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Until recently I hadn’t sat down to a MOBA in a while. I played a bit of Heroes of Newerth on launch, I’ve played DotA and DotA 2 in the early days and at LANs and finally I previewed Deadbreed when it was still available on Steam. Since then I haven’t really touched the style a whole lot until a simultaneous delve into two variations of the style. The first of these was Battlerite that my brother introduced me to and the second was Spellsworn which I dragged him along for the ride. What do the two have in common? It’s you versus the other players without the towers and the minions to get in the way!
Spellsworn is currently in Early Access through Steam and unfortunately for me, try as I might, finding a match is near impossible. With about a constant three hundred plus people online, I can find a match but I can’t join it. Doesn’t matter what I do I just simply get to the final stages of the joining and then it boots me out. I can make a match and play that way but people joining were few and far between so a lot of what I’ve been able to do so far has been with my brother and his friends that we dragged along for the ride.
Set in a close enough proximity of an arena, you and whoever else comes in for the ride will be facing off against one another in a Magicka style spell slinging slugfest. Starting off the match you can buy spells from an available selection that matches your playstyle. Fireballs, fire circles, magic barriers, poison spells and more are there and it takes some experimentation before finding out what works for you.
The gameplay is smooth enough and it’s really easy to pick up though at this stage we all found that trying to find a game other than the ones that we created was next to impossible. So we will be back in a bit in order to really take it out for a spin against other plays and not just others that we know and can yell out at through a Discord channel.
Game Information
Platform:
PC Developer(s):
Frogsong Studios AB Publisher(s):
Frogsong Studios AB Genre(s):
Action
Magic Slinging Mode(s):
Multiplayer Other Platform(s):
NA
Wow - I hit 50 followers last night. I'm pretty excited about that! :) So, how about a slightly different post as a result? It's still gaming related, just not VIDEO gaming related... (but seriously - I really appreciate those of you who come here, and read what I babble on about. I'm sure my wife does too, because now I have an outlet for talking gaming that is not just her having to smile and nod at me). Moving on...
I've always been a big fan of Magic: The Gathering. Well, I can't say 'always'. I wasn't a first edition player. I came into things around 4th edition/Ice Age. I went back and bought cards from prior sets though, once I got into it, and I played for several years quite regularly.
I have always liked a good brick busting game. I remember Arkanoid quite fondly from when I was a kid and even as recently have been playing Shatter on my PC. One title I had never really planned to pick up was Magic Orbz on the PlayStation Network, but last year when Sony offered it cheap with their Welcome Back program, I picked it up. There was also some free addon content you could snag for free with your month of free PlayStation Plus trial. This was not a long game by any means, but I did enjoy it for the most part and it caught my wife's eye as well with its cute visuals. Here's a bit more of a breakdown on the specifics.
Graphics - 7:
This is a bright and colorful game that masks the 'brick' layout with actual buildings and hedges and other objects that fall apart when struck. These visuals caught my wife's eye and she actually took over the controller and played for about an hour that night, and for about half an hour the next. Keep in mind she spends probably less than 15-30 minutes a month playing video games, so this was quite unusual. In some ways, the graphics are both this game's greatest strength and weakness, because the visual style is very inviting but it can get cluttered at times and make it hard to see what it going on. I am okay with losing a ball because my reflexes were not up to snuff, but there are times when there is just so much going on at once on the screen that you cannot even see the ball until its too late.
Sound & Music - 6:
The music is pretty bland, to be perfectly honest. That is not to say it was bad music, it was not - it just was not particularly interesting either. The sound effects help as there is a fair amount of variation in them, and they seldom got repetitive. Similar to the music, the sound effects really did not impress in the end, but they served a purpose pretty well.
Gameplay - 7:
The gameplay is pretty solid, though I found the directional pad more useful than the analog stick for accurately controlling my paddle. There is a decent selection of power-ups (and power-downs) to be had which keeps things interesting. Some of the later levels were a bit challenging (some would even argue cheap) by how close to your paddle the blocks were placed.
Intangibles - 7:
There are quite a few levels, and the free expansions helped extend the fun. Still, I think you can blow through the main set in under five hours, and the side ones seemed to go even more quickly. There are trophies to collect for people who like those, and for the most part they are pretty easy to collect just by playing.
Overall - 6.75:
I would have a hard time suggesting this title at full price, but I believe I got it and the expansions for about $3 in total, and I felt pretty good about that. The steep spike in challenge around midway through the levels turned my wife off to it, and my kids though. That's worth noting because the visuals appealed to both groups of people, but they grew tired of the (you could argue 'cheap') difficulty spike quickly and have never played it again. I gave it a longer run, but even if you stick with it like I did, you can get through the majority of the content pretty quickly and after doing so there is not much reason to go back to it, though there is multiplayer as an option - but one that just never appealed to me.
