Game Reviews
Shattered Heaven – A New Dark Fantasy Roguelike Deckbuilder
Enter the mysterious world of Shattered Heaven, a new roguelike deckbuilder game that will test your strategic skills in a dark fantasy realm
Shattered Heaven is best described as a dungeon crawler featuring a distinctive deckbuilder card system. In other words, it’s a dark fantasy roguelike deckbuilder, drawing parallels with games like Slay the Spire and Monster Train. In this game, players are challenged to build synergy between each character’s deck of cards to combat the malevolent creatures lurking in the wasteland. And after spending over 11 hours in Shattered Heaven, I’m eager to share my initial impressions of the game! Huge thank you to Leonardo Production for the free game! Let’s dig in!
Four Factions Battling for Survival in the War of Rise
The worldbuilding lore reveals that four factions are compelled to fight for survival. After slaying the God of the world, the victims of a terrible curse endure sleepless nights, infertility, and face death at the age of 40. Now there is only one way to break the curse. To offer a Vestal and a team of valiant warriors in the War of Rise, a bloody and cruel battle. Shattered Heaven’s narrative is ultimately shaped by the player’s choices, influencing the destiny of the characters and the world.
Ashram Will Rise
We play as a trio party from Ashram, one of the four factions in the Shattered Heaven universe. Andora is the main protagonist, Vestal of the Ashram tribe, and a stalwart warrior. Andora’s cards synergize with redrawing cards and attacking. Magni is the loyal guardian and protector of Andora. Magni’s cards revolve around armor and protecting his comrades. Ishana is a hermit of the tribe who has an inner demon that thirsts for blood. Ishana’s cards deal with buffs, debuffs, and extra damage.
Diverse Skill Trees and Innate Abilities in Shattered Heaven
Andora, Magni, and Ishana have branching skill trees that separate into three distinct paths. These form an offensive path, defensive path, and utility path for all three characters. This opens up a variety of options for passive skills and active abilities. Since Shattered Heaven allows to equip up to three active skills per party member, there is a lot of freedom to formulate a strategy with your cards. On top of the skill trees, the party members each have their own innate skill which reflect during combat. In the very beginning, it is really hard to understand how to effectively use each innate ability. Their abilities become a lot more useful as you start to wrap up the first dungeon of the game.
Crafting Custom Concoctions in Shattered Heaven
Shattered Heaven features a crafting system where players can use components found in dungeons to create and upgrade potions. Each component has a separate affect. You can mix and match almost every option to slowly build up a multitude of recipes. Frankly, I have never used a potion as I have not felt the need to do so. This makes me wonder if the crafting system does not provide enough benefit to potions, or if I’m just too frugal and should start using them way more often. Let me know what you do with your potions in video games!
Thrilling Dungeon Encounters: Surprises and Challenges in Shattered Heaven
As I delved into Shattered Heaven’s dungeons, my party encountered several events. We stopped for story dialogue, battled demons, found forbidden fruit, and destroyed butterflies. I’m sorry, I know that sounds terrible. If it makes you feel better, I was inflicted with a heavy debuff for a few turns. More events that appear in the dungeons are trap rooms, treasure rooms, and merchant rooms. Like other roguelike deckbuilders and dungeon crawlers, there are campfire rooms to rest and re-energize the party. I do like the variety of dungeons rooms. There is also a twist with encountering elite enemies after reaching the second location in Shattered Heaven, but I don’t want to say too much. I’d like that to be a surprise if you play the game!
Dungeon Effects
Floor effects are revealed before setting out in a dungeon. These effects determine how difficult gameplay is on top of your normal routine. If you’re a sucker for pain, you do have the option to select more hindrances in exchange for black bones (rare game currency). Use black bones to improve characters and enhance other qualities of the Shattered Heaven life at the Dark Forge. The rarest game currency is, of course, very important and options in the Dark Forge do help make your life a lot easier as you fight for Ashram.
Dark Fantasy Art Style
The dark fantasy graphic style of Shattered Heaven is what makes this roguelike deckbuilder amusing. I love the artwork behind every screen and the evolving characters. Specifically, I love when a character rolls a critical hit (screenshot below). A unique splash of card art flashes on the screen along with their iconic voice line and it’s SO GOOD!
What do you think? Are you like Ishana and thirsty for more roguelike indie games? Click this link to learn more about an awesome fantasy roguelike survival game, Spirit Hunters Infinite Horde!
