Monster Slayers (PC) Review

Monster Slayers is surprisingly addictive. The concept may not sound too fundamentally interesting at first, using cards to fight through a dungeon. However, it is pulled off successfully to such a degree that this is the reason why the game is notable. The drive to find the character or combo that works keeps the player at it for a long period of time.

The player creates a character - and the game even gives the warning to not spend too much time as they will die soon - and off they go. Exploration is done in a map where each room has a single event taking place, such as a fight or a treasure. It is continued this way until the boss is found, and if beaten, then the level is cleared. As they go through, they can modify their deck for combat, which is a major portion of the game.

Combat is done entirely by a small deck of cards, starting around fifteen. Most of these are simply 'attack,' so on a turn the player will draw somewhere around four cards - maybe two attacks, a heal and a block. On the turn, the player must manage using the right cards for the situation before they get new ones. It is entirely random what cards from your deck are drawn, so there is constant tension of hoping 'that one card' comes up to save you.

Beyond just the combat and modification of the deck is a cool RPG system. There are various classes and each plays as expected for its archetype, such as Knights being defensive. Equipment can be picked up and give various boosts to the cards. The best decision of the game is to have various one-way decisions, such as levelling up the class to make it permanently move defensive or offensive, or learn certain skills. This has a good effect of balancing that as disposable as the heroes are, there are long range consequences to the player's actions.

Monster Slayers comes together in a way that is largely fun. The only major criticism is that the difficulty can scale wildly. The beginning is mostly an issue of simply figuring out what is happening and becomes easy. However, both the second and the third dungeons suffer from frustrating spikes in difficulty. Often the monsters can vary from easy stomps in one room to absolutely blowing you away in the next. This is harmful to the overall enjoyment, as a carefully crafted character is mowed down due to things that mostly hinge on chance.

The sense of progress is well done and keeps the player hanging around trying to get just a little bit further. The nature of the game and its mix of genres might sound strange, but the degree it was pulled off deserves some credit. Not everything is perfect, but in areas where the game shines, it really is firing on all cylinders. The difficulty spikes absolutely need to be done away with because what is here has the potential to be a great hit for a wide audience, but at the current stage is far too difficult for all but the most hardened to beat.