Genre blending is a trick as old as games themselves, but it’s one that never gets old. Taking the most engaging parts of certain games and blending them into a chimera of fun is a challenge, and one that Counterplay Games has risen to with ease with their strategy card game Duelyst. Unlike any card game on the market, Duelyst brought a unique brand of fast paced, tactical, turn based combat to the masses when it went into open beta in October. In my experience with it, I can’t say I’ve played a game with such clear design intent in a while.
This shouldn’t be that surprising, considering the pedigree of the lead personalities of Counterplay. Team Lead Keith Lee spent many years working for Blizzard on World of Warcraft and Diablo III, and with SCEA/Insomniac for years before that doing work on Ratchet and Clank games and Resistance: Fall of Man. Emil Anticevic, Tech Lead on the project, makes his career building and shipping web and mobile apps for enterprise and consumers, including working with Riot for their LoL Connect client. The visual direction is spearheaded by Glauber Kotaki, a veteran 2D game artist who was the brain behind Rogue Legacy’s unique look.
Speaking of unique looks, there really is nothing on the market that looks quite like Duelyst. 2D, retro reminiscent sprites are where the commonalities between this and other indie games with similar motif end. There is a vibrancy to Duelyst – a shiny, neon glow that warms every stage. Colors feel evocative of faction mentalities, not just codes and denotations. The purples of the Abyssian produce a dark and sinister vibe, while the reds and browns of the Songhai scream primal nobility. The units are all well animated, too. Some stand stoically, while more agile ones twitch and fidget with their weapons from time to time. A nice touch that you don’t always see.
To play it can be overwhelming, at first. Constructing a deck involves picking units and spells from a selection of around 300 to make a deck of 40 cards. Each player has a faction leader that starts out deployed on a grid. Other units can be summoned onto the same grid but in proximity to other friendly units. Be it moving or attacking, each unit has a specific range that is clearly denoted by glowing spaces, a la every Tactical RPG in the past few decades. The object is to use these units in conjunction with spells to kill the opponent’s leader. Leaders aren’t entirely helpless – they can attack like everyone else, and can be upgraded with equipment and spells. But their 25 life points are the most finite and valuable thing on the board, and it can become very daunting to figure out the best deck to make in order to defend them.
Of course, making a good deck is only half the battle. Having a tactical sense and good positional awareness are key skills to have that, if you’re anything like me, will throw you off for the first dozen or so of your outings. Much of it is just learning what things do (and how they work together) the hard way, but there is a purity and power in the simplicity of a lot of it. Ranged characters can hit everything on the board, no matter how far they are from the source of the attack. Flying characters can move to any space on the board. Creatures with provoke will force everyone in melee range to only attack it and stop them from moving out of range. These seem almost overpowered on paper, but when any given deck can have three copies of minions with these traits, the perceived imbalance becomes its own sort of balance. That, and having a creature on the board is only the beginning – you have to now be able to move and attack with it deftly to get the full effect. That’s where the game leaves Hearthstone and enters a new layer of strategy. That’s where this game got its hooks into me.
There are other small quirks that really make the strategy element a bit more intense than other games. Each unit can move and attack, but only if they do so in that order. Attacking ends a unit’s action, so you have to make sure you’ve put your unit in a good spot before you let it attack something, or it’s stuck there. In melee range, when a unit attacks another unit, the defender can also attack back. So if your minion with 4 attack and 3 health is swinging at an enemy with 3 attack and 4 health, you will both die in that encounter. This is where some of the most important decision making hides. Every minion is always at risk, even when they are the aggressor, so you are always on your toes. I love that about this game.
There is an in-game currency that you earn by playing matches and completing daily challenges like winning a certain amount of games with a specific faction. These points come fairly quickly when playing casually, and you find yourself unlocking 5 card packs with high rarity cards in it relatively easier than some other digital card games. This could be a beta thing, or a maybe it’s just the Duelyst mantra. With new cards being added monthly, and tweaks and rebalances happening constantly, the game is slowly twisting itself into a standout member of my go-to list. If only it were on mobile.
If you are looking for an alternative to Hearthstone, HEX, or SolForge, take a trip over to Duelyst’s website and jump into the beta. While you play, be sure to check out the Official Duelyst Wiki for the latest updates and card info. If you already play, tweet about it to us @CurseGamepedia.