Saturday Morning Gaming: Banners of Ruin first impressions

Ever since Slay the Spire came out, I have been hungry to find another deckbuilder that captures that particular magic. Griftlands pulled it off. Monster Train pulled it off too.

Well, earlier this summer, I saw that there was a deckbuilder with a pretty good sale going on during Steam’s summer sale. Banners of Ruin. Hey! It’s a deckbuilder! It’s on sale! I got it. Then I noticed that… it’s in early access. Dang it.

Anyway, on Thursday, it had its Full Release! So now I can play it!

Okay. First impressions.

The game begins with a choice. What bonus do you want to kick the game off with? A chance to swap out weapons? A little extra coin? Start with some buffed HP?

Let’s take the weapons. Okay. I get a crappy sword and an interesting falchion.

Currently, my mouse has an axe and shield and the axe is pretty good. So we’ll keep him the same. The bear, however, has a two-handed long sword that hits everybody in a column. Hrm. Maybe let’s not change anything. (Huh. I should have taken the money…)

So let’s start the game. First thing we do is have to enter the city. And it’s the only choice given us:

And, of course, we get in a fight with the guards.

If you’ve played Magic the Gathering, you know exactly what’s going on with the combat.

Your creatures have a limited amount of energy to cast cards and you get a limited number of cards from your deck. Play a card and do damage to an opposing creature or give yourself guard or move around on the field. (There are also cards that can move the other creatures around.)

Fairly straightforward. I’m sure that as you get more cards and unlock more creatures, you get more synergies.

After the fight, get some coin and choose a card.

Get into the city, the game continues… more choices, more combat. This reminds me of Griftlands more than anything else.

The artwork is positively divine. The characters are interesting to look at. The combat is pretty generic. The soundtrack is out of this world.

All in all, it’s okay. I’ll have to dive more into it, unlock more characters. I’m not sure I’m ready to recommend it… but, gosh, is it gorgeous.

So… what are you playing?