Power Chord, tried the rock & roguelite based on cards and strategy
Power Chord
Card games have accustomed us to very different experiences, but the setting chosen by Big Blue Bubble for its new title is actually something original: a sort of post-apocalyptic world dominated by monsters and mutants who worship the rock, and who fight guitars in hand for control of the territory. Each well-placed fifth chord corresponds to a blow of extraordinary power, delivered by different types of guitar heroes. The target? Survive with a single "life" all the clashes of a path that culminates with the inevitable boss fight, playing your cards well.We tried Power Chord thanks to the Steam Next Fest demo, and here it is how it went.
Structure: let's go for the tour!
Power Chord, the path we will have to face As mentioned at the beginning, the structure of Power Chord consists of a series of paths studded with clashes, to which we will have to try to survive using the only health bar available to the four members of our band. It won't be easy, as the path ends with a challenging boss fight.The cards, displayed at the bottom of the screen, allow you to perform certain actions during each round, based on the points available and the "price" "of every movement, whether it is an attack or an opportunity to strengthen our characters in some way, creating barriers or strengthening their armor so that they can resist the attacks of the enemy team.
Of course we will not really have to complete the entire journey in one breath and without any help: the board provides the possibility to choose branches that include rest areas where you can literally recharge your batteries and maybe bring back life band members that we lost along the way. Or the inevitable shop, where you can spend the tokens earned up to that moment for the purchase of upgrades.
The Power Chord demo we tried includes one of these complete paths, but it was necessary to do two turns to understand some mechanisms, while others have remained nebulous and who knows, maybe we will be able to deepen them in the review. Certainly on the content front there are many things yet to be discovered, such as the unlockable characters with which we will be able to redesign the starting group, obviously divided by type.
Gameplay: violent music
Power Chord, an attack sequence Including the formula behind the game, the gameplay developed by the guys from Big Blue Bubble is actually simple and immediate, even banal and boring during the first stages of the tour, if we want to call it that. The turn-based combat system leaves little room for the imagination, the actions alternate without surprises and at the beginning there seems to be no real match.Fortunately, things change as we approach the final phase of the course, when the enemies become more numerous and tough, their blows inflict greater damage and our musicians inevitably begin to fall, leaving us in evident numerical inferiority until we have the opportunity to resurrect the defeated warriors at the appropriate stops.
Power Chord, the rival band prepares to strike At that point, however, it will become clear that the insane and superficial management of the first battles, in which we have never given the idea of playing cards other than the offensive ones in the slightest. is translated into a difficult situation, with characters now at the limit of their resources and, on the other hand, opponents never so powerful and resistant.
There is in short u no unexpected depth behind the mechanics of Power Chord: everything depends on whether or not this type of approach sacrifices certain moments of the experience, making them banal and boring as mentioned, and then expressing themselves better in the advanced stages; or, who knows, in the paths that we will be able to tackle later, within a campaign whose numbers for the moment are still covered by the mystery.
Technical realization
Power Chord, the selection of cards Considering that the action of Power Chord takes place only on the "stage", even from a technical point of view we are faced with an undemanding product, with our characters on one side and opponents on the other taking turns more or less spectacular musical attacks, using guitars as weapons and cel shading to give character to the graphics.The sound sector is inevitably the master, with rock songs that involve at the right point but an audio dimension that during the clashes it loses consistency, limiting itself to a few sounds where it would have been possible to really press the accelerator and invent something to make sense of the peculiar setting of the game.
Power Chord is undoubtedly a c ard battler particular, which crosses post-apocalyptic suggestions and rock music to create a strategic experience different from the usual, although somewhat limited in its mechanics. The turn-based battles can in fact draw on facets that the demo allows only to touch and the roguelite setting adds character to the progression, but only towards the final stages of a path that at the start appears a bit bland. We'll see if the full version of the game can guess the right riff to defuse these doubts.
