Lost situations turning on a dime when your last play triggered all your mighty relics, making a complete reversal of fortune.

Visually, it is chaos. Cosmic Chaos, hah! The art is nice, the cards are clean and clear. The abilities are well explained, and helpful icons guide you through the vastness of options. But it doesn't change the fact that once everything triggers, you can be welcomed to a kaleidoscope of visual effects! Fire, lightning, very, very frightening (me! Galileo, Galileo...). Fortunately, when that happens, you can let go of the mouse, watch the show, and bask in the realisation that all it means is that your cards have decided to work together to unleash proper hell on the enemy hordes.

CUBIC COSMOS is fun. Simple as. I am not going to say that it breaks the mold, that it reinvents the wheel. I am pretty confident in my belief that a year from now I won't remember this game. This is not an attack on it, just a simple reality. It's good for what it is. Refreshingly kinetic and high impact. Any deck-builder fan would be happy to have it in their library. But it is also not anything groundbreaking. A decently made game, fairly priced and packing the right amount of fun in its wide breaches.