3/5 ★ – sirvalkyerie's review of Duelyst.

Duelyst manages to create an experience similar to sitting across live from an opponent. It's very fun. And the live action combat has you feeling like you're going, "gotcha!" as you make plays. It's pretty neat. But unfortunately, you're not *actually* sitting across from someone else. And the outplays are cool but they're not exhilarating enough to carry gameplay that's ultimately pretty bland. Duelyst has a fantastic combination of tactical RPG battles and card draws pitted against a live opponent. It's fundamentally a card game but the grid based attacks and movement mix up the formula in a way that's really fresh. But what is ultimately a bit disappointing is that as deep and strategic as Duelyst is, it doesn't feel truly all that deep. Because of the positioning elements, the cards don't have very interesting or far reaching effects like conventional card games (Magic, Artifact, Yu-Gi-Oh). They also don't have deep strategy to pull off actions or moves (Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh). The tactical combat is also relatively nerfed compared to any conventional tactics RPG. It's not bad? It's somewhat fun. But it just isn't engaging enough. After about 15-20 hours you feel like you've scratched all the itches Duelyst will give you. There's just not quite enough to give you the feeling you want to master it. I'm sure there are superfans out there and there are people that this is a perfect game for. But unless this tickles your brain in a particular way, Duelyst is just a solid but not especially engaging experience. I'm happy I played it, I just don't feel like I gotta keep playing it.