The BEST Deckbuilding Games Coming in 2025

Death Howl vs Shroom and Gloom

As always and this can’t be overstated, both of these upcoming deck-builders look incredible, which is why they are the two most anticipated titles in the genre, but there can only be one. Ultimately, it came down to tone, but before we tell you what is our most anticipated indie deck-builder, it’s important to figure out how we got to that decision.

Welcome to another instalment of VERSUS. A segment where we take a look at two highly anticipated upcoming games that have a lot of similarities and stack these titles against each other. This time, we are going to be comparing two of the best looking and most anticipated upcoming original deck-building titles. We decided to focus on the new IP for a few reasons. Experiencing something brand new is always exciting and you venture into the unknown, but there are great deck-building sequels on the horizon like Slay The Spire 2.

But first, two games will never be exactly the same and one of these fantastic looking titles will always have a slight edge and will be labeled the winner. However, we love games, celebrating them and comparing two amazing titles is only going to bring more attention to both, which is a win-win scenario.

As mentioned, this time around we are going to be heading into the deck building genre by comparing Death Howl and Shroom and Gloom.

If you want to see some of the previous instalments where we compared the two highly anticipated ninja reboots with Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound and Shinobi: Art of Vengeance, click here or where we compared two of the most anticipated Metroidvanias not named Metroid with Hollow Knight: Silksong and Crowsworn, be sure to click here.

Let’s get started by looking at these two titles, how they might be similar, how they are different before deciding which game should be crowned the most anticipated deck building game.

The Two Most Anticipated Upcoming DeckBuilding GAMES

WHAT IS DEATH HOWL?

When I first got the press release for Death Howl that said Soulslike Deckbuilder, I was extremely skeptical, like you probably are right now. Genre fusion isn’t anything new, but how could a deck builder possibly incorporate soulslike elements.

When the term soulslike comes to mind you think of dark and oppressive worlds that are full of death and decay, an isolated protagonist facing tremendous odds as they journey forwards on their quest as they face grotesque and ungodly creatures. In terms of mechanics, there’s the combat that requires more brains than brawn with timing and patience. A bonfire system to restore health, but also for enemies to respawn. There are souls that can be lost, but also play an integral role in the ability to upgrade the protagonist, allowing you to even the odds with enough determination.

With the exception of real time combat, Death Howl tweaks a few things to fit these into deck-builder. Instead of using souls to augment your strength or intellect, you craft new cards from many different categories. You could also argue that in place of stamina in battle, Death Howl gives you action points in battle to use your wits and decide when to attack and when to defend as patience and timing is a crucial element of the genre.

Finally, one of the most underrated elements of Souls-likes is the bosses. Larger than life, grotesque and extremely challenging are the minimum requirements. Based on my time with the demo and seeing the trailers

In Death Howl, you play as a mother who, after a ritual has been transported to the spirit realm in a desperate search of her recently deceased son. Exploration takes place from an almost iso-metric perspective with Diablo style controls as you click where you want to move, but the combat takes place on a grid with a turn based system that requires a tactical approach.

Death Howl wastes very little time and instantly provides the player with a rich, atmospheric world. The art style has a gorgeous minimalist approach, the score is haunting, the gameplay is challenging and the UI is intuitive.

The one downside is that I tried to play Death Howl on the Steam Deck, which works, but requires use of the touch pad in place of a mouse. Connecting Steam Deck to a keyboard and mouse provided a much more seamless experience, but fully optimizing Death Howl for Steam Deck should be a high priority for the studio as having the ability to play deck-builders in handheld mode is almost an essential requirement.

Combining the terms deck-building and souls-like seems like a stretch, but after playing Death Howl, it makes perfect sense and feels wholly unique. The demo does an incredible job of establishing the universe, gives a feel for the majority of the mechanics and teases what lies ahead in your journey, including the many biomes that await and with optimized Steam Deck controls, I look forward to more of this journey through the spirit realm.

SHROOM AND GLOOM

Back at the end of 2024, I compiled a list of the best looking and most anticipated deck-builders scheduled for release in 2025. One of the games on that list was an extremely unique looking first person, dungeon crawling, rogue-like, deck-builder known as Shroom and Gloom from Team Lazerbeam, a small 8 person team from Cape Town, South Africa.

At that point in time, Shroom and Gloom was only a small prototype, which it probably still is. But the big news is that Team Lazerbeam have just announced that Devolver Digital will be publishing Shroom and Gloom, which is great news for the studio and for fans of deck-builders. Not only does this mean that the team will be able to take something that was initially created in a game jam in 2021 into a full product, but it also is a great indication of the quality of the the game beyond what most people have seen as Devolver Digital have a pretty good track record of signing games with unique ideas and solid gameplay.

Shroom and Gloom is a first person, rogue-like, dungeon crawling, deck-builder. It has the staples of deck-builders that you are familiar with including upgrading cards, getting rewards at the end of combat and resting to heal along the way during your journey. However, Shroom and Gloom feels anything but familiar and ordinary.

Shroom and Gloom is instantly captivating with very strong sense of identity thanks to it’s combination of a bold art style and the unique first person perspective, that is an extreme rarity in the deck-building genre.

Shroom and Gloom also features a very moody tone and immaculate atmosphere. Both are definitely common elements of Devolver Digital published titles. The soundtrack features subtle synth and the sound direction is immersive. You can practically feel your socks getting wet as you trudge your way through the dungeons.

However, the gameplay is the real focal point as it features two separate decks. One for combat, as well as a different deck to pillage and explore the dungeons. Having two decks provides a much more meaningful gameplay impact than I was expecting. It feels almost like two different games combined as strategy is needed for exploration as well. This is likely just the tip of the iceberg, but during exploration you have the choice to use a key to open a lock, if you have the card, but there is also the ability to bash the lock open, at the cost of doing damage to yourself. It’s easy to imagine choices like this becoming increasingly difficult as you must weigh risk vs reward. Cards can also be infinitely upgraded, which means customization is endless and broken builds are possible.

You don’t need to take my word, Shroom and Gloom currently has a demo available on Steam with early access planned for late 2025. However, it was just at the end of 2024 that the studio said that Shroom and Gloom was in prototype phase and the start of the demo says expect some jankiness, so set expectations accordingly as it isn’t the smoothest experience at the moment, but it shows extremely high potential.

MOST ANTICIPATED ORiginal DECK-BUilder

As always and this can’t be overstated, both of these games look incredible, which is why they are the two best looking upcoming deck-builders, but there can only be one. Ultimately, it came down the tone of Death Howl, which is much heavier and the story, which is more relatable and will be a driving force to push yourself farther.

Whether you are a parent or not, we have all lost someone dearly and going to the ends of the world and beyond is something that all of us would do if we could to help.

Dealing with the death of her son, Ro goes into the after live in search of him in a desperate attempt to defy death and return her son to the world of the living. Guided by the voices of another world, Ro transcends to the spirit realm.

At the core of both of these experiences is playing cards, but what’s really going to immerse you is the story. You need an engaging narrative.

Death Howl is described as an atmospheric tale of grief, healing and resilience. The director of Death Howl fully understands how impactful these themes are to the human condition.

“the loss of a loved one is universal, an inevitable part of the human experince. We’ve introduced a fresh take on the deck builder genre, combining it with souls-like exploration and adding compelling lore to leave a lasting impact”