I am writing this review after the devs have announced that they will discontinue the game, so please bear that in mind when reading.

I played this game for three days and was absolutely hooked (I did not bother to read the recent news so did not know that it will be discontinued). I can say that the mechanics, setting, and overall feel of the game made it my personal favorite CCG (and I have played MTG, Hearthstone, Gwent, ESL, and Faeria all more than I would like to admit). I was excited to devote time and effort to building several great decks (and the game was not pay to win like many of its competitors).

I honestly wish I had never read that the game will be discontinued, and had carried on playing in bliss. However, knowing what I know now has kept me from enjoying the game, and I have been playing games I know are inferior to this one just because they have a future and seem to have purpose (not that all games aren't pointless to some degree but I digress).

I sincerely hope that the devs come to realize the quality of the game they have started and reconsider their decision. If you guys do decide to bring the game back, you can count on me as a devoted member of your community.

Really good game, looking fowards for new content and artwork.

I've been playing Shardbound since late December so the hours of this review do not reflect the playtime I actually have.

Normally I go for goofy ass reviews with bad wordplay like 'Wow, you just Shardfound the best game ever' but this game is pretty neat so I'll throw a proper review it's way. Shardbound is a tactical CCG, a newcomer to a genre that has exploded in popularity over the past few years, however it's part of the later generation to tackle the genre, the generation that takes the core card game experience and pushes it to the next level of strategy and tactics, from Gwent and ESO to Faeria and Duelyst.

Shardbound puts it's twist on the genre by introducing hex-based gameplay coupled with line-of sight mechanics and built up maps that include boulders and high/low ground. This adds a new strategic depth to the genre and is what seperates it from others that have tackled the grid based style. Positioning of units is incredibly key, where you summon, where you move, how you bodyblock or use the map to your advantage. Every game of Shardbound challenges you to play the map in a different way, both reactively and proactively.


The gameplay is absolutely one of Shardbounds greatest strengths, however the progression that the Spiritwalk team have implemented take the game a step further. You as a player work on your own, or as part of a house, to fully power a 'vault' on a Shard. The Shard spawns a variety of Nodes that you can complete the objectives of to power the vault even more. This system isn't forced upon you so you find yourself having to bend over backwards to progress as there are always two constant nodes that just involve playing and dealing damage, however if you want too you can enjoy the challenge of crafting a deck with no duplicates, theming around artifacts or crushing face in X turns or less. The system encourages you and rewards you for stepping out of your comfort zone and exploring other options, but it doesn't force you to do this.

Once the vault has been powered to 100% you'll be rewarded a basic/bronze/silver/gold vault based on your contribution, these tiers will award you with a larger amount of rewards than their previous tiers. Currently inside of the vaults you can get either Chroma or Boxes. As of this newest patch, Chroma can only be used to purchase boxes however there are plans for more uses later down the line. The Boxes themselves are incredibly interesting. Straying from the usual 'bust it open and get X amount of random cards' a box in Shardbound will present you with 3 cards of the same rarity (Common/Rare/Epic/Legendary) and allow you to choose one of them. This allows you to have much more control over your progression and decks rather than being at the mercy of cruel RNG and never finding any of the cards you want.


There isn't too much to write here, but I feel that the visuals in SB deserve a segment of their own. As I mentioned previously, Shardbound uses 3D models for the gameplay. Not only is this much more immersive as you get to witness summoning animations, effects and attacks (Rather than just one oval crashing into another oval) but it also creates a more realistic feeling of the classic tabletop style of gameplay such as Warhammer 40k, marching your models into the opponents and waging all out war.

If you're crazy for the 3D model themselves, you can view each unit in the Barracks, spin them around and play their various animations and voice lines. However due to the nature of 3D models, they take much longer to create and implement, from concept art to modelling to rigging, so Shardbound in it's current state has a LOT of placeholder units. Saying that, more and more models are being added each week and you should absolutely go check out Quantum Turnkey as an example of the most recent model to be implemented so you can get a feel for the quality/character that's being produced.

