Date played: March 22nd and 23rd
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10
I'm hooked on Hearthstone, Blizzard's virtual card battle game. It's free to play and doesn't penalize players that don't spend money, at least it doesn't seem like it so far. It's reminiscent of Magic The Gathering, but it's quite a bit simpler and a lot faster. It's also more fun, at least for now. The 9 original classes are selectable, and I started with Jaina, the mage. At first, I played against the AI to unlock all the classes. It took me a few rounds to actually win my first one against the AI, and some of the classes were harder to beat for me, such as the priest. Soon enough though, I was leveling up the mage, getting new cards, winning rounds and unlocking classes.
After I had unlocked all the classes, I made myself a deck with the easy to use editor, and took on real people in ranked play. I swear, I must have played 15 matches, using different classes, different decks, different strategies, and I lost every single fucking match. I then decided to try the arena, the paywall mechanic. The first attempt is free, but each subsequent play is 2$, or some coins which are pretty hard to earn. The arena is a great concept. It shows you three random classes, and you pick one. Then it shows you three different cards, and you pick one. Repeat until you have a full deck. It's now time to take on some human opponents. After three losses, the arena is over. The more you win, the better your rewards. I managed to win my first match here using a druid deck I built with the random cards. I really like this mode, but it's too bad it cost money every time. I would have paid 20$ for this game if it included a few arena matches every week. As it stands, I'm unlikely to spend any cash.
I then played more ranked matches, now with a paladin. I set it up so that it would have cards that boost each other's attack power, while spamming many low level minions that benefit from the boosts. It works pretty well, but even though it was close, I couldn't manage a win. That's when my friend came online, and I challenged him to a friendly, no stakes duel. He used a shaman and used many totems and overcharge cards, which damage then entire field to great effect. I was convinced I was going to lose when he had more than 10 lives left and I only had 1.... but I won. Through attrition, luck and intelligent planning, I held him off and took him down slowly for the victory. It was very satisfying...
I played more ranked matches, and now that I had a better understanding of the game, I built some better decks. The one that gave me 5 victories and ranked me up from 25 to 22 was a druid deck built around the charge and battle cry mechanics. Charge lets a card attack as soon as it hits the board and battle cry has effects that play out as you play put the minion on the table. This resulted in very fast attacks, versatility and overwhelming force. I haven't lost with this deck from 25 to 22. I fucking love this game and wish it was available on iOS, it would work very well on the iPad.
Platform: PC
Session fun rating: 9/10
I'm hooked on Hearthstone, Blizzard's virtual card battle game. It's free to play and doesn't penalize players that don't spend money, at least it doesn't seem like it so far. It's reminiscent of Magic The Gathering, but it's quite a bit simpler and a lot faster. It's also more fun, at least for now. The 9 original classes are selectable, and I started with Jaina, the mage. At first, I played against the AI to unlock all the classes. It took me a few rounds to actually win my first one against the AI, and some of the classes were harder to beat for me, such as the priest. Soon enough though, I was leveling up the mage, getting new cards, winning rounds and unlocking classes.
After I had unlocked all the classes, I made myself a deck with the easy to use editor, and took on real people in ranked play. I swear, I must have played 15 matches, using different classes, different decks, different strategies, and I lost every single fucking match. I then decided to try the arena, the paywall mechanic. The first attempt is free, but each subsequent play is 2$, or some coins which are pretty hard to earn. The arena is a great concept. It shows you three random classes, and you pick one. Then it shows you three different cards, and you pick one. Repeat until you have a full deck. It's now time to take on some human opponents. After three losses, the arena is over. The more you win, the better your rewards. I managed to win my first match here using a druid deck I built with the random cards. I really like this mode, but it's too bad it cost money every time. I would have paid 20$ for this game if it included a few arena matches every week. As it stands, I'm unlikely to spend any cash.
 |
| I lost. A lot. |
I then played more ranked matches, now with a paladin. I set it up so that it would have cards that boost each other's attack power, while spamming many low level minions that benefit from the boosts. It works pretty well, but even though it was close, I couldn't manage a win. That's when my friend came online, and I challenged him to a friendly, no stakes duel. He used a shaman and used many totems and overcharge cards, which damage then entire field to great effect. I was convinced I was going to lose when he had more than 10 lives left and I only had 1.... but I won. Through attrition, luck and intelligent planning, I held him off and took him down slowly for the victory. It was very satisfying...
I played more ranked matches, and now that I had a better understanding of the game, I built some better decks. The one that gave me 5 victories and ranked me up from 25 to 22 was a druid deck built around the charge and battle cry mechanics. Charge lets a card attack as soon as it hits the board and battle cry has effects that play out as you play put the minion on the table. This resulted in very fast attacks, versatility and overwhelming force. I haven't lost with this deck from 25 to 22. I fucking love this game and wish it was available on iOS, it would work very well on the iPad.
