While card game mechanics seem to be in almost every game on the App Store recently, you won’t hear many complaints from me because I’ve always enjoyed card games, from Ascension (Free) to Hearthstone (Free) and beyond, although their themes are often a bit too similar. VEmpire: The Kings of Darkness, an upcoming deckbuilding card game, is trying to somewhat avoid going all fantasy on us and, instead, is trying give us a game set in the times of the Habsburg dynasty of the Holy Roman Empire. I said somewhat avoid because VEmpire is not all historical; the Habsburgs are revived as terrific vampires, so we are getting a historical theme dipped in fantasy lore. According to the game’s webpage,

VEmpire is a unique and innovative deck-building game that has four classes, each representing one of four time periods of the Habsburgs. The game includes more than 100 cards, has both AI and PvP matches (with only the PvP side requiring an internet connection), and will have a fixed price with no pay-to-win or micro-transactions. The developer has been working on the game for nearly three years, and his emphasis has been on creating deep and compelling gameplay and a great atmosphere. While the overall concept of the game is similar to games like Ascension (and the UI reminds me of Nightfall ($2.99)), the developer feels that his game has some interesting improvements on the mechanics compared to other similar games.

For instance, you build and play “Groups," which are designed after historical figures, that only count if they are complete, there’s a holding ability for the cards in your hand that provides more control, and so on. I haven’t played the game, so I can’t say whether the game will feel different than other deckbuilding games, but the truth is we haven’t been getting too many good deckbuilding games recently (most developers are going the CCG way). If you like what you hear, check out the game’s webpage as well as our forum page.