I played the demo for the newest deckbuilding roguelike on the block, Deck of Haunts. Let me tell you. Fell in love almost immediately. So, I’ll take it from the top. In Deck of Haunts, you’re a haunted house. Your goal? End the pathetic lives of anyone who dares to intrude upon you. You achieve this with cards, of course! When you begin, about two or three people will stroll within your realm. Somewhere in the mansion lies your heart — literally. You don’t want people getting to your heart or it’s over.
You have your basic areas: guest rooms, living rooms, and kitchens. Then, you can upgrade those areas to have special conditions if some idiot strolls into them. You’ll have cards that physically hurt people and cards that will deplete their sanity. Fully emptying either will earn you the person’s essence. You need essence to keep your house-heart beating — essence powers your “specialty” rooms and allows you to buy new cards between rounds to add to your deck.
In Deck of Haunts, every turn counts. Maybe you use a card that gives everyone in a particular room the “Tension” condition. Which multiples the insanity you can inflict upon them. Basically, Deck of Haunts is like The Sims once you get bored of a family and want to just “get rid of them.” Only significantly more overt. And a roguelike, of course.
‘deck of haunts’ satisfies both my need for chaos and my desire for strategic roguelike goodness
Something about Deck of Haunts just works for me. Learning the specialty rooms that increase your Action Points or earning a new Haunt card to further terrorize those unwanted visitors? Nirvana. There are so many layers of strategy present. If you end someone’s life with someone else in the same room, that person will try to book it out of the house. You don’t want that. That’s essence you’ll need for future nefarious schemes! …Oh, and they’ll come back stronger and better prepared for your tricks.
Did I mention the Stone Masons? Right. So, Stone Masons are people who know magic. Instead of roaming around like your “pedestrian” targets, they’ll make a beeline right for your heart. Which means you’ll have to lean on defense. Locking rooms for a turn to buy yourself time to deal with these trespassers. Teleporting people away with the hopes they don’t get even closer to the heart. Deck of Haunts is so satisfying once you hunker down and let the game teach you its sadistic ways.
I didn’t even mention the fact that you add more rooms and effects to your mansion over time, but that’s a surprise for you to discover. My only gripe — and it’s so insignificant — is that I wish the animations had a bit more… pizzazz. Don’t get me wrong — Deck of Haunts has the juice to stand out among other deck-building roguelikes. But, you know, some added flair goes a long way! If you want to check it out for yourself, you can play the demo here!
The post ‘Deck of Haunts’ Is a Roguelike Deckbuilder Where You Play as a Malicious Haunted House, and Everyone Should Play It appeared first on VICE.
