Gordian Quest is an excellent card-based RPG, and it shows an immense amount of promise. I gladly recommend giving it a shot, it’s already quite solid.
Type: Single-player
Genre: RPG, Card-Based
Developer: Mixed Realms
Publisher: Mixed Realms,
Coconut Island Games
Release date: 27 March, 2020
Intro
Gordian Quest is an indie card-based RPG that takes a lot of inspiration from a popular card-based RPG called Slay the Spire. Gordian Quest has it’s own uniqueness to set it apart from Slay the Spire though, including going the party-based route. The game is currently going through the early access phase of its development but I’m already pretty impressed with the game. If you’re a fan of card-based RPG’s, do read on, there’s already a bunch to cover.
Story and Setting
Gordian Quest puts you in control of one of 6 heroes and is destined to free the lands of a curse created by the gods. Your character of choice will eventually be able to team up with a few of the other 6 characters once the story gets going, so you’ll have aid during your quest. From the looks of things, the game will wind up being super long once it’s fully completed due to how large the world looks. Each act takes place in a single area and as you might expect, each one gets more difficult as the game progresses.
The first act of the game takes place in a city that’s been overrun with the undead, and you must aid the townsfolk in their attempts to push back the undead menace and ultimately find out, and defeat, the one responsible for their arrival.
Dungeons!
As you progress through the game, you’ll often get quests that will have you delving into dungeons to acquire quest items. Dungeons work the same way as the overhead map, and you’ll be able to choose your path through them. It’s a good idea to go to every point on the dungeon map, that way you can see every event and level up your characters in fights. Dungeons are often multiple floors deep as well but you can freely leave using portals. That way you can go back to town and heal if the need arises.
As you explore both the world map and the dungeon map, you’ll come across event spaces that will test your party’s skills in various areas (Like intelligence or dexterity). Your skills are tested by rolling a dice and selecting a card to use as a multiplier. If your roll is higher than the required number then you succeed. If it’s lower you’ll end up failing the skill check and you’ll get a negative effect.
Combat and Leveling Up
Combat in Gordian Quest is quite simple to learn but it can be tough to master on higher difficulty levels. Each round, you’re given a few cards to choose from. These cards can be buffs, defensive, or offence-based. It’s often a good idea to utilize your defensive cards along with your offensive because they prevent the enemy from dealing damage. You have to strike a balance between the two to come out the victor. Buffing your characters is also helpful as well as increases their damage output in many cases.
The skills you have available are dependant on the character, your equipment, and the cards you choose when you level up. The wizard Pierre, has magical abilities that focus on dealing damage, while the cleric Catherin, has buffing, healing, defensive and attacking abilities. Each character has its unique advantages and disadvantages during combat and figuring out which attacks work best is key to surviving at higher difficulty levels.
As you defeat enemy encounters, you’ll gain experience points that allow your characters to level up. As your characters level up, they’ll earn a skill point which you can allocate on their skill grid. Each character’s skill grid starts pretty small but the more skill points that you allocate, the more grids that you’ll unlock to be placed on the board. When you unlock space on the skill board, you’ll be able to choose one of three possible skill cards. This allows you to build your characters in many different ways. My builds have been more offensive as I’m more of an offensive player. That’s one thing I like about the game as well. There are multiple ways you can build your characters based on the skills you choose.
Verdict
Overall, I’m very impressed with Gordian Quest already. It shows an immense amount of promise and it’s already quite addicting as well. It’s a game that is easy to get into as well. I’ll be keeping a close eye on this game throughout its development and even though it’s in Early Access, I gladly recommend giving it a shot. It’s a solid experience already and I have a feeling it’s only going to get better. I give the game a SAVE.
Bonus
If you’re interested in playing Gordian Quest you may be in luck! Ask JimDeadlock on our Discord server and he may have a free key for you, if you’re quick! Sorry, all gone!
