Roguelike deck-builder Gordian Quest launches into Steam Early Access

What do you get if you take Darkest Dungeon and Slay the Spire and mash them together with an epic anime art style? I’m sure you can guess the answer, but I’ll tell you anyway. You get the fantasy roguelike deck builder Gordian Quest, which has just launched onto Steam Early Access. The game features turn-based combat, strategy, and deck building gameplay.

Ancient curses are assaulting the land, and it’s up to you to gather your party and venture forth to deal with the eldritch threat. You can choose between a spirited cast of characters, each possessing unique class skills. As you complete quests and accumulate victories, you will earn equipment to augment your heroes’ skills. You can also upgrade your heroes through Gordian Quest‘s unique skill grid system.

Each hero can have multiple playstyles thanks to the different skill schools, talents, and items available. As you will discover, though, the heroes do have different strengths. So, some customizations will work better than others.

Repeatable, but replayable

As with all roguelike games, Gordian Quest aims to give players a replayable experience that doesn’t feel like a chore each time you begin again. To this end, the maps and dungeons in the game are procedurally generated. So, they’re never the same as your previous run. Plus, the items you find in each run will require you to make on-the-fly decisions about builds and strategies, much like items from Slay the Spire.

The heroes and battlefields in Gordian Quest are not static. You’ll need to think strategically about where your heroes stand and move, as well as which active and passive skills they deploy. As the difficulty level ramps up, you’ll need to create effective combos to stay alive.

Gordian Quest Early Access features

Gordian Quest has just launched into Early Access and currently only has one act to play through – with three more to come. However, that lone act will take you about five or six hours. There are six heroes to choose from with a combined total of roughly 500 active and passive skills. And, as with the acts, there are more heroes on the way.

Gordian Quest is available now for PC through Steam Early Access. You can check out the complete list of Early Access features, as well as all the content still to come, on the game’s Steam page.