Hearthstone review

Officially speaking, Hearthstone is still in Beta, but with the game essentially finished and the ability to spend real-world cash on cards, we saw no reason to hold back on a full review

World of Warcraft and Magic the Gathering are two of the most successful games of all time – the former defined the MMO, while the latter did the same for collectible card games (CCG). Now, Warcraft developer Blizzard has taken its colourful fantasy world and created an online, collectible card game set within it, that game is Hearthstone.

WARM AND COSY

In the simplest terms, Hearthstone is a two-player, turn-based, head-to-head fight. Each player uses a customised deck of 30 cards, which he has picked from his own much-larger collection. Cards can be abilities, spells or minions, summoned to fight on your behalf. Each of these has a cost from 1 mana point for the weakest cards, up to 10 for the most powerful. You start with a hand of cards and draw a new one every turn. Cards are played to attack your opponent and defend yourself; each of you has 30 hit points and the first one to hit zero loses.

Here we play the Houndmaster, who will boost the Attack and Health attributes of any ‘Beast’ minion on the board

All of this is pretty much par-for-the-course for such games, in fact Hearthstone is refreshingly streamlined compared to some, with games lasting no more than 15 minutes a piece. This is because players don’t have to play cards to get mana, instead you automatically get one point to spend in the first turn, two in the second, and so on. This puts the emphasis firmly on the action from the off.

Things rarely get quite this hectic, but with two Shamans playing the board is likely to get flooded with minions and summoned totems to upgrade them

Since Magic’s success there have been innumerable takes on the format, both with real and virtual cards, but the sheer popularity of Warcraft shoves Hearthstone straight into the spotlight. And boy does it gleam in the limelight, with the company’s sumptuous production values being immediately evident. The game is played in a boisterous fantasy inn, the gameboard is surrounded by a variety of interactive dioramas, but it’s the cards themselves that really shine. Blizzard’s artists have really gone to town here, with each card being beautifully designed and illustrated.

You can spend quite some time crafting decks from your available cards

There’s a lot of cards too. At present there are 9 playable characters in the game, each of which fits to one of WoW’s character classes, such as Warrior, Priest, Hunter or Shaman. Each character has around 30 cards which are unique to them, their special abilities and allies, plus there’s a couple of hundred neutral cards that can be used by any character. From those cards you can design and save up to nine 30-card decks to take online and compete with.

The nine characters each have their own abilities and approaches, for example the Priest heals himself and upgrades his minions with spells, while the Hunter has direct attacks and abilities that boost ‘Beast’ type minions

CARD COUNTING

The real crux of any CCG is how you acquire cards for your collection. Blizzard has opted for the most traditional method, where you buy packs of random cards to expand your collection. Cards are divided into different rarities – Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary – with the rarest cards being very hard to find. A pack of five cards can be bought for 100 gold, which can be earned in the game by completing challenges it set for you. Alternatively, you can pay hard cash, at around £1 a pack.

Hearthstone is a great game, but eventually you’ll want to spend some money on card to differentiate yourself from the pack. We’ve spent £7 to date (on seven packs) and earned another five packs of cards through playing

This is one of the best free-to-play titles we’ve seen. There’s no sign of micro transactions as you play or build your decks. The shop to buy cards (with cash or in-game gold) is kept well out of the way of the gameplay.

You can earn gold by completing challenges, which in turn let you buy cards without spending a penny

There’s no card trading between players in Hearthstone. You can however break unwanted cards down into Arcane Dust, which can then be spent to buy any card you want, again the rarer cards cost a lot more. For example, break down five unwanted Rare cards and you can pick any Rare card you want, but you’d need 20 such cards to make one Epic card.

New cards are clearly marked for your attention, while the crystals below the pictures denote their rarity

Before you start doing the maths, crafting a handful of decks could be pricey, and collecting every card would indeed be very expensive. Thankfully a surprising amount of gameplay is here without spending a penny. You start with a healthy selection of cards, and with a few games against AI controlled opponents, you quickly unlock more. Getting all the free cards for all the character classes will take you a while and give you a good idea of each hero’s tactics. By then you’ll have a good idea if you’re keen to put serious amounts of time, or cash into the game.

PULL UP A SEAT

Blizzard has done a good job of balancing the game, it matches you with opponents of similar skill and we’ve yet to feel outgunned by an opponent with a deck of Epic cards. Players online have even shown that you can get a long way, all the way to the game’s Legendary player ranking, using only the basic cards and some solid strategy.

Blizzard has big plans for Hearthstone in the near future too, plans that should make it even more accessible for everyone. The game will be available on iPad and Android tablets this year for easier playing on the sofa. There will be an Adventure mode, with single-player quests against AI controlled opponents.

Hearthstone looks to be doing for CCGs what World of Warcraft did for MMOs, bringing them out of a dark corner and bathing them in a cosier, more accessible light; we’d be amazed if the game didn’t turn out to be huge. So give Hearthstone a chance, it’s colourful, fun, easy-to-pickup and deep enough for all but the most hardcore of CCG fans.