I always want to find that next solo game that really hooks me. And a lot of the time, those a smaller games, but sometimes what is just a card game, but an interesting comes along. Spire’s End manages to tell a very interesting story with impressive artwork and good choices. And the game play is still interesting, but before I talk about it too much, let’s see how it plays.

How to Play Spire’s End

A spire has come up from the ground and many villagers have been taken. For some reason you, and some others were left behind. And now, you need to go into the spire and find out what is going on. What is happening to those taken.

In Spire’s End you are flipping cards off a deck and then using the seven characters you have, two at a time, to fight monsters, unlock doors, and make decisions. The main pieces of the game are flipping over cards and reading the story on them which generally gives you a decision. You then remove cards down to where it tells you to flip, so keeping part of the story hidden from you.

The other piece is combat. Combat is centered around dice rolls, but uses an interesting mechanic. The dice are not that exciting, it’s roll high enough and do damage. But how you determine your attack is interesting. You spend health to determine your attack, or stamina, the bigger the attack the more it spends. Then at the end your activation you recoup health, if you roll well.

Eventually you reach the end, either when all seven of your characters die. Or one of the various ends in the deck of cards. I’ve done that once and died a couple other times.

What Doesn’t Work?

It’s tricky for me to say that much doesn’t work in this game. I think that it’s a solid and different feeling game. For some people the luck of the dice might be a little bit high. There is little to no mitigation that I’ve come across thus far. So, while the story is good, someone might just end up with bad rolls in a few games and not see much story.

I also think that some people might not like the story. Spire’s End has a dark story to it. The game doesn’t look like a light and fluffy game, so it shouldn’t be a surprise. But I see how the story might be darker than expected.

What Works

I like the mechanics of how you go through the deck of cards. Mainly that you skip over cards. When you make a choice it might be between going to card sixty or card sixty-three. If you go to card sixty-three, you will for sure not see cards sixty through sixty-two. It’s a clever branching mechanic that makes the story more replayable. I hit chapter three and found and end this last time I played. And I skipped probably twenty cards out of seventy, if not more.

The combat is interesting for me as well. Yes, the dice are lucky. There were times where I just couldn’t finish off someone fast enough. But the decision space around how much health to spend on an attack, that’s interesting. Plus, later in the game I got better at resting to get back more health during combat. So you can play around with when you push for that big hit and when you might try and get a lot of health back.

I personally like the story as well. I think that the story is dark but not too dark. Plus the whole of the story is a mystery and I enjoy a good mystery. This feels crazy in a good way, it also feels like an awesome D&D setting. I could see using the cards to just play through a one shot scenario sometime. They determine the story the players interact with, and can they survive. But I want to see what else is happening in this world, that’s for sure.

Who is Spire’s End For?

I think that it works at one and two players. In fact, I think I might prefer it at two players. The game is easy enough to play solo but I like the idea of sharing the story. When I stream it, though, and read the text out lout I suspect that will make solo better for me.

But this is going to be for people who want a simpler story driven game. A lot of story driven games are very big, or they might be too goofy when they are lighter, like Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger. Spire’s End doesn’t pull back from the darkness of the world that you’re going through.

I also think with the story, it is for a more mature audience. I don’t believe it’s 18+, but 16+ is where I would put it. A younger person might be fine with it, but it’ll depend on the person.

Final Thoughts

Spire’s End is a game that feels unique in what it does. But at the same time it feels familiar in that it is a story driven game with dice combat. The world building and accompanying artwork are what set it apart. And I really like it for that reason. The story has some depth but not too much. And the story doesn’t feel like it only gives you obvious choices.

And I like how fast this game plays. I think to reach a point in chapter three where my story ended last night, that was about an hour. That is nice, it’s something that I can pull out when I want to spend a good chunk of an evening playing a solo game. But the set-up is minimal and I can dive right into it.

My Grade: A
Gamer Grade: B
Casual Grade: B+

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