banger ost but gets boring a bit quickly
I was excited for a card based tower defense roguelike with this aesthetic. Everything points to this being cool, and there's enough personality in the game to avoid total derision. The gameplay is just so undercooked. The initial amount of towers you have is minuscule and the variants aren't plentiful enough and take way too long to unlock. There isn't the ability to manually place the towers, so the most excitement there is between rounds starts and ends with active abilities that, by their design, couldn't make up for the lack of mid-round strategy if they tried, and they really didn't.
Buena idea la de unir un Survivor con un tower defense, pero el resultado, aunque parece interesante al principio, es bastante sin más.
Fun enough Vampire Survivor-like. The aesthetics and presentation are on point, especially the music and the desktop interface, but the main gameplay loop isn't as satisfying or rewarding as Vampire Survivor was.
Beat it twice in two and a half hours while sleep deprived, mostly just listening to the music. Game itself is very easy and does nothing interesting or new but at least the vibes are on point.
Pretty addicting deck building tower defense with a neat aesthetic and cool soundtrack. Its difficulty is lacking and its extremely chessable, but to make up for that it has an endless mode with a leaderboard
unfortunately the best thing about this game is its presentation, but the gameplay feels very barebones
GOD I LOVE TOWER DEFENSE, ROGUELIKE ELEMENTS, AND SLAPPING OST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The aesthetic and the OST are INCREDIBLE the game isn't that difficult to 100% but it's so addictive, I had a great time playing this game and I recommend it
Another fun roguelite, 30 hours of playtime and i still wish there was more content
The game is OK overall. Looks complex at the beggening but actually its easy. The aesthetics is great (Graphics and music). The Desktop section of the game is very cool. I would like to see a more interesting story or more diverse gameplay
corporate approved tower defence
I bought this game the second day it came out, mostly because of its interesting aesthetic of a corporate hell where you play as someone tormenting sinners and keeping them in hell. But also because the style of gameplay reminded me a lot of Vampire Survivors while incorporating elements of card games and tower defense strategy games. I wasn't going in expecting gold, but for a game under ten dollars, I think it's a very pleasant roguelite experience and I'd do it all again.
I'm generally a fan of cutesy takes on really dark or sadomasochistic themes, but this doesn't quite deliver. Its music is very fitting and nostalgic for people who like stereotypical 'evil' sounding metal, mostly the realm of speed, thrash, some light touches of brutal death or black metal. Beyond the flavor of the different characters you unlock, and the towers you use, there's really not much else holding it together.
In breaks between sessions as you first start out, you get a number of strange mini-events in the form of new files and emails and states of your computer. It never quite goes anywhere. The only real things pushing you forward are the unlocks and achievements.
The actual process of playing the game is really addictive and a lot more thoughtful than you'd expect. You get a deck of mostly fodder, and have to craft the fodder together to get better cards in constant rotation. There's an economy of holding onto good cards and pushing for higher value upgrades for your towers which does take more brain cells, planning your builds a little bit on the fly, everything fun you'd expect out of a game like this.
As of the time of me writing this, I've 100%'d the game, including the exceedingly annoying and broken breakout minigame, which honestly felt like an insult that it was included. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless they're looking for a game to do something while experiencing executive dysfunction and watching a youtube video or something in the other window.
I'm generally a fan of cutesy takes on really dark or sadomasochistic themes, but this doesn't quite deliver. Its music is very fitting and nostalgic for people who like stereotypical 'evil' sounding metal, mostly the realm of speed, thrash, some light touches of brutal death or black metal. Beyond the flavor of the different characters you unlock, and the towers you use, there's really not much else holding it together.
In breaks between sessions as you first start out, you get a number of strange mini-events in the form of new files and emails and states of your computer. It never quite goes anywhere. The only real things pushing you forward are the unlocks and achievements.
The actual process of playing the game is really addictive and a lot more thoughtful than you'd expect. You get a deck of mostly fodder, and have to craft the fodder together to get better cards in constant rotation. There's an economy of holding onto good cards and pushing for higher value upgrades for your towers which does take more brain cells, planning your builds a little bit on the fly, everything fun you'd expect out of a game like this.
