One Step From Eden is loads of mind-grabbing fun. Battles combine deckbuilding and action combat so intensely that it may initially feel like you're being asked to play Magic: The Gathering while ice skating, and also someone is shooting at you. If you get over that hump, however, you might find yourself more prepared and eager for another round.
Still, the difficulty curve makes getting acclimated a bit harrowing. It doesn't scale in the controlled, gradual way the Battle Network games that inspired it did--instead, most players will find themselves hitting a wall by the lategame unless they draft an absurdly strong combination of spells and artifacts on top of having a strong grasp of the enemies' patterns. (I'm sure there are some players who are simply so skilled they can beat the game without taking a hit, and to whom this isn't true. I am not one of those players.) This is entirely doable, and I don't think the game should de-emphasize the supremely satisfying card synergies, but I do have to wonder if there's an alternate universe with a version of this game that focuses more on your fundamental skills than on exponential power growth, and whether or not it's any better.
The lack of pausing and rapid pace took some adjusting, too, compared to my MMBN experience. I also found myself missing so many particular gimmick chips from Battle Network--all the variations on swords, land grabbing abilities, etc., that just don't exist in this game--and it makes me wish the character and card pool were twice as big to really take advantage of the potential a game like this has.
The particular ending I got the first time also felt rather anticlimactic--the boss changes depending on certain choices during your run, and the set of artifacts and spells I had inadvertently prevented me from making the choice I had intended, resulting in what is effectively the wet blanket ending, where it makes it feel like you haven't even won. The other endings don't have this effect and are pretty easy to avoid barring any mishaps like the one I had.
So it may not be perfect, but if those are my biggest complaints, and I still found myself craving run after run... what's the inverse of 'damned with faint praise'?
Still, the difficulty curve makes getting acclimated a bit harrowing. It doesn't scale in the controlled, gradual way the Battle Network games that inspired it did--instead, most players will find themselves hitting a wall by the lategame unless they draft an absurdly strong combination of spells and artifacts on top of having a strong grasp of the enemies' patterns. (I'm sure there are some players who are simply so skilled they can beat the game without taking a hit, and to whom this isn't true. I am not one of those players.) This is entirely doable, and I don't think the game should de-emphasize the supremely satisfying card synergies, but I do have to wonder if there's an alternate universe with a version of this game that focuses more on your fundamental skills than on exponential power growth, and whether or not it's any better.
The lack of pausing and rapid pace took some adjusting, too, compared to my MMBN experience. I also found myself missing so many particular gimmick chips from Battle Network--all the variations on swords, land grabbing abilities, etc., that just don't exist in this game--and it makes me wish the character and card pool were twice as big to really take advantage of the potential a game like this has.
The particular ending I got the first time also felt rather anticlimactic--the boss changes depending on certain choices during your run, and the set of artifacts and spells I had inadvertently prevented me from making the choice I had intended, resulting in what is effectively the wet blanket ending, where it makes it feel like you haven't even won. The other endings don't have this effect and are pretty easy to avoid barring any mishaps like the one I had.
So it may not be perfect, but if those are my biggest complaints, and I still found myself craving run after run... what's the inverse of 'damned with faint praise'?