Gave this a few plays before I made a judgement.

tl;dr, this game feels like an early beta and not as advertised as "the first mission," and it needs significant improvements before I can recommend it.

As a player of deckbuilders both irl and on the computer, and especially one of roguelikes like Slay the Spire, Monster Hunters, and Monster Train, there's a lot of promise involved with the premise of this game, but ultimately I believe it falls flat in a lot of areas.

This is a game that emphasizes a lot of movement and flow, pushing enemies and allies into positions, shoving foes into walls and out of boundaries, and debilitating foes and forcing them to attack one another in the confusion. Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow much movement, in that most actions cost equal amounts, and each of those actions only allows one form of movement in most cases (move 2 spaces in a single direction, shove an opponent one space, etc.) The fun movement options, like grappling, throws, sliding under opponent's legs, and evading shots are all rarer cards that, for the most part, aren't in your starter deck. Additionally, using low-cost options that utilize your Combo meter becomes more difficult when you do have movement options, since every space moved costs 1 from your meter. With the randomized hands each round, this forces you to have rounds where you just can't do anything worthwhile because you have all movement, or you have all attacks, or you have a certain combination of movement and attacks that counteracts each other because of the Combo mechanic, or you have just a bunch of bad movement actions since a Move 2 card only allows you to move in orthogonal directions, so you need to spend multiple to get into a position where things can actually happen.

Additionally, actual in-game options feel weirdly balanced. The "upgrade card" action at the gym costs different amounts for different cards, but the actual value of the upgrade feels completely disconnected from the cost (and I believe the costs increase for each card you upgrade?) Event spaces seem to exist to make you flip coins on whether you get a benefit or a penalty, unlike Spire's events that primarily just grant you bonuses or an explicit trade-off. You also can't view your upcoming route, apart from basic decisions like "do I want to go to the Gym or another fight," so you can't plan for fights with better rewards or easier enemies.

Graphically, the game looks similar to something like Superhot, but for whatever reason it feels really unoptimized. I have a midrange computer, but the very simplistic presentation of the game felt very sluggish, especially when loading into levels. Clicking on Graphics in the options menu actually froze the game for ten seconds, until the menu finally loaded in. The sound design is nothing to comment on.

There's also just a lot of poor presentation in terms of how the game interacts with the player. Poor grammar and formatting in events and dialogue scenes makes the game look messy. It's never outlined to the player that enemies will always try to attack you if you enter their range during your turn, making for surprises when you walk into a punch or a bullet that wasn't happening beforehand. I also believe that it's never detailed that getting pushed into an obstacle deals an additional 4 damage, which is problematic. There's no tooltips on what keywords mean, and nebulous descriptions like "move around" and "move past" have to be experimented with to understand when and where they're applicable. An ability that throws your opponents on counterattack goes completely unexplained for what ranges it's applicable at or what happens to a thrown opponent.

Unless this game significantly improves in the future, I can't see myself specifically seeking it out on release. It feels less like this is "the first mission" and more like an early beta.

Gave this a few plays before I made a judgement. [b]tl;dr, this game feels like an early beta and not as advertised as "the first mission," and it needs significant improvements before I can recommend it.[/b] As a player of deckbuilders both irl and on the computer, and especially one of roguelikes like Slay the Spire, Monster Hunters, and Monster Train, there's a lot of promise involved with the premise of this game, but ultimately I believe it falls flat in a lot of areas. This is a game that emphasizes a lot of movement and flow, pushing enemies and allies into positions, shoving foes into walls and out of boundaries, and debilitating foes and forcing them to attack one another in the confusion. Unfortunately, the game doesn't allow much movement, in that most actions cost equal amounts, and each of those actions only allows one form of movement in most cases (move 2 spaces in a single direction, shove an opponent one space, etc.) The fun movement options, like grappling, throws, sliding under opponent's legs, and evading shots are all rarer cards that, for the most part, aren't in your starter deck. Additionally, using low-cost options that utilize your Combo meter becomes more difficult when you do have movement options, since every space moved costs 1 from your meter. With the randomized hands each round, this forces you to have rounds where you just can't do anything worthwhile because you have all movement, or you have all attacks, or you have a certain combination of movement and attacks that counteracts each other because of the Combo mechanic, or you have just a bunch of bad movement actions since a Move 2 card only allows you to move in orthogonal directions, so you need to spend multiple to get into a position where things can actually happen. Additionally, actual in-game options feel weirdly balanced. The "upgrade card" action at the gym costs different amounts for different cards, but the actual value of the upgrade feels completely disconnected from the cost (and I believe the costs increase for each card you upgrade?) Event spaces seem to exist to make you flip coins on whether you get a benefit or a penalty, unlike Spire's events that primarily just grant you bonuses or an explicit trade-off. You also can't view your upcoming route, apart from basic decisions like "do I want to go to the Gym or another fight," so you can't plan for fights with better rewards or easier enemies. Graphically, the game looks similar to something like Superhot, but for whatever reason it feels really unoptimized. I have a midrange computer, but the very simplistic presentation of the game felt very sluggish, especially when loading into levels. Clicking on Graphics in the options menu actually froze the game for ten seconds, until the menu finally loaded in. The sound design is nothing to comment on. There's also just a lot of poor presentation in terms of how the game interacts with the player. Poor grammar and formatting in events and dialogue scenes makes the game look messy. It's never outlined to the player that enemies will always try to attack you if you enter their range during your turn, making for surprises when you walk into a punch or a bullet that wasn't happening beforehand. I also believe that it's never detailed that getting pushed into an obstacle deals an additional 4 damage, which is problematic. There's no tooltips on what keywords mean, and nebulous descriptions like "move around" and "move past" have to be experimented with to understand when and where they're applicable. An ability that throws your opponents on counterattack goes completely unexplained for what ranges it's applicable at or what happens to a thrown opponent. Unless this game significantly improves in the future, I can't see myself specifically seeking it out on release. It feels less like this is "the first mission" and more like an early beta.