Info about ORX: Official game description: Dawn of Victory --------------- We could list many more known tabletop and video games as comparisons, but ORX is so much more! Each faction’s gameplay is unique, each mission plays out differently. And when you achieve your perfect strategy, you won’t be a mere King. You’ll feel like a God. Warriors of the World United ---------------------------- ORX features 3 factions with unique gameplay. And we mean it! Each one interacts with the game in different ways, providing a completely different approach while preserving the core experience. * **Rune Guardians** are the poster boys of ORX, focused around building impenetrable walls of castles. * **Dune Reavers** is the richest faction in the game, opting for a more classic RTS gameplay with unit management. * **Boreal Nomads** is the stone-willed nation of humans and giants, with a gameplay reminiscent of strategy sims, like that of Majesty series. Bound for Glory --------------- Your deck of cards is your key to victory, and you can customize it to suit your playstyle. Focus on magic, fortifications, troops, or economy; upgrade your cards, use powerful spells and artifacts. Find every opportunity to one-up the ORX. And if you manage to invent an especially effective strategy, don’t be surprised when you see your name in the Leaderboard! Unholy Warcry ------------- ORX are the namesake of the game and your blood rivals. Varied in strength, toughness and ingenuity – they all pose an existential threat to your nation. Master the Rock-Paper-Scissors style archetypes of both your defences and the ORX. Find their weak points. Play your cards right. And maybe you will stand a chance against the green scourge. Through the Storm ----------------- Cleanse the land of Medea from ORX: from temperate forests to ruin-filled deserts, from icy wastelands to void-ridden planes. Reconquer each continent node-by-node, risking to be overwhelmed with corruption-boosted ORX. Or take a wager, bee lining straight to the boss. No matter the choice – every campaign, event and mission will play differently each time. The Power of the Ancient Force ------------------------------ What is a horde without a leader! And only the meanest, most brutal, most cunning of ORX could boss others around. Overcome these mountains of malice with careful deck management and meticulous strategy. Once you’re victorious, reap their very essence for powerful campaign-long buffs, leveling the playing field for the upcoming challenges. Time Stands Still ----------------- Lose yourself in this unforgiving world, thanks to the game’s unique art style. Balancing between grimdark and light-hearted fantasy of vintage book illustrations, it allows ORX to mix the right amount of brutality and comedy. All the while the epicness of each battle is amplified with the original soundtrack by Nicolas de Ferran (They Are Billions). Release date: 30 Aug, 2022 Categories: Tower Defense, Deckbuilding, Roguelike, Strategy, Base Building, Resource Management, Real-time Strategy - Hardware Profile: No data Feature extractions: - Community Price: No data - Playtime Metrics: No data - Time-to-fun: No data - Player Archetypes: No data 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: - Addictive, unique, and highly replayable (weight 0.95): The game is praised for its engaging and addictive gameplay loop, unique blend of genres (tower defense, deck-building, RTS), appealing art style, and enjoyable music. Players find themselves losing track of time and constantly wanting to improve their strategies. The game's concept and mechanics are well-executed, leading to a highly replayable experience. - Active development and improvements (weight 0.2): The developers are actively updating the game, fixing bugs, and adding new content. These updates have a significant positive impact, with many reviewers noting substantial improvements and new features being introduced regularly. This dedication to ongoing development enhances the overall player experience. - Distinct and varied factions (weight 0.13): The game features distinct factions that offer significantly different gameplay experiences. These factions are well-designed and provide players with diverse strategies and playstyles to explore. The differences between factions add depth and replayability to the game. - Satisfying castle-building mechanics (weight 0.13): Building and expanding castles is a central and enjoyable mechanic in the game. Players appreciate the ability to create large, interconnected castles with unique building rules and strategic placement. Upgrading castles with runes further enhances this aspect of the gameplay. - Strategic depth and customization (weight 0.07): The game allows for a high degree of customization and strategic depth, with players able to tune, min/max, and experiment with different builds. The ability to restart battles