Hadean Tactics

This is a really cool spin of the Slay the Spire format. It combines rogue deckbuilding with an auto-chess like feature. I received this game apart of a bundle of strategy games from a Humble Bundle and this was not the reason I purchased the bundle.
To my surprise, this is by far the best game I've received. I even purchased it again on a different device to show support of the studio.
I'm highly satisfied and impressed by the content and the combinations the system allows the player to have. There are quite a few combos and builds for each class to be able to beat the final bosses.

8/10. "Underlords" and "Slay the Spire" mixture. Great autobattler but at times frustratingly broken. There are issues with this game but overall, very good implementation. I prefer this game over "Slay the Spire" because you can beat most levels and corruptions without a cohesive strategy while "Slay the Spire" requires mostly cheesing to defeat the most difficult challenges. The game offers a strong synergy between alliances, party make-up, card play, etc, which "Slay the Spire" only has card play, items and entirely RNG. Unfortunately, the best way to beat the hardest challenges in this game is to create one turn victory deck which can be done with ease.

-Replayability: I tend to hate RNG mechanics but, since there are a lot of options that are viable it is not as bad. There is enough RNG so that every game feels quite different. At higher corruptions, the chances of you succeeding becomes slim that you might need to reset runs until you get the appropriate start. Once learning extensively what the game can offer, the game feels more or less like a casino, skipping cards until you get the exact deck you need for your strategy. Same thing with recruits with the 50 gold reroll or relics with no possibility to reroll. Overall, There is enough variability to make each run feel different enough but frustrating when you are getting bad options after another. Some achievements like "Complete a run with 9 in your party" are truly rare and will take many runs to do so. It requires a low chance of 2 or 3 wanderers and maybe a low chance event to add an extra party slot. If you are lucky, it feels great.

-Graphics: They are pretty basic and subpar. Not much of a looker. The appeal of this game is really focused on it's gameplay, especially when you can infinitely stack objects like traps and causing your FPS to drop to 5. It works for what it allows you to abuse.

-Gameplay: The depth is not vast but with the amount of variables present in the game, there is a lot of room for experimentation. The best part of the game is the party management. I find the game does a fantastic job of having several different creatures and monsters in a mostly binary upgrade system, allowing you to choose how to level up your party depending on your needs. RNG can be unfortunate but, most alliances and creatures tend to do the job well. Obviously there are some creatures that absolutely suck and should never be picked. Others that should be always picked because they are amazing like coalts or thief alliance.

Then you have the card management which it is a carbon copy of "Slay the Spire". I would say there arent many builds, just a conglomeration of synergistic cards that can fit anywhere. Each of the character decks might have maybe 2 or 3 actual builds but are pointless to pursuit. The best decks are those that can win turn one like "Crossmerang", "Burning Strike" + "Winter's Brow" or "Foul Energy", or you spam traps and basically have a party become invulnerable. This dumbs down the deck building part of the game because, it really only takes a couple of runs to realise that getting 3-4 cards is all you need to become a god. This is a huge downside of the game and I think either more cards or nerfs are needed to balance the game out. Right now, each deck has only one viable build and when making a hybrid deck, none of the nightshade cards are needed because they are too slow and weak in comparison to other decks.

Lastly there is combat which is automatic but you have limited commands you can give. This is absolutely refreshing because most autobattlers there is always that one important enemy killing your entire party and none of your party is doing anything about it. With these commands, you can make sure that the target is dealt with. What is also refreshing is the Targetting line, always telling you what is attacking what even though it can be confusing by the angle of the camera.

The worst part of the game are the bosses. They are not impressive, they summon more adds at certain percentages when adds are killed, their abilities are either extremely overpowered or worthless. They are mostly meat shields that require quite a bit of powerspikes. Why is this bad? There is a strategy to kill all but one add and zerg the boss which means no more adds will spawn and render any risk of losing. This is not good game design and it means I can abuse the game mechanics, leaving me with a trivial experience. That is just one example why the bosses are not good in this game. They require reworks and rebalancing. It is not good at the moment.

-Theme: It feels incomplete. I really like the idea of hell and fighting your way through it but, there is a joke inserted somewhere at random of times which destroys immersion. There should be more circles of hell, more bosses with biblical references. The theme is great but the game does not take it far enough to be amazing, actually it hinders it in various ways. A game having cute little things or wacky events does not ruin the theme, it is more what the bosses say when they are killed, the end credits, the reading that is done. I think the game could be a lot better if it took the theme seriously.

-Custom: Love the customisation of your hero and decks but that is the most you can do. It is fun to make a custom deck with a hybrid of all classes to make the most broken deck possible. Even creating a hero that does everything is a lot of fun. I would like to see more customisation like mods. Mods would complete generate an entire facet of this game which is unknown at the moment. Very curious where this will lead.

A very good game, my only real complaint is I felt like I had done all the content that mattered before I ever unlocked the custom hero, and the amount of grinding to unlock things is painful.

I've played a lot of auto-battlers, and Hadean Tactics is easily the best in the genre of the ones I've experienced. The game stands out for its truly impressive build variety—there are so many viable paths to victory that each run feels fresh and strategically rewarding. Whether you prefer crafting a hyper-offensive party, experimenting with intricate synergies, or focusing on more defensive tactics, the game provides the flexibility and tools to support your style.
One of the features that really elevates Hadean Tactics above its peers is the ability to select targets during battle. Unlike most auto-battlers, where your units fight independently with minimal input, Hadean Tactics allows for direct engagement and tactical decision-making mid-fight. This means your skill and adaptability play a huge part in every encounter and give you far more control over outcomes than simply hoping for lucky rolls.
While some critics argue that the game relies too much on RNG, my experience has been quite the opposite. With the vast array of cards, units, and alliance synergies—and the option for custom decks—there’s always an opportunity to adapt, improvise, and pivot if the perfect pieces for your dream build don’t appear right away. The strategic possibilities and interactivity ensure that victories feel earned through planning and clever play, rather than luck alone.
Hadean Tactics is a shining example of how the auto-battler genre can offer depth, replayability, and genuine player agency. If you want a game that rewards creativity and tactical thinking, look no further!

This game is fun and kept me playing for ~10 hours. In that time I beat multiple corruption levels using custom heroes and decks, and rolled credits.
While the game is fun, there is too much ♥♥♥♥ jammed in here and most of it ends up feeling half baked/bad. It also feels like play testing would be a nightmare with all these different systems, and that might be why there was very obviously very little done. Some strategies are cool on the surface, but don't actually do much to keep up with the scaling difficulty while select others are by far and large just the best things in the game.
The custom hero and deck editor are easily the best things about this game. It really brings back memories of those old WC3 custom maps where you design a hero and fight other players. I felt like it was relatively easy to get to this point, but it was still 2 hours of playing to unlock custom heroes, and another few hours just to get enough currency to make the deck and hero I wanted. I personally would have rather started with a "custom" hero, and meta progressed into making more wacky characters right off the bat.
Game is good, game is fun. If you like deck builder games that are 10$ like I do, you will get your moneys worth and maybe even a little more.
** Edited because I got the product on sale for 10$ USD. It is usually 20.**

One of the best games I’ve played this year. Very Addictive and just plain fun. 10/10 would play again.

Fun Auto battler with plenty of strategical choices and reasons to come back and play some more.
Edit: After playing this more this game is amazing love this along with Gladiator Guild Manager and Legendary creatures 2 as my favorite spins on auto battler games.