Boss Monster
Become a boss, build a dungeon, and destroy puny heroes. The best-selling indie card game has arrived to Steam! Boss Monster is a dungeon-building card game that challenges players to become the ultimate villains: video game bosses.
Thousands of players around the world have enjoyed the paper version of the game, but now Brotherwise Games has partnered with video game developer Plain Concepts, creators of Wave Engine, to bring Boss Monster from the tabletop to the digital world!What is Boss Monster?If you’ve ever wanted to stomp on an upstart plumber or send your goblins and ghosts out to haunt some heroes, then Boss Monster is the game for you. Sporting retro-inspired pixel art, and paying homage to classic video games and geeky pop culture, Boss Monster immerses you in the role of the video game boss as you use Room Cards to build a dungeon which must entice worthy heroes, then slay them.What is the Digital Version Like? Digital Boss Monster is a straight conversion of the tabletop game. You’ll be playing with virtual cards, but everything about the game has been designed to be as authentic as possible.
Of course, the app auto-calculates damage and treasure values, letting you take advantage of rapid readout treasure counts in your and your opponents’ dungeons.What are some of the features in Digital Boss Monster?
- Play against up to three AI opponents in solo play.
- Challenge other human opponents online.
- Play with ALL of the bosses, rooms, and spells available in the base game …including rare out-of-print cards!
- Explore new "digitally-enhanced" cards: four rooms, three new Bosses, and a new spell that all take advantage of the digital platform, allowing stats and treasure values to change as you play (coming in future expansions). Thanks for your support of Boss Monster!
Steam User 51
Good game, but a bad port. If you want a number score, I would say 3/5.
First, I've played Boss Monster a few times before this electronic version showed up on Kickstarter. I do not own the mobile version.
Let me start by saying I own a Surface Pro 3, a Windows 8.1 tablet. I thought having a digital copy of this would make it fun to play on the go. The problem is the port has some critical bugs they need to fix. Story time...
The major game bug I had is with touch devices, after a while the game loses focus. When you're tapping the screen you're actually clicking behind the game window. When you finally Alt+Tab to the desktop you'll see all these programs open because you've been clicking your shortcuts and items on your desktop. This bug is terrible, and would happen every 3-5 minutes without fail, when not using a mouse. I would have to hit the Windows button a few times to bring up the start menu, then click the program in the task bar, or I would have to hook up a keyboard and forgo the ease of using the Surface as a tablet to recover the game.
This bug seemed to happen in fullscreen, so then I thought "I'll just play in Window mode". Surprise! Here is the first clue this is a cheap port of the mobile version. You get 4 options in the Settings menu. Music volume, sound effect volume, game speed, and fullscreen on/off. "Okay, no real graphic settings, but at least I can make it Windowed" I thought. This brings me to the next major bug. If you have a high resolution screen, like on a Surface Pro 3, the game window is tiny, card text is unreadable. Then you discover you can't resize the window, or make the window take up the full screen. You have two options, tiny unreadable window, or fullscreen. :(
Fine fine... I loaded the game up on my main desktop PC and figured with it's lower resolution screen at least it would be readable in Window mode, and it was! I then figured, "Alright let me play a few games!" That is where I ran into the next issue, again because it is a poor port. This game has minimal Steam features, which tends to be the trend with mobile ports. This means there is no Cloud Saves. To unlock extra Heroes, which is DLC I own, I have to win 40 games... that means I have to win 40 games on each device I own because the save game isn't transferred between my devices or carried over after I reformat. :(
Lastly, some game design choices are weird. When using a touch devices you have to double tap everything to activate, when using a mouse it is a single click. Also the Halt button seems like a waste. There is no reason for the Halt button. The game should show you the 3 buttons, Pass All, Go (Pass Once), and Play Card. If you choose Play Card, then it should pause/halt. There is no reason to have to open a menu 95% of the time just to get to "Pass All". It seems very unnecessary, except as an attempt to save visual space on a mobile device.
Now. Why the thumbs up? It's a fun game, and I hope they fix these issues, it was just released and I trust they'll look into it. Though even things like the "In-App Store" just scream it's a very weak mobile port. I figure once they iron out these bugs with touch devices, and maybe add some graphic settings (at least resolution options or scaling) the game will be perfect for a quick purchase and play on a trip.
Pros:
* The pixel graphics are nice.
* The music is nice.
* Faithful to the card game.
Cons:
* No Steam support (other than trading cards), which means you're save isn't transferred between devices.
* No graphics options
* Poor touch screen/device support
To make this game 5/5, it would have been awesome to have Steam Workshop support, allow people to make custom cards, or at least add new images to existing cards. I feel Steam features, and mods/customizing is locked out to keep the PC/mobile ports the same, and to sell DLC unfortunately. One can dream though...
Steam User 32
EARLY ACCESS Review: Boss Monster
Tired of playing the good guy? I feel you, my friend. If you are looking for some place to fight some heroes, luring them into your deadly traps or cast some mighty (and again, deadly) spells, Boss Monster might be the right choice. But be aware, the other Monsters aren’t your allies so don’t expect them to help you.
Simply put: Boss Monster is the adaptation of the indie-card game of the same name where different bosses try to be the most evil villain trough hero slaying so If you expected a game like Dungeon Master, you should stop reading right now.
