Commander Quest is basically what you get when you take the core gameplay of Slay the Spire and throw in some army-building auto battler elements in the mix. It’s insanely addicting, and while it has noticeably less content compared to the aforementioned titan of the genre, it’s got enough meat in it to last you for tens of hours of time.
A Simple But Engaging Premise
Commander Quest is very easy to learn. Rather than directly dealing damage to your enemy, you instead take turns summoning units on the field. Every battlefield has set tiles where you can place your troops, so you can’t just dump everything in one lane to cheese the fight.
There are also various effects and card abilities to consider before you deploy your troops. For example, there are shielded units that take less damage from rangers. To counter this, you might want to rush them with cavalry. However, some shielded units also have “Spear Wall”, which doubles damage against fast enemies.
Stuff like this makes the game a lot more strategic than what you might initially assume. It’s also part of why successful runs can easily last for up to an hour or more. Luckily, you can leave the game and continue where you left off if you have to step away.
Commanders Galore
Instead of having a set of characters with their own distinct base decks, this game features two different races (humans and dwarves) each with their own lineup of commanders. They’re really just human and dwarf variations of historical figures, such as Joan of Arc and Zhuge Liang.
Each race and their commanders feature varying base decks and gimmicks that somewhat tie into their real-life counterparts or play into typical fantasy stereotypes. The dwarves, for instance, have alcohol and metallurgy-related mechanics.
This alone adds a lot of variety in the type of decks that you can try and build during a run. Whether you want to create a deck built around drowning your units in ale or you wanna rely on an army of ghosts similar to what Aragorn summoned in Lord of the Rings, it’s all possible with smart choices and a bit of good luck.
Bits of Untapped Potential
Although I love the variety in builds that you can try even before you unlock more cards, there’s a lot of possible synergies that they haven’t fully explored. For example, there’s a whole bunch of “Tribal” cards under the “Neutral” category that also somewhat benefit one another.
Whether it be a whole new faction or a further expansion of the existing races, I feel like they could have definitely done more with cards like these. If we’re sticking with the theme of using historical figures, this could have easily been a gimmick for someone like Shaka Zulu.
Don’t get me wrong, the game does already offer a lot, but the foundation for more playable factions is already there. We have a few orc and troll cards that are considered “neutral”, yet we get to fight commanders from both races that seemingly have entirely unique decks that players have no access to.
Ascension System & Meta-Progression
Like most roguelike games, Commander Quest does offer a meta-progression system in the form of “Ember Enhancement“. They’re fairly simple passive buffs that apply to all your runs, and you earn the currency (embers) to unlock and upgrade them by simply playing the game.
I’ll be honest with you, it’s a huge grind if you’re trying to max them all out. In case any of the devs see this, I hope you guys at least make the refresh counts cheaper. Beyond the first two buffs you can unlock, everything dramatically spikes up in price.
While not having these buffs don’t really affect how enjoyable the game is overall, some of these passives may as well not exist with how absurdly high the cost is.
Ramping Up the Difficulty
There’s an Ascension system that you can engage with if you want more of a challenge. With each campaign completion, you can increase the “ascension” level of your next run. This adds more modifiers that will make the game a tad bit harder than usual.
I’ve yet to see how far it can go, but what you do get in exchange for the harder runs is a very slight increase in how many embers you gain at the end. This kind of addresses the issue with expensive upgrades, but it’s still going to be a slog for completionists.
A Challenging Finale
Completing a certain side quest during a run will let you attempt the “true” final boss of the game. If you’ve played Slay the Spire before, then you kinda already know how this works.
It’s a pretty tough fight, and it does seem like it relies a little too much on hilariously unfair abilities. Don’t even get me started on how your units have to squeeze through a really tight chokepoint as they struggle to attack.
I won’t spoil it for you in case you’re going to give the game a shot, but let’s just say you’re likely going to be really annoyed at first.
A Solid But “Safe” Experience
Despite its flaws, Commander Quest is definitely worth trying out if you’re a fan of deckbuilders or auto battlers. With an inexpensive price tag and a decent amount of replayability, it’s a worthy addition to your library that offers enough content to keep you entertained for quite a bit of time.
I’m writing this review with almost 10 hours clocked in, and I’m still having fun with it. Definitely got my money’s worth by this point, though I don’t see myself going for 100% completion at this time due to a few ember-related achievements.
I do hope they eventually add more cards, relics, and playable commanders. As of now, the developers have mainly just been focusing on rolling out minor changes to address certain feedback from players, so we’ll have to wait and see if they ever plan on releasing major updates in the future.