Runespell: Overture

 PC
User Score
6.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 32 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 32
  2. Mixed: 12 out of 32
  3. Negative: 6 out of 32

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  1. Keys4F
    May 8, 2015
    10
    An excellent game by a very talented team of developers. Mystic Box has delivered the perfect blend between RPG and casual card games. I really dug the story and the graphics and the music was awesome as well. Bought it day one on Steam and have played it several times. Really cool.
  2. ave
    Feb 11, 2015
    4
    As a avid player of Match-3 games, and appreciator of the Puzzle Quest saga, I convinced myself to give Runespell: Overture a shot, intrigued by the fact you play with a standard deck of cards instead of coloured gems.

    The first battles were interesting, the poker-like combos felt novel. Diving more deeply into the game, it got more depth with the addition of magic cards and sidekicks.    As a avid player of Match-3 games, and appreciator of the Puzzle Quest saga, I convinced myself to give Runespell: Overture a shot, intrigued by the fact you play with a standard deck of cards instead of coloured gems.

    The first battles were interesting, the poker-like combos felt novel. Diving more deeply into the game, it got more depth with the addition of magic cards and sidekicks.

    Unfortunately, it appeared that most of the magic cards are just copies of the same basic spell (unlike other games where fire, ice, lightning and poison have different tactical effects).

    From that point, the battles felt too much similar to sustain interest, and the constant sight of these clubs, diamonds, hearts and spades turned the fantasy background into the trivial one your regular Solitaire.

    These kind of games are supposed to be easy to develop on a reasonable budget, deliberately limiting fancy graphics to focus solely on gameplay depth. Sadly, this game is a living testimony of a team being too lazy or too tired to make a truly great game.