As of the time of me writing this, I've 100%'d the game, including the exceedingly annoying and broken breakout minigame, which honestly felt like an insult that it was included. I wouldn't really recommend it to anyone unless they're looking for a game to do something while experiencing executive dysfunction and watching a youtube video or something in the other window.
This review contains spoilers
Heretic's Fork is a deckbuilder tower defense that ultimately fails in both genres.
The artstyle is great, and the music is even better, but that is essentially where the fun ends.
Let's break down both genres and why they ultimately fail:
Deckbuilding.
When you think about great deckbuilders, games like Slay the Spire, Inscryption, or even online battlers like Hearthstone or Runeterra. Why do we play these games? Probably because you like making decisions on the fly, improving your deck, and trying new strategies.
Heretic's Fork offers none of this.
Before the round even begins, you are told to select your towers. This will define the rest of your run, they are your "class" so to speak. Since the enemy spawns are the same every single round with no variation, you select the towers you always select. There is no need to change it up, especially since experimenting in this game is often disappointing. Half the towers, especially garrison ones will lead to an instant loss.
So you choose your two towers. Great. Now your cards: Your cards will either buff your towers, or they won't. You play the cards that give you buffs, and you discard the rest. When being prompted to select new cards, you choose the ones that buff your towers, while you use the rest to make new cards. This is also not an interesting choice.
In most deckbuilders, you may get a card you usually wouldn't choose, but this time it might have a niche or interesting place in your deck. That doesn't happen here. You do the same thing every single run, and hope that your RNG is good so you get the cards you like but in higher rarity.
Ultimately, no matter what strategy you go for, they all play the same. You play the same 2-3 cards every other turn, sometimes you hope for a random upgrade, and hope that the cards you are spamming gives you enough buffs to win. Your win/loss is decided within the first 2-3 worlds, and after that there is not much you can do to pick yourself up.
Tower defense:
There are many great tower defense games out there. Another genre that usually have so much depth, but usually less randomness than a typical deckbuilder. Due to the less randomness in tower defense games, they often instead offer variety through having different maps or modes. Different enemy types that require you to use a combination of towers are common, and resource management is often something you constantly have to pay attention to.
Heretic's Fork once again offers none of this. There are essentially two enemies in the game. "Slow, heavy guy with lots of health" and "Fast dude with almost no health". There are some in-between, but they really do not matter for gameplay changes. This means that if your tower can deal good damage and quickly, you can't lose. You don't really have to think about utility, how to deal with specialty enemies, or even synergy. Essentially, as long as you can spam damage, speed and range upgrades, you're golden.
Things unique about Heretic's Fork:
In most games, whether it is Slay the Spire or a game like Bloons, you come to a point during your run where the gameplay shifts. You have the cards or towers you need, so now you need to focus on securing the win. This might be done through gathering relics in StS, or upgrading specific skilltrees in Bloons. What do you do when you have your setup in Heretic's Fork? Nothing. You have everything you need, so you keep playing the same 3 cards every single turn until the end of time. It's not fun, doesn't require much thought, and generally is a waste of time.
You finally won; now what?
In most roguelites, after you win, you can go back into the game knowing you will likely get a different experience. You can try a different build, a new map, or perhaps a different character. Heretic's Fork offers none of this. You have beat the game, now do it again, probably with the same strategy you just used. Even if you do try a new set of towers, it really doesn't play that different. You still see the same cards, and more than likely, the same cards you used to win your previous game will keep this new run going as well.
Meta Progression
Usually, unlocking new cards and classes is quite exciting in a game. Even this feels bad in Heretic's Fork. For example, if I unlock a card that says "+30% projectile size", why would I then also want to unlock the worse "+20% projectile size" card? This makes your card pool worse, and gives you a lower chance of giving you the cards you actually want.
