Forced Showdown
May you die gloriously and to great applause! Greetings Human and welcome to FORCED SHOWDOWN: "The only show in the galaxy with lives on the line!" Pick one of the 4 contestants from across the FORCED universe – each a master of their own style of combat – and try to become a superstar of my show, as you battle through worlds of monstrous enemies and face off against epic arena bosses. You may die horribly and repeatedly, but think of your fans and smile for the cameras! Cards boost your action abilities! In my show, you will unlock cards that let you boost your stats and upgrade your abilities differently each battle. Use clever deckbuilding and show off your epic combos! In the end though, it's all up to your own action skills, on the arena floor, to carry you through both times of luck and misfortune.
Game Discussion
Steam User 3
Nearly five years after playing it and eight years after release I still haven't found a game that scratches this same sort of fast-paced, single-player MOBA (oxymoron, I know), itch. I kinda wish BetaDwarf would take a break from Minion Masters and make a sequel to this gem.
Steam User 0
If there was a neutral option, I'd pick it.
Gameplay loop is simple and fun enough. Although I am about to type a METRIC load of stuff, it's really simple in practice, I promise. Pick a Program (Level), pick a hero, beat Battles (Stages) comprised of 8 Arenas (Zones) to fight the Arena Boss. Each Battle has 1-5 unique mechanics that can add or subtract enemies. Some are fun (Necromancer resummons people you kill!) and some are obnoxious (Blind Prophet hides your cards. Wow, I love playing blind!). Similar to Hearthstone, you get 1 Mana per Arena which you can spend to play cards in your deck. Mana refreshes per Arena for the most part, so having a nice mana curve is advised. A cool mechanic introduced is that the boss at the end of each Arena has their own deck, so they play cards that affect the arena.
Win ~2-3 battles (they may vary depending on the Program, the details are fuzzy since I've been stuck in the DLC maze hell-zone) and you'll eventually fight the boss at the end of the Program of which there are 3, with 1 extra in the DLC. Pick enough Points and you'll gain access to a Boon, which stays with you for the duration of your run. There's also an ascension mode if you're interested in that. After you win/die, you are given gold per boss killed which you can use to spin the gacha wheel to get cards. If you get duplicate cards, they are turned into "Shards" which you can use to guarantee a card unlock of a certain tier.
Because of the strange gacha system for cards, it starts off boring, picks up as you get more cards, picks up even more when you can make your ideal deck, then sharply nose-dives if you plan to hunt for achievements. Would say around ~20-30 hours of my 83 hours of gameplay were stuck "improperly" doing achievements.
My main gripes are:
-Achievements (listed on Steam) do NOT indicate that they are stage locked (example being the no-hits are locked to the third stage, I HATE NO-HITS AAAAA). This normally wouldn't be an issue, were it not for the fact that they are somewhat tied for progress, varying from gold to Boons. I get it, old game, but it's still soul-crushing to think you did a hard achievement only to be gaslit into thinking you failed it.
-Said achievements are obscured by question marks. They're unlocked by winning a Battle (maybe just playing?) so you couldn't even know the info above initially. Thankfully Guides exist, but WOW that sucks.
-Achievements range from a cake walk to CRAZY challenges like "Win a Battle without personally destroying any barrels" (the stage is flooded with them), "Clear 3 Arenas in a row without taking damage," and my beloathed, "Beat a boss without taking any damage," not as a single achievement, but 3 SEPARATE ONES FOR EACH CHARACTER (No-hit once with each character, in case it was confusing).
-The gacha grind for cards is pretty obnoxious. I would suggest using Cheat Engine to skip that part, really saved a lot of time.
-All the characters kinda suck, in regards to personality/voicelines. It's grating listening to them after a while, but I'm a bit bitter from achievement hunting.
Overall, worth if on sale and don't achievement hunt unless you enjoy suffering.
Secret CHEAT gamer strat (courtesy of "iwansquall" in the discussions, YOU'RE A LIFESAVER): You can alt + f4 before dying to restart the last stage you played. Works in all Programs, in case you want to efficiently achievement hunt.
Steam User 0
This game was far ahead of its time. A really well-made mix of Roguelike-Card game with an addictive gameplay loop. Really sad it seems abandoned as it has more potential today than when it released.
Steam User 2
man was this game ahead of its time.
if it was made today it'd be ported to mobile and riddled with microtransactions.
thank god it was ahead of its time.
Steam User 0
Underrated. Though not a stellar game, it has some forward thinking concepts for its time relative to the timeline of the rogue-lite / deckbuilding indie scene. It has been a quickly evolving genre, however, I still have not seen the exact formula that Forced Showdown employs in any other game. Will be worth a look for some. Wait for sale probably.
Steam User 0
Better than I thought it would be. Surprised it took this long to be suggested.
Steam User 0
Fun game