EARLY SCOOP - Shroom & Gloom and Wanderburg
SHROOM AND GLOOM
A game that I was looking forward to for quite a while! It had me on the premise of its mechanics as well as its superlative art style. SHROOM AND GLOOM is a deckbuilder with two decks to worry about and that alone makes for an extremely interesting dynamic. Technically, it can feel like we are playing two games at once, were the outcome of one instructs the other. It’s really quite brilliantly made, and I’ll be happy to gush about it properly in full review once the game hits its official 1.0 release.
But what can you expect from the game early access? Plenty of cards, two biomes with own set of enemies and challenges as well as five characters to play with, where each has a different main focus of combat and with their own internal loop. It has enough meat on its bones right now to occupy a solid bunch of hours with great fun of crafting powerful cards and well-looping decks. With stuff to unlock and the ever-growing teasing of a real ‘ending’ - which I guess will come once the game is completed - it is a good time for any deckbuilder enthusiast.
If I had a complaint about the current early version of the game, it would be the lackluster level of challenge. Once you figure out the core mechanics of the game - that the cards growth is permanent, that you need to keep making foodstuff for shopping and focus on crafting superbly powerful combat cards with multiple triggers and growth potential - the game becomes a tad too easy. Of 6 different runs I had so far, I lost only the very first one, and each following attempt was a breeze, with the final bosses being smashed to bits with not even a tiny gleam of a threat. They simply stand no chance when facing a well-crafted deck of doom that has attacks that swipe their parts in a single swing.
The game definitely needs more balance - harder fights, more enemies, multiple boss options per biome and tougher access to fast scaling of power for the player.
Nonetheless, even if the game feels a bit on the easier side right now, the double-deck situation still makes it an extremely clever and fun experience. Each exploration phase is like a puzzle, a bit of risk versus reward balancing of how long you can stay in your room to squeeze every single powerup out of it before the gloom gets too harsh to handle. And then, of course, the more juice you get out of each of the camping sessions, the stronger your combat deck should become, making it a breeze to get to another bit to scrounge up even more power. It’s a deliciously sweet loop and I am excited to check how much you can break this game over a knee.
WANDERBURG
Howl’s Angry Castle meets Mortal Engines… and mixes up Cel Damage vibe and that lovely, arcade’y feeling of a game made exclusively for fun. Now, that might sound a little pish-posh, after all, aren’t all games entertainment? Sure, of course, but I am also confident you know what I mean - plenty of games focus on conveying a story, a particular mood. Have narrative to lay down, lessons to teach, ideas to sell. WANDERBURG is just pure, chaotic fun, a game about being a goofy little ramshackle-punk engine to wreak havoc on a colorful field in magic-filled fantasy realm of Whocaresia.
And I love it! It’s so… goofy, in the most endearing way possible. Design of the little wandering towers, homes, bastions and ramparts is top notch. They are all so cute and silly and utterly delightful. Lumbering stout towers packed with archers, nimble one wheels cannons on gimbals. Giant spikey balls rotating under a little shed or a whole wall section on threads, long and narrow, hoping to smash you with a broadside. It’s a visual feast, always engaging, always entertaining, with superior progress as each bashed boss gives your own vehicle a big upgrade in form and size. Ultimately, you become kind of a boss yourself, big and imposing, swallowing lesser structures into your gawping maw-gate.
But I must be fair - it is very good that this game is in early access because it is in a very raw state when it comes to two elements especially; user interface and meta-progression. Let’s start with the former: it is nightmarish! The lovely team of devs, it seems, have not even a glimmer of UI design genes amongst them. It’s hardly a deal breaker, but menus are counter intuitive. Ugly. Lacking key info. Being in such a rough state that they feel to me like some rough placeholders from an alpha stage of development - literal sketch on a post-it notes kind of design. Yuck.
And the second bit is meta-progression. Well… progression in general. To unlock anything, it is a grind. A very successful run with multiple quests done will maybe net you one unlocks. And many of them costs 5000+ silver, meaning you need multiple runs to buy a single unlock. That’s rough. And during the run itself there are no meaningful decisions, really, either - you’ll just pick any upgrade of a better color. Uncommon offer higher stats then commons. If you see golden frame, you just take it. If there’s an Epic Red, it’s a must have above anything else. There is not a single neuron activated when levelling up, as numbers going up is the only real power spike you need - and so bigger number always wins!
Nonetheless, WANDERBURG is just such a fun game to roll a run or two. I just cannot feel bad when playing it, the moment to moment gameplay, swerving between hordes of enemies and their big chunky projectiles… It’s pure dopamine sizzling in the brain.
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