While the game currently lacks much of a singleplayer experience outside of the tutorial, the potential for amazing lore is definitely in place. Spiritwalk as a studio are partly made up of a lot of Waystone developers who worked on a moba called Dawngate, and if you've heard of that or are aware of the awesome lore they did in that game, then you should have incredibly high hopes for what we can see in the world of Shardbound.


Ontop of the base game and everything I've just described to you, Shardbound is also supported by amazing Twitch Integration. You can join a Streamers 'Shard' and tackle a variety of nodes together, from playing against them with a random deck to submitting decks to watch the streamer play or playing decks the streamer submitted. While in it's earliest stages right now, the Twitch segment of this game is definitely something to keep an eye on if you're an aspiring streamer or you want to enjoy and experience the game alongside your favourite twitch personality.



Shardbound has come a crazy far way from when I first started playing back in December. With weekly patches that address balance issues and implement new feautures to how quickly we went from a 12hr playtest window on Tuesday Evenings to 24/7 access to NDA drop to Kickstarter being funded by 300% and now here to Steam Early Access. The rate of growth is staggering and I'm excited to see where the Spiritwalk team are going to take the game. However that being said, you should understand this is an EA game. As such, it is lacking in some of the features that other already established CCGs have such as a ranked mode or a 'draft' mode, but those will be coming soon.

So if you like tactical CCGs, hexbased gameplay, a beautifully crafted world from the lore to the art or you just have a real itch to hit the open skies in your jackknife and go explore some floating islands in the sky, Shardbound is the game for you.

This is a game with lot of potential, however I feel that it has some problems that keeps it from being really good.

1. Poor Optimization - This game is not really optimized for laptops etc. I feel much work can be done on that considering I can get 60 fps on Paladins.

2. Balance - So I played the tutorial and then lost 2 games. After that, I had already grasped the basics of the game - because I have prior history of being able to reach Legend rank in Hearthstone and have also played Eternal and Duelyst.

Needless to say, after analyzing all the factions in the crafting screen, i disenchanted everything I had so far and played orange. I went on a 20 game stomping streak, due to oranges ability to summon cheap flying minions (2/1) that could be buffed with banners and traded with 4-5 health mosnters with your heroes attack. Protecting them early game and using them as assassins to kill ranged and important units, I stole a lot of tempo from the enemy. Not to mention the ranged units and ridiculous sheild units and flying bomb units in the deck. As well as a draw discard mechanic that let me fast play cards by turn 6. Games just turned into me crowding the entire board, making favorable trades while my opponent was cowering in the corner. Played, right orange is just broken. By the time i had gotten a few levels, I already had a very powerful deck and legendary cards for the orange faction, from nothing.

3. Ui - the Ui could be more polished.

Did you like Hearthstone, but wished it little more depth (not an overhwhelming amount, but a bit more) and a little less randomness?

Spiritwalk Studios have created the perfect game for you. There are a ton of reasons to love this game (the art style is shaping up to be amazing / there are a ton of fun/unique cards / the classes are interesting / potential Single Player on the horizon) but those differences from Hearthstone were the most convincing to me in the game's current pre-alpha state.

The core gameplay is INCREDIBLE and rewarding to learn. Thinking about the game gets you more wins than just buying better cards or getting lucky, and that is so rare to have that without the game turning into Chess and removing the "heart". It's still a card game, it still has fun/unique characters and classes, but a little extra thought on your turns goes a long way and that is super refreshing. Community also happens to be super nice and developers clearly have a lot of passion. For some people I'd suggest waiting until the full release to experience the most polished product, but if any of what I said above interests you - checking this game out now will be worth your time!

pros:
+beautiful art style and voice acting
+tactical battlefield adds strategic depth
+plenty of deck Varity
+devs are actively updating this game weekly
+card box sys allows you to pick what you want
+a solid free to play model to increase your collection
+very few bugs despite being early access
+not pay to win
Cons:
-still a lot of placeholder art in game
-balance is still a work in progress

-Overall-
This is the best digital card game I’ve ever played. There is so much depth and strategy incorporated into this game by having a tactical battlefield, playing the card is just step one, next you move your minions and your hero around like chess pieces requiring smart positional decisions to achieve victory; meaning building a good deck can only get you so far. For a game currently in early access its very stable and looks great, but at the moment there is a lot of minions that have placeholder art, but the devs are actively updating art on a weekly basis and recently have announced that this will be getting ramped up in the coming months.

