iOS, Android •
One of the early hits of 2018 has been Slothwerks‘ deck-building roguelike, Meteorfall. We certainly liked it in our review, and the forums here seem to appreciate it as well, to a point. There’s definitely a split on whether it’s too easy or if there’s enough content to warrant a comparison to everyone’s favorite deck-building roguelike, Dream Quest. Maybe not yet, but Slothwerks is on the case. I spoke with them yesterday about the upcoming update as well as any plans for the future.
The upcoming update to Meteorfall includes a new character named Mulford who happens to also be a Necromancer. Oh, sorry, a Necrodude. Sure, he uses the dark arts to raise the dead, but he also wears pajamas, has a rug that really ties the room together, and hates the Eagles. And, while he’s known for raising minions to do his bidding, that’s only one of his talents.
Let’s start with his summoning ability and how they work with the swiping mechanism of Meteorfall. Turns out your minions won’t be somehow standing between you and your opponent’s blows, instead you’ll drop your skellies straight into the bad guy’s deck. They will then cause damage when your opponent simply draws the card.
Necrodude also uses support cards like Bone Armor which add armor based on how many summoning cards you have in your deck. He also has attack cards like Bone Spear (yeah, I’m guessing the guys at Slothwerks are Diablo fans) which do direct damage based on how many minions Mulford has.
It’s not all about the minions, however. The Necrodude will also have a separate pool of cards that allow you to drain the stamina of your opponent and other cards that take advantage of having a stamina advantage. This play style will benefit from dumping the summoning cards from your hand and focusing solely on stamina and punching baddies in the face.
The Necrodude is going into testing in the next week or so, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg in regards to Slothwerks’ plans for Meteorfall’s future. Coming after Necrodude they will look at adding the ability to choose the three cards added to your starting deck each game as well as adding a Hard mode for those of you who are finding that the Lich is a pushover. Lastly, they’re already looking at another new character, some form of Hunter character. What that might entail is still a mystery, but at least we know that Slothwerks isn’t acting very sloth-like when it comes to keeping Meteorfall feeling fresh.
Very much looking forward to this, and very much not leaving that beta testing pool on Android.
Glad to hear about the Hard Mode. I like this game but six playthroughs in I have already beaten it with all four characters. Not a lot of bang for the buck.
Man, I suck at this game…
I’m not very good at this game for whatever reason, so maybe I haven’t plumbed the depths all that well, but I feel like each run is really same-y. Cards are predictable and even though my builds might differ slightly, I don’t get all that excited about any new cards found. The game is neat but after a few runs I get the same feeling I get from playing a dozen games of Dominion with just the recommended starter cards. Perhaps I need to shake the thought that the cards matter rather than how I use them matters, but the game certainly can’t be hurt by more content, in my opinion.
Skill at this obscure sub genre is probably just what I get in return for terribleness at Call of Duty or all known RTS games.
After playing Meteorfall, Slay the Spire, Guild of Dungeoneering and Monster Slayers - none of them are close to being as good as DreamQuest. The amount of content and variety in DQ is unbelievable.
I have now decided to stop comparing other games to it, it’s just not fair. DQ is the diamond standard.
That said, Meteorfall is fine - but the unlocking mechanics are pretty mediocre. I don’t even like half the unlocked cards and I want to delete them from my deck. I enjoy the game and feel like it is definitely worth the money.
I enjoyed the unlocked cards for Mischief and Bruno, but by the end of my Rose playthrough I had already deleted that one-charge spell that hurts you if it comes up empty. My style of play was just to spend every bit of money on blacksmith upgrades, but that wouldn’t really save that card since it just hurt you even more at higher levels.
It is true that more and more games are being compared to Dream Quest, but none of them ever seem to get over the bar. It’s also telling that a game that kinda flopped in initial release is still regularly in the top 100 for RPG and Card games on the App Store several years later. It may be one of mobile gaming’s first real cult classics, a la Office Space or Firefly.