Neostesia2200 is one of the most interesting new h-games that launched this year. You can play for free on PC or mobile devices. This live-service title was launched in June 12, 2023. Developed by Erogames.
This collectible competitive card game is not casual fodder. The number of decisions you and your opponent make during a turn is staggering in number and cascading in effect. With multiple factions and card interactions, the number of play styles, tactics and grander strategies are innumerable, at least until the pro players show up to solve the game for the rest of us!
This experience is a step above in complexity compared to Hearthstone, which was basically a casualized version of Magic: the Gathering. In many ways it’s the usual, except that you create and control territories on a grid. On these territories, you summon minions, and yes, you can create a path right to your enemy’s face! Your opponent can place a unit to block the territory to stop you from summoning minions right next to them, or they can create a direct path to counter-attack!
Your goal is to reduce the other player’s life total to zero. Everyone starts with 20 life.
The game has two resource systems. You need “money” to play cards, which you gain three of at the start of every turn. Some cards require a number of colored territories to be played. To increase your income, you need to control a territory and a unit near a bank. There’s a “gang wars” flavor, so the resource nodes are banks that your gangsters rob at the start of turns.
I’ve played since launch, scouring the campaign mode and its unlockable sex scenes, because ranked play is still low on players. Whenever you do match with an opponent, it’s fun. Having played PvP card games from Magic to Hearthstone to Dominion, the World Warcraft TCG, and even Texas Hold ‘Em, I know a good one. This is absolutely one of the best ones.
I’m playing with the Red Starter deck, which the game assembles for you after the tutorial. This deck is focused on gangsters, aggressive style. These bangers have a surprising amount of solidarity for each other, often offering powerful buffs to their friends. Honor among thieves? The logic is that everyone is using “slob”, a powerful synthetic substance that boosts your regeneration and makes you stronger in battle. It’s basically a combat drug. The storyline is heavily tied to the slob trade that’s rampant in the city streets. Even the mayor is involved!
There are other factions, like the eco-terrorists who collaborate with mutants. You can play as the government too.
It’s a gangsters’ paradise, is what I’m saying. If you’re skilled, you’ll dominate players with skill mostly. I say “mostly”, because card games always have an element of luck to them. You cannot control the order in which you draw cards, but you can manipulate the odds in your favor!
Because of the sheer number and complexity of choices you make in your deck-building, resource management and movement of your minions play key roles in defining victors. The better player is highly likely to emerge with so many variables under their control. For any competitive player, this is what you want. Lots of variables means that the disparity in players’ skills is only made clearer the longer you play them. This is of course very, very patriarchal and oppressive, amirite?
The game runs super smoothly on PC, while the mobile port has some glitches, which I expect to be addressed swiftly, because so competent is this launch, it puts to shame the companies making supposed “AAA” premium titles that get all the hype. It’s a clean, beautiful launch for a new software product. How often do you see that anymore?
I’m still new to the game, but I must say, the one card that pisses me off the most and personally hope will be nerfed, is trainer bot. That thing is insane. It buffs a random friendly unit’s attack by 1 every turn, has three health. You need to spend more to kill it than the investment to make it. For example, you have to blow guided missiles (2 money), whereas making the trainer bot costs only 1 money. Worst of all, it’s easily positioned outside the opponent’s immediate proximity, giving it several turns of activity. It’s cards like this that become the most broken shit in the hands of smart players.
Speak of the devil, see the below screenshot. The rectangle right below the enemy player’s avatar. Fuck the Trainer Bot.
My full review is still coming along, since I haven’t even played 20 hours of this yet. I mandate of myself and my writing staff that we play the games we review fully before speaking about them. Where’s my respect for that one, huh? Give it to me, bitches. Consider this a sneak peek, and if it looks interesting enough, hop into the full experience now.
