Trials of Fire

Trials Of Fire strikes a refreshingly desolate tone in its storytelling, and nudges you towards selfish actions, or at least non-interventionist ones, especially once your resources run low and your empty stomach and broken legs start to poison your deck with fatigue cards. If the knife-edge, house of cards survivalism of roguelikes appeals to you, then this deck-building tour of a ruined and unwelcoming fantasy landscape will be right up your morose little alley.

Trials of Fire is uniquely entertaining, and it's an absolute joy to play because every run is challenging, and every fight is a blast to play thanks to the intricacies and strategies you can develop. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody who's looking for a roguelike that's less action and more strategy, and especially so if you love a good TTRPG.

Trials of Fire is a fantastic deck-building game. It is enhanced by also acting like a rouguelike for endless replayability, and it crafts a rich world around its characters. Trials of Fire only disappoints on one front: that the story it actually tells seems more like a teaser than an epic. While I can't complain in that it is priced like a single episode in a longer saga, I am left wanting for the rest of the saga. Maybe that's altogether not the worst thing...

Trials of Fire is a new legend for single-player strategy. Combining all the best of tactical board game combat, deck-building, and narrative, this game is a contender for best roguelikes available right now. It does have some flaws that keep me from recommending it categorically, but nothing that overwhelms the depth of strategy at play here. I have long been starved as a fan of turn-based combat, and Trials of Fire has finally erupted from the depths of the earth to satisfy that need.

An irresistible card-based roguelike.

It is usually complicated to mash different video game genres together. Many have tried over the years, but most have failed. It literally required a trial of fire, and plenty of time in Early Access, for one developer to accomplish a truly remarkable feat: create a role-playing game mixed with elements from tactical-turn-based, deck-building, and roguelike that is not just fun to play but also incredibly accessible for all sorts of players.