First of all, let's clear the "pay to win" excuse for most of the negative reviews. This game is NOT pay to win, period.
I have not paid a single penny for in-app purchases and I was able to reach the highest rank doing minimum crafting and without playing a single meta deck or following any advice or tutorial. I did buy the 3 DLCs on Steam at a 90% discount but I did it for the purpose of owning them and they had no impact on the way I played the game.
Sure, those who want to pay real money to get a chance at unlocking powerful cards fast can do so, but that is totally optional and doesn't guarantee your win nor is it needed to advance your progress.
Again: This game is not pay to win, it does have some problems but this is not one of them.

Now that we got the money thing aside, let's talk about Kards.

The first time I ran this, it was obvious that it is a labor of love and I was honestly waiting for the Steam awards so I can nominate it and write this review (not that it matters, but it felt suitable). The attention to detail that it has cannot be done by anyone unless they are passionate about card games and WWII.

Aesthetics: From the first match I was blown away by how this game nails the visuals and sounds. The cards are so beautiful and easy to distinguish from each other, each nation from the currently available 8 has it's own card design style and you can view each card and read about its historical relevance, see the real picture that inspired its design and even see the name of the artist and the source. Every now and then, I find myself just looking at the cards and reading about them, They are mostly inspired by WWII propaganda posters or patriotic drawings and I'm seriously considering getting some posters of these drawings or print them on T-shirts or so, the visual beauty also extends to the tables, the menu and icons. It also nails the sounds which is not expected for such game, each unit type makes a unique sound when it gets deployed, move or attack and the sound even differs depending on the unit itself. I can literally make my whole review about the aesthetics because it is that good.

Gameplay: Much more simpler and easier to understand than any other multiplayer card game that I have played before. The cards have simple effects that you can read in a few seconds and there are no complex synergies so hard matches end up being about mind games, prioritization and luck more than anything else. This can be off putting for players who are looking for more complex mechanics or more draw control but I believe the game is more fun this way.
What most players complain about is the meta, the higher you level up the more you face opponents who use the same decks that has a relatively high win ratio which in return makes you have less fun the more you rank up. This is correct but the truth is that every multiplayer game has its own meta and there are no easy solution for such problem, the devs do release balance changes and the meta keeps shifting and I don't consider that a big negative for the game.
Another thing that some free to play players complain about is how slow it is to unlock new cards once you get past a certain point of the game (about 20 hours), I say Kards is designed to be a slow game and that's part of its appeal. It doesn't bother you with systems that encourage to get addicted, it has only 7 daily login rewards and you don't even have to log in everyday in order to claim them, after that you get one mission a day that you can finish in a couple matches. Still you can unlock every card in the game for free and grind free, it'll just take hundreds of hours. On the other hand, I see some players who have been playing for years complaining about unlocking most cards in the game and that they don't have much to do with their in-game currency. For me, the economy system in the game is more than fair for a free to play game (although a bit unclear for beginners) and if you tie your fun to unlocking new cards then you're missing the whole point of playing it.

Deck building: The game has an easy import thing where you can copy/paste decks but I have never tried it. Other than that, manually building a deck is a time consuming hassle because the filtering system is basic so you can't view just the cards that you need to include in your deck so you'll spend a lot of time scrolling through pages of cards in order to see the card you need. Still it's not a huge deal but after years of the game being released, I think a better filtering tools should already be part of the game.

Summary: I wanted to write more about Kards but since it's a free to play game, the best way to experience it is by playing it and I surely would have played it the day it was released if I knew it would be this good. Kards gets most things right and the few things that aren't are nothing but minor inconveniences, it is a beautiful, entertaining and mature game that respects itself and its players and I love it and I want to keep playing it in the future and I encourage anyone who's even mildly interested to give it a try. It's also worth mentioning that they hold a tournament every month where the best players compete against each other and the live stream is very entertaining to watch.

