Bringing together multiple game types can sometimes lead to confusing gameplay, but when properly blended you get something unique and interesting. Mixed Realms is a development studio that has done well blending together card-based strategy, choice-based adventure, and the classic dungeons and dragons gameplay styles in their newest title to hit Steam Early Access, Gordian Quest.
Gameplay
You start off by picking your hero from a list of six different types. Each hero will have their own style which means that no two characters hold the same deck of cards to battle with. Just as you would with an RPG, or D&D game, be sure to choose the class that best suits your play style. Don’t worry, this will just be your main. Your fight won’t be alone for long!
After a quick tutorial fight where you fight alongside a friendly NPC, you are taken to the town map. Here you can click on the various available locations and get to know the townspeople a bit better. At first, you just have your healer at the church which also sells potions and similar goods, the guard captain which is where you can find other fighters to team up with you and edit your team, and the main guy in the center who gives you your first quest. Of course, there is a giant exclamation point where you need to go, so it isn’t hard to figure out, and if you don’t see the exclamation point then just leave the town, or burrow, and check the world map for your next location.
The fights are basically like card games, but you actually see it played out. You get attack and guard cards to use with only X amount of AP per turn. The card will show you how much AP it will cost you to use and this is the base of your strategy. While you need to do damage to your opponent, you also need to live for another turn so be sure to utilize guard cards to build up how much damage you can take before your health is actually affected.
Some cards aren’t direct like those and can be considered trigger cards. These get used when you complete the action that triggers the card, but I did notice that it doesn’t always happen unless you select the trigger card and then the card you want to use that should trigger it. This may be a glitch or it may be intended, I am honestly not sure - it is early access after all. Other than trigger cards, you also have to watch out for affects some cards have on others. While I never saw a card that would harm the player to use, I did see half my hand lit on fire and when I used a lit card I took damage.
One of the aspects I wasn’t expected was the part that makes this game utilize both choice-based adventure and D&D mechanics, and that is the movement segments. When you are going from quest to quest, moving about the map can sometimes have you run into events. These events will tell you what is going on, then give you a decision to make where each choice shows you the probability of success per hero in the party, and once you decide what to do you roll a 20-sided die to decide the success or fail. I really liked this aspect because it made it so that what you want to do might not be what happens, adding an “is it worth going for?” kind of moment for the player.
Expectations
The early access demo doesn’t seem to have a saving system and when you die the trial simply ends, returning to the main menu. I would love to see the adventure aspects continue with this game by making the save system connected to the in-game actions, like resting at the Inn being a save point or perhaps the heroes find a campsite they can rest at for the night while out on the adventure to save without forcing you back to the burrow.
Shops need a wider variety to them or more heroes should be able to wear the same equipment. Too often I saw the shops only having the same stuff for one hero type and practically nothing for the rest. A better balance for players to properly utilize the team-building aspect should be implemented.
It seemed like there were times that the cards in my hand were being replaced each turn. I would prefer to see a set up where I can keep the cards in my hand and make it more like drawing from a deck. This would make the card-based fighting feel more strategic and less luck-based. It was disappointing to plan a two or three turn strategy just to find one of the cards I wanted to use that next turn was removed from my hand.
Conclusion
Gordian Quest has an entertaining start that shows this game has promise. The gameplay blend goes together quite well, but there are aspects the developers could utilize better. With this version of the game only being step one of what they have to offer, I am excited to see what a completed section of the game will be like!
