Neurodeck : Psychological Deckbuilder Reviews

I wanted to like this game, I love deckbuilders and I'm a psychology lecturer. I didn't have any illusions that these topics could be covered very effectively in this form, but figured that there would be space to put across one or two interesting ideas. The game isn't really properly finished. There are only two characters and the second character's story is copy-pasted from the first character even in places that makes no sense at all. The gameplay is alright but overall lackluster. I wish they'd done better with this one.

I gave a very small indie deckbuilder a shot, and this turned out to be a fairly mediocre game overall. I can name plenty of other games in the same genre that aren't regular streaming fodder, and none of them disappoint me quite like this one. You will be fighting the exact same enemies over and over again, with concrete patterns, which makes them compelling threats once, and then either enemies you avoid or enemies you easily take out every other time you see them. If you're here for some quality writing, this game doesn't have that either. Nothing seems to be explained about the Neurodeck, nothing of narrative consequence happens about the Neurodeck, nobody explains why they keep sticking their minds into the magic trauma iPad repeatedly. No, the dialogue about dreams or binge drinking or whatever does not change depending on character or emotion, it's the same static message for a 20something and a grandma going to a massive rager. You want difficulty sliders? Here's the most toothless one imaginable. You want interesting card archetypes? There's maybe two you can make work, and battles are over too fast to shuffle your deck more than once. You want to fight your fears? Here's a fear of childbirth (which neither character, including a mom, remark on), and a fear of sharks (which just explains they watched Not Jaws as a kid), and a fear of gnomes, which gets zero exposition whatsoever, just like the fear of religion and the damned PLAGUE, which are final bosses with outright RNG elements you have zero say in, which from a narrative perspective is fair enough, but still not good game design for. Whoever the audience of this game is. It's clearly not for me, an avid fan of roguelikes, it's not for psych students, who will gain basically nothing from this, it's not for people trying to buy therapy for 3 dollars, because it's so shallow story-wise, it's not for beginner players, because it will definitely hit you with unavoidable no-win scenarios, and it's not for people looking for art in their games, because the package just has no connective tissue, and roguelikes aren't an easy medium for concrete, linear storytelling. I feel like I paid three dollars for the alpha build of an early access game.

This is actually pretty good, but it's super short. They have a great foundation for a cool adventure card game built around the human psyche, but in practice I've already beaten up to the hardest difficulty and unlocked everything there is to see at 14 hours of playtime. That being said, I enjoyed those 14 hours. I think this is well worth playing on a sale.

I get wanting to use phobias and mental illness in your games. I get wanting to then sell that game with that as the main selling point. However, when you do that, try to make it more than surface level at best. Pros from what little I played (I really wanted a refund super quick and that should tell you something): + Decent soundtrack, complimenting and enhancing the ominous feeling the game was going for. Doesn't get too loud to get in the way. + Phobia designs are incredible. They really look like physical manifestations of these phobias to one extent or another. They're also animated stunningly. + The (poor) attempt to explain the phobias to some extent, visually and with their attacks. + Overall atmosphere is mildly engaging if you're into the quiet, almost gentle horror vibe. Neutral Points: = Nearly every card you can use also damages you to some capacity, so you have to balance them with healing cards to keep yourself alive and you heal between each encounter. = The designs for the card art is rather simple in comparison to the interesting monster designs. They're very colorful, clearly in lieu to them supposedly being ways to treat your fears, but I personally found them a tad jarring in comparison to the dark atmosphere of the battles; along with too plain to make up for that. Not a dealbreaker but a noteworthy thing. = Very minimalist, which can be good or bad based on your preferences. Cons: - Based off the announcement made the same day as the release, it's clear they haven't put too much into the game already with the idea of putting more effort in later if the sales do well. However, this game was not put under the Early Access banner but it certainly FEELS like it is. Even with what little I played, I was wondering if I had somehow missed the banner in the store page. - Very surface level with its telling of phobias and how to face them. While it usually makes enough sense, it comes off as them wanting to cash in on fears and potential mental illness without putting the work in to make it come off well. - Very little there to start, with only one option and somewhat quick tutorial you can only see once (this part could be a mistake on my part so take it with a grain of salt). - I never felt engaged in what little I played and, based off other reviews, I probably wouldn't anyways if I put more time in. - Deck building is rather limited and the cons of most cards (the damage you deal to yourself) usually outways the positive by a decent margin. Unless you're stacked with healing cards early on, there's a chance you'll just be stuck losing regardless when a Phobia can heal itself. Overall, it's a very so-so deck building roguelite game. If you have any others in your library and aren't so tired of them that you'll never pick them up again, just play those ones again and you'll have more fun. If you are bored to death then perhaps you might get more entertainment from this game than I did. However, I personally can't recommend it from what I've seen in-game and out of it.

