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• gamedeal user

  Jan 25, 2021

  I've only played a few runs so far, but this is already my favorite roguelike deckbuilder of all time. It's the first one I've played where you actually, crucially, get to [i]build your deck[/i]. Let me explain. You know how in most of these games, your deck consists of literally every single card you pick up throughout each run, causing the driving force to become finding ways to [i]remove[/i] cards from your deck, lest it become a bloated mess with zero synergy? And once you realize that, you'll usually [i]pass[/i] on cool or interesting cards unless they fit 100% seamlessly into your current strategy? Does it ever start to feel a little disappointing when it seems like your entire deck plan for a run is determined by the first few cards you get, because of those design choices? Enter [i]Arcanium[/i]. Here, you control three heroes each with their own deck (which are fairly small, so it never feels onerous to be managing three). Unlike other games in the genre, getting a reward card [i]doesn't mean you have to add it to your deck[/i]. You can instead just add it to your "collection" for that run, basically - or "sideboard" if you've played M:TG - and at any time outside of battle you can tinker with your deck at will, adding and removing cards as you see fit. Find an awesome card that's part of a combo you don't currently have any other pieces for? In other roguelikes you'd probably leave it, but here? Take it! It's not just deadweight gumming up your deck, because you never have to put it [i]in[/i] your deck. Simply being [i]excited[/i] to find cards that don't fit into your current strategy, because you can tuck them away until they might become useful later, feels like a huge step forward for the genre. Aside from that, there's a lot else to like here. The UI and artstyle are actually what sold me on the game, and they're every bit as crisp and pleasing in-game as they look in the screenshots. The battles are blessedly quick and snappy, at least on lower difficulties, and I find they have the perfect amount of tactical depth without veering into decision paralysis. The "region map" exploration in between battles offers a good amount of player choice while still pushing you towards the objective via a soft timer, and I find it far more interesting than the simple path-based approach of [i]Slay the Spire[/i] or [i]Monster Train[/i]. The music is also surprisingly good, and there's even a surprising amount of lore, if you're into that sort of thing (although don't expect [i]Hades[/i]-level writing). With all that said, the game is definitely early access right now, but it's not lacking any sort of functionality, polish, or fun; only content. The [strike]one region[/strike] [b](update: two regions!)[/b] and several heroes currently present are very playable, and even now there are plenty of strategies, unlocks, and difficulty challenges to keep you busy while waiting for more content, which [strike]appears to be[/strike] [b]is[/b] added regularly. I'd genuinely consider this one a "buy" rather than "wishlist" if you're at all interested in the game design of digital card games - there really is just a ton of brilliant design here, and it's fascinating to watch it come together - or, if you're like me, and find that the current slew of roguelike deckbuilders don't actually really scratch that "deckbuilding" itch. [i]Arcanium[/i] feels like a breath of fresh air to me, in a genre that's often (rightly?) criticized as being a bunch of [i]Slay the Spire[/i] clones. Maybe it's fitting that there's clearly some [i]Magic: the Gathering[/i] influence here (the "color wheel" is, like, 100% [i]Magic[/i]), because this is the first time a roguelike deckbuilder has managed to capture some of the simple joy I remember of sitting at the dining room table with my cards sprawled out in front of me, thinking of deck ideas or tweaks. The game is already worth it for this approach to deckbuilding that's closer to tabletop CCGs than other digital roguelikes, but even if you're waiting for more content, it's definitely one to keep an eye on. I honestly think it'll become (or [i]should[/i] become) one of the new titans of the genre, once it's got more content and more attention. Highly, highly recommended. [b]Update - 4/12/21:[/b] Since this ended up being the top review - and since I still love this game - I feel a little obligated to update it. The devs here certainly aren't afraid to take advantage of early access and try new things, so parts of the game can sometimes feel pretty different from month to month, but the focus is always on finding the fun (and usually succeeding, as they're also not afraid to scrap what doesn't work). The one thing that won't change is that the game is still very much a deck[i]builder[/i], rather than the deck[i]removers[/i] that some of its predecessors now feel like to me, and new characters are regularly added (and old kits updated) to give even more options. The very best new feature, however, is the addition that I feel will truly set [i]Arcanium[/i] apart. They've just added a second province, but rather than tacking it on after the first one in a linear "act" structure, they've instead chosen to add it [i]adjacent to the first province on an ever-growing world map[/i]. Their goal is to create a true fusion of roguelike deckbuilder and open-world adventure game (in a way that's very different than something like [i]Gordian Quest[/i]), and if that sounds remotely appealing to you, do yourself a favor and check out this game. There's now [i]plenty[/i] of content, with more on the way, and there's no better time to jump in than now while the early access price is still fairly low.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 7, 2021