Let’s get started quickly. At first, choose between single - or multiplayer. You can play worldwide, invite friends, play hot seat or simply fight against the AI. Picking your boss monster comes next. We have Mummy Cleopatra, Xyzax the Lich, Seducia the Siren and many more, each with a unique Special Ability that can be activated only once every game. So what is the Main Goal of every match? To win, you have to be the first boss that collected 10 Hero Souls and to do so you have to slay, of course, heroes. But be aware, heroes making it through your sidescrolling dungeon will hit you with 1 wound, epic heroes even 2 wounds. To make sure that you don’t take the maximum of 5 wounds and die, playing your cards wisely is inevitable. Build rooms, use synergies, activate abilities and cast spells if necessary. Heroes need to be attracted, that’s why every room has at least one Treasure Icon. If you see that there is a mage in town and you want to lure him, build more rooms with a spellcasting icon. Same goes for fighters, clerics and thieves. The game comes with a tutorial, right before the first match or always available in the settings, making me stop the basic overview now.
Boss Monster delivers old-school 8-Bit Graphics and a NES-like Soundtrack that tends to get annoying after a while. The virtual cards look great and have funny descriptions, the same goes for heroes and our beloved villains. But some issues affected my gameplay and are already discussed in the forum. Just to mention some: The game has been released for iPad as well and thus suffers from a bad resolution in terms of Text-Boxes and general User Interface. The overall gameplay seems to be slow since you can interfere with every move heroes or opposing bosses perform. To do so you always have to check different buttons instead of just playing cards like spells that can be instantly performed, meaning Clicks, Clicks, Clicks…
Playing with more than 1 opponent means you have to click on the other icons to check the rooms they built, since there are only 2 bosses displayed at once. Playing solo is fun indeed but the lack of story condemns Boss Monster to be a game best enjoyed in Multi-Player. Thus I tried to enter a worldwide match, waiting for 45 mins until I cancelled the queue. Let’s sum it up.
Big Text, Quick Facts:
Pro:
Great idea since Boss Monster is the adaptation of an indie-tabletop game
Retro Graphics and Sound fit into the setting
Various Bosses, Rooms, Spells and Heroes to choose from or interact with
Single and Multi-Player available, Hot Seat is fun and works with “Turn your head, mate”
Short but satisfying Games - expect 15-25 Mins for KI-Matches
Card-Gallery sums up every available card so far
Con:
Interface needs an adjustment for PC
Solo-Game lacks a bit of replayability since there is no story-content
Worldwide Multiplayer is dead (Okay, Early Access and Launch 8th May 2015)
KI could be harder
6,99 seems to be too much for a game that looks like a mobile port (Appstore, Buttons are well placed for big thumbs)
Summary:
My inner demons are still fighting while writing this so I should make it clear. I recommend this game, yes. For its idea, its “easy to learn, hard to master” gameplay and the overall retro-look, sound and artwork.
This game is still in Early Access and needs not only lots of improvements regarding UI and getting rid of all these unnecessary clicks it took over from the mobile port but also more content for solo-players. Devs are working on Bugs, crashes people were talking about didn’t occur for me while playing about 10 games, so progress is happening. Gather your friends and invite them to online matches and increase the worldwide player-base or take your girl/boyfriend and hate each other in a Hot Seat match.
If you are not sure about it, don’t buy it now, wait for a sale instead. 6,99 Seems to be more of a future investment than a price that reflects its current state.
6/10
Steam User 12
I see a lot of complaining that the game is slow, mostly from people who have never played the card game before. The reason that there's a pause while the heroes are moving through each room of your dungeon is because it gives the other players about 3 seconds to decide if they're going to interfere with your dungeon and play cards against you. Spell cards and certain rooms can only be played if certain conditions are met, so sometimes you need 3 seconds to realize your room can activate. So it's not a flaw of the port, it's an inherent rule in the gameplay.
That said, this port is not perfect. I have not experienced UI issues like others have mentioned, but I might also be less annoyed since I've played the card game and know my way around after a few runs with the AI.
Bottom line is - if you enjoy the physical card game then you will like it. If you're looking for a fast paced card game, this isn't it. You need to think through your choices, try to tailor your dungeon to attract certain heroes, mess with your opponents and try to stop them from scoring points, and try to setup combos and place rooms optimally. That's called strategy.
Steam User 23
Despite all negative reviews, the game works perfectly fine for me. No crashes, correct effects on the cards, all expansions working, so overall enjoyable! I am a big fan of the board game and this version comes for a ridiculous price in comparison. Top notch even in its early access version!
Steam User 19
I love this game! Boss Monster was actually released a couple of years ago as a popular card game, and I was excited to see it available on Steam. You play as the final boss of a dungeon, and the goal is to build a dungeon, lure heroes to it, then kill the heroes!
The graphics remain true to the 8 bit design of the original cards - I'm happy to see they kept the retro look. The cards have a lot of references to geek culture (ie I played a counterspell card that featured Harry Potter fighting Voldemort).
Before starting, I had the option of playing the tutorial, which I highly recommend. Having a tutorial with pictures really helped me to grasp the concepts of the game (rather than a typical word-only instruction manual).
The layout of the game screen is organized and straight forward. I could see how many room cards & spell cards my opponent and myself have, how many souls and wounds we accrued, and what type of hero we could lure into our dungeon.
My favorite feature in the game was the ability to "pass all", where the game ran on autopilot, allowing me to just watch heroes run through my opponents' dungeon. I got a bit carried away watching my opponent take hit points that I forgot to build my dungeon though. So don't do that! :P
All in all, a very fun game. Stays true to the original card game. I'm looking forward to playing the expansions that will unlock after I win x-number of games.
A video of my first playthrough will be up soon:
Steam User 18
A great board game adapted to steam.
Some UI problems that I hope will be corrected by patches (if you have a tablet, it should be great, but on a PC, not so good).
And a slow pace because of the interrupting possibility makes the actual board game far better/faster to play.
I would like to get the option to write a "mixed review" since the game stays good anyways.
Steam User 13
I really enjoy playing the card game, so I was excited to play this game on the PC. I love being able to play with friends online, and it keeps track of all the health, rules, etc. Also, I like to us this game as a reference when not sure how a card works in the tabletop version.