Duelyst Review: Addictive And Strategic

Combining elements from “Pokemon” and Hearthstone” is Counterplay Games’ “Duelyst,” a tactical RPG with staying power that feels more like a portable game for its accessibility and addictiveness, but ultimately has the depth and polish to make any PC gamer happy.

Card-collecting games have been done to death, but where “Duelyst thrives is a rich art style and over 300 units to battle with, making for a deep tactical RPG experience. With so many combinations of troops, it’s easy to be an individual and create wild teams. While each faction has characters that are specific to them, there are a plethora of unaligned or neutral characters that you can add. While battling in “Duelyst” is fun, there’s just as much fun to be had when creating your deck.

Regardless, the real meat of the game are in the battle modes. Described by Counterplay Games CEO Keith Lee as a variety of “Holo Chess,” from “Star Wars,” “Duelyst” battles take just a few minutes to complete, but are frenetic and fierce. It also helps that there’s a story here and the wars raging between the factions has a lineage and clear purpose. Obviously to be fleshed out more int he future, “Duelyst” has plenty of room to grow, but the foundation is already present in the gameplay engine.

Adding daily challenges and several different modes of play and “Duelyst” is able to connect you for just a few minutes at a time, or even a few hours. Thanks to that accessibility, it’s a wonderful game that deserves a release on the PlayStation Vita and Nintendo 3DS as well.

The Good:

Strategic Action: The characters all play different and their actions, every one, matter. That’s exactly what you want from a tactical RPG.

Tons of Characters: With over 300 units, it’s a blast to put a deck together and enjoy the possibilities.

Awesome Art: From the hand-drawn characters during cut-scenes to the 16-bit sprites, there’s a lot to like visually in “Duelyst.”

The Bad:

Not Much Explanation of Unit Powers: Although it’s easy to jump in and play, there’s not much in way of getting to know the power of your units before you employ them although you can see the damage their cause before you attack, it would be more useful to see their strengths and weaknesses while assembling your deck.

Final Thoughts:

With plenty to see and do, “Duelyst” is a catchy and charismatic card game that begs to take the show on the road. Although a great addition to anyone’s PC or Mac game collection, seeing it on the PlayStation Vita or 3DS  is an exciting notion.

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About Patrick Hickey Jr. 14230 Articles
Patrick Hickey Jr. is a full-time Assistant Professor of Communication & Performing Arts and Director of the Journalism program at Kingsborough Community College and is the chairman of the City University of New York Journalism Council. He is the Founder and Editor-In-Chief of ReviewFix.com. He's also a former News Editor at NBC Local Integrated Media and National Video Games Writer at Examiner.com where his work was mentioned in National Ad campaigns by Disney, Nintendo and EA Sports. Hickey was also the Editor-In-Chief of two College Newspapers before he received his BA in Journalism from Brooklyn College. Hickey's work has been published in The New York Daily News, The New York Times, Complex, The Hockey Writers, Yahoo!, Broadway World, Examiner, NYSportScene Magazine, ProHockeyNews.com, GothamBaseball.com, The Syracuse Post-Standard, Scout.com and the official sites of the Brooklyn Aces and New York Islanders. His first book, The Minds Behind the Games: Interviews With Cult And Classic Video Game Developers was released in April 2018 and is chock full of interviews with legendary developers. His second book in the series, The Minds Behind Adventures Games, was released in December 2019. His third book, The Minds Behind Sports Games, was released in September 2020. His fourth book, The Minds Behind Shooter Games, was released in March 2021. The Minds Behind Sega Genesis Games and The Minds Behind PlayStation Games were released in 2022 and The Minds Behind PlayStation 2 was published in January 2023. Hickey is also a contracted comic book writer, currently penning his original series, "Condrey," as well as "The Job," "Brooklyn Bleeds" "Dem Gulls" and "KROOM" for Legacy Comix, where he serves as founder, owner and Editor-in-Chief. Hickey Jr. is also a voice actor, having starred in the 2018 indie hit and 2019 Switch, PS4 and Xbox One release, The Padre (also serving as English language Story Editor), from Shotgun With Glitters. The sequel, The Padre: One Shell Straight to Hell was released in February 2021- Hickey also served as a Story Editor and Lead Voiceover performer. He has also done narration and trailers for several other titles including The Kaiju Offensive, Relentless Rex and Roniu’s Tale. Hickey is also the lead voiceover performer on Mega Cat Studios’ upcoming title WrestleQuest, responsible for nearly 90 characters in the game, as well as Skybound's Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, where he voices both Dracula and Renfield, as well as several other characters. He also stars in Ziggurat Interactive’s World Championship Boxing Manager 2, where he performs the VO of nearly every male character in the game. He also worked on the Atari VCS’s BPM Boy.

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