There are plenty of Roguelike deck builders on the market now for fans of the genre to deal themselves into, and a lot of the best of the bunch started in early access. For Roguelikes in general early access has always been a great way to flesh out a game with some extra depth, and following in the footsteps of a success story like Slay the Spire just seems like a sensible idea. I really hope that As We Descend taking this path enables it to become the next big deck builder, because even at the start of its early access life it feels like it could be a smash hit.
Humanity is on its last legs in As We Descend, with only one remaining city standing between it and total extinction. If that isn’t enough for you to deal with then don’t worry, because this weird steampunk medieval settlement also features a healthy dose of political corruption to navigate too. For some reason you are tasked with single handedly defending the city and fighting the monsters that are hellbent on destroying our species, so you’d better get to it. There’s a healthy dose of narrative in this card game, which is absolutely fine since the writing is pretty darn good.
There are two sides to this deck building game, and both of them involve cards. The first you’ll be exposed to is the city side, which serves as your base. In each chunk of As We Descend you’ll start with a hand of scout cards you can use to interact with the citizens of the city, alongside some cards you can use to go out into the wilds and explore. You’ll get all sorts of helpful rewards like access to a shop and upgrades by using these starting cards (as well as more cards you can find by exploring outside of the base) although sometimes you’ll have to pass stat checks by rolling a dice and adding a unit’s charisma or intelligence. It’s a different take on the structure of a deck building game, and it certainly more interesting than picking a branching path to bolster your squad.
You’ll also have units to use when you’re off fighting nightmare creatures outside of the walls of the last city, and each of these has a selection of cards that you’ll use to effectively survive battles. On the battlefield itself your units can attack and defend in a Slay the Spire style that you’ll likely be familiar with, but they can also move between columns of the battlefield which provide different benefits and can even be swapped between dodge enemy attacks outright. This adds more strategy to the proceedings, and makes combat even more engaging.
There are plenty of other nuances to battling desert spiders and other nasties too. Like the fact you can recycle cards to redraw new ones, or stagger the enemy to stop them attacking and reveal their weak spots. Each unit can also be built around a different mechanic too, like building up permanent defence over the course of a battle or dealing more damage by switching between columns. There are already plenty of units to master in the early access version of As We Descend, as well as permanent additions to unlock for future runs.
There’s a big branching unlock web to explore between attempts at saving humanity in As We Descend, which you’ll be able to activate by completing various objectives. This gives you something to work towards alongside the general goal of survival, and it always feels good to gain access to something new. The second major starting class especially changes the game drastically, and there’s a third promised that I can’t wait to unlock in the future.
In its current form As We Descend feels like a complete game, which you can play to completion as many times as you desire. It’s one of those delightful cases of a game not quite needing to be in early access, but one where you know it will only become more impressive as it uses feedback and extra development time to grow even further.
I was seriously impressed during my time with As We Descend, but I must admit it has one rather significant issue in its early access state. When you start the game you have practically nothing explained to you about how key systems in both combat and city life work, and are just sort of left to fend for yourself. Hopefully one of the things improved in As We Descend during this extended development period is the onboarding, as it’s not the best start to an otherwise delightful card based game.
As We Descend is a wonderful Roguelike deck builder even in its current form, but with many more months of polish and added content it could transform into a genre topping sensation. It’s well worth jumping in now if you like the sound of this apocalyptic card game, and hopefully sometimes next year we’ll be talking even more about this engaging addition to one of my favourite genres.
As We Descend is in early access on PC via Steam now.
