Deathless. Tales of Old Rus Review

Deathless is a captivating blend of genres that offers a fresh take on the genre. By seamlessly merging elements of collectible card games, roguelike progression, and turn-based combat, it creates a unique and engaging experience. With each playthrough offering a new challenge and a chance to discover powerful relics and unique deck combinations, Deathless promises endless hours of strategic gameplay and epic boss battles.

Evoking the atmosphere of games such as The Witcher and Gwent; Deathless. Tales of Old Rus brings a roguelike card game into the world of Eastern Europe, incorporating Slavic Slavic mythos and creating a neat narrative. Developed by 1C Game Studios and published by FOR-GAMES CR LTD, Deathless. Tales of Old Rus was initially released in June 2024 to Early Access.

Now, it finds its full release, offering an experience that leaves one wanting more and more. You start as one of four legendary heroes: Varvara, Vasilisa, Dobrynya, and Alyosha. Each hero has a unique playstyle and litany of abilities, as well as a unique relic that they start with. They also have their own story that you progress as you complete the levels.

Deathless. Tales of Old Rus has three difficulty levels, with each tier having different levels, called feats of glory, that up the difficulty at every level. These offer ample replayability and challenge.

For each playthrough, you start in Deathless. Tales of Old Rus, you have to pass through 23 stages, with the potential for boss fights in between. Each stage lets you pick between three paths, and each path offers a slightly different scenario. They are different in the form of modifiers.

A modifier can range from ones that affect the battle itself to ones that make post-battle changes. The battle modifiers can give you or the enemy different buffs or debuffs.

The other kind of modifier essentially either boosts or nerfs your post-battle loot. Generally, each scenario will have a mix of both, offering greater rewards for increased risks. Sometimes, these scenarios will also offer random events or progression for the story. Both are bound to happen at least once during a playthrough but don't worry if you miss them.

Once you start a scenario, you are greeted with the battle screen. Players of Slay the Spire will recognize much of what's going on here as the inspiration from that game is heavy. For most of the game, it'll be you versus the world, fighting many different kinds of monsters from Slavic folklore. 

A lot of the basics in Deathless. Tales of Old Rus are pretty simple. You have a certain amount of health, and falling below that amount means you and your current run are over. You also have a certain amount of armor that you can start with. Armour prevents you from taking damage by absorbing it, ensuring you don't lose health.

Health is one of the resources in the game, being integral to your survival. There are only a few ways to regenerate health, so armor is integral to completing a run in Deathless. Tales of Old Rus. Armour gets reset at the start of each turn, so there's no real point in stacking armor.

Enemies stand in formations, with melee weapons only able to attack things in front of them, while ranged ones have borderline free reign. This created an interesting dilemma as you want to keep enemy melee monsters away and ranged ones right in front of you.

To this end, you have a few types of cards in your hand. These are attack cards, movement cards, and boon cards. Attack cards are self-explanatory; they deal damage; on the other hand, boon cards provide bonuses that can last the entire battle. Movement or skill cards are used to move the enemy around. 

See, in Deathless. Tales of Old Rus, once you 'kill' an enemy, they go into a 'dying' state, where they regain all of their hp but become immobilized and unable to do anything. Their hp slowly fades away, meaning either you have to work your way through them to get to the next enemy, or the enemy has to slowly wade their way through their dying friends.

You don't have to do much anticipating what the enemy will do as it is usually marked on top of them. However, be warned that these may change if you move them. The enemies themselves are pretty varied and fun to play against. None are too annoying to deal with, and overall, they have good design choices behind them.

Some nuance in the game is added to the deck system. See, in Deathless. Tales of Old Rus, you draw a certain number of cards per turn, and any of the cards you don't use are discarded at the end of the turn. So you can't get those specific cards again until you exhaust the rest of your deck, at which point your deck will be shuffled and put back into the draw pile.

Other than that, you also have consumables and relics to work with. Consumables are a one-time thing, giving you some sort of buff temporarily and being consumed as soon as you use them. You really come across a lot of them throughout a playthrough, so don't be afraid to waste them.

Relics, on the other hand, are permanent items that provide buffs to your character. You can have as many relics as you can collect; however, you lose them all at the end of a playthrough or after dying. At the end of each battle, you are rewarded with gold, consumables, and either a card or an upgrade to a card. You usually get to select between a few cards or refuse them entirely to get some gold.

Speaking of upgrades, most cards can be upgraded to reduce their AP cost or increase their effectiveness. Generally, you'll want to rely on that more than getting new cards. Completing a cycle or eventually 'dying' finishes a playthrough, after which you gain your prestige levels. Going up prestige levels unlocks various rewards, unlocks new cards, and gives you access to many new battle modifiers.

Throughout your journey, you may also encounter the opportunity to progress the main story, with each character having their path. This hero's path is what you essentially progress towards as you complete your playthroughs.

The gameplay cycle mostly just revolves around that and the nuances of having to deal with movement and enemy placement. You can't just hoard cards either because then you'll never have the right one at hand. This provides for an interesting experience overall.

All that is a little diminished by the lack of variety in cards. Don't take it the wrong way; there are a lot of cards for one to work with, but most are just variations of the same thing that say things in subtly different ways. As for the enemies, they are pretty varied and well-made. As previously mentioned, they all have their unique quirks for you to deal with, making it a challenge each round.

The roguelike elements are well mixed with everything else, giving a great experience that doesn't hinge on one aspect too much. Much of the game's miscellaneous elements are simple, such as the map and stages, letting you focus on things that are more fun and involved. Overall, things are fairly balanced and well thought out, letting the strategy aspect breathe instead of constricting it like many similar games.

Deathless. Tales of Old Rus is a visually stunning game. It’s not revolutionary, but it still does a great job of setting the atmosphere. Things aren't overdesigned, and subtly, they are valued over complexity. This also applies to the UI, where everything is nicely packaged.

If one were to nitpick, however, some of the animations feel stale, almost like a Flash game from 2010. Of course, here, the art style also excels and does a very nice job of being subtle with everything. Unfortunately, the music is pretty generic, but that isn't much of a bad thing. The music gets the job done, and that's pretty much all there is to it.

The game could use a few optimization changes to improve the quality of life. For example, while you can check out your current card list and easily switch between the many piles you can have, you can't really see a full card list. This limits strategizing as you literally have to remember the cards to play them.

Deathless. Tales of Old Rus could also use different and more ways to add or remove cards. Currently, these methods are very limited, giving you little opportunity to build and experiment. This results in every playthrough requiring absolute optimization in deck building, or else you'll be left chipping away at the bosses during boss battles.

The overall atmosphere in Deathless. Tales of Old Rus excels, with its story elements being surprisingly intriguing as well. A lot of the lore bits are hidden away in a small button that appears at the end of a battle. These 'codex entries,' so to say, are not really involved and almost feel detached from the game, which is a sad thing, really.

Deathless. Tales of Old Rus is a finely crafted game with incredible promise. A must-have for fans of roguelike card games, this game can also appeal to turn-based strategy fans. Many nuanced systems and a unique style come together harmoniously to elevate the game to a new level. Everything is subtle, and the game definitely will not disappoint.