The problem with a good deck-building turn-based game is that if it ends up being good, it’s difficult to put down. Well, maybe that isn’t a problem. Well, that could be a problem for productivity. Or a problem with stopping long enough to write a review about it. That’s not the guilt speaking at all, folks. Okay, maybe just a little bit of guilt.
Whatever. Sheesh. There’s a point to all this introduction mess.
To the point!
Developer AurumDust has put together one of the more charming deck-building turn-based card games with Ash of Gods: The Way. At a ground level, the game is your typical deck-building card game with RPG elements, where you earn, upgrade, and collect more powerful and useful cards. Where it departs is how the game presents itself and how the gameplay changes as you progress to keep it engaging. And while that sentence might be very basic, the game is anything but that and nothing short of astounding.
Let’s flip this card over to see what we got.
There’s a story to this?
You play has Finn, a royal who is being taught a wicked card game in place of war that might end up saving Finn’s land, and/or taking over other lands. Driven by drama, suspense, and well-written dialogue, the story helps to keep you hooked on the gameplay.
Now, while the idea that war is settled through this card competition might seem ridiculous on paper, and I wish the real war was done this way, the game does its best to keep everything more engaging and even branching through its narrative. I must give major kudos to AurumDust, as they added a memorable story that thickens the gameplay and requests that the player gets involved with decision-making. That sort of complication and story in a deck-building game is ridiculous. I love it.
I’m glad they put effort into making this experience entertaining and deeper through storytelling and player choice than most deck-building experiences tend to be. Characters that have a meaningful existence within a deck-building turn-based game are just odd but welcomed. We never knew we needed it.
Decking it out
Ash of Gods: The Way has so many different gameplay elements to it to constantly refresh the engagement with its design. Of course, before it gets all complicated and new, it must establish what has already been done with previous deck-building games of this type. That is important when you’re trying to capture the core gameplay that players are familiar with from past experiences.
On a basic level, the game uses an isometric viewpoint to drive battles and uses two types of card-play decisions to add variety. The first is what you’re used to seeing, where you can pick your warriors and send them onto the gameboard to battle against the enemy. The cards are represented on the gameboard by actual moving characters, which we’ll get into later.
Staying with card variety, there are a bevy of cards to choose from, and are broken into factions. Each faction contains its own type of characters that brings their own type of talent. Factions are introduced through gameplay progression, so as you take over various lands, you get various faction decks. The decks, while unique between factions, still kind of have that grunt/warrior/leader/healer type within them. They’re certainly not as basic as that description, but they are basic when it comes to what you should expect at the game’s ground level. So, your expectations should start with ‘I know this, and it actually is fun right now as-is’, but then open your mind for more to come. The game is everything you want from a deck-building experience, so rest assured that you will see some old familiar with the process.
The next level of the game brings in buff cards. These cards assist your player cards and buff their powers either permanently or temporarily during rounds. The buffs could be something like casting lightning down on an enemy, adding more protection to characters, or even as simple as allowing characters to move more steps on the gameboard than they typically do. As you progress further and further into the game, the buffs get more powerful and there is a large variety of them to be had. You can acquire buffs by winning tournaments and/or purchasing them from a vendor. They’re a perfect complement to the player cards and provide a deeper strategy choice to the gameplay. Having played a lot of card games, I haven’t seen these too often, or at least not to this extent.
From there, the game gets far deeper.
The backend of the game that improves the ground level is extensive. Each player card is upgradable in different areas. For example, if you want to upgrade a character’s attack, health, protection, or a hodge-podge of each, you can do so. The cost is coins that you collect as you win matches. The more matches you win, the more upgrades you can purchase. This makes the game more strategic in its purpose and allows the player to customize their decks how they see fit. The more options, the better, and there are branching options for the player to choose from with upgrades.
Another big positive is mixing faction decks together. This allows you to put together a powerful force that brings a variety of talents to the board. While this is not a new gameplay idea to the deck-building genre, the sheer variety of cards you can choose from is incredibly impressive.
Now, having brought that up, that doesn’t mean you can do that all the time. The other cool part of the gameplay is the rules each fight brings to the table. Some of the fights require a certain faction of enemies or cards that are known for certain fighting styles, so you must be ready and upgrade your cards accordingly in case you must bring out a new deck with specific requirements. There are quite a few different sets of rules required of the player during fights, and it all makes sense, as much as it is fun to experience. Again, this just adds more strategy to the game, and it gets the player involved with their decisions on how to use the coins they gained from winning tournaments.
Speaking of tournaments, the game is driven by them. As you progress through lands, you will dive into tournaments that are circular in structure. Within these tournaments, you work from the outside in. What that means is that you have smaller matches on the outside of a big circular shape that leads to unlockable fights that eventually take you to the championship. It’s a weird way to shape tournaments, but it works. It forces you to take down enemies in a linear way before you find yourself going head-to-head with a champion. Each tournament has its own style and set of rules, so you will rarely feel bored with the gameplay. Some fights require that you go directly head-to-head with enemy forces, some require you to step up to a dividing line and do your best to protect your leader, while others add obstacles and side enemies (literal enemies that swipe at you from the side) to make the gameplay more intriguing. Then there are other fights that will ask you to capture spots on the board or prevent enemies from getting to your leader by forming a two-sided line for enemies to go down. There are a lot of different styles and rules with the fights, and they hardly feel the same. I truly appreciate the variety here and the supporting story and branching narrative moments to keep that gameplay fresh. It makes the game so much better and sets new ways for this genre to work.
My only minor gripe with this game is the difficulty at times. While I didn’t have too hard of a time getting through most of the gameplay, there were occasions where I had to stop because of frustration and come back later. One such time was going up against a mean warrior in the first land. She limited me to 13 rounds and kept reviving herself nearly four times. And, yes, you were still bound to the 13 rounds. That’s much harder than it sounds. It took me about a day and some change to finally figure it out, but it was quite frustrating. You won’t have many of these moments, but they do exist with the game. While I don’t mind a challenge, I felt like the four redoes were kind of cheap. I’m fine with it now because I beat her finally, but, wow, it was a task.
Overall, there are so many moving pieces and parts to this game that there is rarely a dull moment in the gameplay. The developers at AurumDust put an incredible amount of thought into this gameplay structure and design, and it absolutely paid off and has set new standards in the deck-building game world.
Holy motion capture, Batman!
Most of the card games that I played in the past were literal cards with stagnant art. While there is nothing wrong with that, it’s neat to see actual characters on the board that move and respond to commands. In addition, the characters look like they were motion captured. They’re insanely beautiful to watch in fights, and with their deaths, and they add so much presentation value to the overall process. It makes the game visually more engaging and enjoyable. It’s frightening how gorgeous it is.
Anyway, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Ash of Gods: The Way from developer AurumDust sets a new standard with how deck-building games should be made. It has the core structure that makes the deck-building fun and familiar, while also adding a thoughtful narrative and a variety of gameplay structures to keep the game engaging and entertaining.
