A genuinely incentive mix of tower defense and deck building, card-based strategy, Guardians of Holme is an excellent experience for gamers willing to persevere with it.

It’s not without issues – the hand drawn aesthetic on the cards looks a little too simplistic at times, feeling more rushed more than a stylistic choice – and it has a difficulty curve that often seems almost non-existent until you reach the end of a run.

There’s also too many options hidden away in menus with little explanation or attention drawn to them; upgrading trap cards, for example, was something I just stumbled upon.

That said, I still found an awful lot to like here.

Guardians of Holme feels like a top down mashup of a game like Orcs Must Die, crossed with Slay the Spire.

Each level presents you with a dungeon and an artifact that needs protecting. At the outset, you get to see the route enemies will take upon entering – and you have a set amount of funds to use in order to set traps and obstacles, perhaps even lay units, so that you can attempt to stop them.

Routes between levels branch a la Slay the Spire – often allowing you to choose the sequence of encounters you’d like to go for from a choice of two paths.

I’m a sucker for card based mechanics and tower defense games, so this was always going to be a winner for me.

It’s a flawed game, for sure – but strategy fans who don’t mind their games a little rough around the edges from a visual standpoint are likely to also find plenty of appeal in Guardians of Holme’s unusual mix of game mechanics.

Guardians of Holme is available now on Steam. Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with a code for review purposes.