Tape to Tape Reviews

Overall great game but it needs more content. Online multiplayer would make this game amazing. More talents, abilities and events would make this feel like more of a complete game. Bottom line.. Great game at it's core but not worth the $20

Amazing game if you liked old pc nhl games its quite similar in gameplay but more arcade 10/10

I enjoyed my brief time with this game. I feel the core gameplay is fun and true to the roots of classic hockey games. There are fun ideas in the upgrade paths and they due lead to some varied gameplay. However, there has been little support since launch and things begin to feel stale quickly. I am someone who puts hundreds of hours into my roguelikes and into my hockey games. I feel I have experienced all I have to experience and gotten as skilled as I'm going to get at this game. It seriously lacks replayability as both a roguelike and a hockey game, unfortunately. Still worth the price of entry but, man, I wish this got a lot more love from the dev after it came out. I bought it expecting major additions down the line that have yet to come. It seems, based on steam charts, like this game just didn't grab people and maybe that's why there wasn't much fleshing out, but it feels a little chicken and egg to me.

This game is absolutely exceptional. Easily the best hockey game on the PC Platofrm! It has strong similarities to the epic NHL 94. The game has continued to evolve and while still in early access, it is extremely polished and tweaks and featured are continued to be added. I massively recommend this game!

One of the best well-rounded early access games I have ever played and about as peak as it gets when it comes to hockey games cannot recommend enough great game with couch co-op or steam online co-op

So it's fun...but needs much more content/replayability. I beat the hardest difficulty by 6 hours and there's literally no reason to keep playing. it's a shame because with more choices and any modicum of customization this gameplay fills such an empty niche

Really fun. Scratches that NHL itch on PC. Hockey roguelike is an interesting combo that works surprisingly well. Excited to see more content and see the campaign expanded more.

Nicely fills the void left from 2000s era wacky sports games. Easy pickup for folks who enjoyed the old Midway games like NHL Hitz, NFL Blitz, NBA Street, etc. In current state of game's early access, the campaign is a series of 5v5 hockey games where you play against a variety of wacky teams. Successful runs on normal take maybe 1-1.5 hours, with individual games going as short as 30 seconds but usually less than 5 minutes. As of this writing I got ~20 hours out of it and feel satisfied with the available experience, and am excited to see what comes as EA progresses. ---------------------------- Unsolicited feedback time: I said the game is 5v5, but most of the time it feels like 1v10; me vs the 5 opponents, my 4 teammates, and the controls of the game itself. At first, this was EXTREMELY frustrating, but then I kind of came to enjoy figuring out how to play around my teammates refusing to position themselves in ways that make sense. Remember playing hockey/soccer as a kid and how everyone just clumps up around the puck/ball? Yep. Frustrating because the most effective way to score is one-timers (20 hours in and I'm really not sure if it's possible to score with pure slapshots), but teammates will rarely position themselves to take advantage. Also the 10th opponent, the controls, frequently enjoys passing to teammates who have no business being a valid target for the pass. Sometimes I'll be putting up goals one after another effortlessly, and sometimes I feel like the game is purposefully pumping the opponent goalie with OVR so I can never possibly score. I know the programming the logic for each player and the various physics isn't easy at all so I'm willing to forgive the current system quite a bit and I'd wager this is where most dev time goes, still gonna throw my voice out there. The RPG elements are frankly criminal. Having to spend rubber on Angus getting better might make sense from perspective of 'people get better at things over time', but this is a video game where things get absurd quick and then magically return to status quo. It feels like I'm intended to have artificially worse experiences early on for the sake of inflating gameplay time. The game is fun, you don't need to do that. Remove this, give Angus static stats that can be improved/changed during a run. Speaking of, the hockey blacksmith is a very funny hook right from the menu, but is wasted on a lame metaprogression shop. Why is he not appearing during the run? Forget the Rest areas on the map, that should be hockey blacksmith forging better gear to increase stats/equipment. Meta shop should be saved for more interesting meta elements, see the mirror in Hades as an example. The power to reverse a goal once would make sense as a meta option, similar to Death's Defiance. Just spitballing, current system is joysucking. The map in general could be made more interesting. As is, I don't know why anyone would willingly go to rests/events over games for talents when given the choice. Some events are actually curses, and some are good but have obvious options. With the bonus to OVR during a period, why would anyone not take +50 OVR in the first perior? Thanks to the mercy mechanic it's the only option that makes sense. Then for the bad events, you can skip but you still lost a talent by not choosing the correct option in the first place. Would really benefit from copying Slay the Spire's homework a bit more: a 3 pronged map at all times, not being forced into the current pattern of talent, rest, full game, talent, full game, boss. Let me choose between elite games for talents/artifacts, playing it safe if things aren't looking hot, or training/blacksmithing. Let me recruit and swap in new players and switch gear around after the fact. There's already a gear system, and a blacksmith! Lean more into sportsy-ness and let me modify my team a bit more. I get the game is a delicate balance between keeping it grounded enough to still be an accessible sports game, and full on video gamey roguelike wackiness. Personally, I would enjoy leaning muuuuch further into roguelike wackiness. Longer runs, weirder powers, weirder and more varied opponents. Wouldn't even mind if runs were significantly longer. Putting it out there. All that said, I got 20 hours of enjoyment current state and eagerly await more so all these criticisms are from a place of really liking the game and hoping it achieves greatness and gets more attention.

