Recent reviews by Geardo

Never did a game like this before.
The mechanic of sometimes managing, others times letting it run on auto-pilot was interesting but I need some more interaction with what I play.

Now this next part may not happen to you so consider that before deciding if this review was helpful.

Overall the community is helpful but then this one person ruins it by getting petty demanding a Thank You that I actually gave. Apparently it was not enough, I guess the poster wanted their name on a fricking billboard or several that could be seen around the world. Imagine losing your #*%@ over getting something you actually got.
Replied with correction then uninstalled.
Congrats to the one person who got upset I did not scream their name for all the world to hear that I cannot do along with assuming lies about me and humiliating their own self.

Hope anyone reading this has a better experience than I had with that 1 user.

After over 140 hours and almost 2 months playing it, It has interesting concepts but some serious downfalls.

Pros
A - Trying to Encourage Player Participation
This seems like a good idea that has been tried in different ways in other card games, just that by now I would have expected people to learn from those previous games and have guidelines to avoid mistakes made before.

B - Both Single and Multiplayer
Card games with both seem to do better than those with only 1 except for either modern roguelike games (Slay the Spire, Iris and the Giant, etc.) or older games from years ago when multiplayer was more rare (original Magic: The Gathering from 1997, etc.).

C - Two Singleplayer Versions
Two not one. Two different ways to do it though they are still being worked on.

Cons
1 - Lack of Simplicity
Too many cards with walls of text and quite a number with small print, I have had to use a magnifying glass to read some and my vision is fine no glasses or anything needed. It is becoming common games with small text drive away players including in physical product and card games.
Most card games that succeed do so due to simple designs, once complicated mechanics such as involved complicated cards and/or text walls happen, other players quit.

2 - Two Card Sets for No Reason
All other card games use the same pool of cards for single (SP) and multiplayer (MP). Collective has the Versus cards for MP set but also has a larger pool for SP. Looking through the SP cards, I do not get why most if not all are separate.

3 - Power Creep
There is a lot of this and it happens at midpoint in matches if not early. Usually you do not even get to play higher levels of Character Rewards so you wonder if the characters are even balanced.

4 - Token Units
Games with Token Units usually have them simple and use the same tokens whenever summoned. Magic for example if they have Zombies in a set, all ties a Zombie Token is summoned it is the same Zombie Token. If you need to spend or use Zombie tokens for an effect, since all of them are the same this is also easy.
Here in Collective too much effort is put into making unique Tokens. There are rare standards like Star Chips but most are unique and keeping track of them is a real chore especially if the Tokens are Units with Tribes. When looking at the cards creating Token Units, you CANNOT see the Token Tribes so have no idea if they benefit effects based off Tribes making deckbuilding harder.

5 - Lack of Filters
Deckbuilding, even looking through the Collection lacks filters to sort through making it more difficult to build decks. This includes Point 4 above, if you put Bard for example you are not shown an action card that creates Bard Tokens so you think there are less Bards in game than actually exist.

6 - Card Creator not Explained
You have to either guess how to do it or go to Discord that few seem to do. This results in cards not working properly even when tested and cards with contradictions.
Example of contradictions, both Fishman Swashbuckler and Doragon Crossbowman look like they should work the same but do not, Swashbuckler asks you to select target then if you have a setting checked off waits letting you change your choice before proceeding. Crossbowman once you select a target, there is no wait and no chance to change targets.
Example of not working properly, the card Fortuno the House creates another card Fortuno the Sleeve in hand but it is possible to have either 1 Sleeve inside another or 2+ Sleeves in hand. This is a problem because the Sleeves contain cards you cannot see until you want to play them making choices of plays for turns a problem. Other card games do not have this issue. Fuzzball is another card not working as expected.

7 - Currency not Thought Out
I see this in a number of online games. The in game currency system looks good until you start acquiring things especially with cash. Once you start gaining stuff, you wind up with currency that piles up and almost nothing to spend it on.
Example, once you unlock all Heroes for Gold, then you just have emotes, a few avatar changes and deck slots. If you spend money for Marbles and use them to unlock Heroes and Cosmetics, this just means you stockpile gold more with less to spend it on.

8 - Singleplayer not Finished
In Collective's defense, I read on Discord this is still being worked on.

9 - Time's Running Out
I saw brief discussion on Discord of some kind of time limit on Collective though not enough specifics. At a certain time if not enough interest is gained, the game will die out.