App Army Assemble: Gods vs Horrors - "Will this roguelike join the pantheon of card-battlers?"

Gods vs Horrors is a recently released card-battler that sees you battling as Lovecraftian lads with gods from the annals of history. There's a lot of power on display, but does it pack a punch in a crowded genre? We handed it over to our App Army to find out.

Here's what they said:

Gods vs Horrors is a challenging roguelike card game. You play the role of the Gods as you take your deck against the horrors (villains). At the start, it has a pretty good tutorial starting you off with your 1st game, and if you win, you go up the ladder as you progress, but if you lose, you go down the ladder. I found the game has great touch controls, good-looking graphics and a decent soundtrack off the start. I think when playing it on a phone, it would be better to have a zoom feature for a more comprehensible interface.

The gameplay is very challenging, and I think it will get better as I play and get myself familiarised with each card, but it does require you to do the work and get to know the cards and their traits. I don't feel like this game is great if you have never played a card battler before. I also feel like it doesn't stick out enough in a store full of card-battling games. At least give it a try; you can play the first 2 levels for free.

My first time playing card battling games. This is a rogue-like card battle game. You pick various gods to fight off horrors. You have a selection of gods to choose and each god costs 3 divine essence (you have 10 divine essence each round). The idea is to select the strong lineup (max seven slots). To create the strongest hand to defeat the horrors. You can do other actions, such as redraw and increase your tier selection. Those actions cost you, though.

Once you have your team ready, you go through a ladder to defeat the enemies. The ladder gets harder the further you go up it. Each round, you get 10 essence, then you select who you want and continue to battle as you build up your team. Rinse and repeat until you win or lose. There are upgrades and perks, but seeing as I haven’t played many card battlers. I can’t tell how the gameplay is compared to other similar games. The game did keep me coming back for more playthroughs. The music is high quality. The artwork is nice, too. The interface is great. Just some text that pops up with stats can be small.

I really like this kind of game and have played many: some are tedious, repetitive, long and lacking in variety. This one is fast-paced, and the runs are fun. I would compare Gods vs Horrors to Dark Mist, which I also find excellent. They both have immersive graphics and music, but above all, the deck-building principle: synergies are at the heart of the gameplay.

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Each civilisation has its own, easily identifiable mechanics, and it's a lot of fun to discover how to become (very) strong with each one. And there seem to be very few situations where mixing the different civilisations is a good idea, which is perhaps the (small) flaw I see in the game. Most importantly, the runs are fun and addictive, and the variety of civilisations is increased by the enemy types, depending on the horror chosen as the final enemy boss.

Ultimately, in my opinion, this is a great addition to the deck-building genre with some really great new ideas, and an easy recommendation!

I liked the variety of cards as well as the aesthetic. Kind of a steep learning curve that led to a bit of frustration early on. The hard-to-read text (on my iPhone) added to that quite honestly. On the other hand, each run was different, with different combinations to explore. And I eventually got to appreciate the challenge of climbing the ladder. Plus, I liked the music. This is a solid entry for the genre, but it doesn’t have a lot to set it apart from others. Not a bad game, really, but the hard-to-read text and learning curve lessened my enjoyment. Still absolutely worth it for fans of the genre to try for free.

Gods vs Horrors is a card-battling game where you take on Lovecraftian horrors using Gods and entities from a wide range of mythologies. Each God is a card that you can buff and upgrade as you play rounds. Win enough rounds and you get to face the boss horror.

Even following the onscreen instructions, I was a bit confused about what was going on, and sometimes I was not sure how I actually won a round. There is no animation on the cards, and battles soon got pretty boring for me. Not a game I can recommend.

God vs Horrors is a card battler roguelike that’s inspired by the greats of the genre, and ultimately becomes a solid addition to those that came before. I really liked the game’s theme of battling gods of different mythologies alongside each other to defeat the bad guys threatening Earth. This overarching concept gives us good reason to go into war to fight for our home. Quite noticeably, the music fits rather nicely, I enjoyed the solid colour schemes, but a bit more visual flair (maybe some animated sequences) would have helped give GvH that personality to stand out in such a crowded field on the App Store.

However, GvH’s solid gameplay does enough to keep fans invested with their time. There’s a degree of difficulty that gets higher as you progress. I wasn’t always sure why I won or lost a battle, and while there’s a tutorial, a more thorough understanding of the intricacies would be a big help since there’s some real depth here. GvH is free to start and gives you a nice taste of what’s to come before you commit. There’s a lot to like here, and with some effort, you’ll find much to enjoy.

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Gods vs Horrors