Draft of Darkness on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
Quick menu
Draft of Darkness is a survival horror RPG with deck building and roguelike dungeon exploration. Recruit allies, synergize their decks to create powerful card combos. Manage your limited resources and explore procedurally generated maps to determine the story's outcome.
Draft of Darkness is a roguelike deckbuilder, survival horror and dungeon crawler game
developed and published by Crawly Games.
Released on August 23rd 2023 is available on Windows and Linux
in 6 languages: English, Simplified Chinese, Turkish, Japanese, Spanish - Spain and Portuguese - Brazil.
It has received 309 reviews of which 290 were positive and 19 were negative resulting in a rating of 8.6 out of 10. 😎
The game is currently priced at 14.79€ on Steam, but you can find it for 3.99€ on Eneba.
The Steam community has classified Draft of Darkness into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
Get an in-depth look at Draft of Darkness through various videos and screenshots.
Load More
System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS: Windows 10
- Processor: Core i5
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Graphics Card with 2GB RAM
- Storage: 3 GB available space
Linux
- Processor: Core i5
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: Graphics Card with 2GB RAM
- Storage: 3 GB available space
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Draft of Darkness, developed and published by Crawly Games, is a strikingly unconventional hybrid that merges roguelike exploration, survival horror sensibilities, and deckbuilding strategy into a single cohesive system. At a glance, it resembles other card-based roguelikes, but it quickly distinguishes itself through its oppressive tone and the constant pressure of resource scarcity. Set in a decaying world shaped by technological collapse and grotesque mutations, the game creates an experience where every decision carries weight, and survival is never guaranteed. The structure revolves around guiding a small group of survivors through procedurally generated locations, each run presenting a new arrangement of threats, opportunities, and limited supplies. Movement is deliberate and grid-based, emphasizing careful navigation rather than speed. Encounters transition into turn-based battles where cards dictate actions, from offensive attacks to defensive maneuvers and status effects. While this framework will feel familiar to fans of the genre, Draft of Darkness adds a crucial twist: most actions are tied to tangible resources such as ammunition or fuel. This transforms combat into more than just a matter of drawing the right cards—it becomes a constant balancing act between immediate survival and long-term sustainability. This resource-driven approach defines the game’s pacing and tension. Every fight forces the player to consider whether it is worth spending valuable supplies to secure a quick victory or conserving them at the risk of taking damage or losing control of the encounter. These decisions extend beyond combat, influencing exploration and overall strategy. Supplies are limited, and opportunities to replenish them are never guaranteed, creating a persistent sense of vulnerability. Even a strong run can unravel if resources are mismanaged, giving the game a harsh but compelling edge that sets it apart from more forgiving deckbuilders. Character management adds another layer of depth. Each survivor has their own deck and abilities, and combining their strengths effectively is key to success. Recruiting additional characters expands tactical possibilities, allowing for more complex synergies and strategies. However, this also increases the challenge of managing resources across multiple decks, as each character draws from the same limited pool of supplies. The system encourages experimentation, but it also demands careful planning, rewarding players who can adapt their approach based on the circumstances of each run. The game’s atmosphere plays a significant role in shaping the overall experience. Visually, it adopts a gritty, almost distorted aesthetic that reinforces its bleak setting. Environments feel hostile and decayed, populated by unsettling enemies that reflect the world’s underlying corruption. The art style, while not traditionally polished, is effective in creating a sense of discomfort. This is further enhanced by a subdued audio design that leans heavily on ambient sounds and minimalistic music, maintaining a constant undercurrent of tension. Together, these elements create a mood that is consistently oppressive, making even quiet moments feel uneasy. Narrative elements are delivered in fragments, scattered across encounters and environmental details rather than presented through a structured storyline. Themes of societal collapse, technological overreach, and human desperation are woven into the experience, but rarely explained outright. This approach encourages players to interpret the world on their own terms, gradually piecing together its history through repeated playthroughs. While this ambiguity adds depth for those who enjoy uncovering hidden