The success of games such as Slay the Spire and Balatro has caused an explosion in the roguelike deckbuilding genre. The vast majority of titles are still based around combat in some way, and many have familiar settings and tropes to each other. However, we’ve taken upcoming deckbuilding title Rogue Waves for a spin, and can safely say that there’s nothing quite like it out there. Let’s check it out!
What is Rogue Waves About?
A very unusual and unique premise for a roguelike deckbuilding game, Rogue Waves is based around surfing. At each location on the map, you’ll take on a rival across multiple waves, first bidding on which wave you’ll take on, then playing cards from your hand to best make use of your waves color coded bonuses.
Bidding uses energy, which can be spent to power up the cards you play. You’ll need to balance winning the bid, which gives you the chance to choose the wave before your rival, with keeping enough energy to build up the points on your cards during your turn.
You’ll also need to be careful of obstacles which damage your health; these can be avoided if you play a card with Dodge in an obstacle slot. Once all cards have been played to the available slots, you ride the wave and your points are calculated. Get more points than your rival in a round overall and you win. Easy, right?
Except your rival has abilities of their own, and can reduce your score or hamper you in other ways! So keep one eye on your rival and the other on those waves! Win a round and you move onto the next location, earning booster packs of new cards to improve your deck, as well as cash to spend and other items too.
Is Rogue Waves Fun to Play?
Though we’ve only spent a short time on the water in the demo for Rogue Waves, we’ve enjoyed it immensely. It has a robust tutorial which lays out all of the rules clearly and practically, allowing you to learn the basics in a fun way. There’s a great deal of humor in the game’s presentation and writing, with a beautifully cartoony, polygonal style, along with characters who have a great deal of charm too. The music creates a nicely laid back vibe as well!
Rogue Waves is really colorful and appealingly designed throughout, with deceptively simple rules and keywords that allow for a great deal of strategy and experimentation. If the demo is any indication, Rogue Waves should be quite the sleeper hit when it arrives. Though the full game’s launch date is still to be announced, you can take to the water right now with the demo, as well as add Rogue Waves to your Steam wishlist, using the below widget:
In the meantime, check out our coverage of other digital card games, such as the reviews of Masters of the Universe: Legends Unite and The Spirit Lift.
