Info about Deck of Ashes:

Official game description:
  
_"The Outcasts brought Ash Curse upon us all, and they are the only ones who can lift it."_ - Ash Master.  
Deck of Ashes is an adventure game with tactical card combat. One character at a time, lead the cast of antiheroes on a quest for redemption. Explore the cursed fantasy world and hunt down powerful cards. Put your survival and resource management skills to the test when upgrading your Camp of allies.  
The choices that drive your journey - where to go, which resource to collect, which risk to take, and which card to craft - are the difference between success and untimely demise.
Can You Rid the World Of the Ash Curse?
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Features
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*   Creative deck-building - collect combat cards that fit your unique playstyle and crush the enemy!  
*   Unique hand-drawn eerie art style.  
*   Dynamic dark fantasy world - travel through a procedurally generated, changing world in search for cards, supplies and glory!
*   Various biomes that harbour different monster classes - each biome affects the gameplay and offers a unique set of opponents!  
*   Survival and resource management - you have limited opportunities to restore health or spent cards, so use them wisely!  
*   Camp - strategically improve your base depending on your style of play.  
*   Permadeath - unless you use the help of dark magic, then when you die, you die for good.
Dynamic and Dangerous World
---------------------------
Deck of Ashes features a procedurally generated world where danger waits around every corner. Sudden ambushes, cataclysms, and random events will force you to constantly adapt and explore fleeting opportunities to gain an edge! Refine your strategy on the go to ensure your survival!  
Deck-building Done Right
------------------------
We provide you with the best deck-building tools we could develop. If you are a newbie - we got you covered, as there are sets of cards that obviously work well together. And if you are ready to go crazy with your own deck idea, there is a 100+ cards for each character to explore and combine. BEWARE: a ton of potential to go nuts with the unexpected combos!  
Upgrade the Camp to Meet Your Needs
-----------------------------------
Different strategies require vastly different upgrades of your Camp. The resources are scarce, and you won't be able to upgrade everything in one playthrough, so choose wisely!

Release date: Jun 9, 2020

Categories: Roguelike Deckbuilder, Deckbuilding, Card-based Combat, Turn-based Combat, Resource Management, Procedural Generation, Dark Fantasy, Permadeath

