Info about Across the Obelisk: The Obsidian Uprising:

Official game description:
In The Obsidian Uprising, you’ll travel 30 years back in time to the dwarven city of Black Forge and discover a thrilling new Across the Obelisk story. Disaster looms over Black Forge. Gather your band of heroes, restore peace and battle your way back to present-day Senenthia.  
The Obsidian Uprising Story Pack builds the lore of Across the Obelisk and introduces a host of new items and unlockables to transform your gameplay experience.  
*   Upon investigating a mysterious rift in Velkarath, your party is thrown 30 years into the past to the ancient dwarven city of Black Forge to relive the events of the Obsidian Uprising.  
*   Team up with young versions of familiar heroes, quell the uprising and right what once went wrong. Can you find your way home, or will you remain stuck in time?  
*   Explore a sprawling multi-layered map. Travel back in time and discover the secrets behind a once glorious city.  
*   Unlock Scrappy, a new robot pet with previously unseen customization options. Progress through the story and craft Scrappy piece by piece. Choose from five different chassis and five different arms for a total of 25 unique combinations.  
*   Experiment with four new items exclusive to this Story Pack and unearth powerful new combos.  
*   Ensure your heroes are ready for this industrial adventure with seven steampunk-themed character skins.  
*   Give your deck a makeover with a beautiful new card back.  
*   Share the story with your co-op party. Only one adventurer per party needs to own The Obsidian Uprising to enjoy this time-traveling tale.

Release date: May 15, 2024

Categories: Deckbuilder, Roguelite, Cooperative Multiplayer, Turn-based Combat, RPG, Time Travel Mechanics, Pet System, Dungeon Crawler

Feature scans:
- MTX: score 15; verdict: Fair / DLC-Only; summary: The reviews focus on paid DLC access failures and debates over DLC price and value. One review ambiguously mentions buying a new pet but frames it as DLC content, not a separate cash-shop purchase. No review provides direct evidence of an in-game real-money shop, premium currency, loot boxes, gacha pulls, paid power, or convenience items. The monetization evidence remains consistent with a DLC-only model, so the score is capped in the fair range.

- Hardware Profile: No data
Feature extractions:
- Community Price:
  - Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00
  - Reasoning: All available reviews discuss add-on content pricing rather than the base game itself, so the fair base-game range must be inferred indirectly. The community treats a $5 add-on as an easy impulse purchase and a $10 add-on as acceptable only with perspective or a discount, which indicates a price sensitivity ceiling well below premium AAA expectations. Reviewers repeatedly frame value in terms of 'content received' versus dollars spent and advise waiting for sales, suggesting the community expects the core product to sit in the budget-to-mid indie tier. Anchoring on that tolerance — roughly two to three times what reviewers call a fair add-on price, while keeping the entry point low enough to avoid the sale-only sentiment expressed here — points to a fair base-game range of about $15 to $25. Confidence is low because no review states a base-game price directly and the evidence is entirely DLC-focused.
- Playtime Metrics:
  - Game completion: 1.0h
  - Story completion: N/A
  - Session length: N/A
  - Endgame: 5.0h
  - Reasoning: Two reports cap the new DLC content at about one hour: one says the new content can be beaten in an hour, and another says the DLC alone is worth at most 1 hour of new gameplay. That supports gameCompletion at 1 hour for the DLC's added content. A separate report says that through future runs the new content will have provided well over 5 hours of use, so endgame/replay value is set to a conservative 5 hours. No review gives a distinct story-only completion time or a typical session length, so storyCompletion and sessionLength are null. I excluded the 1,000-hour AtO comment because it refers to the base game, not this DLC.
- Time-to-fun: No data
- Player Archetypes:
  - Dedicated Co-op Veteran (buy)
    - Motivation: To keep enjoying long-term cooperative runs and access new DLC content with an established play group.
    - Playstyle: Plays mostly multiplayer co-op over hundreds of hours and evaluates DLC through the lens of dedicated group play.
    - Experience: veteran
    - Purchase stance: buy
    - Labels: N/A
    - Reference games: N/A
  - Sale-Waiting Value Shopper (sale)
    - Motivation: To get worthwhile DLC content without paying full price, especially when the added content is modest.
    - Playstyle: Waits for discounts, skips optional content if value is low, and recommends the DLC only when cheap.
    - Experience: familiar
    - Purchase stance: sale
    - 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:
- Fun new enemies and items (weight 0.88): New enemies are interesting to fight and the added items are enjoyable to use. The free pet is also a nice bonus for higher difficulty levels.
- Compelling story and lore (weight 0.76): The DLC delivers an engaging side story with many twists and rich lore. Bringing related heroes unlocks dedicated dialogue that enhances the narrative.
- Visually impressive new area (weight 0.63): The new explorable area has excellent aesthetics and shows clear effort in its design. Reviewers consistently praise how great it looks.
- Sub-area decoupled from characters (weight 0.61): Keeping your own characters and bringing existing party members to farm the new area is a pro-consumer design choice. This allows repeated play without restrictions.
- Abundant cosmetic and content additions (weight 0.59): The DLC includes many skins (7 unlock immediately), new items, cards, a small map, and 2 new pets. Overall gameplay remains fun with these additions.
- Active developer support and updates (weight 0.57): Developers continuously work on the game, delivering a huge number of changes and new sound design in this patch. This ongoing effort is appreciated by reviewers.
- Fun and rewarding new dungeon (weight 0.46): The added dungeon is accessible during normal runs and offers decent rewards. Players consider it a must-visit when reaching the red area.

