Recent reviews by TheCable

The easiest way to describe Prismata is to call it a RTS-themed (think Starcraft) chess. Chess comparison comes from the fact it has 0 RNG of any kind and no hidden info so the game is deterministic i.e. one of the players has a guaranteed win based on the starting positions. But just like Chess, Prismata is incredibly complex where solving it is impossible.

Players start with 6 or 7 Drones that harvest gold (2nd player starts with 1 extra drone to compensate), gold buys you technology structures that produce blue/red/green resources (not official names, but that's the accepted naming convention in the community). Subsequently gold and tech resources buy attackers/defenders and your goal is to kill opponent's units while protecting your fragile drones and attackers. Sounds simple at its core.

The biggest draw to Prismata IMO is the fact that even though it is deterministic, games play out completely differently each time and you aren't required to memorize openings like in a game like Chess. This is achieved by giving players random units each game (There's about 100 units in the random unit pool right now and each game you get 5-11 random ones, 8 being the number for standard 'tournament' mode). "Wait, didn't you say there is no RNG?". Yes and I wasn't lying - even though the units change, they are mirrored for both players! Once the game starts, nothing will depend upon RNG determining the outcome, it's up to your and your ability to come up and execute a superior strategy. A unit may be super good in a particular set of units, but get completely countered in another - figuring out which strategy to choose is a challenging but fun task.

Another cool part is that players don't own the "cards" (units), all the units are available to everyone in competitive PvP mode so there's absolutely 0 gameplay advantage to paying players (they can get some sweet cosmetics though!). This also means that devs have no qualms about balancing units - no one can complain that their cards got nerfed so devs can act swiftly and keep the balance at the top notch state.

If talking about the cons of the game graphics definitely stand out - the art may seem a bit "cheap" and the play screen may seem bland and generic. It obviously has a lot to do with the fact that developing team is small (3-5 people) and don't have a huge budget, but it's also because devs favour functionality and clarity over flashiness. The gamestate in Prismata can get rather complex with nearly 100 units on each side in some cases so unnecessary animations/flashy effects would slow down the game and clutter the screen.

Another downside to a lot of players may be that the game has no comeback mechanics, if you fall behind and your opponent overwhelmed you, you dont have a path to counter him most of the time - the game snowballs. So an early mistake or inefficiency in your build may easily get punished down the line by good players. The upside of this though is that if you see you are clearly behind, there's no need to wait until you "bleed out", you can concede and move on to the next game, trying not to repeat the same mistake again in the future. In some games with uncertainity/hidden info sometimes you know you have only 5% chance to win, but you sort of have to stick around for another 15-20 minutes just in case opponent makes a mistake which can be incredibly frustrating.

The game also has a lot of great features. Replays seems like no brainer in a competitive game, but there's also a super easy way to share replays with other players through a replay code. This coupled with the fact that the game has 0 hidden info means there's no secret strategies to hide, you can very easily find replays of top players and see how they played a certain set. You can also spectate games very easily, like the top players playing on the ladder live. Another amazing feature is the ability to analyze a game - if you think you made a mistake at some point, you can go to that part of the replay and open it in analysis mode to play out the game from both players sides and see whether a different line of play might have changed the outcome.

Overall Prismata is a unique strategy game with very deep and challenging gameplay if you decide to see past the bland exterior and decide to actually try it.

Battlerite is a fast-paced arena PvP brawler. While the game's isometric perspective makes it appear as "just another Moba", it plays out extremely differently. You won't see any minions/creeps, towers/buildings, gold/items, experience/levels or even mana/energy (abilities are gated by cooldowns, not mana). It's pure PvP combat with no snowball effect round to round, you are just as powerful if youre up 2-0 or down 0-2. For these reasons I'd say Battlerite plays out and is closer in spirit to a fighting game, fast paced shooter or something like Smash Bros than it does to a traditional Moba. What makes it exciting and more than "just a Moba teamfight" is that the combat system is very well fleshed out and fun.

1. You move around with WASD, giving your freedom to dodge stuff.
   
2. Each character has a total of 7 (or 8 if you count autoattacks, which you should because of the following point) abilities.
   
3. EACH ability (even heals and what would be considered a simple autoattack in most other games) is a skillshot meaning you can dodge and outmaneuver a lot of damage simply by moving correctly and predicting your opponent's patterns.
   
4. Abilities are often mind-game based: you have things like counter-attacks that only trigger if a character gets hit, disables that only trigger if you cast a spell in a short period of time, projectile reflects, knockbacks etc. etc. There's a lot of room to get an edge by timing your stuff correctly and reading your opponent.
   
5. You can cancel cast your abilities (each ability has a cast time meaning you can't simply spam out your whole kit in half a second) allowing for plenty of mind games. For example, you can start to charge your attack, wait for your opponent to cast their counter-attack ability and then cancel your attack in time.
   
