I know it’s not always fair to a game to make comparisons to other popular games, and it’s probably especially so in the genre of card games, where there are really only so many ways to present the concept in video game form. That said, the first thing I thought of when I saw Causa: Voices of the Dusk from Niebla Games was how much it looked like Hearthstone from a distance. Once I actually played the game and learned about its unique rules, I found it to be an enjoyable card game all on its own. That’s the whole first impressions thing for you.
In terms of the broad strokes, this isn’t terribly different from any of other card battle games born out of Richard Garfield’s Magic: The Gathering. You bring your own deck to a one-on-one battle with an opponent, gathering resources and using them to put cards into play. You then use those cards to attack your opponent either directly or indirectly. Drain all of their hit points, and you’re a winner. How nice.
Causa‘s twists come in how you manage your resources. Simply put, to get the energy to do anything in this game, you’ll have to make some sacrifices. Each card you sacrifice out of your hand will generate one point of energy. This energy isn’t consumed when you play a card, so you’re really just trying to strike a balance each turn between raising your energy level and keeping some cards to play. Without a diminishing pool to worry about, the number of cards you can play onto the board is limited to two each turn, so you have to choose wisely. Sacrificed cards aren’t completely gone, however. You can pull them back out as you like, enabling you to play more than two cards but also lowering your energy pool.
It doesn’t take long to build up your energy to the point that you can play any card you might draw, so the pace of the matches is pretty quick overall. I’ll have to spend a lot more time with Causa to see how it holds up over the long haul, but I did enjoy the time I spent with it. The game won’t be releasing until May or June of next year, so the fact that it plays pretty well already bodes well for the finished version. If you’ve got room in your heart for another fantasy-themed card battle game, you’ll want to keep your eye on this one. We’ll bring you more news on Causa: Voices of the Dusk when we get it.