Man, that's one long title. I had the original Duels of the Planeswalkers game for the PC years ago. It was a very different animal than the Xbox/PSN version that released a few years ago. I've also been a long-time fan of the collectible card game. I've won, bought, sold and lost (yup, I played back when ante was common) more cool cards than most players I would guess. That said, I was a bit disappointed with the last version of this game, so I had mixed feelings about the 2012 one that came out a few months ago.
The premise to the game itself is this:
You have cards in your deck that require mana to cast. Mana is generated by land cards you have in place. There are creatures, spells and more at your disposal. Your objective is to deplete your opponent's life before they do the same to you.
There is a ton more to the game than that, as the cards have a huge assortment of effects, but you get the general idea. So, what did I think of this latest iteration to the venerable collectible card game?
Graphics - 7:
The card artwork is amazing as always. There really is not much animation going on, which is fine. Truth be told, I would probably turn most of it off after awhile anyway to speed up the matches, but some additional effects or mabye even combat animations might be nice all the same. The menus and boards all look better than the last time around.
Sound & Music - 7:
The sound effects are simple enough, but mercifully they do not occur so frequently as to get annoying. The music is actually quite good, though another couple of tracks for the sake of variety would have been nice.
Gameplay - 8:
The cards and menu navigation are all improved from last time. There are quite a few options you can tweak to change how targeting and such are handled. I found the new archenemy mode somewhat frustrating at times - just a bit cheap. The idea is a three-on-one and that one has a huge life total and gets multiple draws per turn including from a deck of cards hugely overpowered - like the ability to wipe out all permanents on another player.
Intangibles - 9:
Oh, if only they had REAL deck editing. But it's closer than last time. In the last game you earned extra cards for your victory and you could shuffle them in and out of your deck - and only them. Now you can shuffle in or out any of the cards in your deck (except land). Maybe next time you can actually pull cards from other decks in, but it's a step in the right direction.
A lengthy campaign mode, a new archenemy mode, online play for both of these modes - there is a lot to do and a good number of cards to do it with. For those who like trophies, these ones aren't too hard to acquire as I have all but one - I haven't won that fifth online match yet (only have 4 wins - I don't play online too often though).
Overall 7.75:
If you like collectible card games, and Magic: The Gathering in particular, there is a lot to like here. It's far from perfect - my favorite part of CCG's is the deck-building, but you have more control over the deck than in the last version and there is a good number of cards to experience. The additional modes add value to the package as well. This is slow, thought-provoking strategy. People looking for an action game of any type need not apply.
I've been a big fan of collectible card games since late high school. It was right about the same time I got into tabletop Dungeons & Dragons - but some friends introduced me to a few different collectible card games: Marvel Overpower, Legend of the Five Rings and Magic: The Gathering. Now, I mostly watched others play at first, I did not start buying actual packs and decks until right around the release of Ice Age. I was immediately hooked. For starters, I've always been a bit of a completionist, whether it was getting characters to level 99 in Final Fantasy (3 I believe - I spent a lot of time walking around this forest island fighting dinosaurs as I recall...), collecting sports cards and comics (I had some early Shaq, Magic Johnson and Barkley cards that I rather miss now) or my need to read entire book series in order, and in a short period of time - the idea begin collecting cards you could use in a game really struck a positive note in me. And I spent a lot of money on those cards in college (who needs beer and pizza money?).
There was a lot to like about Magic: The Gathering, if you were not put off by the need to purchase cards or by the somewhat 'nerdy' source material. Theme decks a specific way (angel or vampire decks anyone?), or try to come up with that perfect combo of cards that would make someone just pause and say 'wow', or just really like certain types of cards (my one buddy Brian worked almost all of his decks around the fast damage of Red spells) - there were nearly unlimited possibilities. Some decks worked better than others, but overall it was a lot of fun for people like me who really dove into strategy type games.
Games like this don't work by yourself though. You can count your cards, set up specific mana-to-critter-to-spell ratio all day and night, but without people to play against, it's all for naught. Without a variety of people to play against, it can get repetitive as well. I played several of the older Magic: The Gathering video games in the past, and had fun with it, so when I saw Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planewalkers come out on the Xbox Live, I picked it up and played it pretty heavily for about a week. I then did not touch it again until recently when a couple of other card-based games like this came my way. I wanted to give it a second chance and see how I felt about it again.
