Shards of Order Review Summary

Epic music and dark atmosphere with amazing visuals and deep deckbuilding, but hampered by punishing death mechanics, forced builds, and small fonts.

Epic music and sound: The soundtrack and sound design are epic, dark, and haunting, perfectly fitting the atmosphere and enhancing the experience.

Dark atmospheric setting: The dark fantasy, grimdark world and atmosphere are consistently praised for their immersive and cohesive aesthetic.

Great value for price: Players consistently praise the game's low price ($10) and excellent price-to-quality ratio, noting it offers great value and content.

Amazing art and visuals: The art style, hand-drawn environments, and animations receive high praise for being beautiful and fitting the dark fantasy mood.

Deep customization options: RPG elements include significant customization through gear, skill trees, and development choices that impact playstyle.

Revive system too punishing: The revive mechanic is excessively harsh, requiring six health per player when someone dies, which makes recovery feel nearly impossible and severely punishes mistakes.

No long-term progression: There is no sense of long-term progression or meta-progression, which combined with limited content leads to very low replayability.

Forced specific builds: Players are forced to use specific builds to defeat bosses, restricting creative or preferred playstyles and making experimentation unrewarding.

Fonts and UI too small: Fonts and UI elements are too small to read comfortably, and the overall interface is simplistic and in need of improvement for better usability.

Excessive backtracking: The game forces excessive backtracking without providing clues for progression, leading to aimless wandering and frustration.

Deckbuilding with RPG elements: The game is primarily a deck-building card game with significant RPG elements, distinguishing it from pure roguelikes. Players build and customize a deck over the course of the game, with progression and story integration.

Card-based turn-based combat: Combat is card-based and turn-based, featuring a unique flow with mechanics like time resources, tarot card choices, and puzzle-like encounters. This creates a strategic and distinct combat experience.

Not a roguelike RPG: The game is explicitly not a roguelike or roguelite, but rather an RPG with story-driven progression and no loss on death. It focuses on narrative and character development over permadeath mechanics.

Party-based hero synergies: The game features a party-based system with three heroes whose abilities synergize. Class-based card synergies and a shielding mechanic that carries over between turns require strategic team management.

Time-based shield carryover: Combat incorporates a time-based resource system where shields and other effects carry over between turns. This unique mechanic influences strategic decisions and battle flow.

Highly recommended by many: A large number of reviews give strong recommendations, calling it a no-brainer buy, a steal for the price, and a 9/10 or 100% recommend. The game is praised for its value and overall quality.

Perfect for deckbuilding fans: Multiple reviews highlight that the game is a must-buy for fans of deckbuilders and RPGs, comparing it favorably to titles like Thronebreaker and emphasizing its RPG elements and card battler mechanics.

Difficulty can be punishing: A few reviews note that the game has punishing difficulty, which may frustrate players, with one reviewer feeling they were fighting the progression system rather than enjoying the game.

Artistic and replayable: One review calls the game a work of art, and another highlights great replay value with multiple deck builds, indicating high artistic and replayability qualities.

Best when mentally fresh: Two reviews suggest the game is best played when mentally fresh and focused due to heavy text, and is not recommended when tired.

Community fair range: $10.00 - $15.00.

Game completion: 10.0h.

The game’s time-to-fun profile shows mixed early reactions: some players enjoy it immediately, but others experience friction from the progression system and a slow tutorial area before the game becomes engaging. The anchor for later enjoyment is likely completing the tutorial area.

Friction: fighting progression system; lack of long-term progression; slow start in tutorial area.

Unlock drivers: progression system accessible (death not mandatory); post-tutorial content.

Deckbuilding Campaigner: Strategically builds and manages a deck across a narrative campaign, making tactical card battle choices with a party of characters. Motivation: To enjoy a deckbuilding experience with RPG progression and a completable campaign that is not a roguelike. Stance: buy.

Atmosphere Seeker: Explores the dark story, immerses in the eldritch horror atmosphere, and appreciates the visual art and music. Motivation: To be drawn into a mysterious, horror-filled world with strong atmospheric presentation and storytelling. Stance: buy.