-The card box system, vaults, currency, spending real money, and other rewards-
Unlike traditional card games where you open packs and you keep all of its contents (usually 4-5+ cards), here you open boxes which contain 3 cards to choose from, you only get to pick and keep one. At first this might seem like a poor system, its not and heres why. Unlike in other games where you might get a legendary or epic card, you have no choice, even if its something for a faction you don’t play. Here you can choose between the 3 cards, increasing your chances of actually getting something you might use. Each box you get will indicate its rarity before you open it by mousing over said box, the 3 cards inside will all be of that rarity; common, rare, epic, and legendary. You wont be getting tons of common boxes either, the devs have generously boosted the chances of rare, epic and legendary boxes. There is even a pity sys in place to guarantee you an epic or legendary box per x amount of boxes opened. Card boxes are acquired in several ways. The free method is by playing the game and unlocking shard vaults, which are similar in hearthstone quests, except once completed you get another and there is no limit per day. Each vault has 9 seals and has 3 conditions that can be met to unlock up to 3 seals per game. You automatically get 1 seal for playing even if you lose, 2 for winning, and the 3rd is a randomly selected condition you must meet, like playing with a deck that only has 4 or less spells in it, or winning a game with your hero above 20 hp. So no matter what you are going to make progress, either in 3 games or 9 you will unlock that vault and then you collect its rewards. The 1st vault you unlock each day gives you 5 rewards instead of the standard 3. Rewards consist of croma of various denominations and card boxes. Croma is the current default currency, used to buy card boxes; there are future plans for using this currency for other things down the road. Destroying cards in your collection give another currency called royal marks that can be used to craft other cards you want, just like hearthstone dust.
You can spend real money in the store to acquire more boxes, there is a 1 time purchase per account “welcome bundle” for $4.99 that gives you 30 boxes and 1 guaranteed legendary, imo an amazing value. While there are a lot of cards in the starting core set, you are not required to spend any money, in fact a lot of the basic cards you can unlock just by complete the campaign tutorial are very solid cards used even at the higher ranks.

-The tactical battlefield and Line of sight-
Both players heroes spawn on opposite sides of the map, which consists of hexagon tiles. There is normal/low terrain, high terrain, boulders and dead zones that units cannot get to. Each player has a spawn zone, located on their side of the map where the hero spawned and usually extending out to the nearest high ground. Boulders can block line of sight (LOS) to protect your units, high ground also blocks LOS for units on opposite sides of the map on low ground. The battlefield can be manipulated by certain factions, for example green and orange can destroy boulders creating new pathways.

-Factions overview-
If you have played other card games then you kinda know what to expect in themes. I’m just gonna go over this vaguely. The neutral cards can be combined with any faction. Currently there is no multi colored faction options. the purple faction is similar to MTG black, having cards that can spawn thralls (think zombies) and grave rez and sapping life mechanics. Green which focuses on exile and seedling cards and loyalty where certain units that are next to your hero gain bonuses; as well and using boulders to spawn units or to blow boulders up for AOE damage. Red focuses on buffing stats, reducing mana cost and overwhelming your opponent with big minions. Blue is the ultimate control faction, using a mix of stuns, rooting enemies in place forever, reducing enemy attacks values and the ability to move enemies to different tiles. Yellow is the pack/animal faction that uses a bond mechanic to grant shared buffs between 2 units as well as special abilities that focus on injured enemy forces on the board. Orange focuses on shields (which negate 1 attack) and flyers, a lot of spells as well as using elevated terrain to your advantage.

-Minions and spells-
There are several different types of cards: melee, ranged, flying, artifacts, and spells. All units spawn on the battlefield have to sleep for the starting turn, unless they have charge. Units can generally only move up to 3 tiles per turn with few exceptions. Melee units have to get next to an enemy units tile to attack, all melee units when attacking other melee units will get counter attacked. Ranged units need line of sight to attack, however ranged units don’t trigger counterattacks from their targets and also can’t counter attack when attacked by other units. Flying are melee units that can move to any open tile on the map, with no 3 tile movement restrictions. Artifacts are considered minions, but they almost all immobile, they cant attack and must be protected, giving benefits ranging from spawning token minions, attack buffs, heals, drawing cards etc. Spells are a once time use cards that may or may not require line of sight of your intended target. Once the spell is used its gone, currently there is no way of recovering used spells; but some factions have ways to generate new spells.

