Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers Review
In the late nineties, there was this amazingly awesome Magic: The Gathering game for the PC. The game, among the first to be released, has ever been the greatest in my eyes. In several iterations of Magic software, the developers attempt to craft a real-time experiment where casting spells have cooldowns, things untap every so often and (in some cases) you have to physically manage the position of your summoned minions (All these elements are seen in the spectacularly poor Magic: The Gathering: Battlemage). The Microprose game, which was also called “Duels of the Planeswalkers”, merely attempted to replicated the tabletop experience of magic and wrap it’s RPG elements around that. You could build your own deck and have a go at computer-controller AI, or play against other people via an add-on called “ManaLink”.
Can any Video Game adaptation measure of to live play of a CCG?
Since those days I have ever been waiting for a new Magic game that would bring the fun of the CCG in casual play without the crazy cost associated with “Keeping Up With the Jones” in live play. Magic Online made a valiant attempt at filling this void, however in terms of cost investment, it’s hardly any more efficient than playing the real game. Less efficient, really, when you consider that any friendly local gaming store or online retailer worth it’s sand will likely offer you a healthy discount on product. The wait for a modern, fun, magic game for the frugal gamer went on.
Battlemage Sucked
Last week, a second Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers was released to Xbox Live Arcade, and aims to answer this need. It weighs in at an affordable 800 Microsoft Points (10 US Dollars) and offers a variety of game modes and options for Casual Duelists and newbies alike.
You start the game with two starter decks, green and red mono-colored decks. Through the single player campaign, you’ll be able to unlock 6 other decks giving you one mono-color deck of each type, and three mixed color decks. Each campaign victory will net you a new card that you can optionally add to the deck you earned the victory with, so to obtain all the possible cards, you’ll need to play through the campaign a total of eight times (or, if that’s too much, fight the first and easiest Planewalker seventeen times with each deck). Campaign mode is, regrettably, the only way to unlock cards.
Duels of the Planeswalkers Basic Interface
Other Offline Modes include Co-Op Campaign, Challenge, Custom Duel, and Co-Op Custom Duel. In the Co-Op modes, you and a local multi-player partner use two decks and a shared life total to overcome your opponent, a format known as “Two Headed Giant” in the Magic world. In the Challenge mode, you are dumped into a dire situation, and are given exactly one turn to figure out how to completely defeat your opponent, providing some interesting puzzle solving in a Magic environment, which is not something you see every day (and I dearly hope we get more DLC puzzles).
Online you can engage in a 2-4 player free-for-all, or a Two-Headed Giant match, the latter of which is only possible with a local multi-player partner.
If you, like many people, were hoping to be able to fully customize or build your decks, then you will be disappointed here. Unlike the first Duels of the Planeswalkers, there is no striaght deck-building. Rather, the base deck must always remain the same, and you can selectively add your cards won in the single-player campaign to your base deck types. Land is also managed for you, for better or worse. This seemed to be a real drawback at first, but the archetypes are varied enough and the sideboarding gives you enough customization to keep most people happy. And as the cost of the game rivals that of your average ready-to-play 60-card deck, it’s hard to argue that eight customizable decks isn’t enough.
Why You Should Play It: You are new to Magic, and want to learn how to play without being overwhelmed; You like to play casually and want a balanced online play experience; You are a Magic player who tires of playing only Tournament optimized decks; You like Magic, but don’t like the cost of buying tons of cards.
Why You Shouldn’t Play It: You are a pro-tour level player and don’t want a “dumbed down” experience; The deck building is the fun part for you; You like to play kooky experimental deck archetypes; You need more customization than this game allows.
The deck building is by far the most fun part for me, but I might pick this up anyway after hearing you talk about it on the podcast. Now I’m starting to miss playing with the real cards though, and I’m sad I missed the Magic sealed deck tourney at the last convention I attended.
I bought htis, and it has reignited my love for Magic. However, I remember now why I stoppde playing in the first place. I’m just not that good at it. Oh, well, at least the game is balanced, and I don’t have to worry about some snot nosed kid killing me on the first turn every game.