I love Harry Dresden... I love Jim Butcher.. I love card games.... I HATE this game...

Dresden Files Cooperative Card Game is set in the Dresden Files universe, with characters and plot mechanics from the books becoming cards that work for or against you. Each book is its own set of obstacles, advantages, foes and cases that become the board that Dresden and his allies try to overcome.

If you are the kind of player that runs away from a challenge because of a bloody nose, Dresden Files is not for you. You will lose in the beginning, a lot. I know I did. To win takes elements of both skill and luck, like any other game with cards and dice. However, it seems the more I play, the luckier I get ... hmm, that could be the skill factor of being able to recognize the better plays to make and better risks to take.

6 hours into playing solo with some tenacity (and some eff words) and trying different approaches, I got a few wins on Easy (like 3 of 20 lol). But when those wins happened they felt good!

10 hours into playing solo, I had beaten all the books in the base game on Easy. Death Masks gave me a lot of trouble. But after a bunch of tries and character combos, I figured out the stumbling blocks of the board. I decided to pick up all the expansions at this point.

26 hours into playing solo, I’m still having fun and the game still poses a challenge. I’ve beaten all the books on Normal, mostly just using Thomas and Sanya as allies. I win like 8 out of 10 solo games on Normal. When the Advantages and Obstacles are deep in the rows, or a certain card blocks things up it is still difficult or impossible to win.

50 hours into playing solo, I still really enjoy this game. Worked on the achievements. All the multi-player ones can be completed in Hotseat mode. Except for a couple of books, Thomas and Sanya are still my go-tos. But I'm learning to play the other characters as well. Lowering the difficulty and randomizing the allies is a great way to go about this.

100 hours into playing solo, I am still really having fun. I pretty much just play Merlin level now and win more than I lose. Most of the losses that occur are rather ties than outright failures. If a couple of dice had gone for rather than against me, I would have won many of those as well. My new favourite companions are Michael and Susan. They can usually stomp all the books, except Death Masks and Small Favor.

Playing the card game inspired me to read the first four books in the series. I read the first two in the same week, as they are just that amazing. Getting to know the stories and characters has further increased my enjoyment and appreciation of this game.

If you like challenging logic puzzles with random elements thrown in, this game has real charm.

This review is hard to articulate, so take from this whatever you can.
(30 hours of in-game experience)
(23/24 Achivements)
(Huge fan of the books)
(Lover of tabletop and card games, as well as video games)
(Received the digital expansions for free due to backing the original via crowdfunding)
(...I don't think any reviewers here are paid? But I'm not being paid for this, for whatever it's worth.)

+The game is a faithful recreation of the physical card game, and save for a few minor UI issues that I was informed they're going to patch, the game for what it is, succeeds quite well in doing that.

+As with the physical game, I like the artwork (for the most part) of the cards and character depictions, and the card designs themselves aren't overly flashy or obnoxious with their layout or designation. Simple, straightforward, and clear.

+The game is challenging (but this is also part of my biggest issue), and I do think that the on-sale price of around 16.00 USD is a fair pricepoint vs amount of time I have played so far.

+The game is very stable; never had any crashes or freezing occur. In fact, the only issue I had with that was a necessity for an online connection every time I wanted to use the expansion decks (which when asked about, the Devs were VERY prompt with their response of their working on it, and it seems to have been successfully patched).

~The game's aesthetic is alright; card artwork aside, the lack of animations and flair is a little underwhelming. But this isn't supposed to be a Yu-Gi-Oh! card game or similar style of games, so it doesn't really hurt the game. (And I'm kind of torn; would I prefer really ugly or low-quality "effects" or not have any at all? I kind of am inclined to the latter.)

~The music/sound effects are a mixed bag: the music is supposed to vary by each Book's deck, but save for one or two noticeable sounds, it all kind of sounds the same and is forgettable. But that doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it; they remind me a lot of those cheesy but fun Halloween ambience cd's. (I can easily see people groaning or facepalming in regards to this sort of direction.)

-The game is essentially a micromanagement/resource/numbers game. (See below)

-Level of skill of player is irrelevant towards gameplay.

(?) I can't attest to the online play, as I don't have much interest in that with the game, so I can't give any informed opinion on how good or bad that is.


So, you might be thinking "Why aren't you fully recommending this game when you seem to like more than dislike the game?"

Well, the simple fact is, I despise the game (but NOT this digital version of said game).

The whole "pitch" for this game was "What-if Harry had different allies in the various adventures, how would things play out?" as well as it being focused on co-operative gameplay. The latter is EXTREMELY important, but the former element goes by the wayside. This game comes down to resource strategy and management, and the only fun you're likely to have is with friends. You have Fate Points, which is the currency you use for the cards' costs that you play. Instead of having the experience of going "Aw man, how is Harry and ______ gonna deal with this?!" or shouting in triumph when you succeed in defeating an iconic villain from the series, you're just focused on MIN/MAX-ing every single play you make (which, don't get me wrong, not saying that A. that attitude is wrong or B. it can't be fun to do that) and it feels more like work than entertainment. Instead of being excited on having Dresden cast his trademark Fuego fire-spell, or Sanya wielding Esperachius, you're focused on which card's effectiveness best deals with the random organization of Foes, Cases, Obstacles, and Advantages on the game board. It makes the thematic elements of it being a Dresden Files-based game completely irrelevant. You don't care about the cards' meaning or context, just what it can do for you. (I'd compare this to the "Casual" vs "PRO" card game player mentality, and how in this game, it's very much the "PRO" mentality.)

