Info about The Simulacrum:

Official game description:
Welcome to The Simulacrum, a unique blend of card-battling roguelite and deckbuilding gameplay with procedurally generated cards allowing for endless deckbuilding possibilities. Each run you'll find new never seen before cards, it's like having a new expansion every time you play.  
Delve into The Simulacrum, facing off against increasingly difficult opponents. As you progress through each level, you'll be able to collect new cards and add them to your deck, find events that may modify your cards in unpredictable ways, and discover new guardians to challenge.  
When a run is over, if you ventured deep enough, the cards you found will be added to your main collection, which you can use to build decks to challenge the difficult guardians of The Simulacrum and collect their leader cards. The deeper you delve, the more cards you'll bring back, adding more to your permanent toolbox of cards for use in this persistent mode.  
Find combos unique to your collection. With a practically limitless amount of different cards, you'll have access to a completely unique pool of cards compared to other players, both in delves and for the guardian fights. Adapt to the tools you have to build uniquely powerful decks and conquer The Simulacrum.
Features
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*   Card Battling Roguelite with endless possible cards  
*   30+ Relics to build around  
*   20+ Starting leader cards  
*   A PvP friend battle system  
*   A PvP draft mode  
*   An autobattle mode  
*   Puzzle boss battles, where you use the cards you've collected to build a deck to overcome difficult challenges

Release date: 24 Jun, 2023

Categories: Card-based Gameplay, Deckbuilding, Roguelike, Procedural Generation, Autobattler, Single-player, Competitive Multiplayer, Puzzle Solving, Collection Game


- 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:
- Unique AI Card Generation (weight 1): Players consistently praise the game's unique concept, particularly the procedurally generated cards and their impact on gameplay. This feature provides immense replayability, leading to unpredictable and often 'busted' combos, making each run feel fresh and exciting. The core gameplay loop is highly addictive and engaging.
- Excellent Value for Price (weight 0.78): Many players feel the game offers exceptional value for its price, often describing it as a 'steal' or 'gem'. The depth, replayability, and overall fun provided far exceed its cost, making it a highly recommended purchase.
- Responsive & Active Developers (weight 0.13): The development team is highly praised for their responsiveness, consistent updates, and quick bug fixes. This active engagement with the community and ongoing improvements contribute significantly to player satisfaction and the game's evolving quality.
- Deep Strategic Gameplay (weight 0.11): The game offers deep strategic gameplay, requiring players to constantly adapt their tactics. The variety of cards, leaders, and procedural generation ensures a vast array of viable strategies and exciting combo possibilities, appealing to fans of tactical card games.
- Diverse Deck Building (weight 0.06): The game allows for significant deck variety, with each deck feeling distinct. Players enjoy collecting and enhancing cards obtained through runs to build diverse and powerful collections.
- Fast & Fun Combat (weight 0.05): Combat encounters are described as fast-paced, fun, and a core strength of the game. The streamlined nature of battles allows for quick decision-making and an enjoyable flow.
- Desire for Multiplayer (weight 0.03): There is a desire among players for a multiplayer mode, particularly to play with friends. This suggests a potential area for future development to enhance social engagement.

Common complaints:
- Poorly explained mechanics (weight 0.57): Many players found the game's mechanics and systems poorly explained, leading to a steep and frustrating learning curve. The lack of a comprehensive tutorial and clear UI elements makes it difficult for new players to understand core gameplay, combat outcomes, and card interactions.
- Unbalanced and random card generation (weight 0.57): The procedural card generation often results in a high percentage of useless or unbalanced cards, making deckbuilding frustrating and runs feel unfair. Players also noted issues with card wording, difficulty spikes from overpowered enemies, and general balance problems with certain mechanics like relics and unit enhancements.
- Poor UI and visual design (weight 0.54): The user interface is consistently criticized for being clunky, visually unappealing, and difficult to navigate. Issues include inconsistent font sizes, unclear indicators, lack of basic features like mana curves in the deckbuilder, and repetitive or uninspired card art.
- Significant bugs and instability (weight 0.5): The game is plagued by numerous bugs, ranging from minor visual glitches to critical issues like cards freezing, softlocks, and crashes. These bugs significantly disrupt gameplay, can ruin runs, and make the game feel unpolished and unreliable.
- Lacks originality and innovation (weight 0.46): The game is perceived as lacking originality, with many comparing it unfavorably to established titles like Magic: The Gathering and Slay the Spire. Players feel it doesn't introduce new mechanics or a captivating universe, making it feel like a derivative experience.
- Slow and unrewarding progression (weight 0.07): Players find the progression system for acquiring new cards and currency to be slow and tedious. The in-game economy offers limited meaningful ways to spend virtual currency, and the collection can quickly become flooded with uninteresting items.
- Underdeveloped multiplayer experience (weight 0.07): Multiplayer modes are largely unpopulated and lack essential features, making it difficult to find opponents or play with friends. The current state of PvP is considered a 'joke' by some, indicating a need for significant improvements.
- Underwhelming AI-generated art (weight 0.04): The use of AI-generated art is noted as underwhelming and sometimes contributes to clarity issues, particularly during spell effects. While some art is described as 'crazy,' the overall impression is mixed.
- Poor animation speed optimization (weight 0.01): The animation speed slider, intended to improve pacing, is poorly optimized and causes performance issues like lag when set above 75%.
- Large game file size (weight 0.01): The game's installation size is noted as 9 gigabytes, which might be a point of concern for players with limited storage.
- Missing difficulty save option (weight 0.01): A quality-of-life improvement suggested is the ability to save the last played difficulty level, streamlining the user experience.
- Limited customization options (weight 0.01): The game offers limited customization options, which might disappoint players looking for more personalization.
- No mid-run save feature (weight 0.01): Players desire a save feature during runs, suggesting that the current lack of mid-run saves can be frustrating.

