Everyone loves games about funny robots, and the Swedish studio Image & Form, we can say that this love has been skillfully stimulated for nine years now – since its release on the Nintendo DSi SteamWorld Tower Defense. Real success came after the release of the duology SteamWorld Dig – it was a platformer in an extremely original and funny steampunk universe, where there was enough humor, irony and funny robots. At the same time, in the gameplay itself, the Swedes successfully experimented with ideas from other games (for example, from Digger And Metroid), creatively rethinking them. Then there was SteamWorld Heist, made according to the same principles, but representing turn-based tactics in space with elements Worms And XCOM. And now, quite logically, it’s time for a new delicious cocktail – this time from a fantasy, RPG and collectible card game: meet SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech!

Robots against mushrooms and canaries

The action here takes place in the same universe, so everything is colored with irony and humor. The story begins with the fact that two heroines – Armilly and Copernicus (naturally, steam "pieces of iron", only one in armor, because she is a warrior, and the second is a magician in a cap and glasses) go on a dangerous journey into the forest in search of a very important mint mushroom. Meanwhile, the local guild of heroes is attacked by some bad guys from the “Army of the Abyss”, led by… a canary. More precisely, the canary sits in a helmet and controls large armor with a spear, which moves on wheels. Therefore, after another victory over this “Captain Canary,” our heroes cheerfully shout to him: “Get out of here.”!»

Armilly and Copernicus, of course, rescue the captured guild heroes, who declare that being in cages is part of a well-tested tactic. And they run away under the pretext that “the ruddy wings that go best with chocolate have just been prepared there.”.

Then we look for the powerful artifact Hexenomicon, capable of resurrecting not only de-energized robots, but also completely inanimate objects, we find documents entitled “Alchemical ways to gain the trust of a dragon: taming, training, increasing heat”, we fight with talking mushrooms, we participate in a tournament in the arena instead of the dragon we killed… The humor here is, of course, specific in places, but if you accept and believe in this weird universe, then everything falls into place.

Win-win mixture

In the gameplay, the authors also follow their traditions and again mix different genre trends. IN SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech we, as you already understand, also have a full-fledged (well, almost!) RPG, turn-based tactics, and collectible card game.

This is just in fashion today, and the Swedes, again according to tradition, decorated it all with a refined sense of style, a magnificent, memorable design, a colorful 2D picture, the aforementioned humor and flavor. There are also a couple of interesting finds in card mechanics.

We explore levels where, in addition to the main story path, there are always branches. Heroes look for treasure chests, gain experience in battles, level up, periodically press levers and solve riddles, and also buy new weapons and amulets from a merchant. The latter, to the surprise of our heroes, always ends up where she needs to with her cart, even if it’s the bottom floor of some alchemical academy.

Cards and gears

And in fights, you need to use cards unique to each hero – with their help, fighters stand opposite enemies (and no one can move!), attack, cast spells, beneficial or harmful auras, use potions, heal, and so on and so forth. Each character has its own specialization and its own techniques.

In addition to the warrior and the magician, there is a natural-born combat healer, whose role is played by a large robotic frog; a strange masked character who specializes in deadly katana attacks; as well as twin orphans, born thieves, stealing money from their opponents even in battle.

Periodically, we receive rewards https://cravevegascasino.co.uk/mobile-app/ or find new cards in chests, create them or improve them from the same priceless merchant and shuffle the deck of each character, which cannot contain more than eight units. Everything seems familiar, but, as I already said, there are a couple of nuances.

Firstly, you can combine cards in battle. If you throw three of the same color from your hand onto the battlefield at once (that is, they belong to the same character), the hero will be able to use the fourth one, using his unique weapon – for example, he will release a chain of lightning at all enemies. There are also special cards that, in combination with others, allow you to carry out team combo attacks.

Secondly, particularly powerful actions require energy points (this is, of course, expressed in gears), which are generated by base cards. And here you need to select the deck so that you do not find yourself in a situation where enhanced actions costing from one to four units of energy fall into your hand, but these same gears are not on them.

When you want it harder

The only trouble is that SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, Personally, in my opinion, there is not enough “challenge”. It is clear that games in this universe have always been less about hardcore and more about fun, style and humor. But when you, even on the highest difficulty for 24 levels gained, never suffer defeat, this, you see, suggests an imbalance.

