Meteorfall: Journey
By: Slothwerks
Asmodee Digital’s solitaire card game, Onirim, was one of my most-played games in 2017. I just love how you can play a game in a few minutes, and there’s no grinding or deck-building to worry about. Until the recent scoring system was added, it was basically the perfect mobile game. So I’ve been keeping my eye out for similar games, such as Miracle Merchant, and when I saw Slothwerks’ Meteorfall was close to release, I had to try it.
The game isn’t releasing until January 25th, but I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of it. And I’ve barely put it down since I started playing. I’m planning to write a full review, but for now I thought I’d at least give some of my early impressions and show you some gameplay video. Here is my first experience with the game. Unfortunately, the audio cut out from the video in the middle, but you can still hear my mic:
In that video, I tried out the warrior, wizard, and rogue. My scores were pretty sad, but I still had fun. It wasn’t until I tried the healer that I started doing better. You can see one of my attempts in this video:
And then, after a whole bunch of games, I finally beat the Uberlich! I even got the number one slot on the leaderboards! I’m sure that won’t last once the game goes public, but it felt good anyway. You can see the end of that game below, but it might be considered a small spoiler.
So let me talk a bit about the game. It combines the binary decision-making of Reigns with dungeon crawling and temporary deck building. Each class has a specific deck of cards to draw from. You have a certain number of moves each turn. When a card is drawn, you can either play it or put it at the bottom of the pile and gain four Stamina. As you defeat monsters and clear dungeons, you’ll gain experience and level up. That gives you more health and stamina. You’ll also find treasure chests with cards in them, have the option to upgrade cards, as well as remove cards from your deck.
There is also a healthy dose of luck to the game, as can be expected. You need to be able to make the best of the cards you’re given. But what I like about it is that each game you have a fresh deck. You’re not grinding and building a deck over time. It feels like a proper high score chaser.
What I like about Rose, the healer, is that she has some pretty powerful offensive spells, but then can also heal herself. With the other classes, I find I’m dying too easily. But the leaderboards are a mix of all classes, so it could just be that I need to hone my skills and find a good strategy with the warrior, wizard and rogue.
I’ll definitely be spending more time with Meteorfall over the next week or so. And keep an eye out for my review on January 25th. But this is definitely a game to check out if you like easy-to-pick-up but deep solitaire games.