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What have I always said is the surefire way of getting me to buy a game on iOS?
That’s right, Asynchronous Multiplayer.

Ascension has that, which is plenty of reason to buy it on its own. However, it’s also a pretty awesome deckbuilding game, in the way that Dominion is a “deckbuilding game.” I like it. I mean, it’s no Tanto Cuore, but then again, what is?

I described the game the other day as a combination of Dominion and Race for the Galaxy. It’s certainly more Dominion than Race, but hear me out. A game of Ascension ends when all the “honor points” are depleted. These work basically like VP chips from Race. Cards in your deck are worth honor points, and you pick up honor points from the pool when you defeat monsters (or when a card effect tells you to). The person with the most honor at the end of the game, counting cards in their deck and their pile of points, wins.

There are two currencies that are emptied at the end of the round that cards can give you. They can give you money (I think the game calls it Runes? But it’s money.) or they can give you attack power. With attack power, you can kill monsters, take their honor bonus from the pool, and get whatever extra effect the monster has. With money, you can buy more cards to put in your deck. Unlike Dominion, there’s a set of five cards dealt at random from the deck in front of all players. When one is bought or defeated, a new card is drawn from the deck to replace it. I really like that. It makes the game feel much, much more dynamic than Dominion’s “pick some decks and that’s what you get!” There are also, of course, three cards you can always buy: a Cultist that you can kill easily, a Mystic which gives you more money, and a Heavy Infantry which gives you more fight power.

The deck is broken up into cards of four factions: Enlightened, Lifebound, Mechana, and Void. Each type has it’s own path to victory, and you’ll probably want to specialize in at least one during the game. Enlightened is Money-based, but has cards that let you kill some monsters automatically to help out with it’s lack of attack power. Lifebound is extremely Money-based, but has cards that let you basically buy honor. Mechana is very flexible, having many cards that let you pick between money and attack, and also loves Constructs, cards that stay in play and have continuous effects. Void is extremely attack oriented, and focuses on letting you thin your deck as a side bonus to many of its cards.

Again, the game feels really dynamic. You get into points where, say, no players are focusing enough on attack, so the stuff you can buy or fight is all monsters, and you have to make that choice if you want to try to diversify into attack power, or just wait it out. Similarly, you have to decide whether you’re going to force a strategy or try to just play it by ear. This stuff feels very Race to me, where you’re trying to read the board and the cards you’re getting to see what the other players don’t want so you can find your own niche and path to victory points. You get that, but Ascension is much simpler and faster to play than Race. It’s a smart little game, and totally worth five bucks because, you know. Asynchronous multiplayer, motherfucker.