Hadean Tactics released in early access on the 25th of February and is available for €14.99/$17.99 on Steam. It is a roguelike deckbuilder and auto-battler.
On your way to defeat the Six Wings of Hell, you’ll meet plenty of different enemies, as well as fighters to acquire and new cards and relics to get. There are also a bunch of events, a shop, and a camp to rest at or level up one of your cards.
“Inquisitor” is the name of your Hero. This is your strongest fighter and he can’t be swapped out. Every circle, you’ll be able to level him up and chose one of three upgrades for him each with different skills, abilities, and stats. At the time of this writing, you win the run after beating the third circle’s boss.
Every Circle is a new map with different routes similar to Slay the Spire, Monster Train, and other games of the deckbuilder genre.
You start with your Hero and two Undead units. The reward for winning a normal battle is gold and a new card (which you can skip and get10 gold for it). If you win an elite battle, you also get a new relic. Relics will give you bonuses such as “Draw a card when an enemy dies” or “The cost of the first card of your starting hand gets reduced by 1”. Because of that, they can be game-changing.
The maximum level of units at the moment is level three. Your party also consists of three fighters. After beating a circle, you’ll get a special relic giving you +1 slot in your party, +1 energy per turn, or drawing +1 card every turn. Energy is used to play cards. Each turn you start with three energy.
In the shop, you can buy cards, relics, or fighters, or remove cards for gold but there are also events letting you do all that.
The Battles
Your turn starts with a hand of cards to play. If you end your turn, the battle starts. This is an auto-battler, which means you can’t directly control units. Every 7 seconds, the game will pause, letting you draw new cards. After your turn, the battle goes on.
If all of your units die in a battle, the run is over. Every run gives you EXP. After every new level, you unlock a new card, relic, or fighter, ready to be found in the next run.
At the moment, there are buffs and debuffs like shield, silence, endurance, might, and a few more. Experienced players of the genre will know most of them but they are also well-explained in the game, so don’t be afraid if you’re new to the genre.
Balance
Right now, the balance is a bit off. Some buffs or debuffs feel like they aren’t worth it. Some strategies are more promising and work against almost all enemies. For example, I just buffed my units with shields and held out long enough to build up a lot of them. One of my units also supported them with healing and protection. This way, I worked my way easily to the third circle. Shortly before the last boss, I encountered the first enemy whose skill was to destroy shields. At that point, my tactic wasn’t that helpful anymore but luckily building up my shields was way faster.
Nevertheless, the game is hard enough right now. Getting that strategy to work took me a few tries, and not a few hours, and I would consider myself a more experienced player in the genre. Also, I have to admit that I was a bit lucky by getting exactly what I needed.
Content
The game needs more content. One Hero is just not enough and fighters, as well as enemies, also need more variety. There are a few different types of cards (spells, tactics, etc.), but it mostly comes out the same. Although there is one card letting you push a unit all over the battlefield in one direction. This in turn opens up new strategies, and the game needs more of that instead of giving X of Y and doing X damage.
But this is Early Access, and looking at the roadmap, the developers promise a lot to be added down the line (3 new heroes and over 400 cards, 100 relics, 40 fighters, and 40 enemies in total). I played the game last year when it was in alpha and they delivered what they promised then.
Conclusion
Hadean Tactics already offers a solid base to become one of the best games of its genre. It delivers the same feeling of addiction that most successful deckbuilders do. If they add more content and balance it out a bit more, this won’t be a hidden gem anymore. Definitely check it out!
Credits
| Author | Curtis Pyke |
| YouTuber | TimeToGrind |
| Program | Freedom! Scholarship |
| Publisher | MGN TV |
| Game | Hadean Tactics |