Card roguelikes are a very popular genre today. And it has its absolute favorites – for example, the wonderful Slay the Spire, deserves the highest rating from us. And now we’ve got, let’s say, her Russian-language clone for analysis. And let the authors Fate Hunters, perhaps they didn’t try to directly borrow ideas from their colleagues, comparisons still cannot be avoided. It’s a pity, they won’t be flattering in everything, although they have advantages Fate Hunters there will be some too.
What are the words for??
Plot in Fate Hunters practically none. Without further ado, we enter the battle – choose a hero and set off to conquer a certain tower, moving further and further. In each new room there are enemies waiting for us, whom we beat with our cards (and they do the same in response). The principles of deck formation are very similar to what we saw in Slay the Spire. After each battle, we are given several cards as a reward – you can add something to your deck or skip it. The decision must be made carefully, taking into account the chosen tactics – the chance to remove some cards (as well as improve them or buy something) is rare.
As we progress, we unlock cooler cards, which then appear in our collection and become available with each new game. The cards themselves often have the same effects as in Slay the Spire, – for example, often when performing certain actions, all sorts of “curses”, “poisons” and “wounds” are mixed into the draw piles or even directly into the hand. And in Hearthstone the authors clearly looked at cards with a provocation effect – they need to be attacked forcibly. But in Fate Hunters – and this is really interesting – there is no need to save up and waste energy on acting out actions. Therefore, the battles are very dynamic. In addition, here you can mix discard piles into draw piles – also a rather unusual solution.
Reach the end?
While moving along the tower, you periodically encounter forks. Go to a room with stronger opponents (the rewards there are also richer) or go to the weaker ones? Or go to a mysterious room, where a blacksmith (improves cards), a merchant, a junk dealer (after receiving damage, throws out some unexpected trick) or a couple of strong enemies will probably be waiting for you? And maybe the weak ones – “random” controls everything here!
At the end of each large level, the most dangerous local boss with his henchmen awaits, after defeating whom we are given fate points. They can be spent to restore health, obtain passive skill cards, legendary items or weapons. And then we decide what to do – move on to get even more rewards, experience and levels (yes, the hero is pumped up, receiving one of three skill cards as a reward), or return from the tower with the loot.
Sense of proportion
It must be said that the inability to stop in time Fate Hunters can cost you a lot. After all, in case of defeat, we lose everything we have acquired through backbreaking labor, including skills, hero levels and gold, and begin to conquer the tower again. Namely, new characters are mainly unlocked for money. This is where one of the significant differences from Slay the Spire: there we are immediately offered a choice of one of three fundamentally different characters, and in Fate Hunters Initially, only one of the five heroes is available – the warrior. An arcanist (essentially a sorceress) costs 100 coins, a berserker and a spy cost 300 each, and the robber will only open after you defeat him in the game.
Meanwhile, gold and silver are https://gamesnotongamstop.co.uk/roulette/ not exactly pouring out of a cornucopia here – sometimes you come across treasure cards worth 5, 10 or, if you’re lucky, 25 coins. That is, the game is clearly designed for grinding, for us to make many small forays, collecting gold, and return on time (there are even rare teleport cards from the tower back home). For coins, you can also buy cooler cards for the starting deck – to start a new playthrough, having serious arguments in hand.
How lucky
However, if everything goes well, 4-5 forays into the depths of the tower will be enough to earn enough money and open almost everything. And here another problem arises: in Fate Hunters very little content today. In the same Slay the Spire in addition to the usual forays into the tower, there are also special tests with their own rules, where we compete with other players for the best rating, as well as the opportunity to create a unique adventure by choosing modifiers to suit every taste. There is nothing like that here – at least not yet.
The key phrase in the previous paragraph is “if everything goes well”. The case, as I already said, in Fate Hunters defines everything. And that’s okay – in Slay the Spire he also plays a big role. There are even more “random” events, rooms with question marks where we don’t know what awaits us, and forks that determine our unique path through the tower. At the same time, you may stumble upon some cheerful goblin or ghost who will offer to play roulette.
And in Fate Hunters everything is arranged more primitively and at the same time fiercely. The fact is that there are a lot of actions that cause random damage. 1-5, 2-8 points of damage – agree, there is a difference. Plus a bunch of cards with a certain chance of critical damage. Plus attacks that can damage enemies or your hero – who knows?. Plus bosses with their “secrets”. Plus all those “Draw two random weapon cards from the draw pile”, “Upgrade a random card that is not legendary”..
In general, the expression “As the card falls” is about Fate Hunters. You can go almost to the fifth level, receiving lucky items, or you can get stuck already on the second, swearing and cursing His Majesty chance.
"Random" versus tactics? They are together!
It is clear that in this situation, no tactics or properly selected deck will save you. But this does not mean that you don’t need to take care of it at all. Need to! Moreover, playing for different characters, albeit not as much as in Slay the Spire, but still different. And this must be taken into account.
In the starting deck, only the supply cards are the same for everyone, but the class skills are different. A warrior often uses weapons and heals, a magician throws fireballs, freezes or invigorates with lightning, a berserker can accumulate rage and convert it into additional effects, and a spy can use other people’s skills.
But the main thing is, of course, the opportunity to level up during the passage and, before entering the next level of the tower, receive various items, passive perks and other skills that allow you to form and adjust your tactics. Some give bonuses if your deck has more than 30 positions – or, conversely, less than 15. Others encourage those who bet on magic skills rather than weapon cards – or vice versa. Still others almost allow themselves to benefit from constantly receiving curses and wounds.
Thus, if you wish, you can try to somehow curb the same “random”. For example, choosing a passive skill at a new level that will make all cards with random damage hit enemies to the maximum. Or you can take a perk in which all random damage to your hero from your own cards will fly back to your opponents in the forehead. And if you have a lot of actions with critical damage, then it makes sense to get cards that increase the likelihood of this very “crit”.
It turns out to be a rather controversial game. On the one hand, in Fate Hunters not enough content, too much randomness, no plot at all, but there are problems with balance. Everything looks and sounds at the usual level – that is, nothing terrible, but also “Wow”!"you won’t scream. On the other hand, there is a strong card base, even if in many ways it was picked up from colleagues, and the lack of plot and energy for playing cards allows you to organize dynamic and unpredictable battles without unnecessary preamble. Therefore, the game is still addictive and quickly turns into a skillful time killer. In addition, the authors actively communicate with the players and are clearly ready to develop. So the prospects for the project are still quite good, although somewhat “random”..
Pros: addictive gameplay; heroes with different tactics and sets of cards; interesting pumping system; pleasant appearance and sound design.
Cons: little content; the role of chance is too great; there’s not even a hint of a plot.