Gameplay feedback:
- Procedurally Generated Cards (weight 0.43): The game features an extensive system of procedurally generated cards, ensuring a unique experience with each playthrough. This includes AI-generated art and effects, making almost every card encountered new and different. The core gameplay is a roguelike deckbuilder, similar to Magic: The Gathering or Slay the Spire, with a focus on evaluating and utilizing these randomized cards.
- Core Delve Mode (weight 0.26): The 'Delve' mode is the primary roguelike experience, akin to Slay the Spire or Hearthstone's Dungeon Run. Players navigate branching paths, battle enemies, and collect or modify cards. Cards acquired in Delve runs are permanently added to the player's collection, allowing for continuous progression and deck refinement.
- Challenging Boss Fights (weight 0.12): Boss battles are a significant part of the game, requiring players to strategically build and adapt their decks to overcome specific challenges and gimmicks. Defeating bosses unlocks new commanders and provides in-game currency, encouraging players to engage with this challenging content.
- Unique Mana System (weight 0.1): The game features a unique mana system where players transmute a card from their hand each turn to generate mana. This discarded card then acts like a 'land' in other TCGs, increasing the mana cap and providing resources for spells and units. This mechanic adds a strategic layer to hand management.
- Autobattler Combat (weight 0.07): Combat in the game is an autobattler style, where units automatically attack the leftmost valid target on the opponent's board at the end of a turn. Players do not directly choose attackers or blockers, emphasizing board presence and strategic unit placement over direct combat control.
- Multiple Game Modes (weight 0.07): Beyond the core Delve mode, the game offers a variety of other modes, including constructed play against AI or other players, Gauntlet, and Draft. This provides diverse ways to engage with the game's mechanics and card collection.
- Draft & Constructed Synergy (weight 0.05): The Draft mode, particularly when combined with the Delve system, offers significant replayability and depth. Cards acquired in the roguelike Delve mode can be brought into constructed modes, bridging the gap between the two primary gameplay loops.
- Unique Mechanics & Relics (weight 0.05): The game incorporates a Relic system and other unique mechanics that differentiate it from traditional card games. This contributes to the overall variation and distinctiveness of the gameplay experience.
- Steep Learning Curve (weight 0.04): The game has a steep learning curve, requiring players to invest time to understand its unique systems and mechanics. Despite this, it offers easily attainable achievements, which might provide early progression feedback.
- Evolving Card Abilities (weight 0.03): Cards in the game can evolve and gain new abilities over time, adding a dynamic element to deck construction and gameplay. Some card abilities also allow for further transmutation of cards from hand or deck.
- PvP Imbalance (weight 0.03): While acquiring units through delves is generally easier and more enjoyable than core packs, PvP matches can suffer from imbalance due to players bringing extremely powerful units obtained from deep delve runs, leading to one-sided encounters.

Performance notes:
- Excellent game optimization (weight 0.04): Players consistently report that the game is well-optimized and runs smoothly on a wide range of hardware configurations. This indicates a strong technical foundation for the game's performance.
- Performance issues with animations and combos (weight 0.04): Multiple players experienced significant lag, particularly when animation speed is increased or specific deck combinations are used. This suggests performance issues tied to visual effects and complex game states.
- Unstable 'Challenge a Friend' mode (weight 0.02): The 'Challenge a Friend' mode is frequently reported as unstable, leading to a poor user experience. This indicates a critical bug or network issue within this specific game mode.

