Отзывы

• gamedeal user

  Mar 19, 2021

  Honestly I am giving this game a thumbs down. I think the underlying mechanics as a rogue-like deck builder aren't bad, but personally I get this feeling like the creators were more concerned with using the source material/themes as a 'costume' for the underlying game without taking any care to talk about or inform (if even a little) about the serious source materials they are pulling from and how people can actually deal with phobias/how phobias affect them. The term "window dressing" comes to mind honestly. Personally I felt that really comes through with some of the flavour of the cards not really matching mechanically with what they do in a game about mental health and phobias. - Why does the card "back-pain" cause 8 damage to the phobia in exchange for discarding a card? How does back pain help you overcome a phobia? - Why does the card "Tattoos" cause you to lose 15 sanity to cause 15 HP damage to the phobia? Like I get that mechanically 'Sanity' is our HP so it is like 'OK take physical damage to damage a phobia', but it just comes off odd imo. - Why does the card "Self-Blaming" cause you to gain 'Wrath', which makes you do more damage, in exchange for discarding your hand? Wouldn't the most common reaction to self-blaming be sadness or depression? Those are just some of the examples of what I mean by things not really matching up flavour/game mechanics wise and theme wise. Like to be fair to the creators a majority of the cards do match up theme and game mechanics/flavour quite well, but there are these examples all over the place which just seem odd, out of place, and honestly kinda pull me out of the game. If you don't care about that then w/e it won't affect you, but if you do I don't think you will be able to ignore it.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 20, 2021

  Disappointed in this one. About the only pro I've got is that I really dig the distinctive art style. The actual relationship to mental health seems to be almost limited to borrowing terms related to the field, in a manner that seems to almost make light or trivialize issues like dealing with phobias. I don't have the same (kind of purist, IMO) objections to the combination of both a "mana meter" and an action limit, and the mechanics in general seem okay, though not very novel. I think the gravest issue the game has is a pretty dire lack of content, particularly for it's price point. I think there's only about a dozen enemies, all told, and it seems very likely that you'll have repeats during the course of any given run. Card options for any given character seem really limited as well, even given unlocks, with only limited opportunities for true synergy. Not recommended in its current state; it feels like a relatively young early access title, not a complete game.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 2, 2021

  I bought this on a whim because I liked one of the publisher's other deckbuilder (Banners of Ruin) and thought this would be an interesting and provocative take on the genre. I was unfortunately wrong. The mechanics are fine, if a little opaque at first, and much like other deckbuilders the learning curve is a bit steep at the beginning. The problem comes with the theme - it feels disjointed. Cards and their effects have strange connections bordering on straight confusing. Sometimes the theme seems very pro-mental health, other times it almost seems mocking, or at best minimalizing. Fighting phobias is a cool concept until you get into practice and it becomes an absolute slog where you can see a win/loss from multiple turns out and have to suffer through. I really wish I could give a positive review, but nothing is calling me back to give this game another shot.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 19, 2021

  First of all, the game just got released so this is a review of the game in its earliest state. That being said, it oozes of potential right off the bat. Here are my thoughts on the good things and the bad: THE GOOD- Gameplay is fun and addicting. Another one of those "Easy to learn, difficult to master" kind of card game. The setting and gimmick is also unique, having you battle against your fears in an attempt to conquer them. There is also a fair amount of replayability here, with there being different events to partake in as well as different ways to build your deck and character. There is even a Trial Mode to play, which are like specific scenarios you have to figure out and solve to win. THE BAD- Now here's the bad. Firstly, the card abilities and game mechanics need to be explained a little better and could be improved. For example, if you're going to use the word Sanity to depict health then don't have cards that refer to that as Health or HP. It makes things a bit confusing. Stick with your keywords. Another minor improvement that should be made is allowing the player to see what cards are in their Discard Pile and Fade Pile. It allows the player to make better decisions when they know what cards have been used up and aren't in the deck currently. There's also a few UI issues, such as textboxes getting in the way of other text and no spacing between sentences when you are reading a characters memory. Overall though, definitely a game worth playing. The content might be a bit small currently but I'm sure as time goes on the devs will improve and expand upon the game. If you like games like Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, or Monster Train then this is a game for you.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 20, 2021

  For a game that deals with heavy psychological topics, this game smacks of not actually understanding psychology at all. It treats all phobias as if they can be "defeated" or "overcome" with comfort food and a cat, rather than actual counseling, and seems to be making light of its entire theme. I'd love to play more to talk about mechanics, but the theme is done so poorly that I have no interest in pursuing it.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 23, 2021

  In a really weird way, this game makes me feel...better? The goal is to defeat phobias with the use of positive coping mechanisms (your cards) that you start with, and then between rounds you can either strengthen your cards, discard old ones to bring way for new ones, or work on yourself by strengthening your stamina or mind. As someone with mental illness, it's therapeutic to see my little coping mechanisms fight the ugly phobias of the world
• gamedeal user

  May 1, 2021

  I'm an ignorant American, so I only speak English with any degree of facility. I'm neither proud nor ashamed of this fact. I'm getting along fine, all things considered. But I'm also a game designer. And if I were trying to sell a game with a narrative focus and fairly complex rules concepts in another country, I'd hire someone who speaks the country's language very well. Preferably a native speaker. Because when you don't do that and you're not an absolute master of languages, you end up with something incoherent. Translate your game properly so that I can judge it on its merits.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 20, 2021

