Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder

Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder feels unfinished in parts, but fans of card-based battle games will be intrigued by the ingenious combat mechanism that forces you to balance your attacks against the threat of the enemy’s retaliation.

Overall, Nadir: A Grimdark Deck Builder is a fun title that offers a different spin on the deck-building rogue-like genre. Sadly though, there are so many other alternatives that offer much more in-depth and fleshed-out gameplay that it’s hard to recommend this one.

Nadir has some good ideas and it certainly pulls its weight in terms of its presentation, but a number of gameplay issues and technical problems end up tossing this one into the limbo between heaven and hell. There’s certainly the seed of something very cool here, but whether or not the developers will be able to nurture it into reaching its full potential is a gamble you may not want to take up.

Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder succeeds in delivering a visually beautiful experience, but the game around these gorgeously metal images doesn’t feel like it had the same care as the art design. It is frustratingly difficult, a fact exacerbated by the inconsistently presented information and issues around how the game’s controls were ported to the Switch. This is a game that feels unfinished, despite the visual flair it offers.

I really wanted to rave about how great Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder was. Unfortunately, while there are some genuinely noteworthy elements in the game, such as the unique combat and striking visual style, it’s ultimately held back by some problematic issues. The game is quite unbalanced in its current state, and the developers desperately need to fix some pretty glaring glitches. Until that happens, it’s hard to fully recommend.