Tag Archives: Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Magic 2015

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Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015 (from here on in called Magic 2015) is the latest iteration of Stainless Software’s attempt to bring Magic The Gathering: The Card Game (from now on referred to as simply MTG) to screens. Whilst the previous versions were well received, the game has never been without its faults, with often fun features from one version cut and replaced with others of questionable value, and some design decisions which made the game somewhat unwieldy.

Until this year, Stainless could kind of rest on their laurels, as there was no real competitor. The previous “official” MTG games before Stainless were atrocious messes which completely ignored the card aspect altogether, or were woefully inadequate for playing online against others. Other Collectable Card Games (CCG) which were brought to screens were ok, but none could hope to match the complexity and artwork Wizards of the Coast brought the MTG series, nor have the polish Stainless brought to the screen versions.

But this year Magic 2015 has a competitor. Blizzard’s Hearthstone has leapt onto screen and into gamer’s hearts (and wallets) with an unexpected ferocity. When it was first announced Blizzard were going to a CCG the internet collectively went “wha!?” Little did we know that Blizzard not only had a completely serviceable online CCG in terms of playability, but that the humour and style of the Warcraft universe would be so suited to this new way of playing together. And Blizzard’s amazing understanding of gamer attitudes to multiplayer matches and buying items online created a fantastic and fair system for people to compete on an even level.

Magic 2015 starts you with the tutorial, even if you’ve played before and know the rules of the game quite well, you can’t skip it. For those who have never played Magic and reading this, you play the game with a deck of cards classed into 2 major types – land and spells. Lands grant you mana, in which you use to cast spells. Spells include Creatures, Artefacts, Instants, Sorcery and Enchantments. Each type of spell can only be used at particular points in a round. The tutorial walks you through all this, and for total beginners it’s really quite useful, but it doesn’t introduce you to any of the new types of cards and combinations that the new 2015 card set brings, so in that respect it’s annoying to be forced to play it.

After playing through it, you get to choose a deck of two colours. These starter decks are not unlike the starter decks they offer at expos and in stores. They’re functional and work reasonably well to play, with a usual spread of decent monsters and other spells. What it doesn’t provide are any special land cards, nor any artefact cards. There are some cards which work in good combination, but on the whole these decks are based around getting creatures out and killing your opponent before they kill you.

The real joy of MTG comes from deck building. Getting the right kind of cards and combinations that make your deck really competitive when playing with others. Whilst the deck builder in Magic 2015 is quite good, allowing you to see all your cards, filter by colour and type and so on, there is a real issue with this usually great part of the game this year. In previous Magic games, as you progressed in the game, battling various planeswalkers in the story mode, you’d unlock their decks to play with. This year, however, you’re not rewarded decks to play with, only booster packs. The issue this brings is you’re locked into a decision which you might regret. For example, I started with the Black / Blue deck and I found it rather weak, but because you only unlock boosters when playing through, I found I couldn’t change my deck around too much and felt like I was stuck.

The solution to this this time around is to grind through the “explore” mode, which is indeed a grind and just feels like a pointless add on to destroy your time and force you to buy cards, or to opt into the monetisation method and buy more boosters. Whilst this is precisely the same method of monetisation for the physical card game, it works because you can sell or trade cards you don’t want with other players. With Magic 2015 being digital and not offering a way to trade, it really becomes a matter of “he who spends the most money wins”. Even though the boosters are cheap, you have to spend about $20 on them to be assured of the cards you really need to flesh out your deck to truly competitive levels.

Previous Magic games gave us other modes, like the two headed Giant mode, Revenge, and Arch Enemy modes. All these modes are conspicuously absent, meaning the replayability comes purely from the online mode. As someone who doesn’t like online games and usually only plays with friends, this is a real head scratcher of a decision. These previous modes were fun, and although they swapped them out one year to the next, removing them altogether just seems like a stupid and ultimately a brand damaging decision.

Lastly and something I find most surprising is the game itself is drab. The menus are really plain and need a lot of clicks and swipes to get through, and quite often become unresponsive. The sound will stutter as different areas load, and overall it’s doesn’t feel technically competent. The cards themselves are amazing and feature some true greats of the fantasy world illustrating them, but this amazing artwork that used to adorn the loading screens and story screens has been replaced by black and white images. These images are still great, but they’re not really helping to sell the brand. Considering the amazing artwork on the cards, it seems a shame not to see them in the game wherever possible.

Conclusion:
Maybe Stainless couldn’t cope with making this game work on all platforms. Maybe there were design decisions and issues between them and Wizards of the Coast. Maybe we’ve been spoiled by Hearthstone. For whatever reason, Magic 2015 feels unfinished. When they could have re-skinned Magic 2014 and just added more cards and would have fans flocking to play, taking away modes and adding in questionable monetisation methods means many fans are going to be disappointed, and will be hesitant to pick it up again next year.

