Journey of Greed review - "A complicated test of your unsatiable avarice"

Looting for treasure across uncharted territory is always treacherous, but none more so than embarking on a sea voyage with less-then-reputable crewmates. More than being a multiplayer deckbuilder, Journey of Greed puts your moral integrity to the test as you try to backstab and weasel your way through treasure-hunting adventures while trying to outsmart your so-called teammates along the way. It's a unique take on a tired genre, but is that enough to get you hooked on a neverending quest for gold?

Table of contents:

• Journey of Greed visuals
• Journey of Greed gameplay
• Journey of Greed verdict

JOURNEY OF GREED VISUALS

Cards you collect to buff up your deck in Journey of Greed feature bright and vivid character art that breathes life into every skill you play. The board itself is made up of simple nodes as you move from start to finish, but the visuals are vibrant enough to add bursts of colour here and there during every match.

Battles are never dull thanks to the cartoonish vibes - still, the UI feels a little cluttered at times, especially when there's so much text that you need to read in thirty seconds before your turn ends.

THE GAMEPLAY OF JOURNEY OF GREED

Essentially, you'll match up with three other players on a literal journey of greed as you try to survive your voyage with as much gold as you can hoard. The goal is simple - get away with lotsa loot or die trying. Depending on the cards you play, you can support each other in your team by, say, increasing the amount of gold you gain with each new excavation or sabotaging one another by playing cards that deal more damage to them.

Getting rid of your teammates means that you can keep all the gold to yourself - but that can also mean continuing the perilous journey filled with monsters and surprise traps all by your lonesome. It's a tricky balance, one that you have to figure out as quickly as you can or risk the timer running out and foregoing your card.

WHAT'S THE APPEAL?

This kind of unique twist to what otherwise would've been just another deckbuilding card game makes Journey of Greed a breath of fresh air. It's really more a matter of your own backstabbing strategy rather than the cards you play (which vary depending on your character). For instance, you can choose to double your own share of the loot to make sure you've got the biggest stash, or you can forego the gold but deal damage to your teammates in the next round. It's a sneaky little game, as you can also just choose to cash it in and flee, leaving your teammates to fend for themselves.

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Despite the fun option of being able to quit while you're ahead, the short timer makes each round a frantic struggle to read the cards right. The tutorial, in my opinion, wasn't enough to explain everything about the individual cards and their various effects, so it's really more of learning while doing - the problem is that the 30-second timer for each turn isn't conducive to learning in an actual match. Rather than picking the best strategy with each round, you'll often end up just trying to pick an action before the timer runs out.

It takes a while to really wrap your head around the mechanics of the game - something that not all players will have the patience to go through. That said, once you do get the hang of it, it's an enjoyable ride that will make you question your moral integrity and the limits of your greed. If anything, there's an odd Autoplay function that lets you auto-battle your way throughout each match - but what's the fun in that?