Backpack Battles

It's fun at first, when you discover all the build possibilities and unlock stuff. But later on (starting with gold rank), you encounter too many suspiciously perfect builds and get squashed like a fly. While not having the tools to look for the pieces you need, except constant rerolling. And if you dare to critisize an element of the game in the forums ([b]politely[/b]), you just get banned.

A really cool indie game, it gets addictive pretty quickly. The concept is well implemented. It already had me hooked back in the demo version. Most of the time, you always feel like you're building everything according to plan. Unfortunately, a lot of it is too RNG-based. From Gold rank onward, you only get guys with perfect starting builds or meta-tryhards. Even in Silver, you can sometimes get opponents with 5 dragons. WTF? The big advantage is the time independence of this game. You can simply pause your round and continue playing the next day without being trapped in a live game, very relaxing for a quick game. The game is constantly being developed, with new adjustments being released, and new content is guaranteed. Very good. In conclusion, you could describe this game as a slot machine in a casino; you hope for the next drop and the dopamine rush when you can further develop your build. If you don't get too caught up in it and consider the crafting aspect, it's definitely a very fine game.

This is one of the best autobattlers I've played. Tons of item and class variety. It also scratches that grid-based item management itch I enjoyed ever since RE4. You can really feel lost when you first start out as there's no tutorial, but there are plenty of resources inside and outside of the game to help you learn. And the combat log is very comprehensive.

The idea of Backpack Battles is great and in the demo it felt worlds better balanced. It's a love-hate relationship that only leads to more and more frustration because you can't even build a build because either you never get what you need or opponents already have an OP build after round five. After the release, values were adjusted several times, but the balance still doesn't fit. Since you can play everything mixed up with the classes, it just feels like playing the lottery and not like a strategy game. Why have classes when everything is playable with everything? I had more fun with the demo...

Highly, highly addictive auto battler. Backpack Battles really surprised me with the contrast between its simple gameplay and the actual depth it offers. The game is in fact just divided into two stages: backpack management and (auto) battle. In the first you browse the shop and pick up items, which you'll then arrange around in the backpack, possibly creating synergies, and then you go battle... against builds from other actual human players. The list of items to pick from is vast, it can overwhelm you at first but rest assured mostly any build, even not optimal at all, can work just fine in the early ranks. Even then, chances are that sooner or later you'll face some incredible builds which will end you in about 3 seconds. This is where you can start learning about optimal builds and just how deep the game can get. The use of other actual players for the battles is certainly a genius idea from the developers, but it also comes with a weak point, possibly the biggest flaw in the game. I'm talking about the matchmaking system, which isn't terrible but not good either. I only reached platinum rank with each character so I'm not exactly an expert in this game (yes, even after 100 hours, remember the talk about depth?), but when the RNG decides to end your run you just kind of have to accept it. It's not just about your build being good or bad, it's also about matchups. Get 3-4 unfavorable ones and it's game over. This doesn't happen often honestly but it's there and maybe could be tweaked a bit better. Unrelated to the problem above but I'm also not the biggest fan of the characters design in the game. Wish there would be more variety and I'm not talking about costumes. This is completely subjective though. Overall I highly recommend this game and I can also see myself picking it up again in the future. The developers are always hard at work on it and often update the balance of the game so it can stay fresh.

Constantly throwing counter builds against you, can't win even in the lowest of ranks. I don't understand why they ruined the balance of the game but it's incredibly hard to win for no reason. It's a shame because the art is great and the gameplay is fun but I leave almost always unhappy after I quit. Can't recommend unless they fix the balance. I also can't believe that in the lowest ranks everyone is making meta builds, come on...

Amazing gameplay loop with enticing aesthetics!

The biggest thing about backpack battles is that it is a deckbuilding game(you are feeling a backpack with damaging items that you have accrued between rounds. It might not be represented by cards but it is 100% deck building game) where the 1.0 patch happened *and* there's been consistently balance patches for a few weeks now, the same way there were consistent patches and iterations all up until 1.0 The game is definitely a labor of love by the devs, and that's reflected in the design of the game.

