Deathless. Tales of Old Rus | Review

DEVELOPER: 1C Game Studios
PUBLISHER: 1С-777 Limited
PLATFORMS: PC
GENRE: Deckbuilding / Rougelite
RELEASE DATE: June 18, 2024
STARTING PRICE: 24,50 €
REVIEWED VERSION: PC

Deathless is a roguelike deck-building game set in the universe of the Tales of Old Rus, featuring Slavic heroes and monsters. It has been released in Early Access, meaning the game is still in development, with the developers planning to continue refining it until the end of the year. They aim to experiment with balance—such as card costs and effects—while the full version will introduce new heroes, opponents, card sets, and relics.

The current Early Access version features one heroine named Varvara the Fair, offering more than six hours of replayable content (the time it took me to unlock all the cards and finish the story), along with quests, numerous cards, relics, and consumables. What sets this game apart from others in the genre? Primarily, it boasts smooth and charming graphics, including well-designed characters, enemies, cards, backgrounds, and a simple UI. The art style is well thought out, pleasing to the eye with its colorful 2D art, making for an aesthetically enjoyable experience.

Moreover, the game is less punishing compared to others in the genre, allowing for steady progress with some intriguing card concepts. However, certain aspects are not as balanced as they should be. More on that will be discussed further.

Gameplay

Gameplay involves typical deck-building roguelite mechanics with a slight twist. Each time, you choose from three paths, each offering different rewards such as new cards, relics, healing, or merchant shops, all with various bonuses and modifiers. These can be either beneficial or detrimental, requiring you to adjust and select the path that best suits your current needs. It’s crucial to pick items that synergize well to progress to the later stages of the game.

As with most games in this genre, starting with good cards is essential to defeating the final boss. You will face three bosses in total; however, the first two are relatively easy to beat. Strangely, after the second boss, the game’s difficulty increases dramatically – the difficulty scaling seems inconsistent. Don’t get me wrong, the game is quite challenging, with increasingly numerous and troublesome enemies that are equipped with various buffs and debuffs. Some of them are more annoying than the other. Despite this, it sometimes feels out of place, as you progress quickly only to realize later that you needed better cards to defeat the final boss.

My biggest objection to the game is the starting modifiers. It feels like the enemies always get the best ones. Why do they need three times more Vigor, enabling them to deal massive damage? Why do they need healing effects when there are already five of them on the map? These modifiers sometimes seem ridiculous, making the game unnecessarily harder. There are some battles you'll never be able to win; there is a restart option, but sometimes it's better to just give up. Since you play alone, drawing the right cards becomes extremely important, and this doesn’t always happen. Also, you will mostly focus on acquiring relics and new cards. Healing or getting more gold isn’t as beneficial because the rewards are simply not good enough.

The cards themselves are not very complex. They are quite simple, consisting of attack, defense, and movement cards, leaving you wanting more variety. There are also universal cards that you can draw, buy, or unlock, similar to other cards. However, the game often becomes repetitive as you find yourself picking the same cards that you know are good enough. Additionally, you don’t earn much gold. The merchant shop doesn’t always offer the best options, and deleting a card costs 100 gold, which is weird. The biggest issue is that the starting deck is always the same—you always get the same five weak attack cards and four armor ones, and they usually stay in your deck until the end. Although there are relics that can remove these cards, it’s generally better to get different ones. You simply do not have enough options to affect your deck.

I also noticed that acquiring as many relics as possible is crucial. You obtain these by choosing certain paths, and they can significantly impact your progress—some are incredibly strong, while others can be quite bad. The best relic allows you to draw one of three universal cards randomly, which are generally much better than your normal cards. Despite this, the aspect of exploring the game is quite enjoyable. The card effects themselves are interesting, adding variety to the game. Keep in mind that this is still in Early Access, so we can expect more content in the future. At this point, there isn’t much variety in the decks; you don’t have magic or other useful card modifiers, but I still enjoyed what the game was offering.

It’s interesting how the developers have incorporated Slavic folklore. You encounter various creatures like khuds, yaga, rusalkas, and more, each unique and distinct. Each creature has specific attack animations and skills, allowing you to learn their patterns and anticipate their moves. For example, witches can turn dead enemies into cocoons, from which different creatures emerge to fight again. In conclusion, the enemies are quite intriguing, although the game can become repetitive after a while, and fighting three massive enemies in a row can feel monotonous over time.

What could be better?

The game does indeed need some Quality of Life improvements. For instance, it would be helpful to hide and preview cards when picking or replacing them during battles to see how they will affect gameplay. Additionally, the merchant shops need significant improvements, such as offering better items and more gold, to make visiting them more interesting and viable. Introducing a new hero soon would also enhance replayability.

I would love the ability to change the starting deck and have more ways to upgrade our cards. Currently, you can only upgrade cards once, and some upgrades are not very beneficial. The game needs better balancing and difficulty scaling. It should become more challenging after the first boss, but often it doesn’t. The animation style is good, but the attack patterns can be inconsistent, sometimes it resets you to the full screen and then it repeats the pattern quickly.

The story, or hero quest, was rather dull. Honestly, I didn’t find the text engaging or the story intriguing; I was more interested in the card-building mechanics. On that front, the game performs well. The gameplay is not slow or boring, with around six hours of content to explore. The more you play, the more you unlock, adding depth beyond simple deck-building. The game’s fast progression ensures it doesn’t waste your time, keeping you engaged without unnecessary delays.

To conclude, is this game worth it? Definitely. I’m intrigued to see how it progresses throughout the year. The gameplay is fun, the art style is excellent, and most importantly, the deck-building mechanics work well with the roguelike twist. You won’t regret spending six hours playing the game. If you’ve played Tamarak Trail or Slay the Spire, Deathless should definitely be in your library—it’s affordable and not overly repetitive.