The unlocks are also quite specific, and while it seems like they want to offer more strategies, they fail to do so in a way that is interesting or worth doing for the player. If I can have an entire deck with consistently good cards, vs a deck with a bunch of random (some good, some bad) cards, you would always choose the consistent deck. You get weaker the more you unlock, and not in a fun way where there's more challenge, you just get worse RNG and less control the more you play.
Other annoyances that made this game painful to play:
-The constant use and references to old and irrelevant memes is cringe at best.
-Every animation is so long and drawn out. When you unlock a card, they play this long animation where the back of the card "charges up", then flips to you to reveal it. This takes forever, and if you have money to unlock like 10 new cards, it's just painful.
-The whole computer system thing they're going for. It really adds nothing imo. Yeah yeah, funny hackerman is teasing you, and the computer program is actually real and you're punishing sinners for real (crazy), but it's all stuff we have seen before. It is like they played Pony Island and Hypnospace Outlaw and thought "I want this", without going deeper into WHY this works in other games.
-Every character except for one plays the exact same, and the one that is different does not make the game more fun. No matter who you play, you still go for the same strategy.
-The shop is frankly stupid. For half of your run, you cannot gain coins. You can only gain coins after the Greed realm. There are no choices you can take to earn more or less coins. The shop can only be opened when the game decides twice per run that it is shop time. What is in the shop is completely random. You have no control.
-The "shop" character loses the ability to combine cards. In return you can sell your cards for shits and giggles. It takes selling 6 green rarity cards to buy one blue card. Every other class can combine 2 greens for 1 blue. If you do not like the blue you got, you can combine two blues for a purple rarity card. This is great, but for the shop character you get stuck with nothing. You can spend 60 coins on a blue card only to sell it for 15. Are you kidding me? This is assuming you don't spend 50 gold re-rolling the incredibly small shop. This feature was not thought through at all. It is never worth using the shop character.
-No "speed up" feature. It allows you to do x2 speed. You cannot take any action during a wave. Not even look at the cards in your hand or in the locked position. Why not allow for faster waves? I don't see why x16 speed wouldn't be fine. Heck, even x100, why not.
Overall a very disappointing game with little to no gameplay variety, awful meta progression, extremelyt surface lvl tower defense gameplay, and little to no thinking required for a strategic roguelite deckbuilder.
The artstyle is great, and the music is even better, but that is essentially where the fun ends.
Let's break down both genres and why they ultimately fail:
Deckbuilding.
When you think about great deckbuilders, games like Slay the Spire, Inscryption, or even online battlers like Hearthstone or Runeterra. Why do we play these games? Probably because you like making decisions on the fly, improving your deck, and trying new strategies.
Heretic's Fork offers none of this.
Before the round even begins, you are told to select your towers. This will define the rest of your run, they are your "class" so to speak. Since the enemy spawns are the same every single round with no variation, you select the towers you always select. There is no need to change it up, especially since experimenting in this game is often disappointing. Half the towers, especially garrison ones will lead to an instant loss.
So you choose your two towers. Great. Now your cards: Your cards will either buff your towers, or they won't. You play the cards that give you buffs, and you discard the rest. When being prompted to select new cards, you choose the ones that buff your towers, while you use the rest to make new cards. This is also not an interesting choice.
In most deckbuilders, you may get a card you usually wouldn't choose, but this time it might have a niche or interesting place in your deck. That doesn't happen here. You do the same thing every single run, and hope that your RNG is good so you get the cards you like but in higher rarity.
Ultimately, no matter what strategy you go for, they all play the same. You play the same 2-3 cards every other turn, sometimes you hope for a random upgrade, and hope that the cards you are spamming gives you enough buffs to win. Your win/loss is decided within the first 2-3 worlds, and after that there is not much you can do to pick yourself up.
Tower defense:
There are many great tower defense games out there. Another genre that usually have so much depth, but usually less randomness than a typical deckbuilder. Due to the less randomness in tower defense games, they often instead offer variety through having different maps or modes. Different enemy types that require you to use a combination of towers are common, and resource management is often something you constantly have to pay attention to.
