Something about this game just got off on the right foot with me immediately when I installed it on my home PC - thankfully. I say the last bit because I had a lot of trouble getting it to work on my laptop later, but by then I was already addicted to the game, despite the launcher issues (which their tech support was finally able to help me figure out about a week or so later). Until then, I just played on my desktop, and what I found was a game with excellent art and a deep, engaging system of play.
This is another of the many 'free to play' collectible card games - that also have microtransactions built in so you are encouraged to spend money on new decks and cards. There are a couple of different kind of currency - but what is nice is you can build them both up through normal play.
While the easy comparison here is Magic: The Gathering, there are shades of Spectromancer (another of this type of game I really liked) in that you have your cards - but you also have to worry about rows and columns because they impact how your creatures deal damage to one another, as well as the leader cards you roll out in the beginning. Certain spells and effects are dependent on those layouts as well, with cards that might burn both allied and enemy creatures in a horizontal line, or a specific vertical column of up to four.Thankfully all of it is pretty easy to play, and the sense of progression that comes from earning currency and experience is nice. There are online and offline modes, though it feels like the offline still has a ways to go - there were three campaigns I burned through pretty quickly, and I do not see any more available. Since this only takes up a very small portion of the map, my guess is Ubisoft plans to continue adding to it.
The game itself is a lot of fun, and I really enjoy earning and opening packs of cards. I have purchased one of the 'big boxes' for seals, and at least a dozen packs of top shelf cards purchased with gold, but have never spent a cent on it. The biggest issues at this point revolve around stability. There are a lot of crashes and hangs at this point. I tried to spend the better part of a day, two Saturdays ago, playing. I was playing this while playing my 3DS and probably put in about eight hours overall. In that time I had at least a dozen games hang or crash and force me to restart my client, almost always near the end of the contest. I would guess I had lost about an hour that day, which was frustrating to say the least. There are quite a few posts on the topic in the Ubisoft player boards, but there has not been any comment from their moderators on the majority of those topics and there has not been an update to the game since I started playing a couple of months ago.
One major bonus is that online matches can be found quickly, and even if you lose you get some amount of currency and experience. The card artwork is quite good most of the time, and the playing field is also nicely represented. A few small issues aside (like the installer problem and lack of single player content currently), this has been an entertaining addition to the genre and one I plan to stick with for a good while. I would say 7.5 out of 10.
I honestly wouldn't even know where to start with these games, which means I would probably go straight to the instruction manual (if there is one), or tutorial.
ReplyDeleteOn this, "I have purchased one of the 'big boxes' for seals, and at least a dozen packs of top shelf cards purchased with gold, but have never spent a cent on it.", do you mean you used the in game currency, but not a cent of you own real money? If so, do you think you will ever spend a cent of you own money on it?
Good morning.
ReplyDeleteLuckily the game has several modes. There are player vs player ranked matches and tournaments (which both give you gold and seals - more on that shortly), and player vs player unranked matches for all your non-AI needs. There is also an AI-enemy campaign (again, each one gives you some gold and seals).
The AI campaign has a tutorial section that makes up the first area, with sub areas that walk you through the basics of the game pretty well. It is somewhat complicated, but they spell out the rules pretty effectively, which helps newcomers figure out how to play. I have played a lot of CCG titles in the past, but this one is pretty different than say, Magic: The Gathering, so there was still a learning curve for me too.
So, the gold and seals I alluded to - those are your in-game currencies, and each can be used to buy different things (individual packs of cards from different 'releases', boxes of cards and even pre-made decks). Gold is the easier of two to acquire, but both have value.
I haven't spent any money - but I will be honest, I came pretty close once. The currency purchase is a bit 'off' still though - they only seem to have it in Euros, which I refuse to buy in since I just never quite feel like I know how much I am spending, and by my quick calculations at the time, it seemed pretty expensive. So, I was considering shortcutting to the 3,000 seal mark so I could but the one big box I wanted. I stuck with it though, just playing traditionally for about three weeks or so, logging in daily (you get bonuses for doing so) and eventually bought that box without spending any money. I now have enough cards that I have four pretty reasonable decks put together and nearly enough gold to buy another one.
Let me know if you have any other questions - and thanks for dropping by!