Nightbanes [Game Review]
Developer: Diviad
Publisher: Headup Games
Copy supplied by publisher
Nightbanes is a digital collectible card game developed in the Unity engine by Diviad, a German independent studio, and published by Headup Games.
STORY
Set in an alternate modern horror universe, you control a vampire clan as you try to dominate all the others in an endless war. This is pretty much it: there is no dialogue whatsoever, and the PvE mode, which consists of "quests", features four "campaigns" in which you fight seven/eight opponents multiple times until you unlock the boss. After you defeat him, a new campaign unlocks. I'm not going to count the story, since it's basically non existent.
GRAPHICS
If you are a fan of Heartstone, prepare to be disappointed, because even though the game is developed using Unity there are little to no animations: you'll only see cards moving, maybe a fireball or two, but nothing more.
GAMEPLAY
The gameplay is quite different from Heartstone, and not necessarily in a good way: at the beginning of each fight, both sides are given five cards. You can put down only one card per round, which will go left. The Monster cards have blood points: a blood point is earned at the end of each round, and when the monster has all the points unlocked, he will attack the enemy in front of him at the end of each round. If there is no enemy, the monster will attack the opposite vampire lord, and the round is won if he gets killed before yours is. While this might sound interesting, the game gets really boring really fast. Most of the times (especially in the beginning), you can beat a round by using random cards. Success doesn't really depend on strategy, but by how lucky you are on getting more Monster cards rather than Ability cards or Upgrade cards. As with most games, playing against a human player is more challenging, especially if they know how to properly play the game.
This is for cards what Borderlands is for guns: there are over 500 cards to buy or unlock, each with different perks. This is a simple enough reason for buying this game if you are into cards.
CHALLENGE
As I've already said, the game is fairly easy to master, and most of the times you will be defeated because you didn't have enough monster cards rather than having an actual strategy.
SOUND
There is an endless loop of repetitive and extremely quiet music that plays in the background, both when fighting and when exploring the menus. The game also lacks in sound effects for the cards, with little variety. I found myself muting the entire game and putting more engaging songs in the background, and that really helped making the fights more interesting.
REPLAYABILITY
After a quest is completed, you can beat it again in two harder modes to unlock better cards. Other than that, there is PvP. There are also a total of 29 Steam achievements. So, there is not much to do.
In the end, only fans of card games will enjoy this game. To most gamers this will be a more boring and tedious experience, rather than an enjoyable game.
Story: n/a
Graphics: 5
Gameplay: 5
Challenge: 4
Sound: 3.5
Replayability: 5
ENJOYMENT: 5
FRUSTRATION: 6
