Gamebox 2.0: Games of March 2025
After enduring the extra-long weeks of winter, we were ready to spring into action with this month’s Gamebox 2.0 reviews! We put our card skills to the test in two tabletop games—Sultan’s Game and UVS Game’s Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria. Then, we dove into VR combat in Path of Fury: Episode 1 and unleashed chaos in a War Rats demo. Want our full thoughts? Check out the reviews below!
Sultan’s Game (Zach): Coming from Double Cross and 2P Games, your fate lies in the cards in Sultan’s Game. Set in a similar world to 1001 Arabian Nights, you play as a noble in the court of a cruel Sultan. A mysterious magician introduces the Sultan to a card game called the Sultan’s Game, and after indulging himself, he forces you to play for his amusement. Four types of “Sultan Cards” must be completed via specific tasks, such as killing someone for the Bloodshed card or sleeping with someone for the Carnality card. You draw a Sultan Card and have 7 days to create an event that will fulfill the card’s requirements. If you draw Carnality, for instance, you could visit the local brothel and sleep with a prostitute to satisfy the requirement. While you are within a time limit, there is plenty of room for experimentation, and it may make more sense to let a few days elapse and get more options instead of rushing into the easiest option. Along with your character, you have others in your group who can aid you in the quest. The main gameplay is a resource management/worker placement style where you have various locations and events where you can place characters and resources, and then resolve the event to gain more resources, open up new events, or gain helpful traits.
While you start with just a few locales where you can perform actions, you can begin to open things up and find tons of options available. Still, you must keep up specific, persistent locations, like your estate to earn money or visiting the palace to keep on the good side of the Sultan. If you neglect the palace too long, the other nobles can poison the Sultan against you, and the game will end. It’s also game over if you fail to complete the given Sultan Card’s requirements before the week ends. If you get stuck, you can ask a friendly skeleton named MeeThinks, who can give you ideas for using the card and potentially offer new event locations. All of the events are resolved via dice rolls, and depending on what character and additional resources and equipment they have, you have different probabilities of rolling successfully. You need to get a certain number of successful dice rolled, with the more challenging events requiring more dice to be in the successful state to proceed. Certain characters can reroll and you also get several “Golden Dice” that can be used to add success rolls. The game has a great look with a stylized Arabian Nights style and lots of gold and red to add to the feeling of extravagance and excess. The writing is also excellent, but some parts of the game are untranslated. This should be fixed when the game launches into 1.0 on March 31st. If you enjoy digital board/card games, Sultan’s Game offers an interesting setting and many ways to explore and experiment. You can check it out on Steam.
War Rats: The Rat’em Up – Demo (Chris): In a modern world that feels like an increasingly challenging rat race, one game dev has a vision of a world where rats are the only remaining species alive and are going to war. Wootusart Industries’ War Rats: The Rat ‘Em Up is a gloriously chaotic throwback to the kind of addictive, no-frills action titles that were typically found on Newgrounds. The gameplay is deceptively simple—blast waves of monstrous rats with limited firepower. You’ll have enough initial supplies to last a few waves, but the challenge ramps up fast, forcing you to carefully manage ammo, health, and positioning to survive the whole level. Every wave feels like a desperate last stand, where one wrong move can spiral into a chaotic mess by mutant rodents. It’s tough but fair, with that “just one more try” hook that keeps you returning for more.
The show’s real star, though, is the game’s grotesquely charming art style. Each new rat enemy is a twisted masterpiece designed by creator Wootusart, famous for his surreal visuals of animals. His imagination is rampant with creature designs ranging from bloated abominations to cybernetic rat-mech hybrids, all dripping with personality and dark humor. The pixel-art animations are packed with exaggerated, over-the-top details, making every battle feel fresh and absurd.
In the demo, we glimpse the basic game mechanics: you must survive each enemy wave, collecting enough resources to construct simple turrets and health/ammo depots. With enough credits, you can summon specialized units to aid you in the fight, which can quickly push the enemy back to their headquarters if you plan it right. If you are clever with your credits, you can bank a good amount of credits to unlock some permanent buffs that will carry over your runs in case your rat leader doesn’t make it out alive.
