I’ve played Tamarak Trial for almost eight hours now. I have completed a run once and want to discuss my adventures in playing a dice-rolling deck-builder. This week is Tamarak Trail.

Tamarak Trial is a deck-builder from Yarrow Games, Versus Evil, and tinyBuild. The game was released on Steam at the tail end of February at the low price of $15.

PROS:

• The dice-rolling mechanic as a whole is fun. I enjoy literally picking up the dice and throwing it across my screen, watching it bounce in the tray, hitting the sides, and finally landing on an attack.
• The UI is great. Mana and health are easily noticeable. Enemies project what attack they are going to do so that the player can play ahead a little bit.
• The dice facings (or cards) all feel foreign until played with. Dice can bounce and cost more but the attack attached to it will deal more damage in the long run.
  • The starting character, the Detective has the baseline, very straightforward deck. The Magician on the other hand opens up a whole new way to play the game.
  • There are seemingly infinite die facings to unlock throughout the game.
• The actual combat is great and easy to grasp. Roll a die, check mana, and attack. Players have five hearts that get lost when mana is depleted while in combat.
  • Players can eventually get to the point where the dice can flip to every single facing and just obliterate the baddies.
• The map is laid out nicely for viewing what paths the player can go.
  • Puzzle and event sections are fun and weight to them.
    • You can get royally screwed if you choose incorrectly sometimes.
    • Shops are where you always want to be. There are like eight different facings to buy.
    • Tents allow players to rest up a heart and gain a buff for a combat.
• There are three minibosses leading up to the final boss.
  • Bordering on gimmicky, the minibosses for each area provide a good challenge.
• I like the visuals. Tamarak Trail’s enemies are gross and interesting. The pigeons holding rifles do not compare to the things lingering in the mines.
  • The effects that attacks have are a nice addition.
  • All of the die facings have really nice art.

CONS:

• The beginning area is a slog after playing for so long. The combat is slow because the player just wasn’t able to get facings that impact the combat in a meaningful way.
• Sometimes the dice just don’t go your way and there is nothing that you can do about it.
  • Try again, idiot.
• The Magician can be, in the beginning, a little intimidating. They have elemental debuffs that can change when playing another debuff to combine into a NEW debuff.
  • It is an interesting take but introducing the fire and ice debuff combine into a melt debuff while the wind and fire debuffs make an entirely different debuffs makes the combat more risky while the reward is still the same.

I really like Tamarak Trial. It is unique in it’s take on being a deck-builder while keeping itself within the realm of the genre without straying too far off. The dice mechanic works a majority of the time, the visuals are great, the seemingly infinite possible facings to add to your dice is great and the bosses are fun with slight gimmicks attached.

7/10