immediately upon failure encourages constant trial and error, allowing players to refine their strategies and optimize their gameplay. - Promising initial concept (weight 0.04): The game's core idea was considered cool. The demo version's concept was more engaging and fun. The initial trial version of the game seemed promising. The game was enjoyable during the trial version. - Random events add variety (weight 0.03): Random events and randomized maps and rewards add variety and unpredictability to each playthrough. These elements ensure that no two runs are exactly alike, encouraging players to adapt their strategies and explore different options. - Well-integrated rogue-like elements (weight 0.03): The game incorporates rogue-like elements that enhance the overall experience, particularly in boss fights. These elements add a layer of progression and challenge, encouraging players to experiment with different builds and strategies to overcome obstacles. - Positive sound design (weight 0.03): The game's sound design is well-received, contributing positively to the overall atmosphere and immersion. Good sound design enhances the player experience and makes the game more engaging. - Incredible potential (weight 0.03): Reviewers express that the game has incredible potential, indicating that the core concept and initial execution are promising. This suggests that the game has a solid foundation and could become even better with further development and refinement. - "Sand Reavers" faction details (weight 0.03): The "Sand Reavers" faction replaces castles with troops, using barracks to deploy soldiers. The "Sand Reavers" faction equips warriors with weapons like spears, swords, and bows, and can grant abilities like "Order of the Sting," which restores health per attack. Common complaints: - Poor optimization; unplayable due to bugs (weight 0.78): The game suffers from significant performance and stability issues, including lag, frame rate drops, freezes, and crashes, especially in later stages with many enemies. These issues, combined with bugs, make the game unplayable for many, and the developers' slow response to bug reports exacerbates the problem. - Unclear mechanics; tedious gameplay (weight 0.56): The game lacks clear explanations of its mechanics, leading to player confusion and a steep learning curve. The UI/UX is unpolished, and the game's balance is flawed, resulting in tedious gameplay loops and a lack of strategic depth. Players also report frustration with the card system and building mechanics. - Repetitive; limited roguelike elements (weight 0.15): The game's roguelike elements are undermined by issues like repetitive card draws on restarts and limited strategic options. Players report that restarting a map often results in the same starting hand, potentially leading to unwinnable situations due to RNG. This reduces the replayability and strategic depth of the game. - Card system is buggy (weight 0.1): Players report various issues with the card system, including cards getting stuck on the screen, clunky selection, and bugs with spell cards. These issues disrupt gameplay and add frustration. - Incomplete Carcassonne integration (weight 0.08): The game's integration of Carcassonne and tower defense elements feels incomplete, lacking variety in castle cards and a detailed tutorial for Carcassonne newcomers. Some reviewers feel the game fails to deliver on its core concept. - Incomplete/poor translations (weight 0.08): The game suffers from incomplete or poor translations in multiple languages, including Chinese, Russian, and Japanese. This makes it difficult for non-English speakers to understand the game. - Game becomes too easy (weight 0.07): Some players find the game too easy once they understand the mechanics, suggesting balance issues that need addressing. Effective combinations can trivialize the challenge. - Unresponsive during boss fights (weight 0.06): The game randomly becomes unresponsive during boss stages, preventing card play and forcing restarts. This issue affects both Steam Deck and laptop users. - Boreal Nomads faction unbalanced (weight 0.06): The Boreal Nomads faction is unbalanced, with overpowered units and village objectives that don't function as intended. This creates an uneven gameplay experience. - Card UI issues on Steam Deck (weight 0.05): Card descriptions and selection screens are difficult to read on Steam Deck due to small scaling. There are also bugs with card tooltips, including wrong information and inconsistent text. - Progression halts; missing enemies (weight 0.05): Game progression can halt after clearing a wave, requiring a level restart. This is often due to missing enemies that are difficult to locate. - Lack of strategic deck diversity (weight 0.05): Cards and artifacts add little to no difference to the gameplay experience, limiting strategic diversity. There are few opportunities