Death Roads: Tournament

Prepare yourself for the utter brilliance that is Death Roads: Tournament. Stick with me here as I pitch this game to you; take a racing game, then add deckbuilding, roguelite features, and a brilliantly unique art style, and you’ll get Death Roads: Tournament. This is easily one of the most unique and interesting games that I have come across in a long time. Taking features from many existing genres, this title offers a fantastic evolution on the tired deck builder formula and throws something with some real frenetic energy our way. If you are after a fresh take on a classic concept, keep reading as we get into it.

Gameplay

So, as specified, this is a deckbuilding roguelite, which means you have your vehicle which can be outfitted in a numerous way with numerous upgrades, and a bunch of cards at the bottom of the screen which allow you to perform many different actions as the battle progresses. The gameplay here takes elements from games like The Witcher Card Game and a little bit of Darkest Dungeon.

The game also has an interesting use of vehicular maneuverability. Unlike anything I’ve seen in a game, or at least that I can pull from memory. The closes I can think is South Park: The Fractured But Whole, where you were able to use abilities in a tactical 2.5D space, allowing you greater control over where your attacks would hit and who would be affected.

I found this to be, not only refreshing, but inspired. Its not something I have seen many games implement and I absolutely welcomed this interesting take on tactical deck building games. It’s the sweet siren call of a new genre of game that few could be the harbingers of.

Visuals

The visual style of this game is pretty great. The detail in the vehicle is brilliant, and the user interface of the menus is both well-designed to make navigation easier, but it’s also super sleek and stylized in a way that I simply loved. This game has its style on lock, there was never a point where I thought something looked bad or unfinished. The character models are probably my favorite bit, alongside the vehicle modifications actually changing the way the car looks. The tracks that you drive on have fair fewer in the way of details, but it still manages to show everything that it needs to. In all honesty, you won’t be looking at the track too much with everything going on.

Music

The music for this game slaps. I really enjoy listening to hardcore rock while engaged in this Mad Max style road combat. The music has a great sound and isn’t overused or under-utilized, it gets you into the right mind set for the tactical carnage that you are about to unleash.

Pros

• Excellent character designs and user interface
• Brilliant and intuitive gameplay
• Awesome music

Cons

• Tracks could have had more details and variety but this is of low importance