SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech

1. TurboK

   Apr 30, 2019

   10

   Steam World Quest is an amazing mix of Baten Kaitos, Paper Mario and Slay the Spire with a big dash of Image & Form special sauce in it. IfSteam World Quest is an amazing mix of Baten Kaitos, Paper Mario and Slay the Spire with a big dash of Image & Form special sauce in it. If you are a fan of RPGs or card games try this game out, very hard to put down.… Expand

   • 3 of 4 users found this helpful
2. richardc

   Jun 11, 2019

   10

   I loved this game. I really like the "deckbuilding" type games and this was right up my alley. Fun to build decks, try out different decks andI loved this game. I really like the "deckbuilding" type games and this was right up my alley. Fun to build decks, try out different decks and characters, etc.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
4. abrus

   Mar 26, 2022

   10

   It's so much fun spending time in this game! The combat is really satisfying, the characters are distinctive and well developed, the graphicsIt's so much fun spending time in this game! The combat is really satisfying, the characters are distinctive and well developed, the graphics are gorgeous and the experience is engaging right through till the end. I finished this game 18 months ago and came back for another playthrough! Mechanically it is reasonably similar to Slay the Spire, but the big difference is that this is a story where you level up of your deck and your characters as you progress. Each character plays quite differently from the others and it's fun experimenting with different card combinations between battles. The one minor gripe I have with this game is that some of the boss battles seem unnecessarily long and grindy, but otherwise this is a really enjoyable 15 hour playthrough. Highly recommended!… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
5. LegendOfStewart

   Dec 4, 2019

   8

   SteamWorld Quest is a wonderful fantasy RPG from a company who continues to put out consistently solid games. This game has a wonderfullySteamWorld Quest is a wonderful fantasy RPG from a company who continues to put out consistently solid games. This game has a wonderfully complex yet simple battle system that keeps you coming back for more, even when the story sometimes shows how threadbare it can be, especially for a fantasy RPG. However, the great turn-based combat, beautiful graphics, and excellent soundtrack all contribute to another wonderful experience within the SteamWorld Universe.… Expand

   • 0 of 0 users found this helpful
6. GamerGuysNGals

   May 3, 2019

   8

   Steamworld Quest, Hand of Gilgamech is a steampunk, RPG, card fighting game. It follows the journey of an adventurer by the name of Armilly,Steamworld Quest, Hand of Gilgamech is a steampunk, RPG, card fighting game. It follows the journey of an adventurer by the name of Armilly, who wishes to join the local Hero Guild. Shes inexperienced with low quality armor so no one actually takes her seriously at first. But after the Hero Guild is attacked and the village is ransacked, Armilly and her friends set out to find out why. You lead the heroes through an incredible hand drawn world with a very story book feel, where you play out battles with nothing but your wits and a handful of cards. You must craft your deck from a choosing of over 100 unique cards. In this game of heroes you will find gold, dragons, indepth worlds, magic, knights, turn based battles and all the best thing RPG’s have to offer. The game has a great mix of traditional fantasy, steampunk robots and a great, humorous narrative.
   
   Pros: Amazing graphics, engaging storyline, and lot of cards to choose from and use.
   
   Cons: For a card game, it feels more like a full on RPG, such as Final fantasy. Limited to 6 cards at a time during battle.
   
   Overall: 8. While the storyline premise with the heroes going off to fight evil is sorely overused, the combination of RPG and card fighting is done really well, and the steampunk art style is done amazingly. A lot of choices to make, humorous dialogue and amazing visuals.… Expand

   • 1 of 2 users found this helpful
7. Rtheom

   Apr 27, 2019

   7

   This is a card-based RPG that is mostly just meh. It's fine enough, but this format has been done before and done better, so it's not worthThis is a card-based RPG that is mostly just meh. It's fine enough, but this format has been done before and done better, so it's not worth picking up for the mechanics alone. The combat is a bit repetitive and you find yourself mostly just trying to pull the same 3 combos as many times as possible.
   
   My biggest problem with the game though is the fact that it doesn't seem to have any connection to SteamWorld beyond the art style. The characters keep making references to being "hungry" or having "flesh wounds that heal" and you get "trashium" and other gem types from the dig games as crafting materials, but you never actually see them in the world or anything like that; they're mostly just a line of text. It feels like Image and Form made a mediocre RPG, knew it was mediocre, and so changed the art last minute to make it "SteamWorld" to try and grab a few extra sales off of that.
   