Unfortunately, the game in its current state is about as fair and balanced as a Fox News broadcast. Part of the problem is the lack of bad luck protection and how badly you can end up performing due to poor RNG. For example, when playing Ranger, your early game is entirely pot luck, because the chances of an extra Clover, a Walrus Tusk or a Pestilence Flask appearing in the shop (the only three items which can upgrade a Shortbow) is absolutely minimal. This gimps your damage and makes you outright lose early rounds, forcing you to hope for that miracle run where you win 9+ battles in a row. My other gripes with the game are with its user interface, which is downright awful. Here are two very big examples of this: 1. Stamina usage - The visual cues that determine your stamina usage are broken. You will always be at High or Very High stamina usage after equipping 3 weapons, and I have determined this is because the calculation is always stuck at 1 stamina regen per second, regardless of how many bananas, rat chefs, topaz gems or other stamina regeneration items you have. 2. The only way to view recipes is via opening a fullscreen page that shows images of every craftable item in the game, vaguely sorted by category. Other than this, the only cue you get that an item can be upgraded are vague blue highlights when an item appears in the shop. These are nitpicks that would have been excusable for an Early Access game, but this is a full release. Even a certain Android/iOS copycat of this game (Backpack Brawl) which came afterwards doesn't have these problems...

Way more fun than it has any right to be. Honestly, this is so accessible and scratches a very particular itch. The perfect blend between spatial puzzle and autobattler. Deeper than you might think, and maybe the ranked games are a little more solved than they should be, it's still a really fun system to figure out and to just run with. For a game without microtransactions, the systems you can tinker with here are an absolute joy.

This game is a masterclass in asynchronous auto battlers. D4 Bad

YEAH, i mean yes, good game. Do it, if you wanna use your brain, have some fun, dunk on those getting dunked on. Enjoy your time. Realise you've played too much. Also realising you know nothing. BUY IT. PLAY IT. SMELL IT.

This game is for borderline autistic people with OCD. 10/10, would spend 30 minutes rotating a banana for +0.1% efficiency again.

It's a pretty fun auto-battler, and is easy to pick up and put down if you have time constraints. The aesthetics are reminiscent of 2000's flash games if you like that sort of thing, and it definitely has a unique charm to it. There's a lot of different items that you can craft and synergize with which gives you a lot of options to make a build with. Also, there's no pay-to-win mechanics. I would say if you like building Magic: The Gathering decks or similar activities that are heavy on planning/building, you'll probably like this game. On the downside: There's still some clear balance issues. It's gotten better over a few patches but it very evident that certain classes and items are strictly better than others and/or overpowered. While RNG is always going to be an element in a game like this, I think the RNG element is a bit too heavy--it's beyond frustrating when you get hosed with endless garbage in the shop that you can't really do anything with. It would also be nice to see more items that would allow you to 'counter' certain items/builds--in anticipation of them--so it feels less random and more like good planning or good decisions on your part, and it would help with the balance issues. All that said, I don't think these issues are quite game breaking and I think it'll be less pronounced as patches continue.

Cute little PvP auto battler, great to pass some time. Crafting is easy, managing your inventory can get quite stressful sometimes, but it's a lot of fun! There's no live matchmaking which makes the PvP great, since you don't have to wait ages for an opponent. You get matched instantly.

Ideal game: Very addicting, made with Godot by a German team. What's not to love?

Very fun, handles well on Steam Deck. Highly recommend if it looks even kind of interesting to you