Feature scans:
- MTX: score 85; verdict: Predatory / Pay-to-Win; summary: The review set includes direct evidence of a real-money supporter pack selling heroes that affect gameplay, with players describing the game as pay-to-win. Other feedback focuses on DLC plans or base-game completeness and is not treated as microtransaction evidence.
- Proton/Linux: score 0; verdict: No Linux-Specific Evidence; summary: The provided review is a gameplay comment about building cards and facing a Dungeon in Heroic mode. It contains no mention of Linux, Proton, SteamOS, Wine, Steam Deck compatibility, anti-cheat, launchers, performance, or any Linux-specific launch issue, so no Linux/Proton compatibility friction can be assessed.
- Steam Deck: score 90; verdict: Broken; summary: The Steam Deck experience is heavily compromised by launch failures, frequent crashes, broken or cumbersome controller support, input lockout, and small UI text. No external-launcher or battery-drain reports appeared in the filtered evidence. The repeated stability and control failures place this in the broken tier.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $10.00 - $15.00
  - Reasoning: The reviews repeatedly treat the $20 full price as too high for the current polish, depth, and content. A $9.99 sale price is called a bargain, while $15 is described as borderline or slightly lacking rather than clearly fair. The translated review similarly suggests the game is about half its €20 asking price in value. Together these comments point to a community fair base-game range of roughly $10 to $15 USD.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 11.0h
  - Story completion: N/A
  - Session length: 2.5h
  - Endgame: 50.0h
  - Reasoning: The first-playthrough report gives a direct gameCompletion figure of 11 hours. No separate story-only duration is provided, so storyCompletion is null. Session length is supported by one reviewer easily spending 2 hours and another losing 2.5 hours in one sitting, so I use 2.5 hours as the session estimate. Endgame/replayability is supported by the 50-100 hour estimate across different deck archetypes; I use the conservative lower bound of 50 hours.
- Time-to-fun:
  - Summary: The game is reported to start slowly and become enjoyable only after players get past the learning curve, though some players find it boring immediately and never engaging.
  - Stance: Clicks after
  - Anchor: Getting past the learning curve
  - Time to anchor: 3h 0m
  - Friction: stiff learning curve; slow start and slow early battles; tutorial-to-campaign bugs and locked camp upgrades; restrictive Ash deck renewal mechanic; repetitive random events and grind; poor difficulty balance and few meaningful early decisions
  - Unlock drivers: patience to get past the learning curve; unlocking additional cards after failed runs; drafting a different starting deck; restarting the game after the tutorial to clear locked upgrades
  - Conditions: after getting past the learning curve; after a few hours of play; after the tutorial and a first permadeath run; at a low sale price; when the tutorial-to-campaign locked-upgrade bug is avoided or fixed; for players who tolerate slow, repetitive battles
- Player Archetypes:
  - Deckbuilder Genre Veteran (sale)
    - Motivation: Find a fresh deckbuilder that can scratch the genre itch after exhausting the top titles.
    - Playstyle: Benchmarks systems against Slay the Spire-style deckbuilders, experiments with builds, and weighs balance and polish.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: Slay the Spire; Darkest Dungeon; Deep Sky Derelicts
  - Dark Fantasy Story Seeker (buy)
    - Motivation: Immerse in the dark antihero story, art, and world.
    - Playstyle: Plays through campaigns for narrative and atmosphere, uses the tutorial, and tries different heroes and storylines.
    - Experience: newcomer
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: Darkest Dungeon; Slay the Spire
  - Challenge-Focused Roguelike Purist (no buy)
    - Motivation: Get demanding, skill-expressive runs where good play and tight decks matter.
    - Playstyle: Optimizes decks for efficient, meaningful combat and rejects grind, slow pacing, or mindless card dumping.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: no buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: Slay the Spire
  - Campaign Map Explorer (buy)
    - Motivation: Explore a risky campaign map and manage resources, crafting, and route choices.
    - Playstyle: Plans routes around boss timers, scavenges nodes, returns to camp to upgrade decks and abilities, and chooses risk.
    - Experience: mixed
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A


Below are summaries of things people say about the game per category.
Each point is assigned a weight that represents how often it is mentioned across all reviews.
What players like:
- Praise for art style (weight 0.32): Reviewers consistently highlight the game's art style as appealing, unique, and well-executed, with many describing it as beautiful or stylish.
- Engaging deckbuilding gameplay (weight 0.23): Players find the deckbuilding mechanics deep and enjoyable, with unique combinations and a satisfying card system.
- Overall positive impressions (weight 0.15): General feedback is very positive, with many describing the game as good, excellent, or fun overall.
- Interesting characters and stories (weight 0.15): The characters are praised for their distinct personalities and backstories, and the overall story is considered engaging.
- Good voice acting and sound (weight 0.13): The voice acting, music, and sound design are frequently praised, with special mention of the Russian voice acting.
- Promising potential (weight 0.1): Reviewers see a lot of potential in the game's concept and core gameplay, even if it's still developing.
- Unique game mechanics (weight 0.09): The game's mechanics are often described as sophisticated, novel, and distinct from other card games.
- High replayability (weight 0.07): Many players mention strong replay value and multiple playthroughs, indicating long-term engagement.
- Atmospheric experience (weight 0.07): The game's atmosphere, combined with its art and music, creates a compelling and immersive experience.
- Substantial content (weight 0.07): Players note that there is already plenty of content to explore, providing many hours of gameplay.