Common complaints:
- Poor value for price (weight 0.95): Players feel the DLC does not add enough content to justify its cost, with some saying it offers at most an hour of new gameplay.
- DLC content remains locked (weight 0.66): Players who purchased the DLC report that special skins and other content remain locked, and the game repeatedly prompts them to buy it again. Reinstalling does not fix the issue.
- Pet must be rebuilt each run (weight 0.62): The Scrappy pet cannot be kept between runs and must be recreated by detouring to the red zone every time, which players find tedious.
- New map is too small (weight 0.6): Reviewers note that the new area is not large and contains very little content, feeling like a single side area with only about eight encounters.
- Lack of meaningful player choice (weight 0.57): The story feels like the player is a passenger rather than the protagonist, with an anti-climactic ending that reveals no true choice.
- Insufficient cards for new playstyles (weight 0.42): There are fewer cards than characters and not enough cards to expand new playstyles, leaving players wanting more variety.
- Pet availability and quality issues (weight 0.4): The new pet cannot be bought separately and is considered so-so by players, adding little value to the DLC.
- Underwhelming cards and items (weight 0.24): The cards and items added by the DLC are considered underwhelming and do not significantly enhance the gameplay experience.
- Robot is lame (weight 0.22): Players find the robot concept uninteresting and poorly executed.
- Skins are the only draw (weight 0.22): Some players feel the only reason to get the DLC is for the skins, not for the gameplay content.
- Greedy monetization practices (weight 0.22): The developers are accused of becoming disgustingly greedy with the Halloween skin pack after seeing community support.
- Weaker characters on higher difficulties (weight 0.22): On higher Madness Levels or in sandbox with buffed monsters, the new zone provides weaker characters, making it unnecessarily hard.

Gameplay feedback:
- DLC adds new dungeon area (weight 0.64): The DLC introduces a new sub-map or mini dungeon that players can enter during normal runs, similar to the time rift. It appears in the volcano map and is playable in multiplayer.
- New content supports repeat runs (weight 0.62): The added content is designed for repeated use in future runs, including with friends. Players can bring existing party characters to farm and keep their own characters in the new zone.
- Pet crafting and rebuilding system (weight 0.44): A pet crafting system allows players to build a Scrappy pet and remake it at the red zone. The DLC includes two new pets.
- New enemies story and items (weight 0.42): The DLC adds new enemies, story elements, and items. It also includes a new pet as part of the content.
- Multiplayer access with one owner (weight 0.26): In multiplayer, only one player needs to own the DLC for the group to access the area. This makes the content easily shareable among friends.
- Robot building and progress checks (weight 0.24): The area's events involve building a robot or passing progress checks. These mechanics add interactive objectives within the new zone.