-Ranking system-
The current ranking sys is a work in progress, you either win or lose valor pts by wining/losing each game, there are a number of ranks similar to other games, like bronze-diamond etc. while I wont be going into too much detail here as a lot can change (I think ive taken enough of your time already), its a very forgiving sys, you cant de rank unless you are at the highest league possible, so if you make it to gold, you are gold, to can win a lot of games and go to plat, but you will never go back to silver. There is 2 modes: “on duty” and “off duty.” Off duty disables losing/winning valor pts, like if you are testing a new deck. On duty is ranked play where you can win and lose valor pts.

-Final thoughts-
This is an amazingly deep tactical card game that requires more thought than simply building a deck and playing the cards. The tactical board to which you move around and fight on, while not an original concept, means no 2 games will play the same. The devs are very active with weekly updates and continue to maintain the trust of the community to deliver what they promised. It’s also free to play. Start downloading and if you have reached this pt, thanks for reading all this.

Being turn-based strategy games fan and 750+ hours on this game think I can say this game is masterpiece, even if in early access. Its like chess of strategy games. In higher ranks battles are very delicate and 1 mistake can determinate a winner. Read some people complain about having weak decks and being matched to too strong opponents, but that doesn`t happen often and it doesn`t mean you can`t win. Its more about skills then deck, as one guy proved by reaching final rank with only basic cards. You just need to invest some time in a game to figure it out and get all cards you need what will happen relatively fast since game is pretty generous on that. Of course better deck is an advantage and you can find great advices how to build decks on reddit. Also read complains about factions being disbalanced, but that is only due to delicacy of the game, it`s really challenging to create 6 equal factions. But devs work on that and take advices from players. Only real issue with game is low number of players but lets hope this will change once game is finished.
Highly recommended

Do you like Final Fantasy Tactics? Do you like Collectibe Card Games? Do you like Twitch integration? Then this game is for you! I don't think I have the time spent yet to give it a full review, but I am enjoying my time playing it and I keep coming back to the game.

With nearly 100h in, I finally decided to write a short review:

What I like about the game:
- different heroes with very different abilities and troops. Each plays very differently and allows different strategies
- the maps are fantastic and I love that positioning your units is key to be successful
- the artwork (I am talking about the finished art) is just beautiful
- there is a time-out, that pairs you with the AI, if you cannot find a PVP match within a certain period of time (really important due to the still limited playerbase)
- the generous login rewards and in game rewards (but see comment on lootboxes in general below)
- no seasons (yet); you rank up permanently, if you win enough games and as such play against opponents with similar skill/collection

What I don't like about this game:
- I more and more dislike lootboxes/microtransactions. I bought the steam summer sale. It allowed me to have a better collection from the start and a better playing experience than starting from scratch, I think. So far, so good...
However for potential expansions, I would prefer to pay a fixed amount and get the full expansion set. The cards could be unlocked while playing the game, giving you long-time motivation, instead of anxiety opening what you don't want or need to improve your current deck.

On a sidenote:
- that the art is unfinished doesn't impact play
- I don't think the game is unbalanced (anymore). Sure some matchups are harder than others, but that's part of the package having heroes with different abilities and armies. I play mostly green, but not because it is particularly strong, more because its suits my playstyle.

@Spiritwalk Games: Good luck! I love the game!

Thank you for reading my short review. Give Shardbound a try, it's after all a free to play game.

Necromancy's forbidden, but I'm glad the devs are back from the dead. As far as I know the game died, 'cose the devs got scammed by a publisher and had a spot of legal trouble there.
Very happy to see that Shardbound is still going and even got a pretty solid update today! Hope it's a start of a new age.
Give the game a go - it's pretty fun and unique. And the art style is gorgeous.