Shadow of the Treasure Reviews

[i] My Experience [/i] I found [b]Shadow of the Treasure[/b] while dredging Steam for games with the "card game" tag. Although it's not a deckbuilder (probably the most popular type of card game), it is a card game nonetheless. At the same time, I've enjoyed some strategic card games that aren't strictly deckbuilders (like [b]Spectromancer[/b]). I thought it was cool that developer Teleport Games Bt created [b]Shadow of the Treasure[/b] as part of the universe for his previous game [b]Tortured Hearts[/b]. It's sort of a [b]Witcher 3[/b] and [b]Gwent[/b] situation. Although the text-only story was a bit dull, I always appreciate a fresh take on the card game genre. [b]Shadow of the Treasure[/b] takes you through 15 scenarios, each having different goals that you're looking to reach. You'll reach these goals by activating the cards you're presented with in an advantageous order. Cards can often feature trade-offs. For instance, you might spend gold to activate a card that provides experience. However, if the scenario in question has an experience goal but not a gold goal, this could be an important card to help you get there. However, you might need to activate a card beforehand to get a bit of extra gold. Some cards require your character to have reached a certain stat score to activate, and other cards can increase your stat scores. I think that where the game lost me was in the sheer variety of choices you have on any given scenario. You can start by picking any of 16 cards (that you meet the requirements for) to activate. The card deal itself seems to be random, which sends a signal that there could be many ways to work your way to the goal. Rather than feeling exacting and tactical, the game felt rather freeform. There's also a lack of feedback for the player as you are working your way to a certain goal - if you end up failing, it's hard to figure out exactly where you went wrong. Maybe I was looking for more of a puzzle game? I don't know if there's a midpoint between having the card choices be as freeform as they are and having one set solution to each scenario, but I think that this midpoint is perhaps what I would like the game to be. Perhaps fewer choices on the board at any given time? A set card layout for each scenario? Either way, I ended up bouncing off of [b]Shadow of the Treasure[/b]. If you like the concept of the game but have a similar reaction, perhaps try [b]Spectromancer[/b] instead.