Usually there is at least one game in early access I’m waiting on the full release before I try. Now, I’m holding on to the anime budget trying the Stonks-9800. But it’s easy to miss a release when so many games come in and out early all the time, often without prior notice. So let me give you a heads up on one of them: board game-esque deckbuilder Takara Cards, which comes out early on January 17.
Each hand of Takara Cards represents a single jump in your ship’s journey, with many enemies to defeat before you can accelerate. You can see what every ship, drone, and cluster of asteroids is going to do next time, but you get less power to use on cards that will counter that. Maybe you shoot forward and then barrel roll out of harm’s way, or maybe you can support the shield and ram someone.
In the early access version I found myself doing a lot of ramming. While I can shoot forwards and backwards with the cards in the starting deck, there are many times when I can’t compete and it’s easier to just raise the shield and get hit. hit Hopefully later decks will let me play in a less pinball way.
Each ship’s deck is themed around fantasy folk, starting with dwarves, and with elves and humans unlockable later. The story has you on the hunt for space dragons stolen by the Federation, and the end of each run is a match with one of the dragons. It offers Takara Cards standard like FTL, and on the jump is a pick-a-way option that will reward you with various flavors of karma or, as happened to me, force you to pay your taxes.
There is a voice acting for these interludes, but I gotta say, it’s not good. Fortunately you can turn it off in the options, and hopefully it will be changed in the full release, or the next update. You can find Takara Cards at Room.
