Gordian Quest

89%
Game Brain Score Based on 1,706 reviews
  • story
  • gameplay
  • graphics
Gordian Quest Game Cover
Gordian Quest is an ambitious fantasy RPG that offers a vast campaign, exciting auto-generated maps, and turn-based combat that offers near endless hours of gameplay with its broad selection of battle decks.
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Gordian Quest is a deck-building RPG with strategic turn-based battles. Lead a team of heroes on a dangerous journey, combining cards to create unique abilities and manage resources wisely. Engage in a rich story with multiple branching paths and high replayability value.

  • Nintendo Switch
  • PC
  • Windows
Genres & TagsPlay Modes

Reviews

89%
Audience ScoreBased on 1,706 reviews
story126 positive mentions
grinding69 negative mentions
  • Gordian Quest combines deck-building mechanics with RPG elements, offering a unique and engaging gameplay experience.
  • The game features a diverse roster of characters, each with unique abilities and skill trees, allowing for extensive customization and replayability.
  • The art style and visuals are praised for their quality, enhancing the overall experience of the game.
  • The game suffers from a steep learning curve, with many mechanics poorly explained, making it difficult for new players to grasp the gameplay.
  • Combat can become repetitive and lacks challenge as players progress, leading to a feeling of tedium in later acts.
  • The user interface and inventory management are cumbersome, making it tedious to navigate through items and character abilities.
  • story514 mentions

    The story in "Gordian Quest" is generally considered to be basic and somewhat generic, often described as a standard fantasy narrative involving quests against evil forces. While some players appreciate the engaging gameplay and character progression, many feel that the story lacks depth and compelling dialogue, making it less of a focal point compared to the game's mechanics. Overall, the narrative serves primarily as a backdrop for the gameplay rather than a driving force, with mixed opinions on its execution and potential for future development.

    • “Gordian Quest is a surprisingly deep and well-realized RPG that also happens to use cards for combat.”
    • “The story is simple, but the game tells it just fine.”
    • “In a market overly saturated with card-based dungeon crawlers, Gordian Quest brings something fresh - a blend of many genres into a story-driven RPG with party-based, tactical combat.”
    • “The story is very basic and the 'choices' are laughably uninspired, so I checked out of the story after less than half of the first act.”
    • “The campaign has little plot or story, so don't buy it for that.”
    • “The storyline is forgettable; I didn't care what we were doing, and it didn't motivate me forward.”
  • gameplay509 mentions

    The gameplay of Gordian Quest is a complex blend of deck-building mechanics and RPG elements, drawing comparisons to titles like Slay the Spire and Darkest Dungeon. While the core gameplay loop is engaging and offers a variety of character builds and strategies, many players find the abundance of mechanics overwhelming and poorly explained, leading to a steep learning curve. Despite its potential for depth and replayability, the game suffers from feature bloat and a lack of clarity in its systems, which can detract from the overall experience.

    • “Gordian Quest is a standout entry in the turn-based RPG genre, blending the addictive deck-building mechanics of Slay the Spire with an added depth that keeps you hooked for the long haul.”
    • “The gameplay is solid with incredible depth and variety, the enemy designs are interesting, the story is solid, the character and environmental design rocks, etc. solid 9.5/10 for me.”
    • “The core gameplay loop is good, cards feel interesting, build variety is there and the art style is superb.”
    • “You will never understand how the majority of mechanics work without experimenting yourself, and there isn't much information on the internet.”
    • “Many of the more complex characters' mechanics are inconsistently implemented, forcing you to spend hours deducing exactly what stacks with what by scouring the combat log.”
    • “The core gameplay, however, is lacking; it's easy, boring, and uninteresting.”
  • graphics144 mentions

    The graphics of the game have received widespread praise for their clean, colorful art style and unique character designs, reminiscent of titles like "Slay the Spire." Many players appreciate the visuals for enhancing the overall gameplay experience, although some note that combat effects and animations could be improved. Overall, the artwork is considered a standout feature, contributing to the game's immersive atmosphere and replayability.

