I returned this. And I grant that I never mastered the nuances of this game. But if you were hoping for a deck-builder with the same degree of polish as Slay the Spire and other classics, this game just isn't quite optimized enough. I kept ending up with HUGE hands of cards and never enough money to play more than a card or two. I understood that I needed to focus more on population and leveling up my town. But I think the learning curve was just too steep for someone like myself. Toeing that line isn't as intuitive or laid out in front of you as other deck-building games unfortunately.

So I would take my review with a grain of salt as this is clearly a beloved game for others.

I can only speak for my experience with the demo, and I have clearly racked up a decent amount of hours on it as you can see. For me, tetris is a lifestyle game. I don't play extremely competitively, but I love to pick it up and play a round when I have time. So far, this demo scratches that same itch, but above and beyond. I am enjoying making interesting decisions about how to build out my buildings to achieve various synergies. I hope when the full game comes out, I can see how far they push the tetris mechanic to the limits. Really loving what I am seeing so far, you all should try the demo yourselves!

The biggest gripe I could see people having about this game is the randomness of the Dice Rolls. I come from a strategy board game background, so for me, trying to mitigate that randomness is a thrill. I continued to be blown away how rich the tech trees and building variety is for something that seems like a casual indie game. There's depth that makes me want to keep coming back and I really like this game.

Rushed timeline, not enough polish. I love this board game and really want to see this digital implementation succeed. I do feel like the base game offers some nice play and few bugs. But I would stay away from this season pass until bugs are more ironed out.

UPON COMPLETION OF SEASON PASS RELEASE: The new characters are too buggy. Devs set a timeline for themselves that they had to hit(and regularly didn't), and so many characters have issues that make the game not very fun to play. Invisible Man came out this week and has so many odd bugs that it's just not a good experience. Plus, when a new character is released, often the AI does not know how to play against them and plays the whole game completely incorrectly(if I play another game where my AI opponent does nothing but maneuver and die due to exhaustion....). I know I am not alone in thinking this but I wanted to make sure this opinion was visible to people who don't love this game as much as I do and were considering buying. I will update if they bring this game into a more enjoyable state, but as of now I feel obliged to inform others. And if Restoration Games reads this, I hope this game is profitable for you because I love the game you've designed and buy every physical release you drop, but if you're not seeing as much traction in player count or in sales, I hope I have shed some light as to why. What has been polished is so much fun. But the new releases are rushed and have continued to disappoint. I will update this review as I continue to play this game in its rough state. But the unpolished state of new content upon release still leaves a bad taste in my mouth towards devs and any new content they decide to roll out in the coming months.

LAUNCH MONTH REVIEW: Unmatched is my favorite board game so I jumped on this the day it came out in Early Access. The developers have done a steady job working out the bugs and making the game and AI more and more enjoyable to play...albeit with only the first 4 characters and first 2 maps during the EA. Obviously I'm not knocking this, as I would much rather see the EA period focus on the engine getting polished than a breadth of content being added. So many games do that backwards.

But I do think this game lives or dies by the stuff that gets added once EA ends at the end of February. They just announced their Season 1 release timeline and if they keep the content train chugging, this will be an unbeatable experience. Excited for what's to come, and if there's a way to get some of the licensed sets in here, please bring it on!