ARSONATE Review (PC)

I’m all for the idea of throwing down the gauntlet (or an axe into a table) to establish dominance in a field. But what I’m not for is burning alive whilst the person sat beside me gets a petite ember kiss from a blazing inferno. I want them to feel the wrath of the flame, yet it seems that with each card that I pull from the deck, something draws me closer to death. I don’t want to be a human shish kebab; I want a tan, and just a tan. ARSONATE, however, wants things to pan out a little differently. Everyone must burn — even the host. But not me, it seems. No, because when I drop a hatchet on the table, the roar of the fire becomes fiercer than ever. Call it bad luck, I guess. Maybe I’m just not cut out to be a firefighter. Or maybe, just maybe, I’m prone to combust at the first sign of ignition.

ARSONATE is all about fanning the flames of fear. Though, it isn’t necessarily about outsmarting your competitors with a wildcard, but with a wildfire. See, where you would typically pull a card out from the deck and, in a bid to avoid a penalty, pull the wool over your friends’ eyes with a tide-altering UNO-like hand, this world sets you on a volatile course to burn your foes. Here’s the catch: everyone burns. It just happens to be the player who burns last who takes home the win. A strange set of rules, but we’ll role with it.

For the most part, it’s all about burying the axe in an effort to generate wildfires, not with kindling and a fuel source, but with cards that can transform molten cores into devastating infernos. That’s where you enter the room — as an equal competitor who not only has the power to blaze the trail for others to perish to, but to tangle the entire world in flames to create mass panic and chaos. Think Buckshot Roulette, but with a little more, well, heat. And if ARSONATE is anything at all, it’s an advocate for bullet-sweltering humidity.

It goes like this: each player takes turns to flip a card on the table. With each card that is pulled, a flame is fanned from behind the active player. Simply put, the last person to perish under the heat ultimately wins the match. But, this is where things get a little tricky. See, while players must fan their own flames and prod their own death knell, each card on the table has its own unique effect—Utility, as it’s commonly known as here. For example, a card can force you to draw another from the deck, or it can give you a major advantage over your opponent and impact their tower.

There’s another thing for you to ponder here: the host knows how many of each Utility is left behind on the board, meaning, you also need to count cards, deduct potential losses, and decide how to swindle the effects whilst the host uses quick wit to outmaneuver you. A lot to take into account here I’ll admit. Thankfully, once the training wheels begin to fall apart and the rubber begins to melt, it all begins to feel a little less, shall we say, disastrous.

While there is a rather simple concept that doesn’t require much more than a stern eye and a willingness to accept a grim fate here, ARSONATE does deliver an unpredictable experience that bends and weans with each passing session. With consequences that vary widely depending on how you tackle the board and manipulate the deck, each round gracefully brings a fresh perspective with each turn that you take. The Utilities, for example, ensure that all rounds are made to feel unpredictable and out of your control. And there’s a lot for you to consider here, too, with some cards that allow you to fabricate the rules, and some that force you to take a knee to the flames against your will.

For a relatively low asking price, I’d say that you have a good amount of content to shovel through here. Granted, there are only so many times that you can burst into a ball of flames before that volatile novelty soon begins to fade into ash. That being said, with a solid collection of Utilities and enough twists and turns to keep you on your toes, you should be able to squeeze a bit of time out of this one. Moreover, as the game fosters three separate endings, it also means that you have a reason to venture back to experience it all over again. It might not deliver a compelling story, though its addition of alternate conclusions does add a little extra depth to the overall experience.

Suffice it to say that, once you remove the ash and molten casings from the core, ARSONATE can be a game that you’ll either enjoy for the simple pleasures and the gimmicks or you won’t. It’s a niche game, yet one that, like Blackjack Roulette, has a good sense of what makes a novelty feel good to repeatedly romp through. Visually, it’s all rather liminal and without anything particularly special. But with some solid gameplay hooks and a good variety of Utilities to flick and utilize, the game itself has a firm backbone that will likely appeal to fans of card-based gameplay.

Verdict

ARSONATE fans the competitive flames of chance to ignite a quick, ruthless, and oftentimes chaotic card-based experience that can leave you feeling both desperately overwhelmed and entertained all at the same time. Although condensed into a simple affair with a single set of mechanics, its usage of Utilities, wildcards, and multiple endings does make it that little bit more interesting than most games of its kind. Is it the best card game you’ll pick up and play this year? Probably not, no. Still, if you enjoy deck battlers like Buckshot Roulette, then you’ll probably enjoy prodding this fire with a stick for an hour or two.