In a really weird way, this game makes me feel...better? The goal is to defeat phobias with the use of positive coping mechanisms (your cards) that you start with, and then between rounds you can either strengthen your cards, discard old ones to bring way for new ones, or work on yourself by strengthening your stamina or mind. As someone with mental illness, it's therapeutic to see my little coping mechanisms fight the ugly phobias of the world

In addition to the lack of mechanical depth, the tips and card balancing make it clear that the developers don't have a clear understanding of how resource management tends to work in these sorts of games. After about 2-3 tries I cleared a run for the first time and my reaction was simply "that's it?" because I felt like I hadn't really... done anything. You can replay with increased difficulty modifiers, but it's still just not that interesting. After that clear I tried out one of the "trials" that are presented like puzzles, called "Gatling Hand." It's clear that the idea revolves around building up a bunch of damage buff stacks, then using a large number of attacks without spending actions on them. However, the majority of the cards in the deck don't actually progress you towards this goal; some consume all of your stamina in a deck that has no ability to regain any, some are attacks that consume two of your three actions per turn without doing much damage, some restore health in a fight where your max hp is equal to the amount the enemy hits you for. The vast majority of the times you load the fight up it's obvious from the opening hand that you just need to reset, and even when you draw one of the actually important cards, seems like it's one-in-a-million to actually continue drawing enough of the right cards to finish the fight. That disaster of a "challenge" made it pretty clear to me that the devs have no clue what they're doing, and I've requested a refund. It's just a shame that they can only return my money and not the hour I spent trying the game out.

For a game that deals with heavy psychological topics, this game smacks of not actually understanding psychology at all. It treats all phobias as if they can be "defeated" or "overcome" with comfort food and a cat, rather than actual counseling, and seems to be making light of its entire theme. I'd love to play more to talk about mechanics, but the theme is done so poorly that I have no interest in pursuing it.

I bought this on a whim because I liked one of the publisher's other deckbuilder (Banners of Ruin) and thought this would be an interesting and provocative take on the genre. I was unfortunately wrong. The mechanics are fine, if a little opaque at first, and much like other deckbuilders the learning curve is a bit steep at the beginning. The problem comes with the theme - it feels disjointed. Cards and their effects have strange connections bordering on straight confusing. Sometimes the theme seems very pro-mental health, other times it almost seems mocking, or at best minimalizing. Fighting phobias is a cool concept until you get into practice and it becomes an absolute slog where you can see a win/loss from multiple turns out and have to suffer through. I really wish I could give a positive review, but nothing is calling me back to give this game another shot.

First of all, the game just got released so this is a review of the game in its earliest state. That being said, it oozes of potential right off the bat. Here are my thoughts on the good things and the bad: THE GOOD- Gameplay is fun and addicting. Another one of those "Easy to learn, difficult to master" kind of card game. The setting and gimmick is also unique, having you battle against your fears in an attempt to conquer them. There is also a fair amount of replayability here, with there being different events to partake in as well as different ways to build your deck and character. There is even a Trial Mode to play, which are like specific scenarios you have to figure out and solve to win. THE BAD- Now here's the bad. Firstly, the card abilities and game mechanics need to be explained a little better and could be improved. For example, if you're going to use the word Sanity to depict health then don't have cards that refer to that as Health or HP. It makes things a bit confusing. Stick with your keywords. Another minor improvement that should be made is allowing the player to see what cards are in their Discard Pile and Fade Pile. It allows the player to make better decisions when they know what cards have been used up and aren't in the deck currently. There's also a few UI issues, such as textboxes getting in the way of other text and no spacing between sentences when you are reading a characters memory. Overall though, definitely a game worth playing. The content might be a bit small currently but I'm sure as time goes on the devs will improve and expand upon the game. If you like games like Slay the Spire, Dicey Dungeons, or Monster Train then this is a game for you.

Disappointed in this one. About the only pro I've got is that I really dig the distinctive art style. The actual relationship to mental health seems to be almost limited to borrowing terms related to the field, in a manner that seems to almost make light or trivialize issues like dealing with phobias. I don't have the same (kind of purist, IMO) objections to the combination of both a "mana meter" and an action limit, and the mechanics in general seem okay, though not very novel. I think the gravest issue the game has is a pretty dire lack of content, particularly for it's price point. I think there's only about a dozen enemies, all told, and it seems very likely that you'll have repeats during the course of any given run. Card options for any given character seem really limited as well, even given unlocks, with only limited opportunities for true synergy. Not recommended in its current state; it feels like a relatively young early access title, not a complete game.