Common complaints:
- Bugs and instability (weight 0.19): Numerous bugs are reported, ranging from minor annoyances to game-breaking issues, and some players find the game unplayable.
- Lack of polish (weight 0.16): The game feels unpolished, with clunky gameplay, mediocre graphics, and unsatisfying combat impact.
- Boring gameplay (weight 0.12): Gameplay is frequently described as boring, dull, repetitive, and monotonous, with low replayability.
- Limited card variety (weight 0.12): Players note a severe lack of card variety, with too few cards and many cards feeling similar across characters.
- Inferior to competitors (weight 0.1): The game is unfavorably compared to well-known deckbuilders like Slay the Spire, offering little new to the genre.
- Scarce content and characters (weight 0.1): Content is limited, with only one playable character available, making the game feel very early in development.
- Clunky card interaction (weight 0.09): Interacting with cards and objects feels imprecise and clumsy, requiring excessive mouse movement and clicks.
- Poor UI and controls (weight 0.08): The user interface and controls are criticized as rough, messy, and in need of improvement.
- Slow and sluggish combat (weight 0.08): Combat is perceived as slow and drawn out, even on fast mode, lacking hotkeys and dynamic pacing.
- Poor game balance (weight 0.08): Card power balance and game mechanics are often unbalanced, leading to frustrating experiences.
- Terrible translation (weight 0.07): The translation is poor, particularly the Spanish localization, which is incomplete and mixes languages.
- Not worth the price (weight 0.07): Many reviewers feel the game does not justify its price given its current state and content.
- Unfinished product (weight 0.06): The game is often described as a half-finished or unfinished work in progress, with many features incomplete.
- Consumable card system (weight 0.06): All cards are one-time use, requiring players to spend rest points to return them to the deck after battles, which some find tedious.
- Poor card readability (weight 0.06): Card text and backgrounds are inconsistent in color and size, making cards hard to read, and the font is often terrible.
- Bland card battles (weight 0.06): Card battles lack excitement and special animations, feeling forgettable and dull compared to other card games.
- Incomplete card upgrades (weight 0.06): Card upgrade systems are inconsistent, with only some cards upgradable and many upgrades not fully implemented.
- Camp upgrade problems (weight 0.06): The camp upgrade system is broken, exploitable, or unbalanced, and sometimes fails to work after the tutorial.

Gameplay feedback:
- Deckbuilding Core Mechanic (weight 0.34): The game is fundamentally a deck-building card game where players construct and customize decks. This is the central gameplay pillar, emphasized by many reviewers.
- Roguelike Deckbuilder Genre (weight 0.32): The game is frequently described as a roguelike deckbuilder, often compared to Slay the Spire. It combines card-based combat with roguelike progression and randomness.
- Ash Card Mechanic (weight 0.24): A distinctive feature is the 'ash' or discard pile mechanic where played cards are consumed and must be renewed. Some cards have effects while in the ash pile.
- Card-Based Combat System (weight 0.23): Combat revolves around playing cards with mana costs and turn-based mechanics. Cards are drawn from a deck and used to attack or defend.
- Multiple Playable Characters (weight 0.21): The game features four to five playable characters, each with their own unique deck and playstyle. This adds replayability and variety.
- Health Cost for Card Renewal (weight 0.2): Players must spend health or rest points to return consumed cards to their deck. This creates a strategic tension between resource management and survival.
- Campaign and Difficulty Levels (weight 0.19): The game includes a campaign mode with multiple difficulty settings, including a medium 'adventurer' level. Campaigns can be played with different characters.
- Map Exploration (weight 0.19): Players explore a map with various nodes including battles, treasures, and events. The map offers strategic choices in pathing and resource collection.
- Card Upgrades and Crafting (weight 0.06): Cards can be upgraded, bought, or crafted using resources. The blacksmith at camp allows for card enhancement and talent upgrades.
- Unlockable Cards and Progression (weight 0.06): New cards and perks are unlocked between runs using points earned at the end of a run. This provides meta-progression and incentives to replay.
- Epilogue and Story Completion (weight 0.06): Completing the game with each character unlocks an epilogue and a final boss rush. The story encourages multiple playthroughs.
- Card Manipulation Tactics (weight 0.05): Players can return cards from hand to the bottom of the draw pile or discard them strategically. This adds depth to card management during combat.
- Universal and Character-Specific Cards (weight 0.05): The card system includes both universal cards and character-specific cards, allowing for diverse deck builds and synergies.