Performance notes:
No performancepoints

Recommendations:
- Buy only on sale (weight 0.62): Several reviewers recommend purchasing only if the DLC is discounted, indicating that full price is not justified. This suggests limited perceived value.
- Ownership bug blocks DLC (weight 0.26): A user reports an ownership bug that prevents access to the DLC, leading to a not-recommended verdict. This technical issue undermines the purchase experience.
- Value only for replayers (weight 0.25): The DLC is recommended specifically for players who regularly replay content, while those who don't are advised to skip it. This highlights a niche target audience.
- Veterans need expansion (weight 0.25): The DLC is recommended for veteran players seeking new content to extend their experience. This positions it as aimed at dedicated fans.
- Unique pet and red area (weight 0.25): The DLC is considered worth it for the unique pet and the opportunity to visit the red area. These features are highlighted as the main draw.
- Wait for map DLC (weight 0.24): Some suggest holding off on this purchase and waiting for a new map DLC instead. This implies the current offering is less appealing than future content.
- Share DLC with friends (weight 0.24): When playing with friends, only one person needs to own the DLC for everyone to access it. This cooperative aspect reduces the cost barrier.
- Support the developers (weight 0.22): The addon is recommended as a way to support the game and receive a token of appreciation. This frames the purchase as a gesture of goodwill.

Other player notes:
- Stronger than Wolf Wars DLC (weight 0.76): Multiple reviewers highlight that this DLC is a notable improvement over the previous Wolf Wars expansion, with better design and consumer-friendly choices. It is considered a stronger release overall.
- Content feels thin for price (weight 0.62): Some reviewers feel the DLC offers only about an hour of new gameplay plus a pet, skins, and cards, which is too little for the asking price. Concerns are raised about the developers' ability to deliver sufficient value.
- New zone retains party (weight 0.44): Unlike Wolf Wars, the new Obsidian Uprising zone allows players to bring their existing party characters, which is seen as a significant quality-of-life improvement.
- Fire region sub-area added (weight 0.26): The DLC introduces a new sub-area in the fire region featuring new enemies, story content, items, and a pet, expanding the game's world.
- Frequent developer patches (weight 0.25): The developers are noted for constantly updating the game with patches, showing ongoing support and responsiveness.
- Multiplayer DLC sharing (weight 0.24): In multiplayer, only one player needs to own the DLC for the group to access the content, which is highlighted as a positive feature.
- Favorable Blizzard price comparison (weight 0.24): One reviewer points out that Blizzard would charge much more for just one of the items included in this DLC, framing the pricing as reasonable by comparison.

Emotions:
- Frustration (weight 0.31): Players are frustrated by being unable to access purchased DLC and repeated failed attempts to fix it. The new area feels pointless with repetitive robot-building events and progress checks, and having to rebuild the pet each run while getting weaker characters on higher difficulties adds to the annoyance. Card variety is also lower than character variety, and some feel the developers do not know how to make DLC.
- Disappointment (weight 0.25): Disappointment stems from having to detour to the red zone and remake the Scrappy pet every run. The robot is considered lame, with skins as the only incentive, and the story feels like a passenger experience with no true player choice. The DLC's short length and underwhelming cards and items further contribute.
- Satisfaction (weight 0.19): Satisfaction comes from supporting developers who constantly update the game. The content is reasonably priced and includes lots of skins and items, and players appreciate being able to bring existing characters to farm and unlock useful items.
- Disgust (weight 0.06): Disgust is directed at the developers' greedy handling of the Halloween skin pack despite community support.
- Admiration (weight 0.06): Admiration is felt because the area looks great and the new enemies are fun to fight.
- Worry (weight 0.06): Worry arises from concern about the developers' future and the value of the DLC.
- Amusement (weight 0.06): Amusement is derived from the area being a fun little area.}