The Monster WithinEARLY ACCESS PREVIEWThe basic concept would, interestingly,
be a good fit for several genres. Each
character is a monster disguised asa
human. Themore damage they take, the
more their true monster form is
revealed.The more monstrous they
become, the greater the difference in
the abilities available to them.
How this translates to play isn’t
explained fully in-game (for now at
least), butit’seasy enough to fill in
the gaps.At the beginning of each
round, you have a few cards that deal a
little damage, and therest are played to
earn resources, which youmust ‘spend’
on new cards before the end of your
turn. Resources don’t carry over to the
next turn, but a card isn’t lost when you
play it.All of your cards are cycled
through your discard anddraw piles
until the end of the round... with one
important twist.
As you take damage and startto look
more icky, the types ofcard that you
hold and have available to buy change.
Initially, the resource and card type is
Day.As you takea virtual beating, the
Day cards begin to be swapped outfor
Night and Monstercards.These are theones withthemesand abilities that often
lean intothe details of your current
monster. The madscientistfor example
can create potions used for an instant
resource, attack, or defence boost, while
the blob can build up a growth stat that
can, withcertain cards, be translated
into damage or healing.FANGS VERY MUCH
The factthat you’re not only playing asa
monster, but alsoagainst(an AI) one, is
where much of thestrategy comes
from. Reduce an opponent’shealth to
zero, forcing them to embrace theirtrue
form, andthe fight continuesagainst
this new,more powerful version of
themselves with a new health bar.
Though it’s worth pointing out that when
youreach zero health, youjust hit game
over (anodd decision, but one that
preventsthe game from being too easy).
Severallossesin, I eventually learned
to think ahead whenbuying cards in the
early stages of a round. Thewraith for
instance sometimes employs an ability
making it immune to all but Day cards,
so I stock up on as many of thoseas I
can while they’re still available. The
vampire canbecome incredibly
difficult to takedown ifyou don’t do
it quickly, thanks to her regular use
of healing and debuffs, so I tryto
plan accordingly.
The Early Accessstatus is mostly
visible in terms ofthe amount of
content. There are already hundreds of
cards, which makes each round
pleasantly unpredictable, and thereare
temporarymutators and card buffs to
be had. Each run consists ofjust three
rounds though, andcan usually be
beaten in half an hour or less. Six of the
ten monsters are currently available, the
vampire your starting character and the
other five waiting to beunlocked.
One issue is thatsome major current
and plannedcontent is locked behind a
requirement to finish a run on one of the
highest difficulties. This carries a danger
of casualplayers losing interest sooner
rather than later. That would be areal
shame, as this is a unique and
enormously fun game – one I’ll keep
playing –that deserves as large a
community as possible.
Luke KempThere’s no shortage of card battlers on
Steam, but none of the others are quite
like this. For example, get a load of that
gorgeous, Lichtenstein-style retro art
spread across the page. Isn’t it fantastic?
Gameplay needs to work hard to keep up; and,
somehow, it just about does.Meet your new beast friendsTHE MONSTERWITHINTHE MORE DAMAGE THEY TAKE,THE MORE THEIR TRUEMONSTER FORMIS REVEALEDEXPET TO PAY
£ 12DEVELOPER
GMO Free GamesPUBLISHER
In-houseLINK
bit.ly/ 3 ksD 3 piNEED TO KNOWPLAYED
ITB... but I wantto
go full monster!