Magic the Gathering is one of the most popular trading card games worldwide. Boasting over a massive 6 million players, the market is definitely there for an xbox version – it’s just how they convert a tabletop card game to the xbox is the real question. Other Magic the Gathering video games have used a pictorial version of the cards and tabletop, much like PC versions of Hearts or Patience, but point and click gameplay isn’t really accessible for xbox users. So how have the developers gotten around it?
Right from the word go, the game has a very arcade feel. The Arena looks like something from Soul Calibre, as two wizards face each other with big, nasty looking swords, a long way from the tabletop representation shown in Magic Online. On the demo there’s one quest and 3 battles – Red (Player) vs Green (AI), the reverse, and a Player vs Player mode. The Quest mode is basically a tutorial, and teaches you how to collect mana and cast spells. Apparently in the full version of the game the Quests will allow you to get certain cards for the deck. The other modes on the demo give you a sealed deck, meaning you don’t know what you have before going into battle, and allow you to fight it out either with the computer or another player.
There’s no “tapping land cards” here, the mana pops out of the ground in the form of glowing orbs, and you have to run around and collect them. As the wizard collects the orbs, the mana bar goes up and although it does rise naturally, it is at a much slower rate. Once you get 1 whole mana point, you can start to cast spells. Like the card game, certain spells cost certain mana; for example to summon an orc it costs 1 mana point, but unlike the card game, there’s only one colour of mana. What this means it is possible to steal mana from your opponent, but staying on their side of the arena results in you taking damage.
Spells are cast immediately – no waiting around for the other person to take their turn – it’s all action from the word go! There are 3 types of spell: Creature, Sorcery and Enchantment. Creatures summon monsters to attack either the enemy wizard, or their summoned creatures. Sorcery spells aid you, or hurt the enemy directly. Enchantment spells are cast on your creatures. Choosing the right spell at right time is important, and makes the game quite tactical, capturing the essence of the card game, but making it more exciting.
The graphics and effects are really neat – no animated cards, but rather excellently rendered monsters and effects that show off the xbox’s power by having lots of things happening at once with no slowdown at all. The music is appropriately dramatic and fantasy based, and the sound effects are a good combination of sword clanging, monster noises and magic effects. While the card game both on and off computer is quite slow, this version is quite action packed and fast paced, yet still manages to contain elements of strategy. The option to play this over Live is disabled in this demo, but promises to give xbox gamers a different and exciting take on one of the world’s most popular games.
[No score due to this being a demo version of the game]