Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle
Game
Game2020
Deck of Ashes
Developer AYGames
Deck of Ashes is an adventure game with tactical card combat. One character at a time, lead the cast of antiheroes on a quest for redemption. Explore the cursed fantasy world and hunt down powerful cards. Forge a unique Battle Deck, and crush your foes! Can you rid the world of the Ash Curse? From the Steam store page
187 reactions from 1 source (Steam reviews) · newest Sep 28, 2026 · last updated Oct 8, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
50
Mixed
94 positive · 93 negative
95% range 43–57%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 94 | 93 | 0 |
Steam's own rating
Mostly Positive
766 of 1,070 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What people are saying
Summary pending — the reactions are listed below.
Reactions
60 of 187 · most liked firstYou've dumped more than enough hours in Slay the Spire and Monster Train and are looking for the next fun deck builder to play? Sorry to disappoint you, but this is not it. Now, you might have thoughts like "doesn't hurt to give it a try, because who knows, maybe I'll like it..." but no, this game is not worth trying. It lacks in basically all areas except artwork and feels very unfinished. - Card balance is a disaster - Bad UI - Many of the mechanics are a total miss - Inconsistencies in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It feels and plays like a really cheap indie game. Not the ones you want to play. The game is stuttering when loading a new hand etc. even through my pc is more than able to play other games perfectly fine. The UI and menus look ugly and the game mechanics are just not fun for a deckbuilding game. Everything looks like they needed to get the game out of EA asap. If you played every card one time, you need to spend HP to get A FEW cards back into your deck.. i wonder how high someone must…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I play every single deckbuilder/roguelike on steam, and nothing else. Deck of Ashes is in the D tier. Some interesting ideas, however it does not make for a compelling gameplay loop. Resource hunting feels like pure grind, card variety is non-existent, and it does not do nearly enough with its ash mechanic. Most deckbuilders draw you with rare powerful upgrades or powerful cards that you can build around, satisfying the slot machine induced dopamine rush whenever you get it. Deck of Ash has…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you have a controller connected you cannot play the game with mouse and keyboard... 4 year old issue that they said they would fix... Both Ash and resource mechanics are a chore/punish several playstyles, basically forcing you to only pick&play high mana/dmg per card. There are 10's of better deckbuilders out there, even at this price (-77%)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →If you're looking to kill a couple hours with a deckbuilder type game, there are certainly worse games you could pick up, although there are also far far better ones. The primary way this game tries to differentiate itself from its competitors is by tone (more of a dark fantasy) and the "ash/burn" mechanic: when you play a card, it is "burned" and removed from your deck for the remainder of the battle, and will not return to your deck unless you pay a resource (ash) to "revive" it. This in…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →While generally well made, between the extreme length, which gets super tedious past the first act as there is little meaning left in the run, the ease of putting together an unstoppable deck that tends to be quite obvious, and than regardless of what efforts you have put into the run the final boss just deletes everything and makes you fight her with a crazy card she gives you rendering all your efforts moot, I just did not really enjoy it nor have an interest in further playthroughs,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Originally kept up with the game thanks to weekly/event content, which upon completion would unlock in-game skins. Cut to a few months later, all skins (previously unlocked or not) are all locked behind dlc.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm glad I only spent $4.50AUD on this game. It's meh at best, perhaps if it had more polish it might be better, but a lot of the UI feels really rough. There are 3 bosses then a final boss and the strategies to beat it (and even get to it) feel super grindy. But after completing 1 run in 13 hours I'm not really interested to go back and do it again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Having played Deck of Ashes through too it's epilogue, I can say it is, in many ways, a competent deckbuilding rouguelike, but in too many ways it falls flat, that I cannot at all recommend it. In a general list: 1. Same-y enemies 2. Lacking material by the midpoint of a run 3. Unlocking new cards leaves you unexcited and confused 4. The Final Boss at the end of a run SUUUCKS 5. The female characters are hypersexualized for male titilation 6. Why is it so white? 1-On initial impression there…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →* Reviewed by KudzuControl on turnbasedlovers.com * Deck of Ashes is a deckbuilding rogue-like released on June 9, 2020 on Steam, after spending just over a year in Early Access. The first game from Russian studio AYGames, Deck of Ashes takes place in a world recently ravaged by the Ash Curse, mutating most life into aberrations and destroying the established civilization, all unleashed upon the land by four outcasts attempting to gain ultimate power from Lady Death herself. You play as one of…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Boring, grindy, buggy, unbalanced. Spent a few hours and I just can't make myself to play it again.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Deck of Ashes has a lot of potential, but since it hasn't been updated since November 2020 I have to assume it never will be again and give my thoughts as this is the absolute final version. PROS: + Interesting Characters + Interesting World/Lore + Interesting Mechanic with the Deck of Ashes CONS: - Bug where if you play the tutorial you have to reboot the game otherwise upgrades stay locked on your run - Inability to use mouse while a controller is plugged in - Bad controller controls -…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Loved Slay the Spire. This is a terrible clone. Card synergies are literally sleep inducing. Story is insta-skip after 5 minutes. Level tiers are indistinguishable. Boss mechanics = uninspired. Art is the best part and it's mediocre. Skip this IMO, even on sale.