    Maybe they lost faith in this game at some point. No wonder this happened to me too.    … Expand
  3. Ixziga
    Aug 12, 2012
    2
    Nothing but problems for me. The concept of the game is original and interesting at first, until you realize that an otherwise casual style of gameplay gets utterly dominated by all the strings attached to it. The story is useless. Nothing new, nothing artistic, no degree of presentation, and it's told only through written dialogue. Once the opening scene is through, there is no attempt toNothing but problems for me. The concept of the game is original and interesting at first, until you realize that an otherwise casual style of gameplay gets utterly dominated by all the strings attached to it. The story is useless. Nothing new, nothing artistic, no degree of presentation, and it's told only through written dialogue. Once the opening scene is through, there is no attempt to set the scene and the dialogue is flat and unimpressive at all levels. Don't want the story? Too bad, as that's the only thing you're able to do in the game. Want to play the game? Too bad, you'll have to read text-books worth of dialogue before you do, and none of it is interesting enough to be worth the time it takes to read. The length of game depends more on how quickly you can read than how good you are at it. In fact, this is a game that you can't be good at. There's no real strategy, as it uses poker mechanics to play. The downfall is that they had the bright idea of letting you and the other player see and steal from each other's hands, and since poker skill is based on NOT knowing everyone's cards, skill gets thrown on the back burner and is replaced by luck and a half-hatched system of "runespells" that discard all notion of balance. Although you and your enemy can both use them, they happen to be consumables, and since the computer is granted a nearly limitless supply of them whereas you only get 1 or 2 per fight, your odds of victory go down very steadily. Whether you win or not comes down to nothing but luck, and the developers basically admit that because every time you lose you can just retry infinitely with no penalty. It's like they're saying "here, roll this die, if you get a 6 you win, if you get less than a 6 you lose. Wait you didn't get a 6? Just keep rolling until you do." Basically, Runespell: Overture is a textbook with a fun-game-gone-horribly-wrong haphazardly glued to it. Had I not obtained the game through a steam indie bundle, I would have been sorely disappointed with any amount of money I spent on this game. Reviews aren't always right, but listen to the critics when it comes to this game. You can get the full experience of this game by reading a book where you have to roll dice to see if you can read the next page or not.… Expand
  4. Billick
    May 4, 2012
    7
    The core gameplay of Runespell is essentially a weird combination of poker solitaire and a trading card game. In each fight, you face the AI opponent in a card game where the goal is to take the other player's health to 0. You create poker hands from a solitaire style board, which can be used as attacks against enemies. The better the hand, the more damage the attack deals. Also, youThe core gameplay of Runespell is essentially a weird combination of poker solitaire and a trading card game. In each fight, you face the AI opponent in a card game where the goal is to take the other player's health to 0. You create poker hands from a solitaire style board, which can be used as attacks against enemies. The better the hand, the more damage the attack deals. Also, you can play cards from your sideboard, which have various effects such as dealing damage, blocking damage, or giving you extra actions on the current turn. While not as deep as either poker, or a typical trading card game, I still found it to be oddly addictive and fun. The card game is wrapped in an RPG story, which isn't particularly interesting. The dialog is painfully bad, and the story and quests are just an excuse to run you around the map fighting things. The artwork in the game does look really nice. The epic score almost seems like overkill for this game, but it's quite good. Overall, it's a neat little game, even if it doesn't quite reach its potential, and I applaud the developers for trying something different.… Expand
  5. adff500
    Dec 27, 2011
    0
    The Game looks like incomplete. The developers state,that they spend 2 years with the game. No one could believe this. Maybe every Sunday afternoon for 2 years! When you start the game,there is only one way to play - Story. That`s it. No Single player,no multiplayer,no quick game,no tournament,no map editor,no battle editor,no variations. Just the Story game. And believe or not,you canThe Game looks like incomplete. The developers state,that they spend 2 years with the game. No one could believe this. Maybe every Sunday afternoon for 2 years! When you start the game,there is only one way to play - Story. That`s it. No Single player,no multiplayer,no quick game,no tournament,no map editor,no battle editor,no variations. Just the Story game. And believe or not,you can finish this game overnight. Yes,the game is really short,just about 20 battles or so. And then you can play the same story again. That`s it. No refunds. As the game cost £7.99 it is really wasting of your money. You can have any great tried-and-tested games in platinum editions under £5.… Expand
  6. JonesR
    Dec 1, 2011
    8
    I honestly think this is the first computer based card game I have ever played. I have always passed them up thinking I would never enjoy them. Boy was I wrong. This truly is a well developed adventure. You essentially create poker hands against opponents to cause damage. The battle animation sequences keep it interesting to watch plus there are a decent number of card options, includingI honestly think this is the first computer based card game I have ever played. I have always passed them up thinking I would never enjoy them. Boy was I wrong. This truly is a well developed adventure. You essentially create poker hands against opponents to cause damage. The battle animation sequences keep it interesting to watch plus there are a decent number of card options, including offensive, defensive, and special abilities. As long as you understand how poker hands are ranked, this game is masterfully intuitive. If not, they even have that covered as well with an easy to follow tutorial. It also has a decent story although it's all text based so there is a bit of reading involved (you can skip conversations if you prefer). Do yourself a favor and give this game a shot.… Expand
  7. Dookie1977
    Nov 27, 2011
    9
    When i started to play this game, i was like : hummmmmmmm... good idea but...... But, the more you play and the more you love it !!!! This is a very good game and very cheap !!!!
  8. DantheMan
    Nov 26, 2011
    6
    It took me five hours to finish this very uneven game. While the concept is intriguing the game suffers from two major problems. The first is that the game is unbalanced at times probably because the AI is poor. The monsters sometimes have much better cards and much more health points than you and even if you play well it's really is just a crap shoot. There is no real strategy to the cardIt took me five hours to finish this very uneven game. While the concept is intriguing the game suffers from two major problems. The first is that the game is unbalanced at times probably because the AI is poor. The monsters sometimes have much better cards and much more health points than you and even if you play well it's really is just a crap shoot. There is no real strategy to the card game and on the whole it just feels entirely too random to me. The second is that the story that strings these card games together is below average. It would have helped a lot if there had been voice overs. Anything to help bring the stale story to life. On the positive side the programming was good as I encountered no bugs and the graphics seemed quite relevant to the game. This is an OK game if you are looking for something that is a change of pace from your normal hack n slash. I didn't feel like I had wasted my time to play it to the end but I won't be playing it again, either.… Expand
  9. Ameno
    Aug 4, 2011
    10
    Original Indie Game. PuzzleQuest-like game with Pokers Elements and Magic: The Gathering elements. Great music, a well-written story and pretty cool 3D Characters.
  10. TechnologoDoom
    Aug 2, 2011
    5
    While I liked the ideas in Runespell, I never felt the gameplay executed very well. Attack points for specific card hands feel unbalanced, and the system requiring you to buy special moves feels wrong. Quite frankly, after an hour of playing I was bored and wanting to quit. Wanted to like this one, but sadly not really.
  11. ibringdoom
    Jul 29, 2011
    9
    Runespell: Overture is an amazing game which combines poker and role playing elements together and creating it into a unique game which never gets bored. The art style which is used fits perfectly and the music which is used gives it a peaceful feeling to it. While playing the game i wouldn't expect to see such graphics. The combat isn't just randomly clicking cards but really makes youRunespell: Overture is an amazing game which combines poker and role playing elements together and creating it into a unique game which never gets bored. The art style which is used fits perfectly and the music which is used gives it a peaceful feeling to it. While playing the game i wouldn't expect to see such graphics. The combat isn't just randomly clicking cards but really makes you think how to make the right combinations. The effects used during combat also look very nice. When you think about the fact that this game only costs 8,99 euros in my country and you see how much time they've spend in creating this game you realise that this game is really worth your money.… Expand
  12. Braiken
    Jul 27, 2011
    9
    Great music, a well-written story, a dynamic and intensive gameplay, and lots of cards to collect and to use against your foes. At first I found it weird to defeat my enemies using poker cards (+powercards), but the demo convienced me and did not regret my purchase. The game has minor issues which are being fixed as we speak, and has free updates planned (the next one is Multiplayer!).Great music, a well-written story, a dynamic and intensive gameplay, and lots of cards to collect and to use against your foes. At first I found it weird to defeat my enemies using poker cards (+powercards), but the demo convienced me and did not regret my purchase. The game has minor issues which are being fixed as we speak, and has free updates planned (the next one is Multiplayer!). Give it a go you won't walk away disappointed!… Expand
  13. LazyWater
    Jul 27, 2011
    9
    Runespell: Overture has an interesting art style that fits the game very well. Also the music fits in just right with how the game looks. It has a fairly decent learning curve, could mabey use a little tweaking though. (As in it gets a little hard a little to fast in one area.) The combat is refreshing and fun, and works very well. Power cards are fun to use. (These either do things likeRunespell: Overture has an interesting art style that fits the game very well. Also the music fits in just right with how the game looks. It has a fairly decent learning curve, could mabey use a little tweaking though. (As in it gets a little hard a little to fast in one area.) The combat is refreshing and fun, and works very well. Power cards are fun to use. (These either do things like damage the opponent, heal you, or a large number of other things.) Sadly the game is not perfect, and has a few bugs, as is to be expected. The bugs are not, however, TO bad and shouldn't break the game for you. One big lacking feature is Multiplayer, but the developers have stated that they will be releasing multiplayer in a free content update. That's another thing about Runespell: Overture. The developers have said most content updates will be free. All in all this game is very fun to play, and while it has a few bugs here and there, should keep you interested for awhile.… Expand
  14. Carnage157
    Jul 27, 2011
    9
    Mystic Box took a very simple concept of poker and RPG and turned it into a very addictive game. I'm personally not a fan of poker in general but I absolutely love RPGs, which was why I gave the game a chance. The game-play is solid and straightforward, the music is fantastic and really sets you in the mood of the game, and the animations are simple but very smooth. Difficulty wise itMystic Box took a very simple concept of poker and RPG and turned it into a very addictive game. I'm personally not a fan of poker in general but I absolutely love RPGs, which was why I gave the game a chance. The game-play is solid and straightforward, the music is fantastic and really sets you in the mood of the game, and the animations are simple but very smooth. Difficulty wise it might not be for everyone, for me it was just right, but for many others the later parts of the game might get very difficult and even frustrating.