to enhance or modify the deck. Gameplay feedback: - Unique genre-blending gameplay (weight 0.5): The game uniquely blends tower defense, deck-building, roguelike, and tile-placement mechanics, drawing comparisons to Carcassonne, Slay the Spire, and They Are Billions. Players strategically place cards to build defenses and expand their territory against waves of enemies, balancing resource management and strategic planning. - Card system lacks depth (weight 0.1): The card system introduces an element of randomness, but the initial deck can feel large with many single-use cards. Some reviewers feel that the card system lacks depth due to limited options for upgrading or removing cards. Also, the card deck for each mission is fixed at the start, allowing players to memorize and anticipate card draws. - Roads and villages generate gold (weight 0.07): Gold acquisition is primarily tied to constructing roads and claiming villages. Completing road sections and building mills along them generates income, which is crucial for expanding defenses and progressing through the game. Efficient road and village placement is essential for economic stability. - Enemies telegraph their attacks (weight 0.06): Players are informed of upcoming enemy attacks, including the direction and timing. At the end of each round, the player adds cards to the enemy's deck, increasing the difficulty of subsequent waves. This creates a strategic element of anticipating and preparing for specific threats. - Connected castles are stronger (weight 0.04): Fully enclosed castles can fire at enemies, and connecting multiple castles strengthens them. Strategic placement and connection of defensive structures are key to maximizing their effectiveness against incoming waves. This encourages players to build interconnected defense networks. - Acts culminate in boss battles (weight 0.04): The game is structured into four acts, each culminating in a boss battle with unique abilities. There are four distinct biomes, each with its own final boss, adding variety and challenge to the overall progression. Players must adapt their strategies to overcome these unique encounters. - Unit types have advantages (weight 0.04): Units are divided into types (sturdy, cunning, aggressive) that follow a rock-paper-scissors dynamic with enemy orcs. Claiming villages before the orcs is crucial, as they become enemy settlements if captured. Strategic unit placement and village control are essential for success. - Runes enhance structure damage (weight 0.03): Runes can be applied to structures to increase damage against specific enemy types. Players can use two runes at once, allowing for customization and specialization of defenses. This adds a layer of strategic decision-making in fortifying structures. - Elemental types affect damage (weight 0.02): Enemies and player cards are associated with elements (water, fire, void) that affect damage dealt. This elemental system adds another layer of strategy to combat, requiring players to consider elemental matchups when deploying units and using cards. Understanding elemental strengths and weaknesses is crucial for maximizing damage output. - Weather impacts gameplay (weight 0.02): Weather effects can hinder vision or cause damage. These environmental factors add an element of unpredictability and challenge, requiring players to adapt their strategies to the prevailing conditions. Weather can significantly impact visibility and unit effectiveness. - Card draws are not random (weight 0.02): The cards dealt to your hand are not random when replaying a level. This could be intentional, but it removes the element of chance and allows players to memorize card sequences. This predictability may reduce replayability and strategic adaptation. - Exploitable strategies exist (weight 0.02): One reviewer exploited a strategy of blocking all tiles except a 2x2 area for the boss to achieve victory. This suggests potential balance issues or exploits that could undermine the intended gameplay experience. Such strategies may need to be addressed to ensure a more balanced and challenging game. Performance notes: - Poor performance with many units (weight 0.3): Many players report significant performance issues, including FPS drops, lag, and freezes, especially during later stages with a large number of units or complex structures. Lowering graphics settings or resolution often doesn't resolve the problems, and some players experience crashes. Recent changes seem to have worsened the performance for some. - Game causes computer crashes (weight 0.02): Some players are reporting that the game causes their computer to crash. This is a serious issue that can lead to data loss and system instability. - Incorrect text in cards/events (weight 0.02): Some players have encountered issues where variable names are displayed instead of the intended text for cards and events. This breaks