Hunter’s Moon: A Sovereign Syndicate Adventure Review

Hunter's Moon: A Sovereign Syndicate Adventure is a “Victorian Steampunk Fantasy Roguelite Deckbuilder” developed by Crimson Herring Studios and published by Zugalu Entertainment. I got the chance to play the full version before its 24th of November release, and as someone who plays way too many roguelikes, I was eager to give this a try!

The setting is a world infested with a plague that is creating monsters, turning people into twisted amalgamations, and endangering innocent people. You play as a group of agents named the Syndicate as they travel around this corrupted version of Victorian-era Britain on their Starling airship to find a cure, all while hunting down these dangerous creatures (or former humans), investigating troubles, and giving their aid when they can.

Stylistically, Hunter’s Moon really reminds me of Darkest Dungeon, with its use of heavy shadows in its art and the desperate battles to hold onto sanity while facing down the incomprehensible. It’s not quite as brutal as my overconfidence didn’t automatically kill me, but inspiration is obviously there.

As for how the story is told, there are a few cutscenes here and there, but most of your journey will be through a smoothly-voiced narrator, and the voice acting is really well-done. Though cutscenes are rare and there aren’t too many unique scenes, I appreciated the narration of each event, painting vivid pictures of horrible things with only words. That being said, the characters themselves rarely get any time to shine, which feels like a missed opportunity. Also, I noticed that a few lines were different from what was actually written, but that’s just a nitpick.

Onto the gameplay. There are four agents you can play as, who have their own cards to modify their deck with, a special ability you can activate at any time, and most have a companion who will act on their own. They play very differently from one another, but they’re all fun to use once you get a handle on their mechanics. When you’ve chosen who will brave these physically and mentally taxing missions, you’re off.

In order to win a run, you’ll need to complete three missions and face the final boss at the end. Along the way, you’ll be gathering money, resources, relics, and new cards in order to get strong enough to beat it.  However, instead of the usual branching paths I’ve seen in many, many roguelikes, you'll be selecting which travel card to use out of several decks to make your own path to the end or achieve a specific goal.

It allows you more control over what encounters you’ll get, but still need to make hard choices. You can even peek at the next card under it to help with your decision-making. Will you fight an Elite so you can use the Mansion that's after it, or would you rather do events and risk choosing a run-ending option? It's a refreshing take on the mechanic that made decision-making a little more interesting.

But enough about that, let’s take on some horrors beyond comprehension. A fight in Hunter’s Moon should be a familiar affair to anyone who has played any deckbuilder inspired by Slay the Spire. You play cards to attack your enemies and defend against the actions they’ll take when it's their turn. Kill everyone, and you win the battle and get rewarded. I was thrown off by the fact that what damage/effects a character will receive will appear above the receiver's head rather than the one dealing it. This is used to indicate who they’re attacking since you’ll always have one or more allies; it is a little unintuitive at a glance, but after a little bit of time, you get used to it.

Throughout your battles against the horrors, you need to watch your Vigor and Sanity. Should either of these stats reach zero, the run ends. I found it interesting that while you can easily heal the body, the mind is much more fragile. I once had a build that practically made me invincible, but I had to consider what choices I made because I was running low on Sanity, and one wrong look at an Eldritch horror would bring a premature end to my attempt. It was pretty cool at that moment but there are some fights that might leave you struggling if you can’t adapt.

Eventually, you'll need to return to the airship either victorious over your foes, barely escaping death, or a complete mental breakdown. No matter if you win or lose, you’ll always return with the resources you’ve collected to improve your chances in the next run by making your agents or the Starling better. 

Upgrading your agent acts more like classical level-ups than the other games handle it, where every enemy killed will give you points towards an EXP bar. Once it's filled, you get a skill point to spend on unlocking a passive buff for one of the agents that’ll make their particular playstyle a lot more effective.

Repairing the airship will grant useful, generic bonuses for all agents, like healing more Vigor when returning from a mission, removing cards from your deck for free, unlocking new agents, or getting a steady flow of salvage to get more ship upgrades.

Each upgrade felt substantial, to the point where only one or two levels in one can turn a lacklustre character into a powerhouse, and thankfully, skill points are shared amongst the crew. However, I did feel a little overpowered as I was basically beating runs left and right without too much trouble. Really, I started to dislike the fact that my runs ended so soon, though there is an endless area if you want to see how far you can go. I feel like I should note that in the later parts of the game, it can be rather grindy. Otherwise, if you’re finding it too easy or want to change things up, you’re free to refund your points whenever you want.

I had quite a bit of fun with the game, but how did it perform? Well, I did run into one or two moments where the game softlocks after some punk thieves run off with my money. I had to redo the fight by exiting to the main menu and loading back in. This might be patched already, but I just wanted to make note of it. Other than that, I didn’t suffer through anything like frame drops or bugs that would affect my attempts.

I really loved my time with Hunter’s Moon. It is a little easier than I’d like, but the gameplay and narrative really hooked me in and kept me there all throughout. If you’re looking for a new deckbuilder to love, I thoroughly recommend this.