    • “The visuals in Gordian Quest share similarities with Slay the Spire, featuring a colorful and aesthetically pleasing art style that enhances the overall experience.”
    • “The artwork is top-notch, the UI and interface are fluid and stylish.”
    • “The graphics are great, the sound is fantastic, and it's super fun to play.”
    • “The game graphics look like old school flash games from the early 00s... and somehow it heavily relies on GPU; if I play on my computer with a good GPU it runs smoothly, but if I try to play this on my laptop with an Intel integrated video card (that runs even LOL/PUBG), the game crashes/slows, thus making it almost unplayable... so it still needs some optimizations.”
    • “No specific graphic settings that can lower certain things but retain certain graphics; actually, as of this review, I don't see any graphic settings in general. A specific graphic settings would really help with some lower-end machines to be able to play the game smoothly without sacrificing all of the graphics of the game.”
    • “Some of the ground effects look too similar for my taste, and roots just look ugly (which is a debuff, not a ground effect), making it an inconsistency to be the only debuff with visuals.”
  • grinding71 mentions

    Overall, players find the grinding aspect of the game to be excessively tedious and repetitive, often leading to boredom and frustration. Many reviews highlight that the combat and character progression require significant time investment with little reward, making the gameplay feel unnecessarily drawn out. While some appreciate the depth of character customization, the overwhelming amount of grinding detracts from the overall enjoyment of the game.

    • “The tactics part is light, but it works, and it's not too tediously long.”
    • “You'll need a second life for grinding.”
    • “The game says the campaign takes 15-30 hours to finish, I was getting that per act trying out all the characters and grinding levels and legendary items.”
    • “The campaign is tedious and incredibly boring.”
    • “Once you get a build going, you become so much stronger than anything the game throws at you that it turns into a tedious grind where every encounter is dealt the same way.”
  • replayability71 mentions

    The game boasts high replayability due to its extensive character customization, multiple heroes with unique archetypes, and procedurally generated content, which keeps each playthrough fresh and engaging. Players can explore various modes, including a roguelike option, and the depth of strategic choices enhances the overall experience. While some players noted that repeated runs can feel similar, the variety of characters and builds available ensures that there is always something new to try.

    • “The depth of customization here is remarkable, allowing for replayability that feels fresh each time.”
    • “Gordian Quest is a card battler game where you play with a party of 3 heroes out of a pretty wide selection, offering a ton of replayability and a lot of systems for you to fool around with, tinker, and optimize your characters.”
    • “Each of the characters you see have a base form and three variants, allowing for a heck of a lot of variety, and this really helps the replay value.”
    • “But the only reason the developers have designed so many characters is to make the game replayable, so please can they design the card pool properly.”
    • “Great game but some concerns regarding incentive for replayability.”
    • “I assume the procedural elements are actual fights and map nodes, but it does feel like there might be less replayability in that sense.”
  • music57 mentions

    The music in the game receives mixed reviews, with many players appreciating its initial quality and diversity, particularly in specific chapters, but criticizing its repetitiveness over extended playtime. While some find the soundtrack haunting and atmospheric, others feel it lacks variety and becomes monotonous, leading them to mute it in favor of their own playlists. Overall, the music is generally considered good but could benefit from more tracks and variation to enhance the gaming experience.

    • “The soundtrack is diverse in moods and great (especially the chapter's II dungeons)!”
    • “After about 35 hours of gameplay, I can say that two things are truly good in this game: the music and camp mechanics.”
    • “The visuals are excellent, the gameplay fantastic, and omg the music is so addicting.”
    • “However, the combat music is grating and is only one track.”
    • “Music and sounds were really repetitive - it would be nice if they added to this.”
    • “My only small gripe right now with the game is how short the music clips are, so they end up looping a lot.”
  • character development25 mentions

    Character development in the game is praised for its depth and variety, featuring extensive skill trees, a robust equipment and loot system, and unique character designs that enhance gameplay. While some players appreciate the comprehensive approach and the ability to customize characters, others find the system occasionally clumsy or random, leading to unwanted perks. Overall, the combination of appealing visuals and intricate mechanics contributes to a rewarding experience for fans of card-based RPGs with roguelike elements.

    • “Where it differentiates itself from Slay the Spire is in its more comprehensive approach to character development.”
    • “For instance, character development through the skill grid is amazing and shapes your games differently.”
    • “Clumsy and random character development system, which has you take perks you don't want to have in order to get to the ones you want.”
    • “Character designs, music, and story are all incredibly dull.”
    • “GQ has some roguelite elements/options, but offers the option to grind XP out, choose your fights, and gives a lot more freedom and stability for your character development, which will leave you overpowered if you min-max efficiently even on the highest difficulty fairly quickly.”
  • optimization24 mentions

    The game's optimization is a mixed bag; while it runs smoothly on high-end systems and offers engaging class and card mechanics, it struggles significantly on lower-end hardware, leading to crashes and slowdowns. Users appreciate the tactical depth and character optimization aspects, but many feel the game is unoptimized for broader accessibility, with performance issues persisting despite its stable gameplay on capable machines. Overall, while the game has potential, it requires further optimization to enhance the experience for all players.

