Last time I did a Becoming a Critic blog I negatively critiqued the game to the point where I was getting lots of negative feedback from my peers so today I will be looking at a game I actually enjoy playing. With that being said, I will still be critical with this game about the way the designers put together this new game which are still beta testing. I will also keep in mind the fact that the contents of the game are still in beta and subject to change when the game releases. For now, I will be doing my analysis on the game as if this is the gold version and not the beta in case nothing is changed from now until release day. Remember I will be analyzing this based on the elements of games from my second blog. If you still haven't read that one I highly recommend you go and do that first. With that being said, let us begin.
Player
When the game first runs it throws the player right into the tutorial. Now this game is a trading card game and each deck you can play with has a hero, this is to help fit each player's play style. I appreciate that the designers made the decision for the new players to play as the mage hero but I think it would've been better to explain the heroes and let the player decide right away so they are more comfortable when they start the game. Aside from that one minor flaw I see in players, I actually really like the amount of choice for heroes that can be used by the player. Each one is unique and fun to use. On top of the heroes, there are also unique cards to each hero. Below is an example of the starter hero in the tutorial and the unique spell the hero can use next to her. There is also a fireblast card which is an example of a hero or class specific card to further make the player's deck more unique to their play style.
Objective
Now they made the objective of this game very simple. Your goal is to drop the other heroes health to 0 before your health reaches 0. Now this is a good objective but I feel that the game needs more than one objective. If we look at the objective types, the designers only really implemented Solution and Outwit. You could also say race since it does feel like a race to who would get the other's health to 0 first. Having few objectives can be positive since it makes the game simple and easier for new players. It also give the experienced players a chance to focus more on certain strategies that don't need to encompass so many goals. However I think they should add some other forms of objectives such as construction where you can build cards from putting together other stronger cards. An example of another card game which made this a construction objective in their game is in yu gi oh where the player constructed the forbidden one to win the game.
Procedure
The way how this game plays out is that it's a turn based game. Every card has a certain amount of mana to play and each turn the player gets their maximum mana increases by 1. I like what the designers did with this because it keeps the game progressing in a linear fashion. What I mean by this is that the game doesn't skip any early or mid gameplay and plays right into the late game cards. I would've like to see that designers do something a little more out of the box with the turn based mechanic so they could stand out from being just another card game. It would need lots of attention to detail on how that mechanic is changed since it would affect the entire game flow and how it plays. I feel like the designers at Blizzard could make it work.
Rules
There are other rules on top of how the game plays. The most frustrating rule I have encountered from my couple days of play has been the limited emote chat system they have made for the game. It looks like this:
I can't even laugh at my opponent! All I can do is click on the cheesy threaten quotes they have for the heroes. Sometimes i want to talk to them about how over powering some cards or combos are in the game too, but I'm very restricted to simply saying hi, thanks, and sorry. They thankfully have at least a "gg" emote which is called "well played" in there. They should allow for a full chat system since it is completely possible. The game is able to chat with other players who are your friends and the other blizzard games like StarCraft allow you to talk to your opponent. There is no reason why I am not allowed to casually talk to my opponents.
Resources
There are lots of resources in this game and the designers did a great job of making them easy to understand and manage throughout the game. To list the resources I have found in this game, they would be: mana, health, minions, spells, weapons, and time. The way how I find time as a resource is when I play as a hunter hero in the game, my time window to be effective with the hero is early game since lots of my minions are low mana cost. This means I will be weak in the late game and have to use the time in the early game to win the game.
Conflict
The conflict in the game is pretty straight forward. So you have an opponent that you need to defeat. The game also has obstacles from having you complete your goal where some minions have taunt which means you need to attack that minion before attacking another enemy minion or hero. Some dilemmas I face when I play the game is as a hunter class the late game has barely any cards to play since they are all low cost and get played early in the game. There is a good balance of conflict in the game which isn't too frustrating or too boring for the player.
Boundaries
Some boundaries I have noticed in the game is that you have a certain number of minions you can play on the board. There is only a maximum of 7 allowed which is fine for just about every race except for hunters class. Since the hunter's build is all about lots of small minions it restricts their play style to not be as effective as possible due to their boundaries. I think the designers shouldn't have put a boundary in the game in terms of how many minions could be played. The only reason I can see that they would need this boundary is for visuals since the board is pretty tight once there are 7 minions on the board.
Outcome
The outcome of completing the objective results in rewards. These rewards are in the form of in game currency which can be spent on entering into the arena to win prizes for the game or buying card packs. The outcome of winning can also be used to complete daily challenges such as winning 5 times with a specific race for a lot of in game currency. Plus if you reach the outcome of winning a match three times you get extra in game currency. The outcome will always result in rewards that in the end better your game.
I really like this design idea since it gives that satisfying resolution of winning to earn good cards for your decks. The strategy involved in the game to beat another player also gives the player maximum emotional investment to win from the satisfaction of being a more strategic player.
In conclusion, this is a really well done game with simple to learn mechanics that are addictive to play. The amount of various play styles adds to the amount of fun every player can get out of this game. They did a really great job on all of the art with their 3D renderings of the board and cards with numerous particles to make the game juicier. The design of the games mechanics were really well thought out and flow nicely. I would definitely recommend this game.
The outcome of completing the objective results in rewards. These rewards are in the form of in game currency which can be spent on entering into the arena to win prizes for the game or buying card packs. The outcome of winning can also be used to complete daily challenges such as winning 5 times with a specific race for a lot of in game currency. Plus if you reach the outcome of winning a match three times you get extra in game currency. The outcome will always result in rewards that in the end better your game.
I really like this design idea since it gives that satisfying resolution of winning to earn good cards for your decks. The strategy involved in the game to beat another player also gives the player maximum emotional investment to win from the satisfaction of being a more strategic player.
In conclusion, this is a really well done game with simple to learn mechanics that are addictive to play. The amount of various play styles adds to the amount of fun every player can get out of this game. They did a really great job on all of the art with their 3D renderings of the board and cards with numerous particles to make the game juicier. The design of the games mechanics were really well thought out and flow nicely. I would definitely recommend this game.