The Magister

I remember Nerdook back from the Flash games era. I think I also remember rather liking his games. But we've come a long way since then, and sadly, the standards have risen. I feel like the quality of his games has not risen alongside those standards. I felt that with his previous games on Steam, and I feel this with The Magister.

The Magister is a rather short (a few hours long) murder mystery themed game that's actually more of a roguelike deckbuilder. In fact, you have two decks - one for combat, and one for talking. I will credit Nerdook for not copying the common formula for this genre. Instead, the two decks and the two game modes operate differently. During talking, you are on a turn limit and you accumulate points. You can spend those points either to make progress or to get more cards to make a stronger deck, just for that "battle". In the actual combat, you have a grid and a turn "timer". Cards have time costs, as does movement, but spending more time only delays when you next get to make your turn.

Honestly, maybe they should have used more common elements from existing games, because not only did I feel confused at times on how to play, I also really didn't enjoy what I was doing. The cards I played, the actions I took, none of them felt satisfying, especially compared to the combos I've come to expect from these kinds of card games. Combine that with the low production values common in an indie game and I had a pretty poor time.
Honestly, the game's not even highly rated on Steam, and even if you do like it, it's quite short. I think this one's a pretty clear failure and not something I could recommend.