Graphics - 4:
The artwork of the cards is well-represented. They added some basic effects to events during combat. But that's pretty much it. What's there looks perfectly nice, and some of the backdrops look pretty - but they're static cards. There's no animation within the cards, and while I did not really expect anything amazing, it doesn't hurt to be surprised. If you are playing the game in person, obviously the cards don't hop up and attack one another either, but it is a video game nonetheless - it might have been nice to see a bit more animation taking place in the video part of the game.
Sound and Music - 4:
The sound effects are nothing special. They get the job done, but they are as basic as the animations found in the game itself. The music was actually nice - but there was not a ton of variety in it. It fits the overall theme and sets a nice mood, but with so little other activity on the screen, I found myself realizing I had heard the same tune over and over again, so the repetition got to me just a bit more than it does in other games.
Gameplay - 8:
The menus are pretty easy to navigate, the controls are intuitive for what it is. We are not talking about tight turns in a racing game here or trying to nail the perfect headshot, but I have played games before where you repeatedly make the wrong move because of a poorly laid out option or menu item - and that never happened to me here. There is a lot of strategy to be had here. For those uninitiated to the concept - you start with 20 life points, and you have cards in a deck. You draw cards, and there are land cards that come in 5 basic types. Spells and creatures in your hand correspond to these basic types and you can cast them when you have the right kinds and enough lands at your disposal. It's a wonderful system that finds a spectacular balance between luck, deck building and the ability to respond to in-game elements and adjust accordingly. There is also a fun little 'challenges' section where you are working within specific sets of conditions to take your opponent out in a specific way. I really liked these, and will admit to having set some sample ones up myself in similar fashion back when I used to play, just to see what was possible in odd situations.
Intangibles - 4:
The good is this - it is Magic: The Gathering. If you're a fan of the game and mechanics, then you get that exact gameplay here. They also added online play, which is huge because I grew a bit bored of walloping on the computer controlled characters pretty quickly. I ran the entire list through in a day. Luckily given the random nature of the card draws, there is definitely some variety to be had here.
Now for the bad - and in my mind there was quite a bit of it. The online play really aggravated me. Not because it was not fun, but because I got tired of pulling the plug. I would guess I was winning more than half my matches - yet I don't have a single win to my credit technically. That is because there was no penalty (I admit - I did not try this part again recently, but I tried it several months ago at least 2 or 3 dozen times. I guess it's possible they patched it, but I could not bring myself to try again) for dropping out of a match. As a result every-single-match I was about to win, they dropped. I even did some larger group matches - and both times they dropped out as well. One of the guys who dropped out took the time to send me a message apologizing that his 360 kicked him offline - but I'll be honest when I say I didn't believe him. I haven't had the urge to hop online and play again.
The next fatal flaw - you choose a basic deck type to play. Then, you can win several more cards to supplement that deck, and some of those cards are pretty cool. You don't have to use them, but you can. The thing is - they're pre-made decks. The deck building was arguably my favorite part of Magic: The Gathering, and it was not available to me. I tried to justify it by saying there were plenty of good cards and I did not need deck building... but I was fooling myself. I'd see a new card and immediately think how nicely it would work with some other card from another color type and... then realize there was no chance I would ever see this idea realized on the game.
Last but not least? The game itself is short. I beat the entire campaign mode on a day off of work. I knocked off the challenges the next morning. That was it. I was left then to play against the computer controlled opponents or hop online and play, which leads me back to a couple paragraphs ago. Since then, they have released some expansions which add some new cards and opponents. When I picked it up again recently, I thought about picking one or two of the expansions up, but I decided against it. They would add some length to what I was doing, but they really were not going to change those core things I had problems with before, and as such I decided against it.
Overall - 5:
I understand why they did the limited decks. Giving you a full deck editing option would have been a ton of work. It would require more cards be added so it felt like you had a robust set of options, and there would have to be all sorts of validation and checking to make sure you had a legal deck (no more than 4 of a kind, meeting minimum requirements, etc). It could potentially lead to imbalance online I suppose too, if one person had earned/won/lucked into substantially better cards - but you know what? I've seen that in real life plenty of times. Sometimes I was the one with the superior cards, sometimes I wasn't. It was still fun - especially if I was the underdog and I won. In the end, it feels like this is a good introduction to Magic: The Gathering for people who have not played it before, but I don't know that it's enough for a veteran fan of the series to stay invested in it. I love the idea behind it - my friends have moved away, I don't have to spend money on actual packs, and having a computer controlled opponent are all great aspects of the game, but it left me wishing for just a bit more than it delivered.