    Now a few complaints are that the story mode itself is intriguing but at the same time very short. It also lacks replayability once you finish the story mode. Fortunately the developers have plans for many free updates that will fix those problems along with adding many additions like multiplayer, field effect cards, and many others.

    Overall, I recommend this game but please try the demo first to see if this is right for your taste. Especially for only 10 dollars plus free updates.    … Expand
  15. Snowless
    Jul 27, 2011
    10
    An excellent game by a very talented team of developers. Mystic Box has delivered the perfect blend between RPG and casual card games. I really dug the story and the graphics and the music was awesome as well. Bought it day one on Steam and have played it several times. Really cool.

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 14 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 14
  2. Mixed: 9 out of 14
  3. Negative: 0 out of 14
  1. PC PowerPlay
    Oct 3, 2011
    80
    Overture deals a winning hand with this gem, delivering addictive gameplay in spades. [Nov 2011, p.52]
  2. Gamer.no
    Sep 16, 2011
    70
    With the introduction of the new and entertaining game mechanic called Mythic Poker, Runespell: Overture becomes quite an interesting little game. You fight your way through medieval England and battle both Vikings and powerful creatures from mythology.
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  3. GameShark
    Aug 15, 2011
    50
    Runespell: Overture is good for an hour or two, the size of the demo conveniently enough, but beyond that, there's just not enough there to warrant spending the additional time playing it.
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