Hearthstone (PC, Mac, Android, and iOS)

Have you ever played Magic the Gathering, The Pokemon Trading Card Game, Duel Masters, Yugioh, Bakugan, The Lord of the Rings Trading Card Game, or the World of Warcraft Trading Card Game? Well now you can play the digital World of Warcraft Trading Card Game. A game complete with Leper Gnomes, Murlocs, Goblins, and legends like Deathwing or Leroy Jenkins himself. Relax, sit down, and just play a round or two of Hearthstone.

History

Hearthstone is an internet collectible card game created by Blizzard Entertainment. It was created by Team 5 within Blizzard, a team formed to create a smaller side project. They decided on a collectible card game because it would take lots of design knowledge, fairly little tech, and it would be something that was fresh and new in the digital space. When the game was nearing release Blizzard had a hard time creating interest for a card game where an up front fee would give the player access to all the cards. So they instead opted for a free-to-play model that enabled the cracking pack experience but further enabled impatient players to get the cards they wanted right now — and make some profit on the side.

For a trading card game it may come as a surprise that there’s no way for player’s to actually trade cards. The design team figured it would be best to avoid balancing a reactive economy, presenting opportunities for duplicating cards by meddling with the trade system, and enabling third party sales.

Hearthstone was released on March 11th 2014. It’s competition was Dark Souls 2 (PS3 and XBox 360), Smite (PC), and Luftrausers (PC, Mac, Linux, PS3, and PS Vita).

Experience

When I play Magic I don’t talk trash. I’ll happily engage in banter with an opponent, especially during the early turns of a draft event. But if that guy starts talking or they need to focus I shut my mouth immediately and try to give nothing about the board state away. I want to influence their play as little as possible. There’s none of that in Hearthstone. I shout, challenge, jeer, and get pretty rowdy about things overall. I can’t count the number of times I’ve played my win condition while bellowing, ‘CAN YOU DIG IT!?’ There’s something about the anonymity of the game over the web and the fact that I’m not face to face with someone that bring out my inner hooligan.

Gameplay

Hearthstone is a class-based collectible card game. You and your opponent each start with 30 health and your goal is to reduce their’s to zero by playing and attacking them with minions and playing spells. Each class has cards unique to them but there’s also a pool of generic cards that any class can use, which makes each class feel uniquely their own. Each class also comes with a hero power that costs 2 mana and does something simple such as the Ranger’s Steady Shot which deals 2 damage to the enemy hero. Each deck is composed of 30 cards with no more than 2 copies of each card in it so once you’ve seen your opponent cast those 2 fireballs, you know they’re fresh out.

Naturally the classes are the World of Warcraft classes.

Unlike Magic there are no land cards to produce mana. Each hero’s max mana supply simply increases by one and refills every turn. Also unlike MTG you cannot play cards on your opponent’s turn — there are no instant speed effects, only sorceries [This guy would like that kind of game]. The closest things are secrets which are cards that trigger under certain circumstances. Such as the Paladin’s Noble sacrifice which will bravely jump in the way of an opponents attacking minion and take the blow instead. Further unlike MTG there are no phases, you can play cards and attack with minions interchangeably during your turn. Minions also have a health total that does not restore in between turns so they’ll eventually wear down over frequent attacks.

Now that the lecture is out of the way you can start playing. Every day you’ll get new quests which earn you gold which you can spend on packs, rounds at the Arena where you build a deck out of randomly generated cards, or Solo Adventures.

The Gush

Hearthstone is a free to play game and I would say that its micro-transactions are quite tame. You can purchase packs of cards or single player adventures with in game money or real world cash. The single player adventures are a little pricey at 700 gold per area — the gold purchase is sadly only available in one semi-hidden menu — or 20 dollars for the whole thing. It’s totally possible to get everything in the game without spending any real world money, and quite attainable at that. I’ve been playing for two years, have not spent a single penny, and I’m able to construct a decent deck.

