The dungeon crawler has taken on numerous forms throughout gaming and a lot of them revolve around the formation of the dungeon itself. Arnold Rauers took this concept and brought it forth in a different way with Card Crawl Adventure. This deckbuilding game involves playing against fantastical opponents in a tavern. Your opponent has a deck of cards they will play on the table to create a dungeon. As both a player and adventurer, you need to navigate through the cards to clear them until the exit to the opponent's dungeon becomes available. This new type of crawl has additional obstacle card randomization.
Set Off On A Card Crawl Adventure
Card games are interesting in the sense that the story around them can be created by the cards themselves. The quest is made throughout Card Crawl Adventure but there is an overarching narrative as well. You play as one of several adventurers who are seeking their fortune in taverns across the land. To do this, you need to challenge the card crawl master of each tavern to a game. Should you manage to outlast their dungeon sets, you'll beat them and earn any treasure you gathered throughout that particular adventure. It's unusual versus dynamic where one player controls the board and the other controls the pieces.
An exciting shuffle through Card Crawl Adventure
Trading card games are some of the most popular due to their art design. This game emulates that with its own cards that have a huge range of designs. Cards come in so many varieties that cover monsters, items, weapons, treasures, and even opponents have their own distinct cards. What helps them stand out is the contrast they have with the world around them which is softer and lighter, while the cards are sharper with more defined details. You will want to try out each character simply to get a glimpse at all the different card designs.
Even though the premise may take a moment to grasp, the game becomes simple to play once you do. You're strategically trying to use up all of your opponent's cards until they run out of reshuffles. You can choose to destroy them, move through them, or try to collect them. At its core, it's a game of endurance that challenges you to plan routes to ensure you have enough health to reach the end. However, you'll also need to take risks to get extra gold and valuable cards for your deck.
Card Crawl Adventure is refreshingly random
When cards are involved, RNG is unavoidable. Even though there are some repeat cards throughout the game, each opponent always introduces something new to change how the dungeon behaves. Elemental effects are a big part of this in that they change how cards respond to your actions as well as alongside each other. To make things even more interesting, each game offers several quests to complete for extra rewards. This can involve defeating the opponent's boss card or interacting with a certain number of cards from a specific type, which offers additional challenges.
The concept of treasure also takes on a new value in this dungeon crawler. Each opponent includes a treasure chest in their dungeon with each requiring different prerequisites to open it. There's a tension that appears whenever the chest is on the table and since the treasures can be quite powerful, you'll be tempted to drop everything just to get it. The merchant is also a welcome card as they're a reliable and affordable way to expand your deck.
Questing through Card Crawl Adventure
Card Crawl Adventure is a card-based dungeon crawler about navigating the dungeons created by your opponent of the day. The visuals and varieties of the cards are appealing with simple-to-learn mechanics and challenging RNG dungeon layouts. The variety of the opponent decks with extra goals and their distinct treasures adds to the experience and makes it feel like more of an adventure. Since you're going on a tavern crawl, may as play some cards along the way.