The second huge issue that deals with the gameplay is how the random dispersal of cards can and will put you in situations that are literally impossible to win, regardless of how effective your plays are. This is caused by the inclusion of the FATE system dice rolls and FATE points to use as cost payment for your cards. I'm not going to lie: I really, really don't like the Fate system... at all... When it comes to losing a game? I'm fine with that; sure it sucks, but whatever, right? Just get back in there and try again. But NO game, be it a video game, card game, tabletop or RPG game that is impossible to win or overcome, and especially not by random chance. After a while, I was able to tell just by glancing at the board whether the setup was defeatable or not, and would just back out, and start the match up all over again, sometimes handful of times over and over until one came up that was viable. (And I'll gladly admit that resource management/number crunching ISN'T my strong suit, so maybe the game is harder for me than others, or I play ineffectively. Could very well be.) If this was a collectible/competitive card game where you build your own decks for play, THEN the failure is 100% on the players; you might pick the wrong cards or less effective ones than your opponent, etc. But when the game's randomizer just gives you an unbeatable match, all that happens is you get some frustration and practice.

So do I recommend this game to the general public? No, I don't; but NOT because of this game's digital recreation: Developers, if you see this, and I hope you do, I TRULY think you did a great job recreating this game in this format, and will be checking out other games you've done/other games you'll be doing. Excellent, prompt, and courteous communication, etc.
But the game itself, not the video game recreation of it, is frustrating and not fun or entertaining for me. I backed the crowdfunding for the game, hopeful for it to be fun and it wasn't, but I was still supporting the series I love. I bought this game for the same reason, and played as much of it as I have for that reason as well, and to support the developers.

If you're a fan of the Dresden Files and want to support everything related to it, you already have/love the card game, or enjoy resource management/number crunching card games, then you'll probably love this game.

Otherwise, I strongly suggest watching videos about the game before purchasing, as well as taking a look at what others have said about the game (seriously, don't just listen to me, get a broader view than mine) before buying; but DEFINITELY consider picking the books up if you like Fantasy/Urban fantasy, as well as keeping HiddenAchievement on your radar.

The Steam reviews are few, and it wasn't my fault.

Funner than expected. Is unfortunately limited to just fans of the series.

Needs more characters for added variety.

10/10 would buy all dlcs they come up with.

Hopefully we get the full series in future dlcs. It's a way to help fight withdrawals after reading the books.

Limited gameplay without paying extra for even more improperly balanced levels.

Not to say it's not reasonably difficult game, but it's clearly missing some balance, as many missions are legitimately impossible to achieve depending on what you draw, forcing you to rely on fickle "fate" dice at the end of a long drawn out effort. So you replay a few times so that you can draw cards that actually deal enough damage to the red/green cards respectively.

Decent concept. Strong need to revise the card/hand system.

A faithful recreation of the original, worth it for fans of the board game, although the price feels a bit high.

For those who are unfamiliar with the board game, its a game of strategy with just the right amount of dice based risk taking.

A team of 3 or 4 characters from the Dresden Files universe work together to solve cases and defeat foes. Each character has their own special stunt, talent, and deck which will help you complete various adventures based off the books.

Each turn consists of players paying fate (from a shared pool) to play cards to interact with the board, using their unique stunt, or discarding a card to recharge the team's fate.

Eventually the players advance to the "showdown" by running out of cards, overspending the team's fate due to bad luck, or just deciding they want to test their luck by rolling lots of dice. Victory is determined by whether more cases were solved or more foes remain on the board at the end of the game.

If you are unsure about the game itself, I recommend learning more about the game play before purchasing. You can view my getting started guide HERE or you can view the official youtube tutorial for the board game HERE

The game isn't without its faults though, the UI was obviously made with touch screens / mobile devices in mind. It feels a bit clunky and doesn't fully utilize PC capabilities.

This is offset by the fact that you can play with anyone regardless of the device they are on. If you aren't on a shared LAN, or playing in hot seat mode, hosting a game can be a bit tricky, but that's the trade off for being able to play with android and iphone users.

Over all its a fun game with a surprisingly high amount of replayability. Its good for playing solo or co-op with friends. I strongly recommend it.

A solid digital implementation of a great board game.

Fans of The Dresden Files will enjoy the fluff and flavor, but the puzzle each scenario presents is a fun and engaging experience regardless of whether you've read the books or not (although I would recommend reading the books first - they're great and this game has minor to major spoilers for them).

Solid replay value - mixing and matching the various characters and scenarios along with the randomized elements makes for a significant challenge each time you play.

Wow. I was really looking forward to this game. I haven't played the board game enough to learn the rules and that is required.
The character cards flash up so fast I can't read them, and yet other things you have to re-click to stop highlighting them and you cant just click on the next card, you literally have to unclick the card and then click the next one. Too many clicks.
There isn't a tutorial mode or anything, so I was blindly clicking away having no clue what I was doing.
I wanted it to be good, but I don't see myself playing this much.

Enjoyable game and quick to learn. The PC version faithfully recreates the table top version. Cant wait to try it out in multiplayer. Happy Birthday Harry dresden!