  Anyone looking at the reviews and wondering why a Very Negative score is present, it is due to a very poorly received patch. The developers listened to feedback and reverted alot of the ill received changes. The game itself is a party based deck building adventure where you have a set number of turns to strengthen your party via upgrading cards, getting artefacts, finding passives, adding new cards to your deck, and finding potions that have usable abilities per combat (really fun aspect as you bring three reusable potions in and they have various effects). After said turns a big boss appears then you can take on the bigger bad that is corrupting the land. The flow feels great and each character brings a unique playstyle or two to the battle. Mixing and matching to try to find the right combo's or a combo you didn't think of really adds to the replay ability. Runs don't take forever and that allows you to dive back in with haste to try new builds and characters. There is plenty here to justify jumping in the early access and the dev's are trying hard to make a game that appeals to everyone but are not afraid nor arrogant to admit they misstep and make corrections based on feedback. Throwing out this positive in hopes to let the devs know there hard work is appreciated.
• gamedeal user

  Dec 8, 2022

  Writing as a 800+ hours Slay the Spire veteran and card battling deck building rogue-likes gamer. If Slay and Monster Train are "top tier" exemplars of deck-building rogue-likes, Arcanium is at the very least close to them in many ways. I rate it as at least as good as other excellent similar games, including Across the Obelisk, Tainted Grail and Blood Card 2. Highly commendable features include: 1. Fully featured 'adventure' and 'arena' modes, the former including free movement on a node-filled map enabling selection of encounters, these being battles of varying difficulty, events, shops, permanent boons and training. Put together, these allow a degree of customising your team only slightly less extensive than Monster Train, and far greater than Slay the Spire and many other games. Arena mode, meanwhile, removes the adventure component and progresses you through increasingly challenging fights, terminating at a boss fight, punctuated by opportunities to shop and train and heal. This offers a shorter, concentrated experience. 2. Fantastic variety and diversity. There are 12+ heroes each of which have unique cards, 'ultimate' abilities and equipment. Added to this is significant variety of permanent boons, other equipment, one-use items and deployable 'minions'. The variety is incredible. For examples, just one hero could be adjusted to focus on damage over time, support damage, healing or blocking, and you play with three heroes. 3. Highly tactical combat. You can always see what an enemy will do and there is no randomness. Your three heroes can move around between their lanes, and there are many, many synergies to find between cards, the order of cards played, equipment and movement. 4. Lots of meta-progression. Love it or love it, I love it, there is a lot to unlock through simple play. This includes new heroes to use, new cards for those heroes, new ultimate abilities, and there are many achievements to pursue. There are a few caveats worth being aware of too - 1. Some heroes have far greater utility than others at time of writing, including 'Angorn', which is a highly versatile support hero with strong block, healing and damage over time abilities. In my view, this is fine, as once you master the highest difficulty level with the 'better' heroes, you can enjoy more challenge by trying the same with other heroes. 2. At time of writing, nodes that have been identified on the adventure map lose their identification / tooltip after saving, exiting and reloading. This is only an issue until you begin remembering what each node icon stands for e.g., card upgrade, permanent boon etc, and is a minor niggle.
• gamedeal user

  May 25, 2023

  The thing about card-based roguelites is that they all look the same. They have cards, and unlocks, and bright colors, and lots of status conditions, and they all look like clones. It's impossible to tell the good ones from the mediocre ones just by the marketing materials. Which is why I'm telling you: this one is good. Not the presentation. The characters are memorable and sweet — you play as a bunch of animals in the roles of fantasy tropes: a pyromancer fox, a paladin lion, a necromancer jackal; but the UIs make my eyes bleed a bit and the map is ugly. And the parts that look kinda pretty (like the cards themselves) are really bog-standard. The generic name that resembles another game does Arcanium no favours either. But the gameplay is just so much fun. Each class (of which there are 16 — a lot!) has a flexible identity. Their starting deck represents the core idea, but you can choose from three unlockable Ultimates to define the class. So the marksman owl can focus on finishers, or poison, or just huge damage numbers. The fencing cat can be more mobile or deal multistrikes. Combined with the number of classes, it'a a LOT of flexibility. Each attack also has an element to it. Battles have three lanes, and attacks have limits on who they can hit. This becomes crucial on higher difficulties where enemies obtain resistances and immunities to various enemies, and the need to juggle your team around becomes stronger. All manners of taunts, summons, status effects, and other conditions make fights deep. The exploration is much freer than in StS-likes. You have a hex-based realm and can explore any tile adjacent to the ones explored, moving in any direction. You do want to challenge yourself, of course; this is how you become powerful. Boosters come in packs, forcing suboptimal choices on you. Combined with unique items, this creates enough variety and depth to play this game for quite a while. The only downside I can think of is that the game starts off a bit too easy (but it has like a million of difficulty levels, so you'll quickly ramp up to the fun challenge) and that there are a bit too few items. But those are minor concerns. Don't be fooled by the mediocre presentation — Arcanium is absolutely worth the price tag if you like deckbuilders.
• gamedeal user

