Draft Of Darkness Preview (Steam Early Access)

by Jim Smale · August 2, 2021

This Draft of Darkness Preview shows off this survival horror deck builder with roguelike dungeon exploration. Recruit allies, synergize their decks to create powerful card combos, manage your resources, explore procedurally generated maps and determine the outcome of the story.

Draft Of Darkness Preview Pros:

Nice pixel art graphics.
872.93MB Download size.
Steam achievements.
Graphics – fullscreen, resolution, v-sync, graphics preset, frame rate cap, ambient occlusion, and high render distance.
Screen effects – color bleed, scan lines, noise strips, and pixelization.
Accessibility options – flashing screen effects and if you use the custom cursor.
Censor profanity setting.
Can rebind controls.
Three characters – Jake, Cara, and Pavel. Each has unique decks and abilities.
3 difficulties – Easy, normal, and hard.
Roguelike card battler gameplay.
Tutorial pop-ups as you play. (can turn off and reset them at will)
3D world you roam.
Turn-based side on combat.
You play cards in combat and each card costs a resource and energy to play.
Each card has a action but also has a weaker alternative action.
Conservation mode is when you try and save resources/energy and use the weaker actions.
Enemies drop loot and EXP.
Timeline shows turn order and if any actions start to decay.
Drag and drop inventory and equipment menu system. Items will show green or red if the stats change or if it adds any or takes away any buffs.
Whilst exploring the world you can turn the grid on or off.
Enemy encounter icons show.
Cool pixel art graphic cards.
Hover over enemies to get a stats pop up.
Earn EXP and level up to put points into your four stats – strength, vitality, dexterity, and intelligence.
Minimap fills in as you explore and shows any icons in the area.
Decision events can be triggered and these are multiple-choice interactions that can affect future events and stories.
After every fight, you get to pick one of three cards to keep.
Recruit new members – full management of them, you can dismiss them and they come with their own deck.
The hot bar for items.
Can set up keyboard shortcuts.
WASD for movement.
Death – you get a breakdown of what you did. And you fill in any encounters on a map.
Credits – you earn these whilst playing.
Booster packs – buy with credits and they add 3 random cards to your starting deck pool.
Cool booster pack opening animation.
You can unlock new booster pack themes.
Before a run, you can add/remove cards fr your starting deck.
Handy right-click shortcut to add/remove cards and change equipment quickly.
Full deck creation support.
Every run randomizes the map, enemy locations, and loot.

Draft Of Darkness Preview Cons:

No way to skip cutscenes.
Card resource/energy amount is on the bottom of the card.
You have to be so precise with the dragging of cards in combat.
Menus are needlessly fiddly.
You have to unlock two characters and hard difficulty.
Walking around the world is not that fun with doors sticking and no camera control.
Robotic-looking animations.
The end turn button is right next to the report bugs Button but also gets blocked by any error messages.
Very slow-paced.
The text on items and cards is so small.
Needs clearer markings for if items are to be played in exploration or in combat.
Ai can take a while to have their turn even with fast animations on.
Can’t believe I’m saying this but you get far too much loot that you spend ages dealing with item management.
Combat is plain and it’s not until you put serious time in and get good cards that it gets juicy.