After being addicted to the game for a few days I finally decided to give up. Was 1 win away from being ranked as a Master. Here's my two cents: This is an awesome game, simple yet enjoyable art style, vivid animations, fun mechanism - it feels good to play for the first ~30 hours or so, experience some combinations, get amazed by how certain items can bring synergy, However, playing further than that makes no sense. It's a combination of rock-paper-scissors and lottery: - if you don't get items for the optimal build, you die. - if you get items for the optimal build, if your build counters your opponent, you win. - if you get items for the optimal build, but you are countered by your opponent's build, you lose. The conditions above dictates your win/loss. The whole idea of backpack is redundant. With winning conditions above, you don't need any careful design of your space. Just put together a few key items, all else is optional. With losing conditions, even if you spend half an hour optimizing your backpack, you still lose hard. Most games I spend 90%+ of my time arranging my backpack in between fights, yet it is the least rewarding part of the game - it simply does not matter. To me it feels more like a burden rather than a playable part of the game. I don't understand the design rational behind it. I can see that arranging backpack provides some fulfillment for someone who's new to the category, but like I said in the beginning, that is only valid for the first ~30 hours or so. The other issue is about balance. The game provides an illusion of diversity, yet you are limited to only a few optimal builds. Also, You will have to aim for one of them, and pray that you don't run into too many opponents with builds that hard counter you. Any deviation results in hard punishment - you lose right away. I played a ton of rogue-lite games, this is one of the most restrictive and exploration-averse ones. Also, the idea of PvP is an illusion, there is not inter-player interaction involved at all. You don't know what builds you play against, you cannot strategically build to counter them, and you always play against yourself. If I were the designer, I would just make many levels for the players to clear, instead of making it a PvP-based game. It would be so much more engaging both for the first 30 hours, and probably beyond as well.

Inventory management simulator? it's more like a spacial awareness puzzle. an Auto-Battler with no time constraints. you can leave between any round, close the game and come back whenever. great simple animations keep the battles feeling smooth, and being able to pause or slowdown/speed up battle, open the combat log and scroll through or even watch the battle with the combatlog open; it's an easy way for beginners to get started. Love this game 10/10.

Very fun auto-battler. My only complaint is the ranked system doesn't seem well designed. It's too easy to get to Diamond and too hard to go past that. That is not just a me problem, 90% of the player base was in Diamond when the game was in beta.

This is amazing. There is no frustration upon a loss, only reflection. I love this game

If Competitive Inventory Tetris sounds even a little fun to you, then you should definitely give this game a try.

I am addicted to this game. Like a lot. Easy to lose the hours to. Fun, pleasing to look at, easy to grasp, difficult to master, all that stuff. Highly recommend.

Great indie autobattle game. Works flawlessly on steamdeck.

Perfect chill game to kill time - quick and with certain depth too

Super fun auto-battler, seems like the developer is maintaining the game properly with balance tweaks and feature additions regularly. Honestly, the only real complaint I have is the creepy anime waifu art.

This game is so good, I keep coming back for more. Async multiplayer is such a good idea! Would love to see the splash screen art style inside the game and a bit more character customization.

Game seems incomplete. Very good concept but for what you get seems very expensive. I'd recommend it if it were on sale for maybe 9.99 or less. Feels like an early access game.

An excellent async PvP autobattler. I played a bit in early access and had fun, then set it aside. After playing The Bazaar a bit, I got an itch to play this again and found 2 new characters, more subclasses, skills, and one of the best additions they could've added—a full random starting layout with a marginal bonus. The in-game character art looking like a Flash game from the early 2000's is quite a disservice to the gameplay.

love it, nice design, good updates, endless possibilities. Just add more Skins please (maybe also male versions?) ^^

Awesome game, that makes something as menial as inventory management, a fun optimisation puzzle

This game is a fun little auto battle game. Its still being updated which is nice and its got a few character options for variety. There are a lot of interesting builds that can be a lot of fun

This game is so much relaxing fun. Great for all times, on the go, while chilling. Lots of builds to explore. Addicting!

Backpack Battles is okay, it's an A tier auto-battler. It doesn't compete with titles like Bazaar, TFT or others but it doesn't need to. I play this when I want to play something for 20 - 30 minutes and want minimal time invested to understand the 'meta'. I play this game to relax and it's been great to be able to turn off that part of my brain that min-maxes every aspect of other online strategy/auto-battler games. I'd definitely say give it a try, I paid $15 for this and got about 40 - 50 hours of solid gameplay out of it before I got tired, I haven't played the latest patches as often as I kind of lost interest after but I occasionally think about launching it lately.

Fun, strategic. Easy to play when multi-tasking other stuff.

