The single-player card-based strategy roguelite Card Quest has been ported to Android, and amazingly it has landed on the Play Store before Apple users have even received a release date for their upcoming iOS port. So for once Android is first, and considering that this doesn't happen often, let's try to enjoy it.
Card Quest is most easily described as a single-player roguelite dungeon crawler with card-based combat, and plenty of branching paths for you to choose from that should add a lot of replayability to the title. You can play as a wizard, fighter, rogue, or hunter, and each class has its own unique gameplay style and 3 specializations for further customization of each class.
Your job is to venture forth into the game's world and fight your way through a plethora of enemies. As you progress, you can customize your character while choosing your path and carefully planning out your attack strategy. This will be tough at first, which means you will die a lot. But thanks to the roguelite elements you get to keep some of your deck and equipment customizations. You do this by playing through each campaign with all of the separate characters available to you. So the further you progress, the more stuff you can unlock, and then the cycle continues.
The pixel-based graphics are reminiscent of an old-school adventure game from the '80s, and I must say they lend themselves quite well to this style of dungeon crawler. And since they aren't that demanding, just about anyone should be able to run this new release without any issues.
One problem I did notice is that the Shield TV is listed as a compatible device. Just like with the majority of new releases on the Play Store this moniker is incorrect. Ignoring the issue of why Google continues to allow this to happen, you can expect there to be no controller support included with this release, which means it isn't going to work on the Shield TV.
You can pick up Card Quest from the Play Store for $4.99, and since this is a premium release with an upfront price, there are no advertisements or in-app purchases included. Sadly Google Play Games Services are absent, so there is no support for a cloud saving system, achievements, or leaderboards.
I have to say it's exciting to see a port of a quality game released on Android before iOS. Maybe that is petty, but after years and years of iOS existing as the golden child for mobile gaming, it's finally nice to see some priority given to Android. The card-based gameplay is very enjoyable, and there is plenty of depth to it thanks to a wide range of customizations for the stock and upgradeable classes. And sure, the missing GPG support and the lack of controller functionality for the Shield TV is annoying. But if you enjoy playing single-player games on a touchscreen device that include a premium pricing model and a ton of content to explore, Card Quest is definitely a game you will want to add to your collection.