Performance notes:
- Severe Stuttering and Freezing (weight 0.12): Frequent stuttering and freezing occur throughout gameplay, including during tutorials, turn transitions, card plays, and when loading battles, with some freezes lasting several seconds and making the game unresponsive.
- Crashes During Boss Fights (weight 0.09): Players report the game crashing during boss encounters and after defeating bosses, with additional crashes when loading into fights or completing combat.
- Infinite Loading and Stuck Screens (weight 0.07): Players experience infinite loading or getting stuck when entering dungeons, with loading screens that freeze and require task manager to exit, and the game sometimes stopping loading entirely.
- Invisible Mouse Cursor (weight 0.07): The mouse cursor disappears after loading screens when no controller is used, and remains invisible when a gamepad is connected wired or wireless.
- Poor Optimization and Performance Issues (weight 0.06): The game is poorly optimized and runs heavy, with FPS drops, lag spikes, and slow performance even on capable hardware, including laptops and 1K PCs.
- Laggy Animations and Turn Calculations (weight 0.06): Animations are laggy even on speed settings, with massive lag spikes during turn changes and heavy load at the end of a turn causing system lag.
- Controller Connectivity Problems (weight 0.05): Control issues occur when a controller is connected to the PC, with buggy and laggy controller support causing freezes every few minutes and input loss.
- Steam Deck Compatibility Issues (weight 0.05): The game runs terribly on Steam Deck despite being marked as playable, with tutorial script bugs making windows inactive and requiring a reboot via task manager.
- Unresponsive Buttons and Input Delays (weight 0.05): Buttons stop working, delayed button response occurs, and the game does not always respond to mouse clicks, causing actions to not trigger.
- Stuttering When Loading New Hands (weight 0.05): Stuttering occurs when loading a new hand, and the game temporarily freezes when playing cards in quick succession, with cast animations disappearing when casting cards rapidly.
- UI and Menu Bugs (weight 0.05): UI overlap bugs occur during combat, contextual info panes get stuck on screen, and pressing Esc repeatedly is needed to avoid the menu getting messy.
- Random Resolution Changes and Screen Issues (weight 0.04): The screen changes resolution at random, can shut off while alt+tabbing, and has issues with no VSync causing screen tearing.
- Combat Animation Hitches (weight 0.03): Many attacks cause long hitches, and severe stuttering occurs at specific moments like when Bak's kitten transforms at rage thresholds, disrupting combat flow.
- Crashes from Loadscreen Actions (weight 0.03): The game can crash if you do anything during a loadscreen, and loading a saved campaign crashed every time.
- Launch Black Screen and Exit (weight 0.03): Some players experience a black screen on launch followed by the game exiting, and the game does not work for them.
- Long Battle Loading Times (weight 0.03): Long battle loading times occur, especially in the Wasteland, and about 5-second loading happens before every match.
- Stuttering from Over-Stacking Perks (weight 0.02): Stuttering occurs when over-stacking perks and skills, impacting performance during gameplay.
- Tutorial Progression Bug (weight 0.02): A bug persists where playing the tutorial requires reinstalling the game to unlock camp upgrades.
- Login Glitches (weight 0.02): Glitches occur when logging in, making it difficult to enter the application.
- Volume Slider Unresponsive (weight 0.02): The volume slider in settings can become unresponsive, affecting audio adjustments.

