Game of The Year – Vacation Edition

Gaming has been fun – but busy year end business meetings and holiday cheer, coupled with a new acquisition, coupled with year end business meetings and holiday cheer for the new acquisition, leading into a family vacation – there has been little time to write. Time zones, airports, hotels. Gaming has been great for me as down time during all of this – and while I have a good enough laptop to game I have mostly been sticking to bite-sized gaming.

The many paths to the top of the spire

I have started my Year In Review drafts and was going to wait until those were done to release my game of the year – but then I saw Zubon beat me to the punch not just by doing a Game of the Year post but by picking the same one I had planned to.  And while I have only blogged about it once back last February, and a small mention again in April, Steam is quick to remind me that I am pushing the 100 hour mark. That’s pretty impressive for my gaming time on an early release game.

The Defect has some really fun and interesting mechanics that really make you think a few cards ahead

And full disclosure, I only bought it because Zubon recommended it in the first place. So thanks Z.

It’s a PVE card game Rogue-like. There are three classes that play completely different, all of them having their own quirks and card sets. The art is great and there are so many different ways to play and enhance your character – through cards, relics, card upgrades, potions, (etc.) that every run is very different. And there are glorious moments where you get the right card and relic combinations that things just go incredibly. The sense of accomplishment when that happens (which is a mixture of good planning, some strategy, and a healthy dose of luck) the game becomes exhilarating.

The ending… or is it?

The piece that was always missing from this game was an end goal. I mean, you get to the end, damage the “heart”, see how much damage the rest of the world has done to it and then get to start all over again. But I hadn’t played in a while and this time when I beat it with “The Silent”  character something new popped up at the end, an uncolored rune became colored. Again when I won with “The Defect”. Now I just have to beat it with the character I enjoy the least (but is still fun).

A new puzzle to unlock

With that, I have been playing furiously. I have reached the end three different times with three different strategies (a Block based deck, a Strength based deck, an HP loss based deck) but have fallen short each time on the last boss. I love gaming like this when there is a clear objective, and it is easy to focus on round after round. The last, great piece about this game is that there is a “daily” challenge mode where the base rules get thrown out the window and all sort of random modifiers are added in, making it a really fun and crazy shot to play daily.

I am still doing my Year In Review posts, but no reason to wait for those. Go try this game – it’s a gem.

5 comments / Add your comment below

  1. I don’t see in this post where you actually mentioned the name of the game in question, but I assume it’s Slay the Spire because I know Zubon has posted numerous times about it (I was also too lazy to follow your links).

    I have no idea what to pick for my game of the year. I was hoping it would have been Fallout 76, but it’s a mess and I’m not sure I can do so. I’ve played numerous games to completion over the course of the year, but most of them didn’t release in 2018. I think maybe Battlerite Royale might be my pick, though I should probably pick something like MTG Arena for loyalty purposes. Eh… I might not pick one at all this year, and that’s something I haven’t done in years.

    1. Wow, hilarious whoops! Yes, it’s Slay the Spire. Just finished the third key and found out if you complete a run with all three fragments there is a new boss to experience… dammit.. thought I was done except the daily climb!

  2. Hehe it looks quite cool! That one picture totally brings me back, it reminds me of an older game I used to play when I was little 🙂 So, not much WoW, eh? :/

    Happy Holidays, Isey 🙂

    1. Happy holidays to you too! Not to rub it in, but on a beach on an island, enjoying an ice cold beer and a cigar. Life is good 🙂

      I know I will re-exlore wow at some point. But not sure when – BFV is awesome, and Anthem is not too far away.

      I always “finish” each WoW expansion, when is the tough part.

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