Pirates Outlaws Review (Betta George)
When I first started this game, I was confused that there are no difficulty sliders or ascension mechanics like in other roguelike deckbuilders.
I soon discovered that the reason for this is that the difficulty of each run is utterly random, and even the best card picking ability will only marginally affect your chance of survival.
I should preface that I have played and thoroughly enjoyed StS and several other deckbuilding roguelikes, against which this one simply does not stack up.
The two biggest offenders:
1) All characters share the same card pool, and that card pool is massive. There are more than ten characters, and except for the first two, I have not seen a single card that supports the character's gimmick. For example, one character has the gimmick that she has an animal companion that can be ordered to do certain actions. Turns out, apart from her starting deck, there are ZERO cards in the game (at least in the first 41 hours of continually unlocking stuff) that reference the animal companion at all. Basically, if you want to use the companion, you have to stick with the starting deck throughout the entire game.
This problem applies to all the characters except the first two, whose gimmicks are compatible with basically any playstyle (and consequently make for 1000% easier runs than the other characters).
2) The game wants to be an exploration game. Granted, there are TONS of unlocks and quests and whatnot, which is fun. But the devs also extend the exploration aspect to the player, to a point that is decidedly not fun anymore. Most mechanics are not explained, and a majority of buffs and debuffs are invisible. Did that boss use his damage +1 for rest of combat buff two times or three? Better make sure you counted, 'cause the game sure won't tell you! This elite just used a buff. What does the buff do, you ask? Fuck if I know! You can have this relic, but it will give you the curse Tentacle Bind. What does Tentacle Bind do? Why don't you take the relic and find out, hahaha!
Sure, this is cute and fun the first few times it happens, but after the hundredth run or so that ends because you picked a card where the game wouldn't even tell you what it does and it turns out that card somehow kills you? It starts being tedious. (For example, the aforementioned curse makes it such that you skip your first turn each combat, allowing each enemy a free hit to your unprotected character, which can easily be lethal.)
All in all, I concur with other reviews here: the game is kind of fun for the first few hours while you are playing the two tutorial characters and exploring new things with a sense of wonder. After about 20 hours it turns into a pure RNG-fest where the game essentially does stuff to you and you watch while the devs every once in a while point at a piece of storytelling and go 'hey, look at this stuff! Isn't it neat? Wouldn't you say my collection's complete?'. No, that's Arielle. But you get my point.