Gordian Quest Reviews
It's deeply disappointing to play Gordian Quest and encounter the amount of UI-driven issues that permeate its menus, because it has some really cool stuff going on beneath its bristly, frustrating outer shell. It's decidedly easier to pick up than most other deckbuilders, and combat has a good flow to it, with lots of combinations and deck variations to explore. Unfortunately, it's a horrendous Switch port that makes even simple things difficult. It's worth your time, just maybe not on the Switch.
Blending together a turn-based RPG with card battles and roguelite mechanics, Gordian Quest has a certain magic to it, despite its repetitive gameplay loop.
Overall, Gordian Quest does a great job in implementing various gameplay elements and making them work together. While the Campaign Mode could have featured a better narrative and variety of activities, it still serves as a good entry point in the game as a long tutorial of sorts. From there, the game features a lot of replayability due to the number of classes and skills. As a deckbuilding RPG, Gordian Quest does a great job with the deckbuilding portion and is worth a look for fans of the genre.
Even people new to D&D or card-based RPGs like SteamWorld Quest should have no problem learning the ropes quickly. While it could've benefited from more character interactions and a stronger story, the combat and core gameplay loop are so engaging that many players probably won't even notice. Gordian Quest is a rare gem of an RPG that somehow manages to blend multiple genres into one game without making anything feel unwieldy.
Gordian Quest is an ambitious fantasy RPG that offers a vast campaign, exciting auto-generated maps, and turn-based combat that offers near endless hours of gameplay with its broad selection of battle decks.
Summary: If you are a fan of deckbuilding card battlers, with a dash of RPG, then Gordian Quest is the best of the bunch. While there are a few tutorial elements and stability challenges to attend to, the endless replayability and randomization element makes every run unique.
With inspirations like Ultima, Dungeons and Dragons, and other deckbuilding and roguelike titles, Gordian Quest will feel familiar to any card game fan. However, if you’re a seasoned deckbuilder looking for a hardcore strategic gameplay experience, be warned: the in-game difficulty can vary wildly from battle to battle, and at times combat feels a tad too easy. On top of this, Gordian Quest’s extra features make the overall gameplay experience a little unwieldy. With that said, if you enjoy a casual card game and are keen for some variety, Gordian Quest will likely keep you entertained with a range of enemies to defeat and story maps to explore.
Even in the Early Access phase, Gordian Quest is a polished, solid game. If you enjoy the genre, you will get a few hours of enthusiastic card-slinging in the first Act as your party of brave heroes struggles to remove the curse plaguing the land. The game already features plenty of content to keep players happy and manages to carve its own little niche by combining CCG gameplay with roguelite and RPG elements.
Gordian Quest is focused on mechanics to both its advantage and detriment. For a player who has not explored the card and tactics space a lot, this is a perfect experience both as an introduction and for long-term engagement. For someone who has tried out a lot of titles in the genre, this game is a little too by the book for its own good.
Overall, Gordian Quest is fun deck-builder that's similar to a Griftlands-style campaign that's absolutely packed with content. It goes all-in on the RPG elements, which is both its greatest strength and biggest flaw. It's not as addictive as some of the strongest games in the genre, but it's still fun to play. I wish the developers had trimmed off some of the fat, but since they didn't, it means that you're getting a game with tons of content for a very reasonable price.
With cards to collect and nodes to explore, Gordian Quest brings some of my favorite rogue-lite mechanics into a persistent world for an epic adventure.
Some cool concepts and art for a roguelike deckbuilder that feels a bit different collide a bit with lacking controls and clarity
Games should exist and designers should always make games but Gordian Quest offers nothing new and does nothing exceptionally well.
Gordian Quest is a straightforward and fun game. I liked it all while I played. But I also kept wishing I was playing on my PC, which is… probably the game’s biggest weakness. It feels like a PC game ported to a console (which, let’s be real, it is) and it is a bit limited as a result of that. However, if you want the game in portable form and don’t have (or want) a Steam Deck? It’s a great addition. Sure, you will have to wrestle with the game’s interface a little bit and there will be the odd moment where you feel like something should have worked but you couldn’t see a bit of text that indicated otherwise. But the game is good enough that a bit of interface jank hardly pulls it down, in the end.
Gordian Quest draws inspiration from old-school RPGs, Dungeons & Dragons, and deck-builders like Slay the Spire, yet it proudly stands on its own. With deep, addictive gameplay and endless replayability with multiple play modes, Gordian Quest boldly blazes its own trail. It’s rare that a game can draw from so many sources and have the end product feel so refined, yet this game delivers in spades. I can’t recommend this game enough to fellow deck-builder and RPG lovers.
Gordian Quest is not just a common deck builder, as it features some awesome DND-inspired elements that’ll make fans of the classic tabletop RPG feel right at home. The art design is spectacular and the gameplay is incredibly fun, even if it’s a little easy. The one downfall is the story, which can be quite basic—only serving the purpose of moving the game forward. But all in all, Gordian Quest is immensely rewarding… unless you’re looking for a well-woven tale.