The packs pseudo-random distribution is really interesting. Every pack is guaranteed to have a rare level card in it, every so many packs is guaranteed to have an epic card, and every so many packs is guaranteed to have a legendary card in it. There’s no guarantee that you won’t get extra copies but then you can break them down into dust which can be crafted into other cards you do want. You can even break down all the cards for a class that you never play in order to create cards for the classes that you do.

The single player adventures are simply fun. They all do very interesting things to warp the game or alter the rules in some sort of way. Such as having you play a unique class or having your opponent steal your deck — make an awful deck and watch him struggle.

Have you ever missed an ‘at the beginning of your upkeep ability’ in MTG? Or forgotten an ability that you can’t opt out of? Never again says Hearthstone. Because those systems are automated, there’s no room for that kind of human error.

This also creates ease in bizarre systems, like replacing your character with a demon lord.

If the solo adventures don’t strike your fancy or are out of your price range then Hearthstone’s still got you covered with the Tavern Brawl. A special way to play the game is presented every week with new rules or stipulations. Sometimes the players team up to defeat a boss minion or maybe you must construct your deck of 15 of two different cards. Also, if you win, you get a free pack! FREE STUFF!

The attention to detail is top notch and keen. Certain cards will have different aesthetic elements when played against or alongside certain other heroes or minions. For example, if you play Illidan Stormrage while Mal’Furion Stormrage is your opponent his dialogue will change. Every play board also has things on it that you can fiddle with when you’re waiting for your opponent to make his move.

The Kvetch

You may have just started playing and you’re looking at your cards and you’re brewing up a brand new deck but it’s probably just going to lose a lot. There’s these little things called the meta-game and dominant strategy. A lot of players — or bots — have figured out what is the, statistically, most powerful deck. And then they’ve spent enough money to get every card they need to support this deck. Worse yet, in ranked play they can lower their rank by conceding repeatedly until they hit rock bottom and start smashing the newbies in a new meteoric rise. I’m just tired of facing top tier decks at low ranks when I just wanna have silly fun with my Druid Murloc deck.

As far as I’m concerned The Arena is black magic and the people who are good at it are literal wizards. Arena is most analogous to MTG’s draft format. You choose one of three random available classes and then build a deck by choosing one from 30 sets of three random cards. Then you go up against opponents until you lose three times. Then you’re awarded prizes for every victory you racked up. Rewards like gold cards, crafting dust, packs, and gold. The implementation is great, I must say.I’m just so consistently bad I had to complain.

Pictured is a literal wizard’s Arena winning.

Occasionally cards will not interact in the way that you expect them to. If you’ve got 2 secrets that trigger at the same action, which one goes off first, do they both go off? Hell if I know. And that not knowing means that I can’t plan or strategize.

The Verdict

One of my major problems with Magic the Gathering is the pedigree. There are so many old cards that don’t fit with modern design sensibilities or are otherwise worth so much money that it acts like an incredibly high barrier to entry to certain formats.Hearthstone dodges all of these things by learning from MTG’s mistakes and being a pretty new game with no 500 dollar cards that you need to be competitive. It’s digital automation makes it much more difficult for someone to cheat on purpose or on accident. It’s also a much simpler game subjected to a different kind of RNG — never get mana screwed again but who knows what you’re Unstable Portal will produce. In short, it’s a damn fine card game that requires no previous knowledge of the World of Warcraft or experience with collectible card games. Oh yeah… and it’s free.

Next Week: The Consuming Shadow

Diablo (PS1, PC)

 

 

 

Introduction

One of the Demonic Prime-evils, Diablo, has escaped from his prison in the small town of Tristram. With the assistance of the Arch-Bishop, Lazarus, he has driven the King to madness and possessed the King’s son, Albrecht. The player takes the role of a powerful Warrior, a quick Rogue, or a brilliant Sorceror and must fight through a dungeon of Hell-spawned monsters in order to destroy the great Demon.