14,79€ is a very fair price for a game that offers quick entertainment. played it since beta, have had the demo first, have had some struggles with meta in a couple of versions but who cares? the current game contents six characters who influence wich items you get offered in the shop. there's zillions of possible builds, a good chunk of luck & RNG and imho if you don't greed for "the one perfect build" and just deal with your chance, you'll have a very good time.

Much deeper than it looks. You will have to learn what recipes are good and how to play the various archetypes, but it is low stress and can be very fun to maximize each turn in the shop. If you're a fan of auto battlers, this will feel like home!

Absolute worst game ever. 95% of build are unviable, the other 5% of builds is impossible to make because this game is a total rng fiesta

Extremely addictive. Such a simple concept, such bare bones execution, truly simplicity is the mark of genius. Deceptive simplicity, that is. There is a dozen decisions to be made that will have exponentially complex consequences later on. And that's just the first battle.

Unique, oddly satisfying, addicting in a good way, endless replayability, one more round please, stressless gaming and still PVP, great artstyle and music, nice developer, was early access now out and exactly how an EA game should be made. Honestly I don't have a single complaint. Worth every Cent three times and more. B U Y it, I need more victims for my ranger thornes build! I promise it will only hurt a little! :D Believe me, trust me, you want this!

Very good and fun! Would recommend giving it a try, but it does get stale quite quickly. When you start and see 6 character classes with variants of starting builds and custom keywords and crafting paths, the game looks like it has a lot of variety, but ultimately every run will be aiming for the same few things. Each class has their own unique items, but not nearly enough of them. The universal items have significantly more going on with them, which feels like a pretty big misstep. Give characters more options to make them stand out. If you want to keep the universal items as the focus, give more interesting ways to interact with them.

this game is fun and worth the money, i first got it because of backpack hero, the gameplay loop is addicting and other than a few people every run who seem to have a meta build. you can almost always find some weird build that works during a run and i find the ranked mode to be fair especially since you can't communicat with your opponents. if you have the money for this game i would definitely say its worth your time.

Excellent game that is constantly getting balance updates. It's so fun to get 10 wins with a completely new build I've tried for the first time.

Fun game. Hoping to more contents like item combinations and new characters in the future.

Really fun. Lots of combinations fitting items and weapons into your backpack. Then adjusting for buffs and item abilities. They do need more classes and weapons/items. But still great game. Don't get me wrong, theres still heaps of items to choose from but more is always better. Well mostly :) Giving it a solid 9 out of 10.

This game is taking an old and already existing formula and perfecting it, and it's doing so well that many games inspired by it are emerging both on mobile and PC. I love the async approach to multiplayer. The art and design are unique and amazing. RNG and opponents are fair. Items and classes are fairly balanced and optimized over time by developers. And I already got my money's worth of gameplay and fun.

174 hours played - says it all. I unlocked all the recipes on all classes. Mission accomplished. :) Good game!

The game is very addicting and has an incredible replayability and every run feels kind of different and challenging. 10/10 already recommending!

I almost made the mistake of giving this game a pass because the aesthetics just aren't for me. And even though that hasn't changed -- I still generally dislike the visual 'vibe' of the game -- this is an exceptionally well-designed auto-battler that rivals the best in the genre. If you've spent an unhealthy amount of time playing any of the following: - DOTA Underlords - Teamfight Tactics - Hearthstone: Battlegrounds - Auto Chess you may want to give this a try. What lies beneath the cutesy graphics is a deep, strategic, highly competitive auto-battler. Each turn is an optimization puzzle where you try to figure out how to make the most of your limited bag space. It's satisfying and addictive in all the ways a well-made auto battler should be. My only reservation is that I wish the default mode was lobby-based rather than asynchronous. Don't get me wrong, the asynchronous nature of ranked play is extremely convenient since you can essentially step away and resume a run at any time. But I sometimes miss being forced to make strategic decisions based on lobby composition. Regarding the aesthetics: I would love for the developer to officially support modded sprites and visuals. The art style is well-executed but it's not for me, and I suspect many others feel the same.

Great game, developer is active and keeps adding wonderful QoL changes along with balance and content patches. An addictive puzzle to solve every time I play. Lots of paths to take, and lots of fun ways to win.