Playing cards in person hasn’t been an easy task the last year and more and more games have turned to digital deck-building type games to give people that fulfill that need to build awesome decks. Roguebook takes place in the fantasy world of Faeria. You must build a team of two heroes and battle the legends of the Roguebook in tactical turn-based combat.
The Roguebook is a cursed book whose existence threatens all living beings. Roguebook, developed by Abrakam Entertainment and co-designed by Richard Garfield, creator of Magic: The GatheringTM, is now available on Steam. So we had a chance to preview the game and give it a spin in advance of the launch. Check out the launch trailer and our thoughts below.
Review
So let’s talk about Roguebook. In this turn-based combat setup, you explore a map gathering ink and brushes to reveal as much of the map as possible before you run out of steam, characters or lives. As you go along you can spend the money you find or earn from fights to buy cards to improve your decks’ attack and defense, along with building out combos that can take down some big enemies fast. Your team will consist of two heroes, with four in all to choose from. Each character has their own special set of cards and abilities so plan carefully as you build out your deck.
You can also add gems to any of your cards in your deck as you find them. These gems can boost a card’s ability or eventually transmute and transform your card into something else entirely. There is no limit to the number of cards you can build out in your deck and there is no real benefit to keeping your deck tight and balanced as you see in Magic or other games. In that respect, it can be a bit more frustrating but also freeing as you can then build combos and effects you never thought possible.
The one area that caught me off guard is when I did my first run and ran out of ink to reveal more spaces and wasn’t strong enough to fight the final boss. I basically had to end my run and start over. At first, I thought I missed something but I didn’t. Each chapter in Roguebook is told in a non-linear way. And it doesn’t matter how many runs it takes you to complete it, you just keep going until you have built out your deck and characters enough to pass and go to the next level. (Took me 3 runs).
All in all it’s fun and quick to pick up. The endless amount of cards you can grow makes me feel like I could continue to play without getting bored too easily.
Roguebook is now available on Steam
The game will arrive later on PlayStation®4, PlayStation®5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and Nintendo SwitchTM