War Rats is upfront about its presentation and goal to be simple and thrilling. You can charge head-on as a one-rat warrior if you want to end fights quickly, or you can push the pressure against the enemy with careful defense and steady support of allied forces, slowly covering the ground with the guts of the furry fallen. If the full game keeps this momentum, action fans are in for a fun return of a tower defense game that isn’t afraid to gross out its audience. You can get the War Rats demo now on Steam; the Early Access release will be coming this April 22nd.
Path of Fury: Episode 1- Tetsuo’s Tower (Zach): Developed by Leonard Menchiari, Path of Fury: Episode 1- Tetsuo’s Tower is available on the Meta Quest. Set in the 80s, you play as a martial artist looking to take down Tetsuo, the drug-dealing crime kingpin who runs a section of the city from his tower. You need to fight through hordes of his thugs and corrupt cops to make it to the top of the tower. You play in first person, with your controllers acting as your fists. The game has arcade-style gameplay where specific points will appear on the enemies, where you need to strike them. You block attacks by holding your hand up and stopping the enemy attack. There’s a good sense of impact as you hit the enemies, and they buckle over. When you defeat them, many fall back through doors or onto tables to add to the effect. It seems like specific targets require hooks or jabs, but it didn’t seem to register much of a difference compared to other VR beat em up games.
The game is going for a low-poly, gritty feel that works in certain places, but one of the main criticisms I have is that the game is way too dark at times. Sometimes, you’ll be fighting an enemy, and you can barely see their body because of how dark your location is. It makes it hard to attack and especially to block attacks. A few boss fights had this issue, and it’s a bit frustrating to get to the boss, die, and have to restart the stage. The game isn’t a roguelike, so if you replay the stage, you’ll face the same enemies in the same locations. If you’re looking for a fitness game, you’ll probably get a sweat going with how much punching you’ll be doing. I like the aesthetic and vibe the game is going for, but the gameplay and visuals are a bit rough. there are better VR beat ’em ups I would recommend first, like Path of the Warrior, but there’s still some decent fighting action here. You can get it now on the Meta Quest store for Quest 2, Pro, and 3.
Rising Lords (Chris): If you love a good immersive tabletop strategy game but missed out on Argonwood’s Rising Lords, now is an excellent opportunity to check it out before the game’s upcoming expansion. Published by Deck13 and WishperGames, Rising Lords is a medieval turn-based strategy game with rustic hand-drawn visuals and tabletop-like gameplay. Players take up the role of a lord of their small kingdom, responsible for the protection and well-being of all its citizens. You’ll be managing resources to improve the lives of your people and ensure the kingdom’s survival. However, rival kingdoms and greedy bandits will be testing your rule, looking to expose your weakness and crumble the opposition. You’ll have to raise an army, protect your citizens, and perhaps send a clear warning to your enemies not to underestimate you if you want to rise above the rest.
Rising Lords allows players to be noble leaders, brutal conquerors, and decent micro managers. You’ll assign tasks to your people to harvest resources, build materials, and enlist soldiers to serve your kingdom. The gameplay has two main loops: turn-based town management and turn-based tactical battles. Town management is critical to building up the kingdom’s economy and expanding your ability to create larger armies. Picking the ideal resources to harvest and stocking up on supplies can help to last the harsh winter season and, more dramatically, the invading forces.
When facing an enemy army, the player has to command squadrons of specialized soldier units, each suited for different usages and attack ranges. Archers can attack long-range and are ideal for placing in the back lines or structures. Pikemen are good for defense and breaking down structures. Knights are good for facing enemies head-on. Peasants are good for distractions; they hope to survive as long as possible. However, the arrangement of the squadron alone cannot affect victory or defeat. Tactics and warfare abilities are represented by skill cards that the player can equip to give boosts and abilities in the battle. Earned experience points will be used to purchase different cards to let players set up traps that make it challenging to move around, enforce barriers, or increase morality to make soldiers fight harder. You are limited to holding only a few skill cards, so picking the proper cards is crucial before engaging in a battle.
Rising Lords features a great single-player experience that presents itself as a fantasy novel. You play as a son of a recently defeated lord and must now make the tough decisions that will affect how others will perceive your kingdom. You can align with fellow struggling leaders for a united front, lean on more brutal tactics to quickly rise through the ranks but have more envies eyes set on your kingdom, or be somewhat in the middle, bidding your time for the perfect opportunity.
There is also a scenario and quick battles that allow players to jump right into the game. In these modes, the player can customize a few of their character rule perks and appearance. Then, it’s off to testing how well you can overcome issues with your tactics and might. And for an added challenge, the multiplayer mode allows up to four players to set up their kingdoms and duke it out.