This is a surprisingly fun game. I originally thought it was a basic hockey game with superficial rogue-lite features, the the more I played and explored the rogue-lite mechanics interact really well with the hockey and makes for a really fun experience.

TL;DR/ Conclusion: The game is fun, charming, isn't expensive and is from a developer who cares and strives. Even if you get 10 hours out of it, it isn't a bad deal. Some might get 50 hours out of it in the current state. Please take my criticism below with a grain of salt and remember that the game is still in early access. After 5 hours of game time, and about 3-4 runs, I beat the campaign on normal. It does seem a bit short and I'd love to see a bit more content added to the game. When that is said, I think it's an incredibly satisfying game to play. First time starting the game, it felt so nice to skate around and pass the puck, to the degree I wished it was just a normal hockey game with more emphasis on the mechanics that already felt great to its core. There are a lot of rogue-lites out there lately, and I play a lot of them, that's why I wish it was not following the same formula. But before you know it, You get that sense of satisfaction that those games give you. The feeling of OP abilities, upgrading our character, buying new superheroes in the store and all that good stuff. It's just a cozy game, not a try-hard/ super tactical game. Most of the fun comes from just trying out different things, enjoying the hillarious art style and either doing permant upgrades or upgrades within each run. I'll play this game more before the full release, just to chill. It isn't really the game I want to play with a great challenge. That's why I'll wait with hard mode. Nitpicking/ tips for the developers: - The difficulty level of a run goes from extremely easy to pretty hard fast. Mostly because one playthrough is so short. I'd love to feel more invested in each run and to see the gradual development of my crew as well as the enemies. Right now, it can feel like all of a sudden I got completely OP or that the enemy got completely OP. - Tuning down the power of each roguelite element. Some of the abilities we can use are quite OP and become the thing we lean on to win. Maybe I'm wrong about the enemies since I got better at understanding them and therefore beat the game, but it feels a bit like their unique powers are too overwhelming. This is just my opinion: maybe they should have higher base stats but lower boosts to their powers. The little prince can have less accuracy or shot power, the freeze that one team has can have reduced duration. Or else I at least feel that I am playing against only that power and not a complete team. It could be that this is solved in hard mode if the powers are still the same but base stats are increased. Can someone confirm? - Currently, the 3 players who aren't your main character or superhero (they're called benchwarmers, right?) aren't good enough for me to want to give them the puck. The game revolves too much around the two stars of the team. It's not very out of balance and yes, they do bodycheck and score from time to time. I just miss the feeling of a fully coherent balanced team in a way. To be fair though, this will get better once my main character is fully upgraded so that upgrades during each run can be distibuted more to benchwarmers. I don't really want a team full of unique powers either since it will be a lot to try to remember while the game is already fast paced. Just a bit higher base stats would solve this for me. - I want more customizeability for my team. I'd like to first of all be able to choose how my main character looks, choose team logo and colors. I also want to be able to buy players like benchwarmers, either permanently or maybe better just within each run. But since there's no currency within the runs, this might be a bad idea. You probably already have the best choice the way it is now. - When I went into settings to rebind my gamepad controls, the first screen shows me keyboard. I started pressing the D-pad where I thought I had to go but it got stuck somewhere and I couldn't press anything. I had to restart the game. It feels a bit clunky to do the right thing. It did work the second time, but still, it was a long way up to "gamepad" at the top. No big deal, very much nitpicking. - Each act is a long flat field. I'd love to see it as a mountain instead with each parts of the mountain changing based on the enemy. It would feel so epic. The terrain would be more interesting to look at and I'd get the feeling of climbing a ladder. Flat is just a bit boring. Also just nitpicking. - Please be aware that I might not be right about anything I write here as feedback. It's more of a philosophical view that I wish I could play a long playthrough (let's say a season of 20 matches + cup matches or something) where the development and progression feels slower, yet more balanced. To reduce the chances of getting shocked because you got OP all of a sudden or getting absolutely crushed after an easy win before. It would also help me feel more invested in the game. In a longer season, it could be nice to have powers for the manager, or a unique button for a power done by an insider in the stands or on the bench. With this idea, I would still like that you keep the increase in difficulty from the enemies. It wouldn't make sense to be too weak early and too strong late compared to the opponents. As I'm writing this, I am not sure it would work at all because games that scale with you aren't really fun either. Rogue-lites aren't supposed to last long each run either. The way you give the player a chance to become OP is what makes a good rogue-lite. I just kinda miss a longer gameplay loop to feel more invested, that's all. Once again, as I'm writing I'm coming up with a better approach to my idea here. Just please give us season mode without barely any upgrades or rogue-lite elements. Just give us the chance to buy new players, go up in tiers after winning the league, add more generic (less interesting) teams to fill up spots. Less focus on powers and humor, but more about the conquering of a league table and forming your entire team. Many sports games have different modes such as: manager mode, season mode, quick match. You have the perfect thing as a foundation which is the awesome rogue-lite game mode with really great mechanics. I want to complete every single mode you add. Variation is healthy and would make the game feel feature-rich.