Recommendations:
- Highly Recommended for Card Game Fans (weight 0.27): Many players highly recommend this game, especially for fans of roguelite deck-builders and card games like Slay the Spire, Monster Train, Magic: The Gathering, or Hearthstone. They often highlight its value for money and unique card discovery.
- Mixed or Negative Recommendation (weight 0.1): Some players do not recommend the game, with a few even requesting refunds. This negative sentiment often stems from an inability to play the game or a perception that it is not worth its price.
- Research Before Buying (weight 0.02): One piece of advice suggests that potential buyers should watch gameplay videos before purchasing. This indicates that the game might not appeal to everyone and requires prior research to ensure it fits individual preferences.

Other player notes:
- Promising Early Access Future (weight 0.08): Players are optimistic about the game's future development during Early Access. They are eager to see how the game evolves and what new content or improvements will be introduced in upcoming updates.
- Inconsistent Difficulty Spikes (weight 0.05): Player experiences with difficulty are inconsistent and fluctuate significantly. Some players found the game extremely challenging early on, while others quickly mastered it, only to face difficulty spikes again later. This suggests potential balance issues.
- Desire Card Crafting System (weight 0.04): Players desire more control over card acquisition and modification. They suggest implementing a crafting system or more in-game events that allow for direct iteration and customization of cards, rather than relying solely on shop purchases or fixed rewards.
- Delve Mode Needs Variety (weight 0.02): The delve mode is perceived as lacking variety and depth. Players want more diverse events and additional methods for character progression beyond basic leader upgrades to enhance the replayability and engagement of this mode.

Emotions:
- Satisfaction (weight 0.41): Players are highly satisfied with the game's unique concept of procedurally generated cards, which leads to endless replayability and diverse strategic possibilities. The core gameplay loop, including deck building, combat mechanics, and the 'Delve' feature, provides a deeply engaging and rewarding experience. Developer responsiveness and consistent updates also contribute significantly to player contentment.
- Excitement (weight 0.18): Excitement stems from the game's innovative procedurally generated card system, which creates unpredictable and thrilling battles. Players are thrilled by the potential for wacky and powerful card combos, the constant introduction of new content, and the overall high quality and unique nature of the game. The promise of future features and ongoing development also fuels this excitement.
- Frustration (weight 0.15): Frustration is primarily caused by game-breaking bugs, a lack of clear tutorials or explanations, and issues with the user interface, such as unplayable UI or difficult deckbuilders. Players also experience frustration due to occasional game imbalance, jankiness, and the perceived randomness leading to unfair losses. Specific concerns include slow progression, useless cards, and unstable multiplayer.
- Disappointment (weight 0.08): Disappointment arises from unpolished aspects of the game, including a clunky UI, unclear presentation, and general lack of polish. Players are also disappointed by certain game design choices, such as a perceived wrong direction for the game, and the absence of desired features like a multiplayer mode. Technical issues preventing the game from working further contribute to this emotion.
- Joy (weight 0.05): Joy is derived from the fun and emergent gameplay, particularly the procedurally generated cards that lead to discovering busted strategies. The enjoyable combat and easy learning curve contribute to a positive and engaging loop, providing hundreds of hours of entertainment.
- Anticipation (weight 0.02): Anticipation is focused on the game's future, specifically the potential for new card combos and the evolution of the game as it progresses through early access towards a finished product.
- Mild frustration (weight 0.02): Mild frustration is experienced due to slow progression, as well as general balance issues and rough edges in the game's current state. These are seen as minor inconveniences rather than major impediments.
- Anger (weight 0.01): Anger is caused by significant issues such as the loss of game progress and the presence of disruptive bugs, which severely impact the player experience.
- Challenge (weight 0.01): Players feel challenged by the game's steep learning curve and the continued difficulty presented by its mechanics. This indicates a desire for mastery and engagement with complex systems.
- Curiosity (weight 0.01): Curiosity is sparked by the game's unique concept of randomized Magic: The Gathering-like elements and the intriguing nature of procedural generation, prompting players to explore its possibilities.
- Understanding (weight 0.01): Players express understanding regarding the presence of issues, attributing them to the game's early access status. This suggests a degree of patience and acceptance for an unfinished product.
- Desire (weight 0.01): Players express a desire for more variety in content, specifically more crafting options and additional card iteration events, indicating a wish for deeper customization and gameplay depth.
- Determination (weight 0.01): Determination arises from the game's difficulty, motivating players to overcome challenges and persist in mastering the game's mechanics.
- Boredom (weight 0.01): Boredom is caused by a perceived lack of sufficient game content, suggesting that players exhaust available experiences and desire more to keep them engaged.
- Hope (weight 0.01): Hope is tied to the game's initial potential, with players expressing a desire for continued developer support and love to realize that potential fully.
- Initial confusion (weight 0.01): Initial confusion is experienced when players first encounter the game's card parsing system, indicating a slight learning curve at the very beginning of gameplay.}