As far as I am concerned, modern card games and metal go hand in hand, and I’d been introduced to both when I started high school. Power Chord has brought me fond memories of that time and actually hooked me up for a few days – I even stayed up until sunrise to deal the final blow to the last boss. So, what’s the deal with Power Chord, and does it have any similarity to Slay the Spire? See below.
You Will Absolutely Love Grinding This Game Despite Failing Miserably at the Start
The premise of this game is that you are assembling a metal band… (a quartet, if I may add) with the goal of fending off demons from our world. You will have a Drummer, who will take on a Tank role, a Bassist, who is in charge of damage dealing with various spells (let’s compare the role to a Warlock, so a spellcaster of some kind), a Guitarist, who will slash and bash those pesky demons with physical, raw, brutal force, and the Singer, who usually provides support.
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Each of these characters have their own cards that can only be played by them. The premise of this rogue-lite card game is that you start from scratch with every new run. Indeed, you unlock new cards when you complete certain challenges, and then find them in the wild as you progress during your run, or you can randomly get them in your starter deck. So, there are indeed some similarities between Power Chord and Slay the Spire. If you liked Slay the Spire, you will like Power Chord.
Apart from that, you have equipment that you can give to individual band members, and general, team equipment.
This means that you need to be very careful with your choices as you progress through the levels and the events that unfold on them. I won’t go into much detail in order to keep this review spoiler-free, but your choices (and RNG) can sometimes seal the fate of your run at the very start. I’ve had a few runs where I got completely obliterated at the start and a few ones where I cleared the entire game while barely taking any damage, and of course, a lot of in-betweeners.
You have a more or less limited choice of your path to the finish line, which gives you some control of your band’s fate.
Every beginning is difficult, but as soon as you get the hang of the game mechanics, you’ll start to put together the puzzle pieces. Do not be upset if you lose a lot. It takes time to learn the game mechanics, gather decent cards, etc.
Is Power Chord Worth Buying? Should I Wait for a Discount or Buy Now?
I would say yes, buy it. If not immediately, then when it’s on a discount. That part is up to you entirely.
It took me 24 hours of gameplay to finish the last boss, but I haven’t obtained all of the cards and equipment yet. That’s what, in some players’ opinions, counts as enough value extracted from the purchase. It’s worth mentioning that, similar to most rogue-lite games, the variety of opponents that you will be facing is not that great, and pretty soon you will just be focused on optimizing your gear and deck so that you can just clear everything as soon as possible with as few issues as possible during your run (the transition from “I love this game” grind to “Oh God, let’s just do this as fast as possible” grind.)
Graphics are, as you may examine from the screenshots, not AAA-tier, but they’re absolutely fine for the atmosphere of the game. The soundtrack is fairly decent, but if you grind the game long enough, it might be repetitive. You can’t really expect everyone to deliver a AAA Soundtrack like Metal: Hellsinger, but this is decent for what it’s worth.
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Closing Words, Positives, Negatives, Final Grade…
All in all, it’s a fun experience, and I still make a run attempt from time to time. I want to 100% the game, so I scout out which challenges I can try conquering in a single run, to unlock more cool cards. Because I already cleared the game content a couple of times, it’s starting to become a bit monotonous and dull, and I fear it may become a chore to me if I do not clear the entirety of the achievements fast. It’s also worth mentioning that at the time of writing this article (as seen in the screenshot above) not all characters have been released yet, so I am looking forward to that as well. That should spice things up a bit, because each band member brings something different to the table (different playstyle, functions, etc.)
It was a lovely experience all in all. If I spoke about the story of the game more than I already did I would just outright spoil it, but it’s a short and simple premise that just serves to provide you with a miniscule purpose as you slay demons. It’s as simple as Metal: Hellsinger, perhaps.
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Pros:
- Fun and Addicting Gameplay.
- Excellent turn-based pastime you can pause and continue later if you cannot commit enough time at once for a play session.
- Metalheads love it.
Cons:
- Fun and Addicting Gameplay becomes monotonous, repetitive, and dull after a while if you stick with the game for a few weeks or so.
- The soundtrack becomes repetitive (let’s face it… if you listen to any song enough times, it gets REALLY boring and you start hating it, similar to what happens to a song you put as your wake-up alarm).
- The balance of the game is, in some rare cases, horrible. Sometimes you do not get a fighting chance, and sometimes you draw a royal flush and just steamroll the entire game without any hiccups.
Final Grade
The game has a great idea and great passion behind it, but some of the execution is lackluster. After some time I just disabled in-game sounds and started blasting my own music. That should have been the core of the game, similar to Metal: Hellsinger. Funnily enough, nowadays, more people talk about the Metal: Hellsinger soundtrack than about the actual game!
It could have been possible, for example, to obtain some local bands to come on board and contribute to the soundtrack because there are a lot of smaller bands that provide decent quality and can’t wait for an opportunity like this (that’s what a friend of mine did for his game).
Metal needs all the promotion it can get in this day and age. I am grateful that this game exists and I hope that Big Blue Studios will eventually find success. I would give a higher rating because I truly had fun with this game (and I hope you will too), but it wouldn’t sit right against the other grades I’ve given in the past, because those games didn’t have these issues.
Score: 7
So, what are you waiting for? Send your band to the demon slaughterhouse!
A code for this game was provided by the publisher for the purposes of a review. Reviewed on PC.
