Video Game Review: Magic the Gathering Tactics
By Michael Vass | January 21, 2011
By this point almost everyone should have heard of Magic the Gathering. It’s the collectible trading card game that inspired the creation of all the other card games, cartoons, and card-based video games that are around these days. Yes, in a way we are talking about the great-grandfather of Yugio.
Magic the Gathering has long looked to expand beyond the card collection origins that made its creators wealthy. There were the 2002 and 2008 versions of Magic Online. These versions have captured some 40,000 players, with most of the physical cards represented in graphical form. But Wizards of the Coast (owners of Magic) wanted to get an even bigger audience. So they decided to revamp the system and target, to a degree, the MMO crowd (thus the connection to SOE). Thus the latest game, Tactics.
To be fair, Tactics is not that original. It is very similar in design to Culdcept Saga and any number of RPG’s in gameplay, though it has the virtual version of the Magic cards. Your character summons creatures or spell effects, to attack an opponent with the first to lose all their hitpoints the loser. Simple and basic.
Indeed the whole game looks and feels very basic. Which is good since it is free. But since there is a relatively high and redundant cost for booster cards and expansion of the game chapters, you still would expect a little more. Maybe a bit of character creation options at least. But we are getting ahead of ourselves.
First off, you must get a Sony Online account. Anyone who has one knows that Sony loves to try to ensure upfront payment for whatever game is on their systems. But overall, it’s just an annoying step.
Then the game loads. Rather quickly as MMO’s and similar games go. Plus the file is small, roughly a bit more than a Gig. Which tells you there just isn’t all that much there at all. Once you get to log-in you will quickly see how little.
You get to choose between 3 characters as your avatar. A woman, and 2 guys. The difference in the guys is that one has a helmet, the other doesn’t. Oh, and the swords, a different one for each guy but the woman gets a staff. Of course they are all White, though the fuzzy graphics and dark color scheme to the graphic does make it slightly questionable.
So there go the graphics, pick a name and a base color (mana) type and you are into the tutorial.
The tutorial, a series of 8 seperate instances is about as idiot-proof as these things get. You are told exactly what to do, when, and immediately wisked to the next tutorial once you have done that. They do cover the basics, and whatever other questions you might have about the game won’t be necessary for gameplay.
Now you can start the solo game, compete against other planeswalkers (what you are called in the game), play one of the multiple tournaments, arrange your deck, auction cards you don’t want or want to buy, or you can buy booster packs with more cards and extensions to the solo game.
If you go the route of the solo game, you should be done with all of the free content in between 1 hour and 3. Yes there really is that little of it. It consists of several battles versus an AI that starts off as dumb and weak as a wet noodle, ending the free content with an AI battle that is a minor challenge at best.
At some point you will venture into the store to buy a booster pack or many. The first comes free as you get 500 credits just for uploading the game (as well as a free card if you download in the early adopter timeframe). After that you have to buy your booster. Auctions are in game gold though, which you start with 20 for downloading the game.
The economics breakdown to $5 = 500 Sony credits = 50 game gold. It cost 399 Sony credits (SC) for 1 boosterpack. 8499 for a case. Auctions are hit and miss so far, but it has only been 3 days since the game went live. Common cards can go for anything between 9 and 20 gold. More useful cards can be found for anything from 50 – 200 for the same card.
The real challenge to the game is having live opponents. Which would be far more fun IF the servers for PvP were better. Matches will intermitently crash or freeze. Gameplay will stutter, and the end of one turn means several seconds of waiting time before the next turn starts. Still the challenge of another human can be fun, if the whole thing isn’t a bit long (due to the slow servers).
Oh, though you will likely forget about it unless you are deep into the solo game, the audio tracks are pretty good. The storyline also makes for a decent, if predictable, read/listen.
So what is there to think about Magic the Gathering Tactics?
Lastly is a feature that only collectible games have. The OCD factor, or the driving need to collect more and the ease of doing so – 6.5 out of 10
Thus the game is an overall 5.2 which really descibes the disappointment you get pretty early on. It might be more fun after $50 of buy-in, but it hardly seems worth the effort to find out.
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Casino European Roulette with High-quality Technological style 3D graphics skin - play for fun earn and achievements! Mouse, follow in-game instructions.
Classic Black Jack game where you have to get a 21 to make black jack. Classic Casino game Hit on a chip to place bet. Then play and choose hit or stand acording to your cards.
as a player who has invested 50 dollars for the campaigns and a booster draft to get myself started, this ends up being all the investment you need to enjoy the game.
however, SoE really needs to get up and start fixing little issues double-time. the game is amazing, shows tons of promise… but they didn’t test it enough.
So $50 is the magic number (pun intended). Maybe I will invest a bit more as the game does have potential.