Union of Gnomes Review Summary

Fun roguelike gameplay and interesting card strategy shine, but poor balance, excessive grinding, and forced card additions frustrate.

Game is fun and enjoyable: Players consistently describe the game as fun, solid, and charming, with good gameplay and great value. The overall experience is highly positive and engaging.

Roguelike mode is excellent: The roguelike mode is highlighted as significantly better than the campaign, with players finding it funny and enjoyable. This mode is a standout feature of the game.

Card strategy is interesting: Players find the card game mechanics interesting, with many card combinations and strategic depth. The card-based gameplay is a key positive aspect.

High replayability value: The game is described as absolutely replayable, offering good replayability. This suggests strong long-term engagement and variety in gameplay.

Music and sounds praised: The music is described as pleasant and entertaining, with great music and sounds overall. Audio quality contributes positively to the experience.

Poor balance and design issues: The game is frequently criticized for poor balance, including overpowered enemies, weak player cards, and design choices that undermine strategy. Specific examples include high enemy health, imbalanced evasion, and useless commander abilities.

Excessive grinding and slow progression: Players consistently complain about the extreme grind required for leveling, meta-progression, and unlocking content, with progression described as very slow and often blocked by high experience requirements. This is a major source of frustration across many clusters.

Forced card additions and deck dilution: The game forces players to add cards to their deck after battles, often with a penalty for refusing, which dilutes the deck and breaks classic deck-building strategy. This is compounded by limited card removal options and resource costs.

Food and sausage mechanic frustrating: The food/sausage system is widely criticized as tedious, poorly balanced, and necessary for movement and abilities, often leading to starvation and card loss. It adds unnecessary complexity and frustration to runs.

Repetitive and monotonous gameplay: Many reviews note that runs feel the same, with no need to adjust strategy once a good build is found, and that the game becomes monotonous after a few hours. This is due to a shallow card pool and limited variety.

Card-based roguelike deckbuilder: The game is consistently described as a card-based roguelike deckbuilder with tactical strategy elements, similar to Slay the Spire. Players build and manage a deck of gnome cards throughout runs.

Mana and resource management: Cards require mana to play, and players must manage resources like sausages and food for movement, abilities, and gnome upkeep. Strategic resource allocation is key.

Deck composition and upgrades: Players start with a deck of 10 gnomes, can add more gnomes during a run, and must pay upkeep for each. Upgrading individual gnomes and managing the deck size are important.

Meta-progression and multiple modes: The game features meta-progression systems and offers both a campaign mode and a roguelike mode. This provides players with varied progression methods and replayability.

Hero leveling and attributes: Heroes can level up, gaining attribute points and talents, and advancing the story unlocks new heroes. This adds a character progression layer to the gameplay.

Loading times are terrible: Players report that loading times are excessively long for a single-player roguelike deckbuilder, disrupting gameplay flow and immersion.

Crashes in mirror mode: The game crashes specifically when using mirror mode, which is a critical bug affecting a core feature.

Card readability on Steam Deck: Users find it difficult to read cards on the Steam Deck, indicating a UI scaling or resolution issue on handheld devices.

Lag moments during gameplay: Players encounter brief lag spikes lasting about 5 seconds, which can interrupt the experience but are infrequent.

Minor graphic hiccups: The game experiences minor graphical glitches that are not game-breaking but noticeable during play.

Recommended for deckbuilder fans: Multiple reviewers recommend the game to fans of deckbuilders and roguelikes, highlighting its unique personality and puzzle elements. This is a common positive sentiment across several clusters.

Worth the money: Reviewers state that players will get their money's worth and recommend buying the game. This indicates strong value for the price.

Recommended at low price: The game is recommended when purchased at a low price, implying it may not be worth full price.

Positive based on current content: Reviewers recommend the game based on its current content, indicating satisfaction with what is already available.

Wishlist and buy on sale: Reviewers suggest keeping the game on a wishlist and purchasing it during a sale, indicating it is not urgent to buy at full price.

Community fair range: $8.00 - $15.00.

Game completion: 7.0h.

Story completion: 7.0h.

Session length: 3.0h.

The game starts as an engaging and humorous card-based roguelike, but becomes tedious and unfun in later stages due to high-armor enemies, lack of progression, and deck-negating walls.

Roguelike Deckbuilder Enthusiast: Focuses on deck synergy, puzzle-like encounters, and iterative runs. Motivation: Enjoying the strategic deckbuilding and roguelike progression systems. Stance: buy.

Grind-Weary Veteran: Attempts to optimize decks but is blocked by RNG and progression walls. Motivation: Seeking a fair, skill-based challenge without excessive grinding or luck. Stance: no buy.

Cautious Sale Shopper: Plays but notes issues, waits for sales or updates before fully committing. Motivation: Wanting to enjoy the game's strengths without overpaying for its current flaws. Stance: sale.

Frequent comparisons to Slay the Spire: Many reviewers compare the game to Slay the Spire, often noting differences in pacing, combat rules, and enemy targeting. Some feel it lacks the control and strategic depth of Slay the Spire, while others appreciate its unique approach.

Early access with substantial content: Reviewers note the game is in early access but already offers a lot of content, including multiple maps and chapters. Some feel it is nearly finished and ready to leave early access, while others caution against marketing it as complete.

Unique twisted fairy tale premise: The game's story reimagines Snow White as a tyrant, with gnomes rebelling against her rule. This creative twist on classic tales is highlighted as a distinctive and engaging aspect of the game.

Language support praised: Reviewers appreciate the inclusion of Chinese, Japanese, and German language support, which broadens accessibility for international players. This is seen as a positive feature for a small indie title.

Steam Deck and touchscreen support: The game is playable on Steam Deck, with community control layouts and touchscreen functionality. This makes it versatile for different play styles and platforms.