Neurodeck is a deckbuilding card game developed TavroxGames and published by Goblinz Publishing. It sees you playing as a patient trying to defeat their phobias through treatment.
The first thing that drew me to Neurodeck was its amazing art. Colourful, mysterious, and beautifully rendered, the screenshots of the game’s interface immediately piqued my interest. Everything from the art on the cards to the depiction of enemies looked gorgeous and incredibly detailed.
On the surface, the premise of Neurodeck sounds fascinating too; I found the idea of bringing themes of mental health to a card game original and, if done well, I thought it could create a powerful gaming experience. When I got stuck into the game, however, I quickly became disillusioned. The writing in the game was clunky across the board, and the game’s story felt more like an afterthought than anything else. You play as a woman named Lei, although you don’t get much insight into her back story as a character, who she is, or why she is seeking treatment. Instead, the game is peppered with strange diary entries that contain a multitude of grammatical errors and very little character development. I found this especially troublesome since the game tries to tackle the incredibly layered topic of mental health, but instead has a story that seems to gloss over the complexities of it, making it feel like a thin veneer for the card game mechanics.