Clutchtime was provided by Bigosaur for review. Thank you!
I feel like I have seen just about everything when it comes to roguelikes. From different genres like RTS and 4X strategy to themes like Poker and building a mansion, the genre has seen a lot of action. Deckbuilder roguelikes, like Slay the Spire, have also had a lot of attention, and after all this time, it really feels like I wouldn't be surprised. Yet, I keep eating my words. Clutchtime: Basketball Deckbuilder is another title that took me by surprise, and I couldn't be happier.
Instead of fighting against monsters like most other deckbuilders, we are playing Basketball. Honestly, reading the description for the game set me back a bit, and I had trouble imagining how Basketball could be transformed into a deckbuilding roguelike. However, developer Bigosaur found a way to do it, and it's addictive.
The gameplay is very similar to other card-battling games. You have a deck of cards that you get and take turns with an opponent. You use the cards, which have different effects, to outsmart and overtake your opponent. In Clutchtime's case, we use cards to score points and stop our opponent from scoring as much as we can. Each card played makes time pass, and after the 4th quarter, whoever has the most points wins. It's identical to Basketball in this sense, so if you know the sport, the structure will be familiar.
What I found most perplexing is just how great it feels to play. Playing cards go by relatively fast, and the number of chains you can make with your deck and how the cards interact with each other is just awesome to see. Each turn gives us a specific amount of stamina, and each card needs to use stamina to be played. We have an assortment of shot cards, which can give us 2-3 points respectively, as well as cards depicting different actions from Basketball like passing, blocking, stealing, driving, and more.
All of these cards have different effects and can chain together. Passes can set up your next shot by letting you draw a card, and your next shot card doesn't need any stamina, or Rebound to gain stamina back and draw a new card, and there are even different types of shots like Dunking and Layups that have their own effects. There are also team cards that can affect your gameplay, like drawing a card each turn or adding extra stamina. The way the cards can all work and chain together can extend turns way past that 3 stamina starting point, and it's a joy to watch and see play out. And in true roguelike fashion, there will be times in between your matches to get new cards and upgrade existing cards to pad out your Deck.
In each match, you are either Home or Visitor, and if you are the Home team, you can bring up your Noise bar. As it gets higher, you will get extra effects like being able to draw an extra card each turn or getting extra stamina to use. The visitor will try to bring it back down to reduce those effects, so it's another way to get a leg up on your opponent. It's a nice little mechanic, but I wish Visitors had something of their own to compete with and possibly benefit them as well. Sometimes we are on the Visitor side, and I miss being able to bring up my Noise meter for those sweet extra draws.
Clutchtime has four different game modes, each with six difficulties. The game modes all generally have the same core gameplay, where you face off against an opponent, but the structure of who you face and when changes. It's like different structures of tournaments, changing how many teams are involved and how many times you play against each team. Once selected, you can choose between many different teams spanning across all the continents, and set up your Tournament, Season, or Playoffs as you desire. You can also create your own custom game where you can decide all the parameters and face off against 40 other teams.
While I love having options, there isn't much that differentiates the teams from each other. The decks they start with are very slightly different, but still revolve around the same cards. We do have an option to customize and create our own teams, which allows us to change the cards and names of our players. Still, it doesn't feel like there's much difference between the teams, and the names seem to only pop up when looking at the top players throughout the bracket in between matches. We can unlock new cards, and there is mod support, but I don't see much reason to choose one team over another.
Still, I had a lot of fun playing. And with new cards to unlock and achievements to get, I do see reason to keep coming back and play, especially if we are on the Steam Deck.
Clutchtime has absolutely no issue running on the Steam Deck and feels right at home. The text is readable, everything is navigable with a controller/gamepad, and the game can run at 90 FPS while sticking under 7W battery drain for up to 8 hours of battery life. There really isn't much more to say here, other than it's just perfect on the go.
In the settings, we can change gameplay elements like the animation and auto-play speed, slowdown at the end of the game, automatic confirmations when selecting a card, time played per card, and showing the Steam username. We can also change keybindings, volume bars, and language.
The game does support 16:10 resolutions and has cloud saves and controller support. There are no HDR settings.
Clutchtime: Basketball Simulator is another great deckbuilding roguelike that I was surprised works as well as it does. The core gameplay loop is addictive, and just shows how well Basketball could translate to a gameplay format like this. There's a solid amount of replayability as well, and I like having multiple game modes and difficulties, but all the teams to choose from felt similar to each other, and I saw little reason to create or customize my own. Still, it's a fun game to play once in a while for a run or two, and I would consider it a successful deckbuilder.
On top of that, it's flawless on the Steam Deck. It's a perfect game to play on the go, and I can't recommend it enough for portable play!
Our review is based on the PC version of this game.
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Clutchtime: Basketball Deckbuilder is a solid deckbuilder that somehow makes Basketball work as a deckbuilder, and it runs flawlessly on the Steam Deck.
