Tamarak Trail review

Our VerdictOne flipping good idea can’t save this repetitive roguelike deckbuilder from only rolling above average.

Our Verdict

One flipping good idea can’t save this repetitive roguelike deckbuilder from only rolling above average.

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Need to KnowWhat is it?A dice-based deckbuilder about murdering heavily-armed animals.Release dateFebruary 29, 2024Expect to pay$13.50/£12.80DeveloperYarrow GamesPublisherVersus Evil, tinyBuildReviewed onAsus ROG AllySteam DeckTBALinkOfficial site

Need to Know

What is it?A dice-based deckbuilder about murdering heavily-armed animals.Release dateFebruary 29, 2024Expect to pay$13.50/£12.80DeveloperYarrow GamesPublisherVersus Evil, tinyBuildReviewed onAsus ROG AllySteam DeckTBALinkOfficial site

Armed with a pair of deadly dice, you set out on the titular trail, which is one hostile nature walk. Almost every move you make results in a fight with a monstrous animal armed with a gun. Good thing that each face of your dice has a different power to help you fight this NRA wet dream.

Combat is turn-based, with your starter dice rolling either a basic attack, some defence, a nasty bleed effect that does persistent damage, and one that lets you evade an attack. That last power also ‘flips’ the die, letting you use whatever power was on the opposite side, too. Powers often drain from a pool of stamina, which also doubles as your last line of defence. A small amount of stamina regenerates each turn and that amount increases a little for every dice youdon’tuse, so there’s some tactics involved in knowing when to hold back. You can see what your opponent is going to do on their turn, so if they’re planning on shooting you, maybe not a bad idea to use a defence power.

Each successful combat is rewarded with a choice of three die faces, and you can customise your dice layout however you wish. Cover one in defence faces, for example, and you’ll have a consistent shield die that’ll stop you having to rely on blind luck. But it’s when you start unlocking more faces that can flip the dice that the game really starts showing its potential. I made a die that could inflict a nasty debuff then flip to the right, onto a face that does good damageandflips again so long as the enemy is debuffed (which the previous face had already taken care of, heh heh heh).

(Image credit: Yarrow Games)

A fight against a pigeon with a gun in Tamarak Trail.

Ah, but what if you have a dice power that flips the die one way, and the next power flips it back to thepreviousface? That triggers an Infinite Combo, a massively boosted attack based on the die face that was repeated. I loved discovering these. I had a die power that inflicted confusion, which lowers the enemy’s attack damage. I eventually had an Infinite Combo going that inflicted a stack of ten confusion, turning a ferocious pigeon armed with a rifle into an enemy about as threatening as an actual pigeon trying to use a rifle.

Imagine my glee when I finally managed to add a face on every side of the die that wouldalwaysflip to another face, raising the chances of rolling an Infinite Combo to 100%. The game does have safeguards to stop you spamming these—dice powers become exhausted and have to be recharged at heavy stamina cost—but once I’d also built a die that could inflict a massive damage Infinite Combo, I felt like I finally had a winning duo of six-sided death cubes that could see me through my first successful run.

Trailing behind

(Image credit: Yarrow Games)

A fight against ghost dogs in Tamarak Trail.

Then another three ghost hounds. And thenanotherthree. I started wondering if I was caught in a timeloop (no, I’d just gotten so bored that I was daydreaming about abetter deckbuilder).Usually the fun of these games is in trying to craft the perfect deck that can survive a variety of challenges thrown at you. There’s none of that when the game is making you repeat identical battles over and over. At least on a struggling run you get the chance to rethink your strategy and course correct. But when you’re doing well, the game becomes incredibly dull, especially if you’ve successfully modded all the randomness out of your dice rolls with flip powers. You’re not always going to get four of the same fight in a row, but battles repeat often enough to make me dread another go. That’s a pretty critical problem for a roguelike.

(Image credit: Yarrow Games)

The dice customisation screen in Tamarak Trail.

Tamarak also isn’t great at giving out information. ‘Ice Mirror: Attackers receive two ice’ boasts one power. Swell, but would you mind telling me what the ice debuff is before I commit to adding it to my build? When you’re offered a choice of three new powers after combat, you can’t review your current deck before you pick one, because life is cruel and unfair. It’s a shame, because there’s definitely potential here. A few UI patches and some new enemy types thrown in is an Infinite Combo that would boost its score tremendously. But the idea of this in its current form becoming a Steam Deck staple, up against recent classics like Cobalt Core and Balatro? No dice.

The Verdict65Read our review policyTamarak TrailOne flipping good idea can’t save this repetitive roguelike deckbuilder from only rolling above average.

The Verdict

65Read our review policyTamarak TrailOne flipping good idea can’t save this repetitive roguelike deckbuilder from only rolling above average.

65Read our review policy

Tamarak TrailOne flipping good idea can’t save this repetitive roguelike deckbuilder from only rolling above average.

Tamarak Trail

One flipping good idea can’t save this repetitive roguelike deckbuilder from only rolling above average.

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Our Verdict#

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Our Verdict

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