meaning, it may feel distant or underdeveloped to players who prefer clearer storytelling. The roguelike structure ensures that no two runs play out the same, but it also introduces a level of unpredictability that can be both exciting and frustrating. Randomized layouts, encounters, and card draws create a dynamic experience, but they can also lead to situations where failure feels unavoidable. The game does little to soften these moments, embracing its difficulty as a core part of its identity. Progression between runs provides some sense of advancement, but it does not eliminate the risk of sudden setbacks, reinforcing the idea that each attempt is a fresh challenge. Despite its demanding nature, Draft of Darkness remains engaging due to the depth of its systems and the satisfaction that comes from mastering them. Building effective decks, managing scarce resources, and adapting to unpredictable scenarios create a rewarding loop for players willing to invest the time. It is not a game that offers immediate gratification; instead, it rewards patience, experimentation, and a willingness to learn from failure. Ultimately, Draft of Darkness is a bold and distinctive entry in the roguelike genre, one that prioritizes tension and strategy over accessibility. Its combination of mechanics creates a unique experience that stands out, even if it occasionally leans too heavily into punishing design. For players who enjoy challenging, system-driven gameplay with a strong atmospheric presence, it offers a compelling and memorable journey. For others, its steep difficulty and deliberate pacing may prove difficult to embrace. Rating: 8/10
Expand the review
This game actually has a lot of depth to it when it comes to unlocks, builds, strategy, and content. I would highly recommend giving it a few hours to allow the mechanics to start sinking in, making better plays, and then feeling the satisfaction when the game rewards you for your improved decision making.
Expand the review
A diamond in the rough. The premise alone is enough to perk one's interest: survival horror mixed with a turn-based deck builder. The atmosphere is oppressive, filled with radioactive cities, moldering apartments, grungy sewers, and decaying hospitals. This is a world that's verging not in collapse (That's already happened), but with human extinction. Everything looks grimy and dirty, seen through a grainy, pixelated lens. The world maps do not have music; instead, it's composed of people coughing, shuffling around, and the occasional growl/snarl of a monster. Music doesn't start until the player bumps into an enemy reminiscent of games like Persona 3-5, and the music has a distinct Silent Hill influence: noisy and industrial. The enemies and bosses themselves would not look out of place in the earlier Silent Hill games. There's even a little flair of Resident Evil (zombies and mutants) and Half-life (military enemies whose radio cuts out when killed) enemies. The deckbuilding is classic choose one of three cards after battle. During a player's turn, they have points that they can use for cards that allow for defense, attack, healing, and buffing or debuffing. Some cards might use one of several resources found while scouring the world for supplies: chemical (ammo, special cards, and for healing), bullets (ammo, special cards, and sometimes for blocking), shotgun shells (ammo and special cards), crossbow arrows (ammo and special cards), and gas (ammo and special cards) Some of the characters play better than others, with Jake being possibly the least fun from my experience. Ammo corresponds to weapon types, and only for use with cards that share that weapon type. If you do not equip the proper weapon type, the card that corresponds to it won't work. Gear and upgrading/pruning decks is a huge part of the challenge. There's side quests, several characters, trophies (Think relics from Slay the Spire), and unique cards, items, perks, and areas to unlock. There's a decent amount of replay for the asking price of only 15 bucks. Sounds great, right? However, the game is a diamond in the rough. It's not a perfect experience. The way some quests are solved can be downright obtuse at times. Status effects were confusing at first: some only persist in combat, while others persist for a given foot count in the overworld. The opening stories for the various characters are pretty great, with Rene (a Jack-o-lantern masked and chainsaw wielding vigilante) being a personal favorite. However, the overall main story is a confused mix of old tropes blended together, with lots of story notes to uncover. It doesn't know if it wants to be supernatural, horror science fiction, or some virtual reality nightmare. I played more for the adventure itself than for one of the main endings. With this all said and done, I do highly recommend this game, even at full price. It's a unique take on survival horror with a ton of unlockable stuff. I haven't even gotten into progression, challenges, and the roaming boss battle. There's a lot to dig in here. The game takes some patience to understand fully. A single playthrough may not win you over, but the second or third one will likely click.