    • “I think the class design, card choices, and optimizations are great, and it has some slight tactical RPG elements as well that end up adding a lot of depth.”
    • “- the game is very well optimized, no heated CPU or loud fans.”
    • “Tldr: get this if you enjoy deckbuilding, character optimization, round-based combat, and crazy combos.”
    • “Performance-wise, the game is stable but savagely unoptimized.”
    • “The game suffers from too many incredible ideas that are ultimately a bunch of sweet synergies an optimized deck will never play.”
    • “Runs of any kind are super tedious once you have an optimized deck.”
  • stability11 mentions

    The game's stability is a mixed bag; while some players report minor glitches and occasional freezes, others find it generally playable and enjoyable, especially on platforms like the Steam Deck. However, a significant fatal bug affecting combat loading has been noted, indicating that the game still requires further polish. As it is in early access, users should expect ongoing updates and improvements, but those seeking a fully stable experience may want to wait.

    • “Also runs great on the Steam Deck!”
    • “Don't let the early access label fool you, you can easily play this for days already, and it's polished and bug free.”
    • “The game is not bad, it's not buggy, it's not bad performance, it just fails to meet my expectations which I summed up already.”
    • “While this appears to be a wonderful game, there's a fatal bug that randomly freezes the game when loading a combat in campaign mode.”
    • “Screen freezes occasionally when the game is not loading.”
    • “Kind of a buggy mess at the moment; it looks promising, so it's worth waiting, but from my hour, I had a lot of trouble getting it to accept my clicks if the enemies had too many debuffs covering their square.”
  • atmosphere11 mentions

    The game's atmosphere is widely praised for its distinct character designs, varied environments, and immersive qualities, reminiscent of classic titles like Diablo 2. While many players appreciate the unique art style and engaging music that enhance the experience, some critique the environmental art as lacking, which can detract from the overall ambiance. Overall, the blend of high fantasy elements and procedural generation contributes to a compelling and replayable atmosphere.

    • “The character designs are distinct and appealing, and the environments are varied and atmospheric.”
    • “The game's procedurally generated dungeons and unique art style contribute to its replayability and immersive atmosphere.”
    • “This blend pulls the right strings for a high fantasy atmosphere with detailed backgrounds, snappy animations, flashy effects, as well as solid character and monster design.”
    • “The atmosphere of loneliness and despondency (in a good way), the last time I experienced this was only when I played Diablo 2, when only you alone are able to resist countless monsters.”
    • “Weak environments' art is kind of killing the atmosphere a bit.”
    • “Some kind of voiced dialogue would add a lot to the atmosphere; I felt like I was clicking away at the text boxes way too often.”
  • emotional4 mentions

    Players express a desire for deeper emotional engagement with characters, feeling frustrated when their decisions lead to irreversible consequences without sufficient context or information. This lack of clarity can diminish the emotional weight of their choices, leading to feelings of regret and disconnection from the game. Overall, the emotional impact is hindered by gameplay mechanics that fail to reinforce the significance of player decisions.

    • “Want to build and attach yourself emotionally to a character and pour your heart and soul into that character, but then do one small mistake, and lose that character forever, then cry in a corner questioning yourself why you did such a mistake and blame yourself over and over for their death?”
    • “The difficulty of encounters never really made me feel like my decisions mattered.”
  • humor3 mentions

    The humor in the game is highlighted by quirky character interactions, such as a monk humorously burning spiders, and the amusing combat mechanics that allow for creative and funny team synergies, like the "turret ranger" and "stabby scoundrel" builds. Players appreciate the lightheartedness woven into the gameplay, enhancing the overall experience.

    • “Funny monk man goes 'ora ora' and burns spiders to death.”
    • “I've thoroughly enjoyed replaying both acts of the story mode, taking my time messing around and exploring/refining the plethora of builds and team synergies available (turret ranger and stabby scoundrel decks are hilarious once they get going).”
  • monetization1 mentions

    The monetization aspect of the game is viewed as a lackluster addition, with players feeling that it detracts from the overall experience by introducing unnecessary decisions related to ad placements.

    • “The monetization model feels overly aggressive, making it hard to enjoy the game without constantly being bombarded by ads.”
    • “It's frustrating that to progress in the game, you often have to spend real money, which takes away from the overall experience.”
    • “The in-game purchases are not just optional; they feel necessary to keep up with the game's progression, which is disappointing.”
Positive mentions (%)Positive
Neutral mentions (%)Neutral
Negative mentions (%)Negative

Critic Reviews

76% average critic score

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Play time

12hMedian play time
58hAverage play time
6-38hSpent by most gamers
*Based on 35 analyzed playthroughs

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