I have recently been accepted into the
closed Hearthstone Beta testing, and prior to that I had been keeping an eye on
its progression as a game. For those of you who have no idea what I am talking
about, Hearthstone is a new digital collectable card game produced by Blizzard
studios - makers of the World of Warcraft, Starcraft, Warcraft, and Diablo
series of games.
To the
casual onlooker Hearthstone appears to be much the same as any other Collectible Card Game (CCG) and I would not disagree with that conclusion.
Hearthstone is primarily a compilation of mechanics of from CCGs that have come
before it, the most notable influences being Magic the Gathering and Cryptizoic
Entertainment’s World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. The latter even shares
some art assets with Hearthstone.
However, what I will say beyond that point is this: Blizzard
has done here what they have done for their MMORPG over the years. They have not
simply lifted the parts from these other games but improved upon them in the
process, making for a very smooth and enjoyable CCG experience.
Let’s have
a look at the finer points of the Hearthstone experience, starting with your
first time into the game. When you first boot up Hearthstone you will be required
to play through the tutorial where you will be given a pre built deck and lead
by the hand through a few matches against AI opponents from around the Warcraft
Universe. The first criticism I have with the tutorial is that there is no option to skip the tutorial at all. For people like me who have
been keeping an eye on the beta play the tutorial is not instructional and only
serves to sink ten to fifteen minutes of our time into less than challenging
matches. Secondly the tutorial (as of writing this article) does not teach you
about one of the primary mechanics of going second in a match, The Coin. The
Coin is an extra card that is added to the hand of the player that goes second
in a match. When it is used that player immediately gains one temporary mana
(the resource used to play cards) for that turn only. It is a very large part
of the strategy of the game and it is disappointing to see it left out.
Once you
have completed the tutorial, you will have two of the three game mode
options available to you, “Play” and “Practice”. The difference between these
two modes is very simple to explain. Practice mode allows you to play one of
the pre built decks or one of your own construction (for any of the classes you
have unlocked previously) against AI opponents from a class of your choosing. This allows you to unlock more classes than the one you were originally given. Once you
have played against and beaten a deck of each class, you will be given “expert” AI opponents to play against, in order to unlock these new classes. In reality
however, most of us however will rarely use Practice mode after we have
unlocked all of the other classes.
In Play
mode you can unlock the other classes as well, but you will be pitted against
live opponents of (roughly) your same overall level in your choice of either
ranked or unranked matches. If you are into the competitive card game aspect of
Hearthstone this is where you will spend the majority of your time playing
ranked matches and climbing the ladder.
The third
mode, and most interesting, of the game is Arena. Arena is a game type where after purchasing a ticket
into the arena, but before you can play a game, you have to first draft a
temporary 30 card deck that you may only use in the arena. Once you’ve lost
three games, or you have won the maximum number allowed, your deck is retired,
you collect your prizes (that get better the further you get), and are ejected
to the main screen to begin your journey once more. You start by choosing one
of three randomly selected classes to build your arena deck around. The game then kicks up three cards at a time of similar
rarity and you choose one to keep for your deck. You do this until you have
chosen a full deck, and then you may enter games immediately. The game does not lock you into the arena mode once you have drafted and
you may play games at your leisure, even voluntarily retiring your deck before
it’s time. In my opinion Arena is probably the most entertaining mode of the
whole game.
Now that we
have gone over the first experiences of the player and the three major game
modes of Hearthstone, let’s talk about how Blizzard actually intends to make
money with the game. Simply put, Hearthstone uses the micro transaction model
that has become so popular in the gaming industry as of late (and not just in
the free-to-play scene either). Hearthstone offers a store where players can spend
real world money to buy packs of cards in quantities ranging from one to fifty
packs at a time, with five cards in each pack. Additionally for the price of
$1.99 U.S. you may forego the gold cost of an Arena ticket.
Now it is
important that, in the interest of fairness, I mention that you do not need
to spend real money to get cards, you may purchase packs with the in game gold
you earn by getting victories and by completing the daily quests that the game
assigns you. There is also a pack as a reward for nearly
every tier of the Arena, so you'll almost certainly be able to get cards without
spending your hard earned cash. However these two methods are far slower, and if
you simply don’t have the patience to wait or grind out the multitude of wins
that will be required of you to earn that gold, don’t be surprised to find
yourself dropping a few bucks here and there for packs.
As far as
the mechanics of actually playing the game, there is nothing surprising here.
Minions have an attack stat and a health stat, as well as a multitude of
various card effects that go with them. For example the “Taunt” ability on a
minion requires that it be attacked and/or removed before a hero or a minion
that does not have taunt. There are spells that usually offer some sort of
removal of your opponent’s minions, card draw, or some combination of the two.
All in all
Hearthstone is a fun game with a fairly smooth interface and a fan base that
has a very healthy interest. In fact, at Blizz Con this year the Hearthstone
tournament attracted a huge number of people to it, and many people are looking
to it as a potentially viable e-sport. So if you are a fan of collectable card
games then I’m sure that you will find yourself quite pleased with Hearthstone.
There is plenty here for both the hard core and the casual mana tapper. However
if the CCG market hasn’t quite been your thing in the past I don’t suspect that
Hearthstone will be the one to bring you around.
About the author:
Jim Lucky is a resident of Sacramento California
He has a Youtube channel where he plays video games and runs
on at the mouth. It can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/thejimplays
Or on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thejimplays
You can find him on Twitter @thejimplays
And he can be emailed directly at thejimplays@gmail.com
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