Expand the review
Draft of Darkness has a killer concept – what if Slay the Spire and Resident Evil had a grotesque mutant baby? It’s a shame then that it seems to have slipped under the radar, as it’s an extremely strong realisation of that idea, especially considering this is the work of one dude. In terms of looks and atmosphere it’s pretty spot on to that PS1 era of survival horror, and if you find the default filters a bit too much there’s plenty of customisation options to get it to your particular optimum level of grunginess. Draft of Darkness is essentially a dungeon crawler roguelike deckbuilder, with a heavy emphasis on resource management to lean into the survival horror theme. You explore top-down dungeons, and fight enemies in turn-based combat (well sort of, it’s basically ATB from Final Fantasy), and defeated enemies drop more cards to improve your deck. The survival horror twist is that nearly all cards/attacks require limited resources to be used, though most will also have a much weaker, non-resource using alternate mode to be used on lesser enemies or as finishers on stronger ones. There’s a number of unlockable playable characters, and there’s admirable diversity between them, with each having a particular way of using and conserving resources. Pavel for example, can sacrifice health for energy to power his darkness moves. Freya uses a crossbow, and can retrieve some of her ammo as long as the enemy dies quickly enough. Rene has a chainsaw which takes three fuel just to turn on, with one fuel being expended per move at least. It absolutely rips through fuel, but does have the advantage of spectacular DPS so he can tear through stronger enemies, but has to be cautious when fighting regular foes, relying on those weak alternative moves. You can also recruit two extra party members which can help round out the party, though unsurprisingly a healer does end up feeling quite mandatory. It all ends up working very well, and there’s plenty to see and unlock here, especially for the frankly bargain price of 12 quid. There’s plenty of enemy and boss variety, and even after 50 hours I’m still finding events and items I’ve never seen before. Runs do take a while, and you can expect a successful one to take you about 3 hours (it might take you a few goes, as there’s a steep learning curve). There’s definitely some power differences between characters and cards, but most runs you should be able to cobble something together. There are some issues that prevent Draft of Darkness being an unqualified recommendation. The developer is not a native English speaker, and while I don’t think it impacts the core playability (I did not struggle with ambiguity in card effects), the story and dialogue are clunky and amateurish in that particular “English as a secondary language” sort of way. The story manages to be both boilerplate and opaque simultaneously, and I found myself drifting off during endless exposition about a poorly defined darkness enveloping the world. It was very hard to get an idea of what had happened, what the impact on the world is and even a proper idea of the antagonists. I found it easy to ignore as ultimately I don’t play roguelike dungeoncrawlers for the plot, but if for some reason you do you may find yourself disappointed. Dodgy script aside (and as a fan of RE I can’t in good conscience automatically condemn a game for poor writing), this is still an easy recommend to anyone who is into deckbuilders and horror games – as far as I’m aware it’s a unique pairing, and one that has had a huge amount of time and love put into it.
Expand the review
Very good, very hard, very oppressive. I'm still working towards the final ending, so there is ample playtime while still discovering new things. The atmosphere might be too unsettling for some people to enjoy the game though.
Expand the review
Similar games
View all
Iris and the Giant
Iris and The Giant is a fusion of the CCG, RPG and roguelike genres. You play as Iris, who must brave her fears in her imaginary world. Dive into a melancholic and gripping adventure, filled with cute monsters and buried memories. Ready to face your inner demons?
Castle Morihisa
"Castle Morihisa" is a roguelike featuring strategic deckbuilder. You need to build up your deck through constant battles, acquire powerful talents, and wield the power of the Fallen Heroes to unveil the truth behind the rebellion in Castle Morihisa.
DungeonTop
A rogue-like deck-building experience coupled with table top battles. Choose a hero and allegiance then dive deep into the dungeon, evolving your deck for survival. Each choice you make matters, even in between battles!