   This will be worth picking up once it goes on sale to $15, but you're fine until then. It is worth playing in the end, but it's not creative or unique enough to warrant a day-one purchase, even for SteamWorld fans.… Expand

   • 3 of 6 users found this helpful
8. nusco

   May 27, 2019

   6

   Image & Form have always been at their best when they mix ingredients from wildly different gaming genres, settings and mechanics. From theImage & Form have always been at their best when they mix ingredients from wildly different gaming genres, settings and mechanics. From the "metroidvania spaghetti western with robots" of SteamWorld Dig 2 to the "robot space pirates in turn-based tactical combat" of SteamWorld Heist, this team thinks out of the box, and gave us a few great games in the process. SW Quest, however, might be the point where they push that formula too far. It's not quite a shark jump, but it is a bit of a disappointment.
   
   The problems of Quest begin with its setting and artwork. OK, this time it's "robots in a fantasy world"–but that theme doesn't work nearly as well as the previous ones. To hammer this square peg in the round hole of the SteamWorld universe, the story frames the entire game as a bedtime story told by Gabriel (one of Heist's protagonists) to his kid–a pretty artificial and tired device. The story is also overwritten and annoying. Where Heist's characters managed to elicit affection with a few rare lines of optional dialogue, Quest tries to hammer home its protagonists with lengthy conversations and a story that piles up one cliched trope after the other. The characters could have spiced the recipe, but they don't. While the robots in earlier SteamWorld games oozed charme, the ones in Quest are cute at best, and frankly ugly at worst. (Also: I love the mashup of themes, but "robot japanese warrior mystical fantasy hero" is starting to feel like you're ignoring the theme and mashing up random stuff.)
   
   The core talent of Image & Form are their game mechanics, that usually borrow from different sources to produce a fresh and perfectly balanced mix. SW Quest is a bit of a disappointment in that respect, too. A mix between a card game and an RPG sounds like a great idea–and in the best moments of the game, it is. You have multiple characters, each with its own deck of cards. Configuring your team and building your decks is pretty pleasant, and it feels good to play a sequence of cards that work well together. (Like: Character 1 casts a poison spell on Character 2's sword; Character 2 hits and poisons enemy; Character one casts an "Infection" spell that spreads the "poisoned" state to the other enemies). Those spikes of adrenaline are a highlight, but most fights end up being pretty boring.
   
   Here is what I think is the main problem with the game mechanics: you don't know exactly what kind of enemies you'll face until you start fighting. At that point, you cannot reconfigure your team and decks. That's probably a way to keep you on your toes, but it ends up feeling like you're at mercy of randomness. Sometimes, you can spot one or two of the enemies before you fight them, and sometimes you can't. Once you get into a fight, you can find yourself in a number of remarkably unfunny situations, like a fight that drags on for fifteen minutes in a pointless tug-of-war of damage and healing, or a battle that could be stupidly easy with the right team of characters and instead ends up being artificially hard, just because you don't happen to have the right team or cards.
   
   Those quagmireish fights are painful because you can't even backtrace easily. In theory, you could abandon the fight, take a round of pummeling, and come back with different characters or decks–but the important fights prevent you from doing that. The other option is quitting the game, that sends you back to the previous checkpoint–and the checkpoints are very unevenly spaced. At one point, I went through four or five long and pretty boring fights, only to suddenly stumble upon a boss that was immune to all the attacks that I had in my decks. After suffering through a few pointless rounds, I had to quit, start over from the previous checkpoint, and go through all those unremarkable fights again. Moments like those made me wish that the game would be over soon.
   
   I realize that I've been quite critical of this game. However, all that being said, I still finished SW Quest, and I didn't drop it until I'd beaten it. There is something addictive in it, which makes me think that the folks at Image & Form haven't lost their touch after all. It's hard to tell whether they've become complacent, or whether Quest is just a bump in the career of these gaming autheurs–like the lackluster album from your favourite band that you never listen to, except for that one good song. We can still hope that the next game from Image & Form will be another great one like Dig, or even another masterpiece like Heist.… Expand

   • 1 of 1 users found this helpful

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