Rising Lords is a fun and casual strategy title that offers deep and rewarding gameplay for players who love a management brain tease. The game leans heavily on the town management systems to challenge players’ ability to prepare for battles and unforgiving winter weather. There are pitfalls in balancing what materials to harvest, how many soldiers to create, and nuances that must be overcome by playing the game and making mistakes. The battles are straightforward and influenced by how well you manage your town. If your army mainly comprises peasants, your lordship will not last long, and you will know it.
If you missed playing this in 2024, now’s an excellent opportunity to master the core mechanics and prepare for the upcoming DLC, The Pilgrim War. This expansion introduces an entirely new kingdom to explore and new units and skill cards to enhance your battles. This expansion adds the Kingdoms of Atra, who lean into more scientific weaponry and tactics for their warfare. The Pilgrim War requires the base game and will be available on PC, Nintendo Switch, and Xbox One/X|S later in 2025.
Metal Suits: Counter-attack (Zach): Developed by Eggtart Inc., Metal Suits: Counter-attack is a retro-style 2d shooter that is out now on console and PC. You play as Kevin, a war hero forced back into action when aliens blow up his space station home and his robotic dog, Andy. Kevin is turned into a cyborg and goes on a revenge mission to defeat the alien invasion. Along the way on his mission, Kevin can power up to various Metal Suits, which significantly increase his firepower and allow him to take multiple hits. If Kevin is in his standard form, he has one hit before he’s killed and his weapons are decent but nowhere near the level of the Metal Suits. The Metal Suits range from a flamethrower suit or a bomb launching cannon suit to more out there suits, like a metal rocker suit that gives you an electricity shooting guitar. Each Metal Suit also has a unique ability that you get a limited amount of, but it is usually some sort of screen-clearing attack. There are 10 different Metal Suits that you can find and use.
Metal Suits reminds me a lot of one of my all-time favs, Broforce, and that game had to be an inspiration for Eggtart. The perspective is similar, and there are similar gameplay mechanics, such as being able to climb walls and destructible environments. Metal Suits isn’t quite as chaotic as Broforce, which got to the point where you could blow up the entire stage, but there’s still lots of opportunity to use exploding barrels and break through walls to find collectibles and power-ups. While the Metal Suits are cool, they also aren’t as cool as playing as an army of 80s/90s action movie characters. The writing in Metal Suits is also odd in that it feels a bit too self-serious when a lot of the surrounding game is goofy and over the top. Those are minor nitpicks, though, for an awesome side-scrolling action platformer with tons of explosive action, and the Metal Suits offers a lot of variety to the gameplay. Metal Suits: Counter-attack is out on PS4/5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
UVS Games – Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria (Chris): Your favorite group of chaotic adventurers is back in UVS Games with Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria. This new card set features character and weaponry inspired by Mighty Nein and Vox Machina series. I got my hands on the two pre-constructed Starter Decks featuring Percy de Rolo and Beauregard Lionett. Percy’s deck perfectly embodies his calculated, gun-slinging genius, with mechanics that reflect his trick shots and cunning strategies. Meanwhile, Beau’s deck is all about fluid, combo-heavy strikes, mimicking her Monk agility and relentless pressure.
Both decks feature 61 cards, with one shiny hero character card and a mix of abilities for players to pick up and begin a session with any other UVS Games decks. But if you are looking to boost your decks, Heroes of Exandria Booster packs are available to suit your play style. Each booster pack contains 11 cards, with one character card and various Action, Foundation, Asset, and Ultra cards.
As with all of the UVS Games decks, the cards are designed to be perfect homages to the source materials. The cards give great attention to detail, with gorgeous card art and showing the personalities of these characters in their card types. Don’t be surprised if you feel like wearing a plague doctor mask while trying out the Percy deck. It might help give you the dark edge you need.
You can mix and match cards to suit other UVS decks, bringing the power of Critical Role to Star Trek: Lower Levels, My Hero Academia, and many more. Why not give Tekken’s Jin Kazama the ability of Beau’s Martial Prowess or Pike’s Everlight’s grace? Your UVS opponent will undoubtedly have a few tricks up their sleeves, so be prepared for your own surprises too. Critical Role: Heroes of Exandria was released on March 7th and can be purchased at your local game stores.