Hadean Tactics
Hadean Tactics is a roguelike deckbuilding game fused with autobattler elements to create a unique strategy experience. Use your cards to influence the actions of your units and help your Hero defeat the Six Wings of Hell!
Indies' Lies
A roguelike deck-building game where you craft a deck, spark talents, discover runes, and assemble your team with partners' cards! Play unique stories for every character and explore a world caught in the clash of gods. New Puppeteer DLC just released!
Dice & Fold
A turn-based dungeon crawler where your only way of attacking the enemy is by rolling dice. Roll dice to damage enemy cards to FOLD. Inspired by classic Solitaire, in a top-down table and enemies made out of cards, try to beat the dungeon with 35 unique classes. Build your deck, kill monsters.
Three Kingdoms: The Blood Moon
Three Kingdoms: The Blood Moon is a turn-based Roguelike card game where you assume the role of a Shu general. Explore dungeons, gather relics, and amass a collection of cards. In each round, you can assemble a unique combination of cards and treasures to defeat your enemies and rewrite history!
Banners of Ruin
Assemble your party. Answer the call. Win the war. Build a deck and fight a series of turn-based combats with up to 6 party characters through the city of Dawn's Point. Each character can unlock a set of unique cards and abilities that can augment your deck in powerful, exciting ways.
Poker Quest: Swords and Spades
Poker Quest is a fantasy roguelike where players use a standard 52-card deck to take on fierce enemies in epic battles. Featuring over 20 unique heroes, thousands of items, and deep gameplay that will test even the most experienced players.
Nadir: A Grimdark Deckbuilder
Nadir is a roguelike deck-builder with a twist: the cost to play a card is an enemy reaction you can predict. Craft your own cards to slay powerful demons. Gather resources, expand your city, grow in power and conquer the underworld.
Fate Hunters
Fate Hunters is a hardcore mix of strategy card battles and a roguelike adventure. Build your deck, explore the dangerous dark fantasy world and face fearsome foes! Risk your life to get powerful treasures!
Breach Wanderers
A fresh take on Roguelike Deckbuilders that lets you fine-tune your decks before each run to adapt your strategy on your way to victory. Over 1,200 cards to choose from, ten characters with their own set of unique skills, and dozens of items and missions to evolve your tactics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Draft of Darkness is currently priced at 14.79€ on Steam.
Draft of Darkness is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 14.79€ on Steam.
Draft of Darkness received 290 positive votes out of a total of 309 achieving a rating of 8.61.
😎
Draft of Darkness was developed and published by Crawly Games.
Draft of Darkness is playable and fully supported on Windows.
Draft of Darkness is not playable on MacOS.
Draft of Darkness is playable and fully supported on Linux.
Draft of Darkness is a single-player game.
There is a DLC available for Draft of Darkness. Explore additional content available for Draft of Darkness on Steam.
Draft of Darkness does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
Draft of Darkness does not support Steam Remote Play.
Draft of Darkness is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for Draft of Darkness.
Data sources
The information presented on this page is sourced from reliable APIs to ensure accuracy and relevance. We utilize the Steam API to gather data on game details, including titles, descriptions, prices, and user reviews. This allows us to provide you with the most up-to-date information directly from the Steam platform.
Additionally, we incorporate data from the SteamSpy API, which offers insights into game sales and player statistics. This helps us present a comprehensive view of each game's popularity and performance within the gaming community.
Last Updates| Steam data | 25 April 2026 03:02 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 26 April 2026 19:02 |
| Steam price | 29 April 2026 20:50 |
| Steam reviews | 28 April 2026 03:48 |
If you'd like to dive deeper into the details about Draft of Darkness, we invite you to check out a few dedicated websites that offer extensive information and insights. These platforms provide valuable data, analysis, and user-generated reports to enhance your understanding of the game and its performance.
- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about Draft of Darkness
- SteamCharts - Analysis of Draft of Darkness concurrent players on Steam
- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck Draft of Darkness compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
5
Developer
Crawly Games
Publisher
Crawly Games
Release
23 Aug 2023
Platforms
Clicking and buying through these links helps us earn a commission to maintain our services.