5 Deckbuilder Demos You Should Check Out
If you are looking for a new card game or deckbuilder to try out, here are 5 games that have demos to try out before buying
Games are abundant, and as many are beginning to hurt your wallet more and more, demos take care of two issues at once. They let you try out a game to see if you even like it, for free!
So, here is the first episode of Demo Dialog, a series where each month, I bring you five demos to try out. This month’s theme will be: card games. So, without further ado, let’s jump into my five picks for January.
Arcane Eats
Combining deckbuilders and cooking creates Arcane Eats. A fantasy-inspired card game that has you becoming a chef to feed humans and monsters alike. Manning a sit-down restaurant, use your deck of cards as ingredients to feed your hungry customers.
The game’s main mechanic revolves around the food. You have three stoves in front of you and a handful of cards that act as food, seasonings, and different types of buffs. Each food card will take a certain amount of energy to place and show how many turns it will take to cook. This turns into a balancing act later on in the game. Stacking food cards will increase the amount of hunger the dish will satisfy.
In between days in your restaurant, you are free to roam the city to buy new ingredients, take on challenges, or get new cooking tools.
Customers will come and sit, they will have a timer to show how many turns they will wait before getting angry. If they have a requirement like wanting their dish to be spicy, that will be noted by their head. Your only goal is to feed your customers and make them happy.
In the demo, you get to play through one in-game week and face the first boss. This is a pretty good amount of time with the game and the way it’s set up, it’s still worth it to play the demo a few times.
That was Arcane Eats.
Lunchbreak Tactics
Next up is another wacky one. Taking place in the back room after your supermarket shift, Lunchbreak Tactics is a card game that has you picking a hero and two card packs to go head-to-head in multiround battles.
Start off by choosing a hero; each one will have a unique effect. Some will buff cards when buying an item, others will draw a free unit each shop phase. Next, pick two packs of cards. Each pack will have a dedicated play style, like spawning new units after death or buffing ally cards.
The shop phase gives you $10 to work with; each card will have a specific cost, or you can reroll if you don’t like any of them. Buy up to five cards to fight to the death in the autobattle match. If your cards are feeling a tad weak, you can equip or use item cards. Some can be placed on your unit; this can be the health orb that gives +1 health to a unit after each shop phase, the hat creates a 1/1 minion after the main unit dies. Other items are a one time use like adding health and strength to cards or giving exp. These can blend well with specific synergies, so if you have a good item but can’t afford it, freeze it to buy it in the next shop phase.
That was Lunchbreak Tactics
StarVaders
Moving away from the more traditional card games, I present StarVaders! Pick a pilot and man a mech, your cards are your moveset. Each pilot has a specific mech that will specialize in a certain playstyle. That can mean you can play far away with projectiles or up close and personal.
A grid-based battlefield has you on one end, and what feels like an endless line of enemies falling from the skies. If they spend a turn invading your last line of defense, you will start to take damage. Balance the combination of using cards to destroy enemies, while making sure you don’t overheat. Each card you play increases the heat. You can overheat your mech this round, but how will that affect you in the next?
You can level up your deck by buying new cards, so customize it to match your playstyle. Certain cards can create enemy-annihilating combos. If something doesn’t go away, try rewinding, if you don’t win this round, start another. The roguelike setup of the game makes it easy to go for a few runs because the deck shuffling makes it different each attempt.
That was StarVaders
Inscryption
Coming back to a more traditional card game with Inscryption, wake up trapped in a cabin shrouded in darkness. You are forced to play cards against your capture as you descend into madness or whatever else would make your cards start talking to you. The theme of physiological horror is perfect for this unnerving roguelike that has you solving escape-room-type puzzles.
Collect cute cards of woodland creatures, battle for your life in a game of cards, all while embarking on a journey through the darkness. The disturbing atmosphere mixes into a hauntingly beautiful game with haunting lore to discover. Discover all your cards, see what’s waiting behind the cabin walls, and hold your breath until you escape.
That was Inscryption
Death Howl
Wrapping up the episode is the most recent release: Death Howl. Leaning more towards the StarVader template of using your cards to control your character on a grid, each stage has you working to defy death. Customize your deck using the 160+ cards, utilize totems, and use the grid to your advantage.
A hell spawn of a deckbuilder, roguelike, and soulslike, Death Howl has a fresh take on the genres. Giving the game a beautiful pixel art style and weaving in Scandinavian folklore.
So, can you bring your son back from the dead? Dive into the four realms of the spirit world, search through 13 unique regions to destroy over 30 types of enemies.
That was Death Howl
That was January’s demo selection. Please let me know if you try any of these out or if you have demos you would like me to cover in a future episode!