Call of Zadeus feels like a lot of different ideas were thrown into a pot and them immediately went to stirring. That is not to say that game elements feels disconnected or that it's a bad game, but there is an overwhelming lack of cohesion.

I 'm not just talking about divergent art styles ranging from medieval, high fantasy, dark fantasy to even low quality 3D. I'm also talking about gameplay mechanics and card effects that don't have an obvious build around (e.g. left most card or discard synergies).

A quick summary of the gameplay: The game is a roguelike deckbuilder that does away with the map nodes and adds a free-roaming map (which I liked). The cardplay is fairly unique, instead of fighting a small group of enemies, you fight a dozen enemies with the goal of surviving their onslaught. Once an enemy attacks, they are permanently removed making way to new enemies but once the enemy deck is depleted you win the battle.

Face tanking may not be the best strategy but knowing when to let damage through and save cards for bigger threats is a key tactical element in the game. On top of that you can usually only attack the front enemy, so you will need to use card effects to set yourself up for victory (or failure).

I have to say the card play felt good. There are a lot of different card effects, and while they might not be a lot of synergy support, they are fun to play individually.

Unfortunately, the rest of the game feels a bit unpolished and not as streamlined. For example, the game struggles with enemy variety, but then you unlock dungeons that have a lot more enemies locked away behind a mechanic that doesn't even feel rewarding to interact with. There is plenty of stuff to unlock, but it also feels too slow and not keeping pace fast enough to combat repetitiveness that sets in.

+ Deckbuilding and card play feel right.

+ Some interesting and unique ideas and mechanics.


* Can't see cards currently in your deck during combat.


- Clash of different artstyles can be jarring.

- Game mechanics salad that don't feel steamlined. Dungeons feel tacked on and unrewarding. The final, final battle is interesting but is a high score chase. Siege of towns is ignorable or frustrating.

- Unlocks feel too slow/grindy. This is especially true with difficulty increases tied to classes you played with. Since there isn't much difference between classes you have to chose between more aligned difficulty or more variation between runs.


Call of Zadeus feels like a tangled mess of good ideas and unique mechanics that needs polish and a clear focus to become truly compelling. Careful recommendation.

This game is wonderful already! It's like Mage Tower but way more fleshed out and with lots more cards and things to do. I'm really enjoying it so far. Some things to note: there are noticable glitches with graphics and sound at the moment, the dev is working on them, the graphics aren't going to be for everyone, but certain types of people are gonna love it. The tutorial dialog is well written and fun.
I really love the original Mage Tower and feel it's a truly underappreciated gem. This Sequel is all that and more and I'm very excited for upcoming updates. I really hope if it looks interesting to you you'll give it a try, this game series deserves a lot of love.
If I had one complaint it's that i don't care for the choices of battle music, but that's a very minor complaint, mechanically everything else is great to me. Wish i could just clear my calendar and sit down and play it every day for the next week or so.

Excellent content-rich follow-up to the physical card game. I was hooked on the original, and thanks to the digital format, am even MORE hooked on 2. Can't wait to see how this progresses!!

"Mage Tower 2: Call of Zadeus" is a rough gem that still needs quite a bit of polish to truly shine, but it's definitely an indie gem that has had a ton of passion and heart poured into it!

NOTE: I've played this game for almost two hours on my alternate main Steam account at the time of this review.

While lacking the extreme polish found in other deck building games like "Slay the Spire", this game tries to add a whole procedurally generated map to explore every time you play. This map exploration with trails, towns, and random enemies definitely gave me a "Mount and Blade" vibe. The game will let you know when an enemy is attacking a town and show you the direction to head should you want to try and save the town and be a hero.

https://youtu.be/SVeeKIOn0o0

While the UI and settings can definitely use some work and polish, the artwork is surprisingly well done for such an indie game and in my opinion makes this game worth the $15 USD asking price. When you consider all of the hard work put into this game, the price is certainly understandle. Indie developers with games like this obviously don't have a hundred thousand dollars to put into marketing to gamble for a pay off in return. What you get is a well done rough diamond here that might seem a little higher priced than you'd hope to pay but think about it from their POV. They've invested probably years and thousands of hours of work into this game... Is it a crime for them to just want to make a tiny profit over the next few years for all their hard work and sharing their creativity and passion with us?

It's a solid game and I've really enjoyed my first two games. The roguelike element is well done and makes me want to return again because I'll be just a little stronger than my last game.

RECOMMENDED: If you can accept a diamond with a few chips and some dirt on it, and enjoy rogue-like deck builders and or RPG games, this game might be exactly what you've been looking for! My First Impressions Score is a solid 8 out of 10!

ok so first, if you like shandalar, you're just going to want this, so let's get that out of the way

Mage Tower 2 is a charming little bite sized roguelike experience, with an engaging enough complete-objectives-based progression system, some very silly self-aware artwork, and some legitimately cool spells. where it really shines is the core gameplay though, just the fundamental decisions about how to play your hand each turn often feel a little more engaging than most roguelike deckbuilders for me.

sidenote, i find a lot of games by small teams without AAA quality UI designers like this are built for very hardcore audiences and are really difficult to get into, and you'd be forgiven for assuming that about mage tower, but it's actually really accessible imo. i think anyone comfortable with playing slay the spire or any card game on a casual level will be just fine here.

This game reminds me of MTG Shandralar in all the best ways.
Of course Call of Zadeus is it's own game and and has it's own charm, but I can see myself playing "just one more round..." until it's way to late or rather early in the morning, (just like back in the day) just as much.

Great game !
I haven't play Mage Tower 1 but this is nice.
TOwer defense card is new to me and it's make me think of magic the gathering with smaller deck.
You unlock things for future run that make it easier and new classes. FIrst run is quite hard when you don't really know how to play. You need to choose your battle carefully.

A very unique deckbuilder with so many fun interactions. Still EA at this point but I've been nothing but happy with the progress they've made.

very fun

Definitely has charm, potential and an active dev.
I like it so far. It's early access and I'm optimistic about the game's future :)
It's fun.