FORCED SHOWDOWN is, as many have stated, a combination of League of Legends, Diablo and Hearthstone with some rogue-like elements thrown in the mix. It's also a continuation of Forced, which was a 2013 co-op action RPG with decent reviews (currently at 75% on steam).

You control one of the four champions and take part in a competition, whereyour goal is to successfully beat all of the battles, each consisting of eight arenas and ending with a boss battle. The principle is quite simple and there is no real story included. Instead, the focus lies on action and building your deck. The game also containts a certain type of humor that I found amusing, the first boss you encounter is a giant rat called Ratbo which spews out oneliners from Rambo. There are a lot of other references and they can be really funny at times.

The combat is based on twin-stick shooters, you have (usualy) two abilities and a basic attack which can also be charged up. There is a decent enemy variety however after about 4 hours, you'll start seeing the same enemies over and over again. I mean, it's not really that big a deal and you don't have to have hundreds of different enemies to make a game enjoyable, but as I've discovered with Binding of Isaac, it certainly helps. This is expecialy true for rogue-like games, where you'll be doing the same maps a lot.

Deck building works simmiliar to Hearthstone, you buy new cards with gold you get from runs and then make a deck of 30 cards, consisting of neutral and class cards. Each card has a mana cost and the whole mana mechanic is idential to Hearthstone. Something I really would have liked is the adition of minion cards, which would summon minions to help you in a battle. There are already a couple of arena modifiers and a couple of boss cards that work like that, I think it would fit really well into the game, at least if the AI of the summoned minions would be improved.

That is also one of the things that were bothering me quite a lot, you have a companion and their AI can sometimes make them do stupid things. They sometimes simply walk into traps and enemy fire or get stuck, resulting in their deaths. Not a problem most of the time, since you can't really rely on them to much anyway, however one of the arena modifiers deals 30 damage to you when your companion dies.

This brings us to the graphics, FORCED SHOWDOWN looks quite simmiliar to the original FORCED, however a lot of things were improved. I really liked the overall look and feel. Abilities pack quite a punch, making them very enjoyable to use. The sound quality is quite nice too (however the announcer can get annoying after a few hours).

Conclusion
Recently, more and more games have started to implement card mechanics, however most of them don't do a very good job. FORCED SHOWDOWN, however, implemented them really well. Deck building is certainly the most enjoyable thing and it helps to keep up the variety, because you will be doing the same things over and over and in that regard, the game can get really repetitive. I would certainly like to see more bosses, enemies and heroes, but that might just be me. It's still one of the better games I've played recently and I would recommend it to both card game fans and rogue-like fans alike.

EDIT: I've noticed there is a DLC coming out at the end of june which will increase the variety.

Incredibly engaging, endlessly variable, and only getting better. The developers truly love their craft, and everything in this game oozes a design philosophy focused on fun and fairness.

Play this game! You won't regret it.

Awesome game! I still *want* to play after ~50 hours. Fast, fun, intelligent and varied. This game is a must buy, imo.

I forgot how addictive and good this game is. Played it non-stop over a weekend on release then moved for a new job and forgot about it.

Saw the DLC sale today, insta bought and have been playing all night. Need to head to bed, but want to keep on playing. It's a feel good game, with challenge and pace as you progress.

Some you win, some you loase...but it's great fun along the way!

If you're thinking of buying it during a sale,I highly recommend; bargain.

I'm at a loss for what to say about this game. It combines Gauntlet with CCG and roguelike elements, mixes well, bakes for 15 minutes on 'awesome' and the end result is something that, honestly, is a real hidden gem of a game that I can see eating up a ton of my time playing over and over. Emblems add replay value to what would otherwise seem to be a pretty short game, ramping up the difficulty in a customizeable way so that things are just challenging enough to be fun without being overwhelming...unless you want it to be! Completing 'quests' by getting achievements gives permanent boosts to your characters to make things more manageable, though it's hard, if not impossible, to know what achievements complete what quests until you do one on accident (or look up a guide). Just needs a multiplayer mode and it'd be 10/10, but without it's 'only' 9/10. Still, worth picking up.

This game is great. It's a strange mix of Issac, League of Legends, Diablo and Hearthstone. It's a combination that has no right to be good but it is. Taking place in a game show setting (a setting that is oddly approiate), you are a contestant who is battling their way through a series of dungeons to reach a boss, playing cards from a deck you built before-hand that give you access to buffs and items that help you along the way.

The runs are fast and varied, attacks actually feel powerful, and you feel like you are making progress all the time. The difficulty is hard but fair as you eventually learn what the modifiers do and start to unlock more cards to add to your deck. I will say that the quests that you need to complete to unlock characters and extra stats sound way harder then they actually are. Because of the variety of playstyles offered by the characters, the only way you will hit a runt is by only playing one character and one deck. And honestly, there is a lot of content on offer that if you are looking for a lot of replayibilty for your buck this game fulfills that in spades.

There are some cavats I would add, however.

First, there have been a lot of people who have reported crashes. Nobody seems to give a reason why and it seems to be just luck if you're affected. I willing to bet though that they are running this game on a laptop or a "potato" and they may be running into a hardware issue. I did a spec check on this game on a whim, and was surprised at how demanding it was. It's not Witcher 3 demanding but if you've been thinking about upgrading your PC, this game is a good argument to do so. For me, I run a 3rd-gen Intel i5 motherboard and a GTX 660 and it runs smoothly.

The other cavat I would keep an eye out for is that this is a deck-building game. And because this game pretty much flew under the radar as far as coverage is concerned, almost no community exists and the wiki is definately missing some stuff (like how to unlock characters). And while I find figuring it out on my own rewarding, if you're the kind of person who goes looking for "builds" online, you're ♥♥♥♥ out of luck.

Other than that, I would reccomend this game in a heartbeat as soon as there is a sale. If you are on a limited budget and want a game with a lot of replay value, this is a good choice.

This game is great. Perfect for me because I love RPG games and also love card games like hearthstone, and this is a perfect mix. Great graphics and fun gameplay.

This game has its mix of roguelike/cards/bullet hell/twinstick down to a T. A huge variety of situations and difficulty to boot.

It's a fun game, don't be fooled by the bad reviews. It is a Diablo-style game, with a deck-building part.
It is fun to play even in short bursts. You get rewards, new items every time, even if you lose, so there is a feeling of permanent progress.
Also, the enemies (especially the Drones from the DLC) are looking quite fun and malicious. ;)
It is a game what Hand if Fate wanted to be, with a lot better combat.
Give it a chance!

Don't expect this to be like the original FORCED at all. This is simply a top-down shoot-em up arcade game, but probably the best one I have seen due to it's tactical deck building element. You can make an OP deck, but you still have to be good enough to dodge all the projectiles and enemies as you progress.