  I get wanting to use phobias and mental illness in your games. I get wanting to then sell that game with that as the main selling point. However, when you do that, try to make it more than surface level at best. Pros from what little I played (I really wanted a refund super quick and that should tell you something): + Decent soundtrack, complimenting and enhancing the ominous feeling the game was going for. Doesn't get too loud to get in the way. + Phobia designs are incredible. They really look like physical manifestations of these phobias to one extent or another. They're also animated stunningly. + The (poor) attempt to explain the phobias to some extent, visually and with their attacks. + Overall atmosphere is mildly engaging if you're into the quiet, almost gentle horror vibe. Neutral Points: = Nearly every card you can use also damages you to some capacity, so you have to balance them with healing cards to keep yourself alive and you heal between each encounter. = The designs for the card art is rather simple in comparison to the interesting monster designs. They're very colorful, clearly in lieu to them supposedly being ways to treat your fears, but I personally found them a tad jarring in comparison to the dark atmosphere of the battles; along with too plain to make up for that. Not a dealbreaker but a noteworthy thing. = Very minimalist, which can be good or bad based on your preferences. Cons: - Based off the announcement made the same day as the release, it's clear they haven't put too much into the game already with the idea of putting more effort in later if the sales do well. However, this game was not put under the Early Access banner but it certainly FEELS like it is. Even with what little I played, I was wondering if I had somehow missed the banner in the store page. - Very surface level with its telling of phobias and how to face them. While it usually makes enough sense, it comes off as them wanting to cash in on fears and potential mental illness without putting the work in to make it come off well. - Very little there to start, with only one option and somewhat quick tutorial you can only see once (this part could be a mistake on my part so take it with a grain of salt). - I never felt engaged in what little I played and, based off other reviews, I probably wouldn't anyways if I put more time in. - Deck building is rather limited and the cons of most cards (the damage you deal to yourself) usually outways the positive by a decent margin. Unless you're stacked with healing cards early on, there's a chance you'll just be stuck losing regardless when a Phobia can heal itself. Overall, it's a very so-so deck building roguelite game. If you have any others in your library and aren't so tired of them that you'll never pick them up again, just play those ones again and you'll have more fun. If you are bored to death then perhaps you might get more entertainment from this game than I did. However, I personally can't recommend it from what I've seen in-game and out of it.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 20, 2021

  Time and again people think psyche/communication are a good enough theme to become a card game's USP. Time and again they are wrong. [i]Neurogame[/i] doesn't feel like an actual game, more like a student project. It's not jank, the basic systems are in place, they're just bad. The game lacks the simplest QoL features like calculating the damage you'll deal (for cards like "deal 5*number of items you've used this game") or showing maximum hand size. For some reason it always offers a choice between two same-level enemies to fight, but your travel path is linear, so no meaningful choices there. All enemies follow a patter of attacks, but you can't see what a non-active one does (even if it happened before). Some tooltips simply don't work. Many cards feel useless. You can't sort the deck by rarity. I suspect the unique premise this game was pitched under was "you explore a person's psyche, so you'll get perks by filling up psychological evaluation questionnaires." Sounds fun on paper — except the tests are so on the nose, it hurts. The extroverted/introverted one gives you the most stereotypical "super-sociable high-energy person" vs "shy loner" questions. If it can always ensure the trait I'll end up with (because the questions are so on the nose), it would have been much simpler to just let me pick directly. Worst of all though, the game doesn't understand the basic premise of a rogue-lite: every run, even failed ones, should reward the player somehow. Not here: while you do unlock new cards, they're not listed anywhere, and I'm not even sure I encountered them on subsequent runs. The only thing I liked are the animations. The enemies represent exotic phobias — the most uninspired thing you can fight in someone's psyche; but the visuals and animations are really nice, surreal, and well-done. I also chuckled at how the only single enemy in this game who is not a phobia is "Masculinity." All in all though, skip this one unless the developer does a full overhaul.
• gamedeal user

  Jun 21, 2021

  In addition to the lack of mechanical depth, the tips and card balancing make it clear that the developers don't have a clear understanding of how resource management tends to work in these sorts of games. After about 2-3 tries I cleared a run for the first time and my reaction was simply "that's it?" because I felt like I hadn't really... done anything. You can replay with increased difficulty modifiers, but it's still just not that interesting. After that clear I tried out one of the "trials" that are presented like puzzles, called "Gatling Hand." It's clear that the idea revolves around building up a bunch of damage buff stacks, then using a large number of attacks without spending actions on them. However, the majority of the cards in the deck don't actually progress you towards this goal; some consume all of your stamina in a deck that has no ability to regain any, some are attacks that consume two of your three actions per turn without doing much damage, some restore health in a fight where your max hp is equal to the amount the enemy hits you for. The vast majority of the times you load the fight up it's obvious from the opening hand that you just need to reset, and even when you draw one of the actually important cards, seems like it's one-in-a-million to actually continue drawing enough of the right cards to finish the fight. That disaster of a "challenge" made it pretty clear to me that the devs have no clue what they're doing, and I've requested a refund. It's just a shame that they can only return my money and not the hour I spent trying the game out.