Stormbound

I recently started playing Stormbound, and have been enjoying it as a quick pickup/put-down type game.

The game makes me think of both Hearthstone and Reigns, though in terms of gameplay it’s a lot more like Hearthstone.

At first, it seemed a lot like a Hearthstone clone, but there’s an additional sense of strategy that takes place – in terms of pieces on the “board,” and which cards help you attack an enemy’s castle. There are a lot of very interesting strategies to be discovered, that go beyond just the qualities of a random card that appears in your hand.

Overall, I think the thing that really drew me in was how beautifully designed the game was. The cards themselves, of course, but I’m also talking about the board, the backdrop, the animations. The cards are all very distinctive and reflective of the four “Kingdoms” that exist in the world. But everything is so tightly tied together, from a visual point of view.

I’m not a designer, so I feel like I lack the vocabulary here. But there’s a cohesiveness and visual language that ties everything together, and it’s just a really great looking game.

I started to play on my iPhone, and then gave in and created a Kongregate account so I could play (and maintain progress) on my iPad. And I just downloaded it via Steam, just to see what it looked like on my monitor. The bigger it gets, the better looking it becomes. So far, my prefence has gone to playing this one on the iPad.

Related:
Reigns: Swipe-Based Monarchy Roguelike, with No Small Amount of Regicide
Hearthstone: Online Card Game Based on World of Warcraft