Recommendations:
- Recommended for Slay the Spire fans (weight 0.19): Many reviewers recommend the game to players who enjoyed Slay the Spire, Monster Train, or similar card-battling roguelikes. It is positioned as a follow-up for those seeking more variety after the genre's top titles.
- Appeals to card game fans (weight 0.14): Reviewers repeatedly recommend it to people who enjoy card games, deckbuilding, and strategy card battles. Fans of CCGs and card battlers are the core recommended audience.
- Positive overall purchase recommendation (weight 0.14): A large share of reviewers simply recommend buying the game and describe it as worth it overall. Several note it is recommended despite its flaws.
- Better on sale (weight 0.14): Many reviewers say the game is worth grabbing during a sale rather than at full price. Some consider it good value only at a discount.
- Suggested alternatives to this game (weight 0.13): Several reviewers tell players to play Slay the Spire, Griftlands, Monster Train, or other deckbuilders instead. The game is seen as less fun or less polished than genre leaders.
- Strong negative purchase warnings (weight 0.1): Some reviewers strongly advise against buying the game or spending time and money on it. Complaints include the game not working properly and distrust of the developer.
- Mixed but still recommended (weight 0.09): Some reviewers recommend the game despite acknowledging its problems or flaws. The recommendation is generally qualified rather than enthusiastic.
- Roguelike card strategy appeal (weight 0.09): Players praise it as a card strategy roguelike that rewards patience and thoughtful planning. It is recommended to fans of the roguelike deckbuilding genre.
- Good genre entry for fans (weight 0.08): Reviewers suggest it is worth having in your collection if you are really into the genre. Hardcore deckbuilding fans and enthusiasts are especially targeted.
- Not recommended currently (weight 0.07): A group of reviewers holds off recommending the game at this time. Some cite current problems or an unfinished state rather than permanent flaws.
- Better deckbuilders exist (weight 0.05): Reviewers warn that many better deckbuilders are available, even at a discount. Those seeking the next challenging deckbuilder are told to look elsewhere.
- Friendly to genre newcomers (weight 0.05): The game is recommended to players new to the genre because it is easy to understand quickly. Some also find it worth trying for its simple, beautiful, and engaging style.
- Enthusiastic 10/10 recommendations (weight 0.05): A small number of reviewers give the game the highest praise and confidently recommend it. Their feedback is brief but very positive.
- Recommended even in early access (weight 0.05): Reviewers highly recommend the game even in its early access state. They consider it worthwhile before the final release.
- Start beginners on Wanderer mode (weight 0.04): New players are advised to begin on the easy difficulty called Wanderer. This helps newcomers learn the game without early frustration.
- Niche appeal within card games (weight 0.03): A few reviewers recommend it only to people who really like card games. Others do not consider it a strong card game overall.
- Worth full price for some (weight 0.03): Some players say the game is worth buying at full price and worth every penny. This opinion appears far less often than the sale-price advice.