Disclaimer: My experience with this game is mostly in the PS1 port. I’ll offer points about both versions but most of my experience is still with that port.

Development

Diablo was made by Blizzard Entertainment, it’s difficult to imagine that Diablo was only the 6th game they had made– It’s also surreal to think that they made The Lost Vikings and Blackthorne. They were most well known for making Warcraft at the time, a real time strategy game, so making an adventure game like Diablo was risky.

This is where it all started kids. This is the beginning of Blizzard.

 

Diablo has multiple versions, it has the PS1 port and an expansion called Hellfire. I played most of my Diablo hours on the PS1 port so I’m going to be talking about it a lot, especially in the Kvetch section. The Hellfire expansion was developed, not by Blizzard, but by Sierra. It adds a new class, the Monk. And includes a strangely large amount of cut content, namely the Bard and the Barbarian. It also adds the NPCs Lester and Celia that interact with a new area in Tristram, The Hive. 

The Hive also has special interactions with the joke character, The Complete Nut.

 

Apparently there’s a lot of cut dialogue and cut quests that never made it into the game. As it stands the number of quests are quite limited. Most of these quests are only available in single player mode. I think they were cut because Blizzard figured most players would be playing online.

There’s an entirely cut NPC from the original game, Tremain the Priest. Cain takes his place, more or less.

 

Diablo was released on December 31st, 1996. It released at the same time as Donkey Kong Country 3 (SNES), The Neverhood (PC)

 

Nostalgia

I used to play the demo for this game on my Uncle’s computer and it scared the piss out of me. I’ve mentioned that I was a coward when I was a kid but I couldn’t even bring myself to fight basic enemies I was so scared. I could deal with skeletons and little demons but when I got to fighting the weird bug things on the early floors I would flip out and run. I would think, “If I find those things then I’m just going to have to restart the game until they’re not an enemy there”. I remember the first time I fought the Butcher, I just ran. I opened that door, heard his dialogue, and closed the game as quickly as I could. It’s really interesting not being scared of it anymore. Now I’m more than willing to charge head long into the Skeleton King’s rib cage and smash it to pieces.

That’s the Butcher on the right there. His chamber is far more frightening than he is.

 

Gameplay

Diablo is a hack and slash dungeon crawl. No matter which class you choose your goal is to venture further into the labyrinth, level up, find better gear, and fight stronger monsters. Unlike Diablo 2, character’s don’t acquire more skills as they level up. Leveling up only increases their attributes. Attribute levels must be at a certain level to wear certain items or use scrolls and spell books. Limited inventory space means choosing which items are the most valuable and bringing them back up to town to sell. Certain NPCs in town will offer single players quests which can net them impressive items that can’t be taken out of single player sessions. 

The wonderful world of loot. Don’t forget about the mandatory piles of money either.

 

It’s controlled with mouse and keyboard on the PC and the PS1 controller for PS1. Thankfully, the controls are really well mapable on the PS1 controller. They’re not preset very well but the game allows the player to change the controls to suit their needs and style very well. 

The classes are what really make Diablo. Each one plays very differently. The Warrior has high health and strength, making him ideal for soaking up damage and dishing it out with a sword or an axe. It’s important to keep him well equipped though, going into the lower levels of the dungeon with a crappy armor will lead our hero to certain doom. Then there’s the Sorceror, who’s the Warriors polar opposite. If the Sorceror can find good and useful spell books then he can become a nearly indestructible tank that shoots lightning and destroys everything. The Rogue specializes in using the bow and disarming traps. The traps in the labyrinth can be deadly so it’s really useful to have her around. That being said, this game does have friendly fire so it’s very possible to kill your allies. The issue is that bows don’t do a lot of damage, but she can raise her magic stat higher than the Warrior can so casting spells is a viable option. I dunno, I could never figure out how to play her.

 

Our three heroes. And the Sorceror blows away all the enemies with a mighty Lightning Nova.