First of all, let's clear the "pay to win" excuse for most of the negative reviews. This game is NOT pay to win, period. I have not paid a single penny for in-app purchases and I was able to reach the highest rank doing minimum crafting and without playing a single meta deck or following any advice or tutorial. I did buy the 3 DLCs on Steam at a 90% discount but I did it for the purpose of owning them and they had no impact on the way I played the game. Sure, those who want to pay real money to get a chance at unlocking powerful cards fast can do so, but that is totally optional and doesn't guarantee your win nor is it needed to advance your progress. Again: This game is not pay to win, it does have some problems but this is not one of them. Now that we got the money thing aside, let's talk about Kards. The first time I ran this, it was obvious that it is [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRVCh9LWIQk&ab_channel=KARDS-TheWWIICardGame] a labor of love [/url] and I was honestly waiting for the Steam awards so I can nominate it and write this review (not that it matters, but it felt suitable). The attention to detail that it has cannot be done by anyone unless they are passionate about card games and WWII. Aesthetics: From the first match I was blown away by how this game nails the visuals and sounds. The cards are so beautiful and easy to distinguish from each other, each nation from the currently available 8 has it's own card design style and you can view each card and read about its historical relevance, see the real picture that inspired its design and even see the name of the artist and the source. Every now and then, I find myself just looking at the cards and reading about them, They are mostly inspired by WWII propaganda posters or patriotic drawings and I'm seriously considering getting some posters of these drawings or print them on T-shirts or so, the visual beauty also extends to the tables, the menu and icons. It also nails the sounds which is not expected for such game, each unit type makes a unique sound when it gets deployed, move or attack and the sound even differs depending on the unit itself. I can literally make my whole review about the aesthetics because it is that good. Gameplay: Much more simpler and easier to understand than any other multiplayer card game that I have played before. The cards have simple effects that you can read in a few seconds and there are no complex synergies so hard matches end up being about mind games, prioritization and luck more than anything else. This can be off putting for players who are looking for more complex mechanics or more draw control but I believe the game is more fun this way. What most players complain about is the meta, the higher you level up the more you face opponents who use the same decks that has a relatively high win ratio which in return makes you have less fun the more you rank up. This is correct but the truth is that every multiplayer game has its own meta and there are no easy solution for such problem, the devs do release balance changes and the meta keeps shifting and I don't consider that a big negative for the game. Another thing that some free to play players complain about is how slow it is to unlock new cards once you get past a certain point of the game (about 20 hours), I say Kards is designed to be a slow game and that's part of its appeal. It doesn't bother you with systems that encourage to get addicted, it has only 7 daily login rewards and you don't even have to log in everyday in order to claim them, after that you get one mission a day that you can finish in a couple matches. Still you can unlock every card in the game for free and grind free, it'll just take hundreds of hours. On the other hand, I see some players who have been playing for years complaining about unlocking most cards in the game and that they don't have much to do with their in-game currency. For me, the [url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbubNKipmHo&t=44s&ab_channel=Darkness4Gaming] economy system [/url] in the game is more than fair for a free to play game (although a bit unclear for beginners) and if you tie your fun to unlocking new cards then you're missing the whole point of playing it. Deck building: The game has an easy import thing where you can copy/paste decks but I have never tried it. Other than that, manually building a deck is a time consuming hassle because the filtering system is basic so you can't view just the cards that you need to include in your deck so you'll spend a lot of time scrolling through pages of cards in order to see the card you need. Still it's not a huge deal but after years of the game being released, I think a better filtering tools should already be part of the game. Summary: I wanted to write more about Kards but since it's a free to play game, the best way to experience it is by playing it and I surely would have played it the day it was released if I knew it would be this good. Kards gets most things right and the few things that aren't are nothing but minor inconveniences, it is a beautiful, entertaining and mature game that respects itself and its players and I love it and I want to keep playing it in the future and I encourage anyone who's even mildly interested to give it a try. It's also worth mentioning that they hold a tournament every month where the best players compete against each other and the live stream is very entertaining to watch.