Blizzard has a new game out, and it’s free-to-play (well it’s a freemium) game. It’s called Hearthstone and it’s actually something I want to play because:

• It’s based on the Warcraft universe
• It’s a card game similar to Magic: The Gathering

I’ve wanted to play a Magic-type game for awhile. I tried the various official Magic electronic versions but the main problem with all of them is that you couldn’t make a custom deck. That defeats the originality and creativity in the game!

Hearthstone has the ability to make custom decks, but the difficulty is that you have to play a lot (i.e., grind) or pay for a lot of the cards that you would want to use. I guess I can live with that for awhile, but I might not have enough patience or willingness to spend money to build my collection of cards.

Other than that, the game mechanics is pretty good. It has original rules, but it’s not too far from what you would expect from a card game. Luck plays a role, but having a balanced deck is the most important thing. I’ve played some online, and have lost a lot. Half because I played poorly (bad decisions) and half because my opponents have a larger (and better) card collection from which to build their deck from. There is an offline/practice mode but the NPCs are either too easy or too hard (another reason to spend money to build a better deck).

Overall the game suffers from being a freemium game, but has the Blizzard lore and polish. It’s an easy game to pick up for 15 minutes, and not too heavy on your system. It runs on tablets, but needs a constant network connection. Worth a try!

Posted by Kevin in Blogs Tags: games, warcraft