Developer: Niebla Games
Publisher: Niebla Games
Platform: PC, PS4, Xbox One, iOS
Tested on: PC
Causa, Voices of the Dusk – Review
The ongoing global COVID situation has caused a significant bump in the popularity of digital trading card games, as it’s still difficult for people to get together for game night. Over the last year and a half, we’ve seen a massive influx of new digital TCGs, many of which failed to engage an active user base, only to die a silent death. That’s not stopping developers from attempting to strike gold, however, and it seems like a new game is vying for the wallet of TCG enthusiasts every week. One of the more recent additions to this ever-growing smorgasbord is Niebla Games’ Causa, Voices of the Dusk. Is this the game you should be getting into if you’re tired of Hearthstone, or are you better off looking elsewhere?
Story
Just like most other TCGs, Causa sits in that grey zone where there is no actual story in the game, but the cards themselves provide snippets of lore that hint at a deep narrative. Creatures and locations are seemingly pulled from an expansive fantasy world, and each of the faction leaders has their backstory explained, but the game never actually utilizes any of the lore through a narrative campaign. Of course, it’s difficult to pull this off, but not impossible, as we’ve seen with Asmodee Digital’s The Lord of the Rings Adventure Card Game. This feels like somewhat of a missed opportunity, as we would’ve really liked to have seen a narrative single-player campaign.
Graphics
To its credit, Causa’s cards feature gorgeous, evocative artwork that brings its world to life, even though it lacks identity. Separate the card art from the game’s interface and the designs in the game could’ve come from pretty much any fantasy setting. The interface is clean and the game’s animation effects are pretty neat, but overall, the game feels like a budget clone of its major competitors and fails to really stand out visually. Yes, you can only do so much with a digital card game, but we couldn’t help but feel like Niebla Games could’ve done more with the overall look of the game.
Sound
Causa’s soundtrack can be described in four words: generic medieval fantasy music. While the overall visuals were somewhat underwhelming in how generic they were, at least they had the saving grace of the actual artwork on the cards themselves looking good. The same can’t be said for Causa’s soundscape, which is a snoozefest, with generic effects and music that feels like it came from a license-free stock collection.
Gameplay
Causa is Niebla Games’ attempt to corner their share of the digital TCG market, something that is dominated by games like Hearthstone and Gwent. Unlike those behemoths, Causa isn’t able to rely on the recognisability of a popular IP, so in order to gain a player base large enough to be viable in the long run, the game needs to differentiate itself through original and addictive gameplay mechanics. Causa attempts to do so by providing the player with a unique way to use the discard pile, opening up new strategies and card combos that we haven’t seen in any of the games from major competitors.
The game wastes little time in getting the player acquainted with its rules. Before you are able to even look at the cards in your collection, you’ll need to play through the five-stage tutorial first. Of course, any TCG has hundreds of thousands of card combos and strategies available, so the tutorial barely scratches the surface of what a player will be able to pull off once they master the intricacies of Causa. Still, the five explanatory games do a fairly decent job of letting you get to grips with the core mechanics. The main objective will be familiar to anyone that played a similar TCG title: players summon creatures from their hand and use them to attack any opposing creatures or the HP of the opposing player. Once either player’s HP hits zero, it’s game over. What makes Causa different -and interesting- is how the game uses your discard pile as a resource pool. Most card games require you to spend resources in order to play other cards, whether it’s accumulated food, like in Cardpocalypse, Energy Cards like the Pokémon TCG, or land cards, like in Magic: The Gathering.
In Causa, you can play up to two cards per turn, but each card has a points cost. Points are obtained by discarding other cards, with the points cost of each discarded card added to your resource pool. This means that some of your more powerful -and expensive- cards can be used early on in the game to quickly build up a resource pool, but it does mean you won’t have them available when you’d want to play them. Do you discard that five-point powerful War Sister card in turn one so you can add those five points to your discard pile and summon two Tapirant Calves immediately? Or do you wait a few turns and discard the Tapirant Calves, allowing you to summon the War Sister, leaving you exposed to your opponent’s attack while you’re accruing points? It’s an interesting mechanic and perhaps Causa’s best element. Naturally, there is a card for everything, allowing you to change the flow of the game, and it’s possible to come back from a bleak-looking situation in a single turn.
Causa’s gameplay is definitely worth a look at, so it’s a shame to see how the game fails to avoid some of the genre’s pitfalls. Naturally, if you’re going to want to play Causa, you’re going to need cards, so you’re going to need to buy some booster packs, hoping you pull anything decent in order to get your deck up and running. This can be a costly affair, even though you receive a “free” legendary booster for every twenty regular boosters you purchase. It doesn’t end with buying cards either. If you want to go all out in Causa, you’ll be able to purchase cosmetics like avatars and card backs, and a season pass which allows you to get better rewards than free-to-play players as you climb the ranks in the online leaderboards. Naturally, the game attempts to hook players in with daily rewards and by offering seasons and with the promise of more cards and new expansions on the horizon, it’s clear that Niebla Games is aiming for Causa to become a mainstay.
One could argue that this is just the way things are for games like these, and while we’d be inclined to agree in principle, it feels like Causa wants you to pull out your wallet for everything. Naturally, there is a variety of different currencies in play as well, meaning that you’ll need to hope to have the right amount of crystals even if you have plenty of gold available to purchase certain items, for example. Yes, you can play Causa for free if you want, and yes, there are free pre-made decks available -that you can’t adjust-, but we all know that if you’re going to want to compete at a high level, then this is going to be a pay-to-win affair. We’re not expecting Niebla Games to hand us everything in the game on a silver platter, as this is simply the business model associated with digital card games, but we’re not quite sure that you’re getting enough bang for your buck here to entice you to continue playing.
Conclusion
Causa attempts to differentiate itself through its mechanics, which are interesting and ultimately the best part of the game. Beyond these however, you’re getting a generic fantasy TCG devoid of any originality. It’s not a bad game by any means, but it’s a middle-of-the-road experience that is outclassed by its competition. Adding insult to injury is how the game really feels like you need to pull out your wallet at every turn if you want to stand any chance of competing on the leaderboards. Over time, we expect Causa to build up a small and dedicated userbase, but unless some major overhauls happen, the game is going to drown in the flood of mediocrity that makes up the market it is attempting to corner.
Causa, Voices of the Dusk - Review,
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