Book Of Demons continues its papercraft Diablo tribute with new roguelike deckbuilder
Hellcard is heading to Steam early access on February 16th
It's been a hot minute since the papercraft Diablo-like Book Of Demons last stomped through these monster-infested halls, but developer Thing Trunk are back today with news of the next chapter in their dungeon-crawling fantasy series. Hellcard will continue the story of Book Of Demons when it launches into Steam early access on February 16th, but instead of slicing up devil flesh in traditional hack and slash fashion, this time you'll be building decks of cards to tackle each dungeon layer as a roguelike.
In case you missed Book Of Demons the first time round, this paper-themed Diablo-like was a bit like Loop Hero before Loop Hero existed. Your warriors moved along pre-defined tracks and auto-attacked enemies nearby, and loot took the form of additional cards to add to your arsenal of powers. During a run, you could click on these cards to activate their powers, and each one would have a cool-down period before you could use it again.
Hellcard, on the other hand, remixes all this into a much more familiar-looking deckbuilder, giving you over 300 unique cards to build your respective decks with and take out increasing numbers of demon lads. Enemy placement is the key thing you'll need to pay attention to here, as each card has its own area of attack, potentially letting you take out multiple skellies and magical bats at once. And from the looks of the trailer above, there's going to be a lot of crowd-thinning you'll need to do to make it out alive.
Three warrior classes will be available during early access - your classic Warrior, Mage and Rogue types - and you can choose to play Hellcard alone, or with up to two other mates/strangers thanks to its online co-op multiplayer mode. Playing in co-op divvies up the arena into a kind of pie chart, giving each player their own colour-coded turf to defend as the monsters pile up. Alternatively, you'll also be able to recruit AI-controlled companions if you prefer.
Of course, its early access launch on February 16th is only a couple of weeks away now, but if you fancy giving Hellcard a go before then, its Prologue is now available to play as a free demo over on its Steam page.