Abalon review

Abalon might lack visual allure and battles can grow unbalanced by unit summoning. But the game’s succinct adventures convey potential.

D20’s Abalon makes a modest first impression. The game’s simple sprites depict a fantasy setting where human adventurers, creatures, and the undead intermingle. But the art used for the game’s overhead perspective is simplistic. Alongside standalone battles and a three-stage adventure that can be completed in about three hours, you’ll find a tutorial that prepares you for a mixture of gridded movement and card-based spells. It’s here that Abalon’s virtues begin to emerge.

Across the procession of interactive lessons, you’ll move characters around modestly-sized battlefields. Unlike the game’s other procedurally-generated venues, the tutoprial will have you harnessing abilities that quickly dispatch foes. You’ll be in control of a female summoner who can melee attack foes on adjacent tiles. But her distinguishing ability is summoning squirrels, who you can move around and attack with. They’re so weak that a single enemy counterattack will exterminate them. But they also make great decoys, drawing the attention of your opponents.

Stacking the Deck

Every turn, you’ll earn mana points that can be spent on your card-based capabilities. When deployed efficiently, their use can be devasting. During your onboarding, you’ll be given the ability to push every on-screen back several spaces. One instance has you harnessing the potential of your deck, shoving a horde of beasts into traps, and killing them all instantly.

Once you’ve mastered the fundamentals, you’ll want to drop down into Abalon’s dungeons. Here, you’ll explore labyrinthine layouts that recall the Mystery Dungeon games. Like Chunsoft’s interpretation of Rogue, you’ll move in real-time when enemies aren’t around, likely smashing environment objects that house valuables like hearts that regenerate health, currency, and even diminutive 20-sided dice.

When Individuals Become Armies

Sporadically, you’ll encounter a murky fog of war that conceals a horde of enemies. Mercifully, if the unveiled horde seems too much for your adventuring party and current deck, Abalon permits players to backtrack once without penalty. There’s even an in-game map that charts the presence of opponents.

You’ll face off in a turn-based battle if you try to engage the enemies. If you’re smart, you’ll rarely confront them alone. Abalon offers two types of allies. Loyal units will fight beside you until they perish. But Guardians are more valuable and can be resurrected if killed. You’ll undoubtedly want the largest adventuring party you can muster as some elevated enemies can also summon their own subordinates. In your favor is abysmal AI, that will repeatedly direct enemies to walk into traps. Typically, this kind of behavior is inexcusable. But given that your card supply is finite, you’ll be thankful for your opponents’ lack of sophistication. Graciously, campfires scattered around each dungeon allow you to heal and regenerate your hand.

Help from my Beastly Friends

Acquiring party members isn’t a certainty. Sporadically, Abalon employs Dungeons & Dragons-style attempted actions, where you might roll a simulated D20 to determine if a creature will fight, ignore, or flee. But you can improve the odds if you have any collected icosahedrons in your possession. Abalon uses the highest die roll, so if there’s a Guardian you really want in your party, boosting your odds is frequently a possibility. But that’s hardly the only strategic advantage that can be found. Not only do allies exhibit helpful abilities like siphoning some health from defeated opponents, but occasionally adjacent units can perform a combo.

Given the convention of protracted campaigns, Abalon’s more manageable adventures are a welcome alternative. Sure, encountering a room where an enemy summoner creates a multitude of monsters can use up one of your limited retries. But the game also provides an ample number of rewards, adding new cards and even unlockable protagonists. Each helps to offset the occasional bout of frustration.

Conclusion

At present, Abalon’s performance is acceptable, with a user interface that offers both mouse-and-keyboard input as well as support for controllers. Given the game’s modest hardware requirements, it’s not surprising that it works competently on Steam Deck. During play, I encounter a few crashes. But pleasingly, Abalon picked up right where things went sour, minimizing the annoyance of disruption.

Yes, Steam probably has a moderately sized library of roguelike deck builders. But given several remarkable design decisions, Abalon feels distinctive. It’s not flawless but qualities like shirking the traditional card rarity system and being able to build a deck from over 400 different choices intensify the urge for replay. If you can peer past the game’s workmanlike visuals, Abalon has a lot to offer.

Abalon was played on PC with review code provided by the publisher.