This does not mean at all that you can sit and spit at the ceiling. There are really difficult fights with bosses that have several thousand hit points (and you have 3,000 for three of you). At the same time, the deck, as I already said, needs to be formed correctly, also taking into account the fact that many enemies are resistant to some type of damage (that is, cards with different elemental attacks are needed). Buy potions on time in order to revive the fallen if something happens, purchase new weapons, choose the right team – all this is also important.

But personally, I, having once found a composition of characters that suited me (and only three of all available ones participate in the battle), then practically did not change them all the way – and so, without really including new cards in the decks, I successfully continued to play. And I never had to visit previously completed locations again in order to pump myself up and find all the chests (and there is such an opportunity here). Moreover, as it seemed to me, at later (and seemingly more complex) levels the complexity is lower than at the early ones, and they give more experience.

Anyway SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech – this is, of course, a good, bright, memorable game that all connoisseurs of this genre simply must try. It’s just that the authors still need to work on balance in the later stages of the passage – well, or it’s just me being so cool..

Pros: the plot is full of events, funny characters and humor; game mechanics at the intersection of RPG and collectible card games; chic design; lush graphics; rich sound and well-chosen music.

Cons: For some reason it’s easier to play in the later stages than in the early stages – there are problems with balance.

SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

Best comments

By God, I didn’t even pay attention to this during the entire game. It’s generally strange in this world to look at who is what gender. The mushrooms we fight with are men? And the masked hero? And, by the way, the head of the magic academy that Copernicus defeats is a woman. and it seems bad. Not?

I liked all the previous games from the SteamWorld series, I’m a small fan of card games, but I think I’ll check out SteamWorld Quest!

Digged deep. Very. I can do this too – you can then remember that the knight (vomited while writing) is not a particularly gifted character with intelligence, who wanted to chop a giant intelligent mushroom for food? Somehow this doesn’t do her any favors as a character. By and large, the only sober and positive character is Copernicus.
Although, I cannot completely deny that some kind of “positive discrimination” is indeed present in the game.

Everything that comes out on SteamWorld automatically gets a 10/10 and Amazing rating from me. We’ll definitely check out this new product too.

I don’t really like single player card games in general. But at the same time, I really love the SteamWorld setting. So I have a little mixed feelings. But here the problem is not even the game, but simply some of my preferences.

Well, again the same situation as with the review of Horizon Zero Dawn – all the positive qualities of the product are listed and not a word is said about the fact that the game as a whole is man-hating rubbish. And interest in this product is again justified by a specific implementation (in the case of HZD – “well, there are graphics”, with SWQ – “well, there is humor”).

There is a specific difference between real feminism (which is for equality) and modern-trend (which is known for what). In the first case, representatives of both sexes act as (or, in a broader sense, on the side) not only heroes, but also antagonists. In the second case we have:
– all-round positive main characters (Copernicus and Armilli)
– adequate npc (trade)
– faction of antagonists (among them the female presence is completely excluded)
— hostile creatures (among them the female presence is also completely excluded (the local analogue of goblins, someone with a cat, a mushroom))
– a dependent npc (the son of a storyteller who wants to hear a fairy tale (to laze around), but Copernicus is another matter – he independently collects mushrooms (performs activities useful for the community))
– an npc obsessed with some useless game (the narrator is a lover of pirates – his hobby does not bring any real benefit due to its abstractness, but Armilly is a different matter – he no less passionately wants to be a member of a guild and protect the community)
– a selfish character (a friend of the main heroines of Galleo, who, although he “would never leave his friends,” when asked to understand the current events (a fire and an attack by an enemy faction) replies “I wish I didn’t get up today” – not like the main heroines, who decisively and urgently get down to business)
– hostile npc (Captain Canary, everything is clear with him – he is the main antagonist of the first hour of the game).
The sum of it all is this: fearless and determined citizens, living among lazy and/or selfish fellow citizens, defeat other citizens, evil and bloodthirsty, along the way, forcing yet another amorphous citizen to perform noble actions that he would not undertake of his own free will. This is exactly how lovers of modern femme trends see the world around them and themselves in it.

What I want to say about this: no one can forbid the author of a work of art to create it in accordance with his own views, but if the author creates creativity to please a narrow audience of rad fems, then let only them buy the product created to please them, after which the author will calculate the income received and think about whether it is worth counting on such an audience again. And for this, in particular, you should write objective reviews.

A very enjoyable game, for some reason it reminded me of Battle Chasers: Nightwar. But in SW Q the non-combat part is more boring, there are no special objects or mini-quests. But in terms of combat, this game is perhaps the best of the “card” games.