*Advertising disclosure* Though Black Shell Media is an advertising partner, this review is not influenced by that relationship.

Thank you Black Shell Media for sending an Early Access review code.

Card Games are a big thing for me. Before the boom that was Hearthstone I always loved card games yet had no one to play with. I hoped and hoped someone would make an online card game that would keep a high player base, yet poor service with overly expensive card packs usually turned me away. After Hearthstone, a revival in the idea of digital Trading Card Games happened. Hearthstone has a lot of promising competition - sadly Card Quest poses no threat to any card game right now.

Card Quest is a single player TCG that allows you to play as a Rogue, Wizard or Warrior. You have a choice of a storyline to save a city from the undead or climbing a dwarven mountain to slay a dragon. Your skills come from the cards you play. They are separated into attack and defense cards. Each card has a special effect if you play cards back to back called chains. As you progress through each battle you move from room to room to a boss battle. As you level up your individual characters you gain more health and ability power. Leveling up and defeating bosses will also unlock new equipment. If you lose at any point in the game you will have to start from the beginning. Even if you defeat one boss and move to a new section of the story, you will start all the way at the beginning. 

The biggest problem with this game is the influence of RNG. As a reminder this is a slang term that stands for random number generator. A lot of gamers use this term for things you can't control in your game. Your deck is dependent on the equipment your class picks so you won't have much in the way of strategic customization. The cards seem to revolve around control, rush or tempo decks. You can and will lose due to not getting the cards you need. This is why the perma death in this game can be a problem. Even if you get stronger, every game you lose to luck will make the repeated grind increasingly frustrating. As much as I wanted to enjoy the game for its unique angle I found it was very easy to get bored.

Visuals on the enemies are fine yet the card art is rather boring. The cards are not memorable in any way, shape, or form. The actual effects of cards are pretty boring as well. Most card effects and chain effects either consist of generating resources, making the card cheaper to play or drawing more cards. Even though you travel to new locations you have only black backgrounds behind the enemies.

Keep in mind this game is in a very early state. A lot might change and I do have hope for this title. Single player card games are harder to make than competitive games, and I would not want to see the developers give up. As of now they are very active on Steam community forums and do seem like they are ready to work hard to make this game a wonderful product. The soundtrack of the game is mediocre. It's not bad yet is nothing that will sell you on the game or turn you from it.

You won't have many problems in the way of morality with this game. When you strike foes you'll see some pixelated blood. You'll also have some occult themes including raising the dead and using elemental magic but it doesn't seem to play a heavy focus in the game's story. I'd recommend this game for anyone over the age of 13.

Card Quest may not pose any threats in any markets yet. However it seems the developers are not quite done on the quest of polishing this game. Good luck, WinterSpring Games.