NobleGamer SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech Review

I recommend this to anyone who loves the SteamWorld universe of games and is comfy with a linear deck building card battler. Hardcore deck building fans are likely to be disappointed that it isn't as deep as popular card based games. It is not a roguelite nor is it deep so forget Slay the Spire comparisons, but like the rest of SteamWorld games I have played, the franchise's strengths are its narrative, art style, solid well balanced mechanics, and a polished game overall. This is not intended as a hardcore game experience, nor did I find it to be casual. After a couple of chapters into the game, here is what else you need to know: +Building your deck over time consists of getting cards while progressing through chapters or crafting cards using a combination of gold and resources from defeating enemies. The amount of cards you get from crafting a given card type varies but seems balanced. ?Some generally basic cards can be played at anytime and give gears/steam as soon as played, a few cards give no gears but cost nothing, and other generally more powerful cards require some number of gears before playing. This helps balance deck building & battle progression, and is easy to learn. Enemies are subject to the same gear mechanics for playing their cards. +There are consumable items, and equipment. Anything can be sold, and items & equipment can be bought from stores. ?Each character you have has a max deck size, and ultimately all their decks get combined into one for battle. ?Synergies between cards can involve attacks & debuffs using different elementals (ice, fire, etc) and chain bonus when playing cards only from one character +Combo bonus is available when playing a certain character's card on the same turn but before the card with the bonus. Great thing to balance against just playing one character's cards each turn. ?Saving is interesting, but done in a way that I think balances challenge with fairness. Game will save automatically when entering a different area/room. Aside from this, there are statue save points that will save and replenish health but will respawn all enemies in the level. Sometimes these are found in the beginning, middle, or end of a chapter, though not necessarily all of the above especially if the chapter does not cover a large area. +Some enemies especially lower level/common can be avoided by walking or running past them, but some are either too fast or boss-types will trigger dialog then a fight. +Any chapter can be revisited at anytime, which is useful for finding treasure you may have missed, as a % treasure indicator appears after completing a chapter. However if you are in the middle of a chapter, you will lose your place/save spot in your current chapter. ?If I find the one missing piece of treasure from a chapter and want to exit the chapter, I don't know if that treasure is saved or if I have to complete claim the treasure.