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game could probably be fun with a medium sized overhaul, but as-is, coming from Slay the Spire, it's pretty frustrating. The main gimmick is that cards exhaust when played and you need to sacrifice health to un-exhaust them, which isn't terribly by itself, but the game is SLOW. Story pop ups are infuriating, and drag the game almost to a halt. When your character is low on health, she says "I can't do this" and you can't play a card for a second or two, whereas Slay the Spire lets you…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Neutral recommendation Decent deck building game. Large amount of cards, to build the deck, Much purchasable addon of skins, card and environmental packages with ingame scores. Game does get easier once getting to know the cards, how to keep a small deck of well picked cards in maintaining health, respawn cards, packed with shield and stealth, with decent damage. Pain of the game is the requiring to keep repeating the same game, just with different toons. Calculative of Rest Points,…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Main mechanic of Deck of Ashes is that when cards are played, they are discarded into your "deck of ashes". These played cards do not automatically get reshuffled into your deck to be redrawn again on future turns (like most deck builders), but rather you need to "revive" these played cards somehow, which almost always involves taking damage. When the main gameplay hook compared to similar deck builders is a restrictive core mechanic, then the game overall suffers because the entire game feels…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game is a buggy mess. Buttons stop working, post combat crashes, counters missing, contextual info panes staying stuck on screen, etc. All stuff that's been in the bug report thread since 2020. The gameplay itself is ok, if a bit contrived (randomly reviving some of your card using HP instead of simply reshuffling and inflicting a tax every time the deck is empty, etc.). The english voice-over is awkward in most places, somehow the game doesn't have vsync so there's tearing, etc. The design…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I wish there was a "meh" button. Is this a terrible game? No. Would I rather play something else? Yes. I think I see why so many reviews say, "This could be a great game!". The art is unique, the maps and dungeons are a great concept but they are bland. There are some really cool concepts such as "Inflammation" and the really cool character with the cat that grows as the fight goes on. The story is cool enough and the characters have some... well, maybe "a little", depth. The Jester…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →update, tried again and the interface and controls for controller feels off. theres better games for this high price tag. feels pretty cumbersome and doesnt flow on steamdeck. you push left on the cards and it feels off. the cards and battles feel blah. i'll give more chances and will update this if my opinion changes
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TL;DR Skip. Other games have come out in the genre since this entered Early Access years ago that are far better. Deck of Ashes offers nothing interesting besides a *very* poorly designed mechanic that prevents the game from being the at-best-decent game it would be otherwise. ----- Deck of Ashes is the classic example of a developer looking at Slay the Spire, thinking they can add a gimmick to it, and it be a good game. It's not. It's quite bad. The core of the game's identity is the "Ash…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Writing: Strong and minimalist Difficulty: Challenging and adjustable Gameplay: Ultimately dull and unrewarding. The cardset is just not sufficiently expansive or balanced.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bough it for like $4, its an extremely buggy mess. With supremely questionable design decisions. I cant recommend this even for 4$. There is some variety between characters, but ultimately its just not fun. Play some of the other better card battlers.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm enjoying the heck out of this game - although I get that it's not for everyone. I agree with many of the comments in the negative reviews... it's a lot longer and more complex than similar deck-builder rogue-likes. But I guess I don't see that as a big negative like some do - to each their own I guess. I have to admit... one criticism I've read I'm not yet sure about: the replay-ability complaints... currently i'm at 34 hours played and have only won with 2 of the 4 characters - seems like…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As someone who loves Slay the Spire, I really wanted to like this game, but it's just much worse in comparison. Too shallow, not enough cards, too repetitive, and too long for a roguelike. It's not terrible, but there are better games out there in this genre
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →6/10 Odd game design decisions drag down the fantastic art, but it's still decent overall. It's like a smaller, lighter version of Gordian Quest. Though I probably won't play it more than 10 hours or so because the design choices make combat feel awkward. Pros: - Characters are quite likeable. Just blows my mind that this inexpensive indie game can have far more interesting characters vs $70-100 Outer Worlds 2 that I recently tried. Shame on you, Obsidian/Microsoft - Voice acting, music,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Was really excited to try this game out but couldn't even make it out of the tutorial due to bugs in the game. 1st bug I encountered was seeing the characters on screen with two sprites overlapping each other and was unable to take my turn, and the 2nd bug that made me stop playing was getting to the first boss in the tutorial. The game wanted to utilize the new cards you acquired just before the boss fight and forces you to use them first. Well that wouldn't be an issue if the game would let…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not a bad game but it lacks meaningful decisions. Either you grow immensely powerful or you get bad RNG and enter a node to get stunlocked to death. Basically because of the ash deck (played cards have to be replenished by paying health) step one is to get cards that outheal this mechanic and once you've done that you almost always outheal the damage the enemies do as well, setting you up for the rest of the game. (Of course you grab some damage, utility and defense cards as well.) Next up…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Unfortunately, I cannot recommend Deck of Ashes as a rougelike deckbuilder, which is what I was looking for in it. My gaming tastes: Over a thousand hours in