Review - Blades, Bows and Magic

Developer: Funk Games

Publisher: Funk Games

Available on: PC (Steam)

There are plenty of card battler games out there, and I admit, I have trouble resisting them. Many of them play with similar concepts and use a lot of the same mechanics, but how well executed those mechanics are varies. Within the deckbuilding and card battler genres, there's enough variety that I'm rarely bored. Blades, Bows, and Magic satisfied my need for novelty in a genre I'm quite familiar with.

Rock, Paper, Scissors

The rules of battle in Blades, Bows, and Magic are pretty simple: It's Rock, Paper, Scissors, with blades beating bows, which beat magic, and magic beats blades. Or as the game frames it, Warrior cards beat Archers, who beat Mages, and Mages beat Warriors. Each card has an ability with a simple ability order that governs when each ability activates: Champion Abilities > On Round Start > Enter Fight > Before Attack > On Death > On Round End. These abilities add to the strategic mechanics of Blades, Bows, and Magic, and seeing rounds play out is what makes the game fun.

Each round, players put down 3 cards with central cards battling first and working their way through each in order as cards are defeated. In Campaign mode, each round starts with the NPC Champion's cards laid out. This gives players the chance to think out their strategy as they lay cards down to make their best attempt at defeating their opponent. The player and the NPC opponent each have health points, and the goal is to defeat all of your opponent's cards with at least a couple of cards still in play so they can directly attack them, chipping away at their health.

Throughout the game's Campaign mode, players receive cards with new abilities from the Champions they battle. Defeating a Champion for the final time adds them to a player's choices of Champion to start the game with. Each Champion also has a different Champion ability that adds to potential strategies to be played.

Simple Concept, Good Execution

Overall, Blades, Bows, and Magic uses pretty simple mechanics to create a pretty fun and exciting game. Rock, Paper, Scissors, with extra abilities thrown in to mix the gameplay up. Watching each round play out and going through the campaign battling Champion after Champion was satisfying.

Beyond the quick, strategic gameplay, Blades, Bows, and Magic also has some pretty great pixelated aesthetics and art. The game's overall look works for what it is, and the audio design really added to the atmosphere of battle.

It's good to check out a new game that uses simple concepts and executes them well, and Blades, Bows, and Magic does just that.

Short, Sweet, $6.99

My only real complaint is that this game is so short. I beat it in 3 hours. It's fun enough, I could get down for playing longer and against more Champions, but hey, sometimes shorter is also sweeter. At a $6.99 price tag, that only sweetens the deal. There's also a multiplayer mode that I unfortunately have not had the opportunity to play because nobody came up when I tried. I would really like to get at it, so I may just need to buy a copy for a friend and get them to duel me.

BLADES, BOWS & MAGIC IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

A code for this game was received through Keymailer for the purpose of review.