6. You get to customise your character by choosing different talents at the start of the game.
   
7. Each character is more similar to something like a fighting game character which you can choose to play exclusively, master and do well regardless of "what's the current meta".

I will point out a few downsides to the game though - based on your preferences it can be considered a bit repetitive just because you don't have a lot of theory to rely on and there's not as much variance in the gameplay itself - you don't go to a different lane or buy a different item game to game, you sort of just go in the middle of the arena and do the same thing over and over again. Hero kits are a bit repetitive and homogenous (most characters have some kind of movement ability on Space, defensive ability like a shield on Q, utility on E etc.). So at the end of the day you just have to enjoy the core gameplay of trying to hit your stuff and dodge opponents stuff, manage cooldowns, keep track of which enemy is most vulnerable at any given point and so on.

Still, the game is super fun and challenging overall and has a lot of depth just due to all the mind-games present and potential to improve game to game.

Eternal finds a great compromise between Hearthstone's polish and Magic's complexity/depth. You can interact during opponents turn with instant/quick spells and defender chooses how to block opponents creatures which adds more interaction than Hearthstone's "you can't do anything during my turn" philosophy. However, the phase/priority system is simplified compared to Magic for smoother online experience so it's not cubersome or annoying.

Eternal doesn't do anything super unique for a card game, but it combines all the right elements to be worth checking out.

Bloodline Champions is BY FAR the best pure PvP arena game, possibly ever, and that's not an exaggeration. Biggest thing I have to stress is that while BLC may look like another "Moba" (Dota2/League of Legends), it its essence and spirit it's a lot closer to fighting games or even fast paced first-person-shooters like Quake or Unreal Tournament. Yes, you've heard that right. That's a very important distinction which a lot of people don't realize. Unlike "Mobas" you don't need to have a huge collection of top tier heroes at your disposal, some of the best players in the game mastered 1 or 2 bloodlines and play them exclusively, similarly to fighting games.

For this reason the game certainly isn't for everyone, there's very little downtime where you can casually stroll back to your lane while considering which item you should buy next, there's no mana so you never run out of things to do in the middle of the battle. You don't level up - you have full arsenal of abilities (that's more than twice as big compared to "Mobas" AND are all skillshots) at your disposal from the first second you enter the arena (with an exception of energy that allows you to cast your ultimate and EX abilities and is gained by hitting your opponents). Reflexes/mind-games/ability to coordinate with your teammates in the matter of seconds is far more important than theorycrafting.

Every single ability is a skillshot and that applies even to your basic attacks AND heals. That means that it's possible to miss even your basic melee attacks if you don't position yourself correctly or anticipate your opponent's movements. Each bloodline has the basic attack that has no cooldown (in the case of the healers, they also have a ranged healing ability with no CD as well) + 5 other skills + Ultimate + 2 variations of other abilities (called EX abilities which cost energy). That's a lot of stuff to do, at all times.

The amount of control you have over your bloodline is extremely high, your bloodline is controlled by WASD movement, similarly to FPS games - most bloodlines also have multiple ways to dash/jump/knock opponents away and maneuver around the battlefield, leading to a very fluid and fast-paced gameplay. There's also the fact that you can try to actively dodge your opponent's abilities, creating a huge potential for mind-games.

There are a lot of cool skills like:

• Counterattacks - for a duration of let's say, 1 second, your bloodline is put into a defensive "trance" and if your opponent hits you while you're in said trance, your bloodline counterattacks in some fashion, teleporting behind their back and applying a debuff or just allowing you to teleport yourself to safety.
  
• Reflects - you can knock opponent's ranged projectiles back at them if timed correctly (though remember, they can dodge them as well, nothing's guaranteed!).
  
• Pulls - ability to grab opposing team's most fragile bloodline and focus it down.
  
• Knockbacks - ability to push your opponents slightly backwards, cancelling their abilities cast times and repositioning them.
  
• Dodgeable silences called Disables - when hit by such ability, the first ability you use in the period of about 1 second is "silenced" for about 3 seconds - timing these correctly and disabling opponent's critical escape abilities or heals can win you the round. At the same time it means that if you pay attention, you can either wait that 1 second out OR use a less important ability to "eat" the Disable debuff, allowing you to keep up pressure.

Very important part is that there's VERY little Hard CC like stuns - you won't be locked out for 3 seconds with no chance to do anything while enemy team focuses you to death. Your teammates can always use their defensive abilities like shields on you as well.

Because every skill is a skillshot, mind-games are extremely important - for example, if you're about to hit your opponent and they use their counterattack, you can cancel your own attack and wait until their counter-attack timer finishes (called trance baiting). If they relied on that counter-attack to survive, they might just die!


Overall, while BLC is certainly not for everyone and has a steep learning curve, once you get over it, there's a lot of fun to be had.