Slay the Spire, played a fair amount of dice legacy, defend the rook, poker quest, dicey dungeons, vampire survivors, etc. Pros: - Atmosphere (artwork, story, voices, etc) - Mechanics: I find the burning and reclaiming cards to be a very neat idea, juggling health to do so, etc. Cons: - Balance - Very repetitive For me the cons are…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Graphics, and story is well put together but the gameplay is a bit convoluted, and there have been a few bugs where the game gets stuck waiting for their turn. It's a card game where you don't want to play your cards cause you'll have to buy them back. The character designs could be cool like the guy who transforms but it ends up being useless and something you don't even pay attention to. What finally made me uninstall this game and give it a thumbs down was when i easily defeated a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →This game has the potential to be good, but it falls short. If you see it on sale and you enjoy deck builders it wouldn't be a waste of money, but there are better games out there. Pros: Unique story and world building, unique play style, a good number of card variations, items etc Cons: the game still has a number of bugs (cursor will occasionally disappear or you won't be able to travel south for some odd reason) the bugs can be figured out, but it disrupts play, the pacing is off - because…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →TLDR: The game has potential, yet pretty distant and developers have already abandoned this project. Few interesting concepts here and there, not bad storyline. Sadly, becomes VERY repetitive VERY early and has almost no replayability. Overall not worth its price, decent entertainment for maybe 5 hours tops. Okay, let's start with upsides. The titular Deck of Ashes is really interesting and frresh mechanic. Basically when you play your cards they become burned and if you want to use them…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After completing the game in around 20 hours I can say I agree with most reviews. The concept of the game is good, the story is okay, but it gets pretty boring/grindy/slow after a while. I bought the game to have an offline game on my laptop to play on my holiday. It did the job, I was able to play offline and then got the achievements when I got home and connected to the internet. So for that it gets extra credit, ill give it a 6/10 but because offline is working good i'll make it 6,5/10.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not worth the $$. It's unpolished, gets boring fast and it's just a rinse and repeat sandbox without anything interesting happening.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I want to say that I like the art work and that there are interesting character stories in this game and I enjoy that. However I am not a fan of the game play. Having to constantly regain cards from the ash deck isn't fun and the cards don't seem to do very much and every combat is slow. I think what kills it for me is that sometimes I will click on a card and the game acts like I've not clicked on it at all. If you buy it set a timer for 50 minutes and if you aren't stoked stop playing and get…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It just doesn't flow, having to constantly rebuy your super weak cards with life just isn't fun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Doesn't work with controller. (I wish I had read the discussions beforehand. I tried it with two different controllers, and it'll just get stuck on a random 'confirm' choice. I can't even finish the tutorial, and I've tried twice. Too bad. Looks cool.)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Game sometimes crashes mid game, infinite loading (especially on 2nd chapter)
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So close to good, but not. the good + paying life to cycle your deck is a really cool idea and plays well, managing your deck size and card cost matters. + card recipes are a great idea, fits in with the theme. + the burn cards mechanic is a super cool idea, just underused and oddly used with the "ASH" mechanic and a single restore card. So much unexplored design space there. + the camp idea is super cool, but just not varied or impactful. Seen it once, seen the whole thing. the bad - Combat…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Many of the numbers chosen for the cards and abilities in this game feel arbitrary and weak, and trying to play optimally led away from using the ash card interactions, because constantly being forced to shuffle a bunch of cards that don't do anything on their own back into your deck feels really bad. A lot of the boons or debuffs you get from random events expire before they ever have a chance to matter. The permanent buffs happen so infrequently and for such small numbers that I am not even…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It plays nothing like what the trailers / pictures seem to look like. It's clunky and unintuitive. Not only does it lack the "just one more game" factor that games like this need to succeed, it never even draws me in to begin with. Stay away please.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Hmm... This game feels like a work in progress, but it doesn't look like further work is being done. The gameplay is clunky, and the UI is even clunkier. I could not in good conscience recommend it.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm sure this game has potential but the UX is awful. HUD Feels very clunky and makes the experience very unsatisfying. Those details may not be important for some, but for me they are.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →NOTE: I have only played through one of the campaigns! This review will be based on that. Let's start with what's great: the story / worldbuilding and the art is unique... However that's about it... card design in the campaign felt shallow enemies felt poorly designed (mechanically). When one campaign run takes 6+ hours and i've seen all the cards by 3 hours and built a solid deck... it's boring. So boring I didn't care if the other campaigns had cool cards because I knew they wouldn't have…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The game literally does not work, my mouse cursor won't show up on screen. Unplayable.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Fun. If you like Slay the Spire and other card games, you'll probably like this.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Yeah, I digged it.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Bug => Save Erased ! Tried to use the Backup File but it was the copy of the new fresh file not the older one. Why don't have 2 backup then ???