Other player notes:
- Frequent comparisons to Slay the Spire (weight 0.49): Many reviewers compare the game to Slay the Spire, often as a reference point. Some find it deeper or with more story, while others consider it a clone or inferior.
- Russian voice acting and localization (weight 0.14): The game includes Russian voiceover and localization, which is noted by multiple reviewers. One reviewer mentions the absence of Russian voice acting.
- Game is in early access (weight 0.13): The game is currently in early access and has been for over a year. Despite this, it already offers substantial content and continues to receive updates.
- Responsive and communicative developers (weight 0.12): Reviewers praise the developers for being active, listening to community feedback, and frequently updating the game.
- Compared to Darkest Dungeon (weight 0.09): Reviewers compare the game to Darkest Dungeon, particularly its art style, atmosphere, and dark tone. Some note it has less pressure than Darkest Dungeon.
- Unique mechanics differentiate from clones (weight 0.08): The game is noted to have unique mechanics that set it apart from typical Slay the Spire clones, offering originality and depth.
- Four playable characters with different styles (weight 0.08): The game features four characters, each with distinct playstyles. During early access, only three were available, with more planned.
- Russian developers (weight 0.05): The game is developed by Russian developers, which is noted by several reviewers.
- Regular updates and fixes (weight 0.05): The game receives frequent updates and bug fixes, demonstrating ongoing development and support.
- Steam Deck controls are problematic (weight 0.04): Reviewers report that the controls do not work well on Steam Deck, making it difficult to play despite being tagged as playable.
- DLC adds cards and skins (weight 0.04): The game offers DLC that includes additional cards and skins, as mentioned by a few reviewers.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.2): Players are frustrated by pervasive bugs and technical failures, including freezes, crashes, broken controls, and save corruption that block progress and force restarts. Unbalanced difficulty, heavy randomness, and punishing mechanics like health-cost card reshuffling and scarce resources lead to unfair losses and unwinnable situations. Additionally, poor UI, unskippable tutorials, and missing translations compound the tedious and repetitive combat.
- Disappointment (weight 0.17): Many players feel the game fails to live up to its potential, citing shallow card variety, repetitive runs, and unbalanced mechanics that make it inferior to other deckbuilders like Slay the Spire. Technical issues, unfinished content, and poor localization further diminish the experience, leaving a sense of wasted opportunity and unmet expectations.
- Enjoyment (weight 0.07): Players derive enjoyment from the fun and addictive deck-building gameplay, varied character playstyles, and satisfying card combos. The strategic combat, art style, and progression systems keep them engaged and entertained.
- Boredom (weight 0.07): Boredom stems from repetitive gameplay, limited enemy variety, and monotonous deck-building that make runs feel tedious and unchallenging. The slow pace, lack of meaningful decisions, and grindy progression contribute to a sense of dullness.
- Appreciation (weight 0.05): Players appreciate the game's unique art style, atmospheric music, and innovative mechanics like the ash card system. They also value the developers' responsiveness and the depth of deck-building and storytelling.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.04): Satisfaction comes from the game's solid card mechanics, balanced challenge, and good value for money. Players enjoy the strategic depth, character variety, and the sense of progression without excessive grind.
- Annoyance (weight 0.04): Annoyance is caused by small but irritating issues like bugs, repetitive voice lines, slow animations, and cumbersome mechanics such as the ash system and frequent card reshuffling. These elements disrupt the flow and add unnecessary friction.
- Admiration (weight 0.02): Admiration is directed at the game's stunning hand-drawn art, dark fantasy aesthetic, and high-quality voice acting and music. The developers' passion and the game's atmospheric world-building are particularly praised.
- Dissatisfaction (weight 0.02): Dissatisfaction arises from unpolished systems, lack of content, and broken balance that make the game feel unfinished and not worth the price. Missing promised features and poor optimization further contribute to this sentiment.
- Anger (weight 0.02): Anger is fueled by the developers abandoning the game, leaving critical bugs unfixed and translations incomplete. Unfair mechanics, excessive RNG, and perceived greed (e.g., paid skins with bonuses) exacerbate the frustration.
- Liking (weight 0.02): Players like the game's world-building, enemy variety, and card design. The atmosphere, music, and character stories contribute to an overall positive impression.
- Confusion (weight 0.02): Confusion stems from unclear UI elements, misleading card descriptions, and unexplained mechanics. Players struggle to understand status icons, card effects, and progression systems.
- Excitement (weight 0.02): Excitement is generated by the game's unique mechanics, tense boss encounters, and the fun of discovering new card combos. The hardcore challenge and anticipation of future content add to the thrill.
- Hope (weight 0.02): Hope is based on the developers' ongoing support, frequent patches, and the game's potential for improvement. Players expect future updates to fix bugs and add content.
- Enthusiasm (weight 0.01): Enthusiasm comes from the game's depth, multiple game modes, and strong immersion. The motivating unlock system and continuous content updates keep players engaged.
- Dislike (weight 0.01): Dislike is directed at the art style, unfun gameplay, and mechanics like card burn and health-cost recovery. The lack of variation and unclear camp upgrade systems also contribute.
- Love (weight 0.01): Love for the game is driven by its unique style, engaging mechanics, and captivating world and characters. The atmospheric art and original design foster a strong emotional connection.
- Engagement (weight 0.01): Engagement is felt through the strategic deck management and the need to adapt to different characters. The story and grim atmosphere draw players in from the start.
- Interest (weight 0.01): Interest is sparked by the variety of enemies, novel deck mechanics, and the game's departure from typical deckbuilders. The unique style and concept encourage further exploration.
- Fun (weight 0.01): Fun arises from discovering new cards and talents, class-specific mechanics, and satisfying card interactions. The variety of playstyles and boss mechanics keep the experience enjoyable.}