Pros:
Great looking cards as usual.
Great tutorial for new players
Deck Builder is really robust.

Cons:
Unpolished interface
Removal of some of the cool modes of previous games
Questionable monetisation strategy

60/100

Review, Video Games, Writing, XboxWorld

Magic The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

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Wizards of the Coast have tried to capture the hearts, minds and wallets of Magic the Gathering Xbox fans before, with Magic the Gathering: Battlefields. Whilst it was an interesting game, it didn’t really translate the actual skills, knowledge and indeed obsession that the collectable card game requires.

So knowing that the Magic the Gathering card game is best representation by the actual cards themselves, this time around they’ve used what they’ve learned from MTG: Online, and made it suitable to an xbox audience by offering it as an Arcade download. It’s presented a little like UNO on XBLA, with a playing surface that players lay their cards down onto, with graveyard (where you discard cards) to the side and your hand revealed only to you (and your partner in co-op games).

The game’s presentation is great. The cards are revealed to you as they’re played, and squeezing a trigger brings them up close so you can read them in better detail. Each card is played with an effect, so for example a flying creature hovers over the playing field, a healing artefact sparkles blue, scratch marks appear when a creature hits. A clear and precise representation of which creature is attacking and which creature you’re blocking with makes tracking plays easy. The paintings from the cards are reproduced here, and it’s fantastic to see these in high definition. I still chuckle at the Pacifism spell imagery.

There are various modes available to the player on starting the game. The robust tutorial will help new players or those who are a bit rusty. Once you’ve got through this, there is a Challenge mode which sets up a one turn play in which you have to play the right cards to win. These are really helpful in understanding the game mechanics better, and I strongly recommend this for new players before getting into the longer Campaign mode.

Presenting you with a range of starter decks, Campaign mode sets up a tourney with the selected deck against progressively harder AI. As you defeat each enemy planeswalker, you unlock more cards. As there 16 rounds fighting against 9 enemies, you’ll unlock 16 new cards for your deck, as well as the decks of your enemies. Unlocking all the cards for all the decks will take quite some time, giving the game a long shelf life for obsessive fans. There is also Co-operative Campaign, where two players on a console can go head to head with the AI.

The AI is quite clever, as it knows its deck and the rules very well, using these in a very logical and rehearsed manner, but it can do silly things, like attack a creature instead of a player, or play certain cards too soon when a human player might hold off. As all games there is also a bit of luck in who gets what cards out when, and the AI flounders as much as a player does. However, after unlocking a couple of decks, playing the same AI over and over to unlock more can become a little tedious and predictable.

However, this is all really a prelude to the online games. Online you can play 2, 3 or 4 player all against all, or two versus two. There’s also a special mentoring system, where a player can come online and see your hand, and suggest how to combat enemy players.

You can tailor the starter decks with your unlocked cards for off and online play, but you can’t create your own from scratch. Whilst the more hardcore MTG players may baulk at this, I think it’s a clever decision. It reminds me of the sealed deck tournaments we used to play – you’d always have some idea of what you’d get in a standard pack, but sealed decks even the field between players. In the games I played, although I’m not exactly a noob I am very rusty, I felt I was beaten by a skilful player, and not someone who was lucky or had the right deck.

One of my biggest complaints about the collectible card game is you’ve got to spend so much money on getting your deck to how you want, and with new editions invalidating your favourite cards (essentially forcing you to buy more) it becomes untenable for all but the most dedicated players. The xbox version gets around this by standardising the decks, allowing you some leeway to play a deck you like, with winning really coming down to your skill (and a little bit of luck) and not simply the amount of time and money you have.

Yet even new comers will find they can play against a seasoned pro and the games will feel fairer. This system allows anyone to pick up the game and play on a relatively fair basis. Someone picking the game up in six months time will have the same cards as someone who got the game at launch (assuming downloadable card packs don’t get released in that time), meaning there isn’t a disadvantage in arriving to the party late.

Conclusion
Magic The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers will scratch the itch many ex-MTG players have. Although completely accessible to absolute new comers, the game seems just as well designed for those of us who used to play but got sick of the constant revisions and releases and unfairness that came with the collectable card game. It might not go far enough to simulate the game with the inability to customise the starter decks limiting some enjoyment of the game, but otherwise it’s a great way to pass the time.

Pros:
Excellent Presentation of the MTG card game
Easy to pick up and learn
Fair amount of replayablity with unlockable cards, co-op and online modes

Cons:
Can’t completely customise your own deck
AI can feel too logical and predictable
Unlocking everything can become tedious.

80/100