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Red Head is really hot!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →So this game... I had it for awhile and when first played it wasn't a fan. I got it because of Slay the Spire is one of my favorite card RNG games yet. Thought this would live up to the task but it falls short quickly. The cards themselves don't really speak to me as they work together, more like they work on their own. So there isn't much hope for combos unless you have bleed. You also need to get lucky if you want to have a good time. Getting the right cards is one thing, but also getting…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Sadly I had to request a refund. The sound or music bar would not go down. The voice acting was way too loud with out an option to lower it. I could not get through the tutorial with out pop ups all over screen that would not go away. Bummer.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I dont think it gave me as much pure enjoyment as Slay the Spire or Monster Train. Its more of a wonky game that has lots of odd interactions based on the way it handles the discard pile. Interesting to explore, but not something Im planning on pouring as many hours into since it doesnt inspire as much of a "one more run". Enemies are not as varied. Although some of the bosses have some cool wrinkles. The events are definitely not as varied. Overall worth a try if you are really into the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The short of it: Play Slay the Spire instead. The long version: Many bugs (even concerning basic mechanics, such as Buck's card cost reduction effects), strange design decisions (such as not showing players how the player characters work, you have to play to find out, and that reduce strenght is only useful if the enemy has increased its strenght), balancing issues (some cards are so underpowered I wonder how they even exist in the game, such as the Infection card), and the Ash storm is just…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a fan of card battlers but I found Deck of Ashes to be boring right from the start. It is obviously a small budget game, it is very rough around the edges. But that would be fine, I almost never buy AAA titles. But nothing about this game stands out. It tries to do different things, but different doesn't mean better in this case. The enemies you face are boring. The cards are uninteresting. Some gameplay elements are poorly explained, leading to frustration. For example, when I use a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The English and grammar in this game is so bad it breaks the immersion. Also, this is just the darkest dungeon version of slay the spire. Not bad, but not great. 4/10
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Very interesting and unique draw mechanic and I really wanted to like it, but the poor difficulty balance, slow game play, and frustrating progression system made it impossible.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Its just not for me. Its tedious. You have few cards and have to pay 15/100 HP to reshuffle every time. After every turn, the game asks you, if you want to keep the cards in your hand. All this eats time and Its just so slow. Also the game is hard in the wrong way. Even on a normal run, i ran into enemies I couldn`t beat from the start, because I had no real way to upgrade my deck at that point, had now way to block the enemy attacks and mathematicly had to shuffle my deck at least 2 times to…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →controllers broken
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Not Recommended
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Gameplay is OK but combat is too frequent while also being too sluggish even on "fast mode". I refuse to continue to play a game that is so disrespectful to my limited free time.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Pretty bad, unballanced, unpolished. Like e.g. the game's main gimmick, the ash cards, are unsuable as the final boss is a hard counter for builds that relay on them. All being said though, if you like engine builders, it's playable.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
Posts are quoted from public profiles with links to the original. Want yours removed? Contact us.
You Might Also Like
similar titlesFINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH
FINAL FANTASY VII REBIRTH
Game
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined
DRAGON QUEST VII Reimagined
Game
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection
Game
Little Kitty, Big City
Little Kitty, Big City
Game
What Remains of Edith Finch
What Remains of Edith Finch
Game