 

The Gush

One word, multiplayer. Playing this game with, or against your friends, is a blast. Backing up your Warrior buddy with a hale of arrows or deadly spells will never stop being fun.

The art style and graphics for the game were wonderful for the time and I still think they hold up now. The different environments all look grim, dark, and foreboding– like a good dungeon should. There are a lot of pallet-swapped enemies with different names but their design is so solid and interesting that I don’t even care.

You take the gold ogre, I’ll take the blue one. 

I don’t know if the PC port had this but the PS1 version has a whole history of the world available at the main menu. The story of this world was really engrossing to me. I know that Lazarus has left mad journals all around the PC and PS1 versions of the labyrinth but I thought that listening to the history plain was super cool. Sometimes I would just boot up Diablo just to listen to the back story.

The characters in this game are great. I love talking to all of them about whatever they want to talk about. From Farnham’s drunken ramblings with wisdom tucked inside to Cain’s mysterious stories– how does he know so much anyway?– I love hearing all of it. My favorite NPC is definetly Wirt, the Peg Legged Boy. After he got his leg ripped off by angry demons he decided to get back at them by becoming a small entrepreneur, providing you with some of the highest end gear money can buy. Best bit part though must go to the wounded Townsman outside the labyrinth entrance.

This guy’s speech tells the player everything they need to know about the plot and pumps the player up to kill some demons.

 

I also like demolishing hordes of monsters. The bigger the horde, the better. Don’t care how much loot or experience points they offer, I’m just glad to destroy all the little hell spawned buggers. 

 

The Kvetch

Two words, single player. Playing this game alone is the ultimate sadness. The presence of that other player sharing the adventure is vital to the enjoyment of this game. Maybe it’s just me, but playing this game alone is empty.

The PS1 port. Here’s everything wrong with it. It takes up 12 of 15 memory card blocks, so you can only have 3 characters on the same card. Playing multiplayer slows down each of the character’s movement and makes the characters stick together so coordinating movement can be difficult. The game’s graphics and art had to be compressed to fit on the PS1 so everything just looks uglier overall. Menu surfing can be difficult because of the strange controls. The PS1 has auto-targetting for spells since there’s no cursor to target enemies with. This thing will always point at the most useless target is possibly can making the dear sorceror waste oodles and oodles of mana points blasting at enemies one at a time. The walking speed is also atrociously slow.

Acid beasts. These enemies are un-fun to fight. Any of the ranged attacking enemies are un-fun to fight but these guys are the worst. Enemies that can attack from afar abuse this fact, they’ll run and shoot over their shoulders at you the whole while. But when you kill these guys they leave acid pools that can deal a lot of damage so chasing the rest of the pack is even more difficult.

The best part of this game is the co-op, so the worst part of it is the friendly fire. I’ve accidentally killed my partner too many times. One stray lightning bolt or sword swing can totally demolish someone.

Gold shouldn’t take up inventory space. I know it’s not realistic but it makes gold a burden instead of sweet treasure.

Those inventory slots get mighty scarce when they’re filled from wall to wall with gold.

The durability system is butts. If your item runs out of durability it disappears from your character and is gone forever. This can be so frustrating when it’s been a long time since you went to town and then poof, there’s goes your sweet sword. Gotta find another one.

 

The Kvush

Town portal is a spell that allows the player to teleport back to town and that’s awesome. What’s more awesome is being able to learn the spell by finding the spell book for it. What’s not awesome is not finding the spell book and having to continue to use scrolls when you’ve got the skill to learn it from a book that you just haven’t been lucky enough to find. Maybe I’m looking a gift horse in the mouth but at early levels 150 gold is a lot to dish out every time I got back to town.

 

The Verdict

This game is still solid but is completely outclassed by it’s sequel. Diablo II is the more rapidly available game and the superior game overall. If you need the trip down memory lane or are interested in the history of the series then Diablo 1 is a good play but I would only recommend it for the hardcore fan.

Next Week: Legend of the Mystical Ninja.