Heretic's Fork once again offers none of this. There are essentially two enemies in the game. "Slow, heavy guy with lots of health" and "Fast dude with almost no health". There are some in-between, but they really do not matter for gameplay changes. This means that if your tower can deal good damage and quickly, you can't lose. You don't really have to think about utility, how to deal with specialty enemies, or even synergy. Essentially, as long as you can spam damage, speed and range upgrades, you're golden.
Things unique about Heretic's Fork:
In most games, whether it is Slay the Spire or a game like Bloons, you come to a point during your run where the gameplay shifts. You have the cards or towers you need, so now you need to focus on securing the win. This might be done through gathering relics in StS, or upgrading specific skilltrees in Bloons. What do you do when you have your setup in Heretic's Fork? Nothing. You have everything you need, so you keep playing the same 3 cards every single turn until the end of time. It's not fun, doesn't require much thought, and generally is a waste of time.
You finally won; now what?
In most roguelites, after you win, you can go back into the game knowing you will likely get a different experience. You can try a different build, a new map, or perhaps a different character. Heretic's Fork offers none of this. You have beat the game, now do it again, probably with the same strategy you just used. Even if you do try a new set of towers, it really doesn't play that different. You still see the same cards, and more than likely, the same cards you used to win your previous game will keep this new run going as well.
Meta Progression
Usually, unlocking new cards and classes is quite exciting in a game. Even this feels bad in Heretic's Fork. For example, if I unlock a card that says "+30% projectile size", why would I then also want to unlock the worse "+20% projectile size" card? This makes your card pool worse, and gives you a lower chance of giving you the cards you actually want.
The unlocks are also quite specific, and while it seems like they want to offer more strategies, they fail to do so in a way that is interesting or worth doing for the player. If I can have an entire deck with consistently good cards, vs a deck with a bunch of random (some good, some bad) cards, you would always choose the consistent deck. You get weaker the more you unlock, and not in a fun way where there's more challenge, you just get worse RNG and less control the more you play.
Other annoyances that made this game painful to play:
-The constant use and references to old and irrelevant memes is cringe at best.
-Every animation is so long and drawn out. When you unlock a card, they play this long animation where the back of the card "charges up", then flips to you to reveal it. This takes forever, and if you have money to unlock like 10 new cards, it's just painful.
-The whole computer system thing they're going for. It really adds nothing imo. Yeah yeah, funny hackerman is teasing you, and the computer program is actually real and you're punishing sinners for real (crazy), but it's all stuff we have seen before. It is like they played Pony Island and Hypnospace Outlaw and thought "I want this", without going deeper into WHY this works in other games.
-Every character except for one plays the exact same, and the one that is different does not make the game more fun. No matter who you play, you still go for the same strategy.
-The shop is frankly stupid. For half of your run, you cannot gain coins. You can only gain coins after the Greed realm. There are no choices you can take to earn more or less coins. The shop can only be opened when the game decides twice per run that it is shop time. What is in the shop is completely random. You have no control.
-The "shop" character loses the ability to combine cards. In return you can sell your cards for shits and giggles. It takes selling 6 green rarity cards to buy one blue card. Every other class can combine 2 greens for 1 blue. If you do not like the blue you got, you can combine two blues for a purple rarity card. This is great, but for the shop character you get stuck with nothing. You can spend 60 coins on a blue card only to sell it for 15. Are you kidding me? This is assuming you don't spend 50 gold re-rolling the incredibly small shop. This feature was not thought through at all. It is never worth using the shop character.
-No "speed up" feature. It allows you to do x2 speed. You cannot take any action during a wave. Not even look at the cards in your hand or in the locked position. Why not allow for faster waves? I don't see why x16 speed wouldn't be fine. Heck, even x100, why not.
Overall a very disappointing game with little to no gameplay variety, awful meta progression, extremelyt surface lvl tower defense gameplay, and little to no thinking required for a strategic roguelite deckbuilder.