immersion and makes it difficult to understand the game's mechanics or story. - Missing VSync causes tearing (weight 0.02): The game lacks VSync settings, leading to screen tearing when panning the camera, particularly at higher resolutions. This can be distracting and negatively impact the visual experience for players with compatible monitors. - Noticeable projectile trajectory recalculation (weight 0.02): The game's projectile trajectory recalculation is noticeable during boss fights. Projectiles fired before a boss's HP threshold is reached will redirect to the boss's new position, which may feel unnatural or unfair to the player. - Black screen after battles (weight 0.02): Players are experiencing a long black screen when returning to the map after battles. This is a minor inconvenience that disrupts the flow of the game. - Low CPU utilization (weight 0.02): Some players are reporting that the game's CPU utilization is below 10%. This suggests that the game is not fully utilizing the CPU's resources, which could be contributing to the performance issues. - Technical issues are improving (weight 0.02): Some players have noted that technical problems are gradually improving. This suggests that the developers are actively working on addressing the issues. - Game runs stably for some (weight 0.02): Some players are reporting that the game runs stably. This is in contrast to other reports of performance issues. Recommendations: - Wait for further development (weight 0.54): Many reviewers recommend waiting for further development due to technical issues, balance problems, and limited content. Some suggest trying the demo or waiting for sales and updates before purchasing. The game's Early Access state is a common concern. - Control issues need fixing (weight 0.3): Some reviewers mention control issues that make the game not worth the money. They suggest waiting for these issues to be fixed. - Good for strategy fans (weight 0.14): The game is recommended for fans of strategy, tower defense, deck-building, and tile-placement games like Carcassonne and Dorfromatik. Reviewers highlight the enjoyable combination of these mechanics and the strategic depth. - Balancing issues need fixing (weight 0.11): Some reviewers mention balancing issues and bugs that prevent them from recommending the game in its current state. They hope that the developers will address these issues in future updates. - Use terrain strategically (weight 0.02): The game encourages strategic use of terrain to maximize defensive effectiveness. Players should manipulate forest placement to redirect enemies. - Simplify the deck (weight 0.02): One reviewer suggests simplifying the deck by focusing on castle and road cards. They believe other cards are unnecessary. - Overly positive, lacks detail (weight 0.01): This cluster contains emotional language without specific details. The reviewer wishes they could give more than one thumbs up. Other player notes: - Early Access, incomplete campaigns (weight 0.09): The game is in Early Access with two of four campaigns currently available. Some reviewers feel it's incomplete, while others find it feels complete despite its Early Access status, indicating varying levels of polish and content. - Dynamic global map, corruption (weight 0.07): The game features a global map with battle zones, traders, and random events, influenced by a corruption level that affects enemy strength. Weather effects on battle zones add buffs and debuffs, while battle rewards include crowns used to improve cards, creating a dynamic and strategic layer. - Pixelated art style (weight 0.06): The game features a pixelated art style that some reviewers find visually appealing, while others are indifferent. This suggests the graphics are functional but may not appeal to all tastes. - Combines Carcassonne, tower defense (weight 0.06): The game blends Carcassonne-style gameplay with tower defense and deck-building mechanics, creating a unique combination. Some reviewers also compare it to 'They Are Billions' with deck-building elements, highlighting the hybrid nature of the gameplay. - Minimal recent development activity (weight 0.04): Recent development activity has been minimal, with a lack of updates and communication. The community appears inactive on Discord and Steam forums, suggesting a potential decline in player engagement and developer interaction. - Acts are isolated maps (weight 0.02): Each act in the game takes place on a new map, and players cannot return to previous maps. This design choice impacts progression and resource management, as decisions made in one act are permanent. - Incomplete Japanese translation (weight 0.02): The game's translation into Japanese is incomplete, with the tutorial and Act 1 being 70% translated, while later acts are mostly untranslated. This may hinder the experience for Japanese-speaking players. Emotions: No emotions}