  Nov 13, 2022

  I'm not gonna write a deep review, I'm just gonna tell you, my holy trinity at this moment is ; 1-Slay the spire 2-Arcanium 3-Vault of the void
• gamedeal user

  Oct 29, 2021

  Devs listened to the feedback and are going to revert a lots of the changes people didn't like, despite all the works they put into it. Game seems better but most importantly, now we know devs listen, which is big in 2021.
• gamedeal user

  May 15, 2021

  Pros: - nicely drawn - unique game mechanics Cons: - repetitiveness of runs - very unbalanced characters - unchallenging difficulty level The game in current point is enjoyable and I don't regret buying it. I've truly had fun a couple of games - as such maybe my review is not entirely fair, but I don't think I'll be playing much in upcoming weeks, hence the negative. The main problem is both repetetiveness and practically no challenge - the general strategy is to pick either Aurora / Tara + Angorn; third character can be anything to level up and mostly won't be useful in the battle. Angorn currently is broken, if using the artifact that allows for card draw - but the sustain abilities allow to drag on the battles. Aurora's burns and Tara's poisons allow to deal lots of damage every turn. As such, the game doesn't force you to adapt to the battles and every encounter can be defeated the same way. What I'd recommend to make the game more fun: - scale down Aurora / Tara's abilities - Meteor is utterly broken; Inferno + Meteor = gg for any encounter; same with any poisons + Poison Dart for Tara; trying to build those two characters to use fury / arrows archetypes is pointless - Angorns ability to give draws should be removed - it enables too many things in other characters, since it allows to draw entire deck - introduce synergies between characters and allow for characters to share abilities - if I pick an artifact that increases burns, I can only put it on Aurora; if I pick something that affects poisons, I can only put it on Tara, etc there's also no point really in picking Angorn with Shinzo (sharing nature), over Angorn with Milady (not sharing anything) - make other characters actually matter - while Leon invulnerability build is fun, there's not enough skills that actually grant it; I very much like it that there're some opponents that multi-hit and strip it as such; Ragnarok's minions build is... alright; Shinzo could benefit with more skills that actually transform shield into damage - allow to preview what enemy is on given spot - heavy cleansing should discourage me to attack with condition build; or enemies that gain shield should discourage to attack with direct damage builds - atm there's no point in attacking multiple characters (besides the field where you have to kill 3 opponents)
• gamedeal user

  Sep 25, 2022

  This is a really solid deckbuilder, but I wasn't aware all the characters were furries until it was too late... now I'm a furry...
• Nit Draws

  Feb 25, 2023

  So, it's a fun a game, however, it still feels incomplete or lacking. There are bugs, and they are reported. The devs haven't made an effort to fix them since their last patch which was a week after it's release. If you can get it cheap like 10 dollars or less, I'd say it could be worth. I have a ton of hours in it. So I did have fun, but I was working on making guides and helping others get better in the community. I was expecting them to expand the game because it's rather short or to at least fix some of the issues/bugs in the game. If they just fixed the bugs, I'd be happy. I don't like buying incomplete games. It just feels wrong, but like I said I was believing they had intent to fix it. I was so wrong.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 22, 2021

  There's a good number of deckbuilders I enjoy but this one's just not doing it for me. It's nice when you can at least draw a tenuous line between your decisions and their effect on the game, but Arcanium for me makes this line really obscure sometimes. A lot of the battle scenarios also have strange parameters. Oftentimes it's beneficial to leave your opponents alive and just defend, since if they're killed they just instantly reappear with full health. The experience still feels barebones in a couple of places, and while I'm aware that this is an early access title, it's still a negative experience. The sound design is weak or absent in places, and on some missions the objective counter will struggle to accurately reflect how many rounds you've survived or how many are left to go. I'll be happy to update my review if these things change in the future but for now it's not worth the investment.