Introduction
OK, I know that this is probably going to recieve a fair amount of ridicule, but a number of people have been asking me about it. Rather than spend ages explaining the concept to each individual over xfire, I thought I would save time by just doing a review.
So what is Magic: Online? Well, before I explain that, promise that you finish reading the rest of the review. You see, the short explanation makes it sound extremely shit, even to a hardcore beard like myself. You promise? Ok, here I go...
Its a card game.
Still here? Right. The first thing people tend to think of when I say that is "What, like solitaire?". No, not like solitaire. Some people, who know a little more about it, say "What, like Pokemon or Yu-Gi-Oh?". Closer, but again, not really, no.
What it actually is, is an online version of the grand-daddy of all trading card games, Magic: The Gathering. It is exactly the same as the offline, real-card version (albiet with less arguments about rules). The game is played by you selecting your "Deck" from your card collection, and then challenging another player. The actual play is something like a cross between a stratagy game (in that you have resources, and you make armies to fight the opponent) and a puzzle game. The fun comes from outwitting an opponent. This game is all about Big Brains.
Gameplay
The play itself is, wierdly, only half the game. You see, before you can actually go into a game you need to have a deck of cards, and you put these together yourself. You can get premade ones, and they work ok, but after a couple of games you will at least want to alter the deck, if not make one from scratch. This can be because theres a card in there that you never use, and you want to remove it. Or you may have a card in your collection that you can imagine working well with your deck, and want to add it. The outcome of the actual games often rely more on your ability to put good decks together than your ability to play them.
Of course, if that side of things doesnt really appeal to you, then fret not. There is something called "netdecking", which basically boils down to downloading premade decks from the internet. Although you cant just get the cards for free, once you have the cards, the actual arranging of them into decks can be entirely done for you. Its kinda frowned upon in the community though, as the more successfull net decks get used a lot, and playing against the same deck time and again can get a little boring.
So, youve got your deck, then what happens? Well, the game is split into turns, with each player taking their turn in...er...turn. Each player has a hand (which is made from 7 cards drawn from your deck) and a deck. Each turn, a player takes a card, adds it to their hand, and can play a land. Land is the resource of the game. Each land can, each turn, be "tapped" for one mana. Non-land cards all have a cost to play, in mana. So, for example, if I wanted to bring my goblin into play from my hand, and the goblin cost one red mana, I would tap a land that gives one red mana, and put him into play. Theres also spells, like fireballs, and artifacts, that have all manner of effects. The game is won when the opponent either is reduced to 0 life (from a starting point of 20), or when they need to draw a card from their deck, and can't, as they have used them all.
So why is this fun, I hear you ask? Well, its not so much the actual playing of the cards that is fun, its the interaction the cards have with each other. You see, nearly all cards in Magic have some special rules printed on them. Things like "Whenever you do damage, you may draw an extra card" or "When this creature is played, an opponents creature is destroyed". Its the working out what cunning combinations you can make out of these rules that makes the game fun. For instance, I recently aquired a card that said "whenever a creature does damage, draw a card". I already had a creature that had "whenever you draw a card, do 1 damage to your opponent." This meant that if I could get both cards in play without the opponent removing one, all I would have to do is one damage or draw one card and there would be an infinate loop of draw card->do damage->draw card->do damage. The trouble was, the creature in question required a lot of mana, which means a lot of land. Would I survive long enough to draw the creature and play it? Would the opponent think of some way of foiling my evil combo? If he does, would I be able to think on my feet enough to still get a win from it? Thats where the fun is.
There is a book by Ian M Banks called The Player of Games. In that, a genius in games theory says that for a game to have lasting fun, it must have a balance between predictability and randomness. To predictable, and the brainiest person wins every time (like in noughts and crosses). To random, and the skill and intelligence of the player has no bearing on the outcome of the game, so the player has no control over whether they win or lose. In my opinion, Magic has this balance. You need to have a reasonable amount of brains, to be able to build a decent deck and then make the right decisions when playing it. But also, you need some luck, because the best deck in the world can be foiled by not drawing the right cards at the right time.
Sights and Sounds
Now this is a tricky one. I mean, its a card game. Its not exactly going to be able to compete with the latest FPS on looks, no matter how good they are at coding it. But thats not the point: It would be like trying to jazz up chess. You can make it as flashy as you like, the core game would be the same, and *thats* where the fun comes from.
So yes, it looks aweful. In fact, it looks like it was coded for windows 3.1. And the sounds are equally bad; Ive turned em all off except for the beep that tells you its your turn to do something. However, there is a flip side to this. Its got roughly the same system requirements as minesweeper. You can, therefore, play it alongside doing other stuff on your computer, no problem. I used to play whilst I played EVE (back when I did play EVE), as the game not only requires very little of your computer, but as its all turn based, goes at whatever speed you feel like (as long as your opponent doesnt mind.)
Also worth mentioning in this bit is the card art. Roughly the top half of each card has some artwork, depicting the meaning of the card. Some of these little bits of art are fucking brilliant, and some make me giggle. The Goblin Flectomancer, for example, has a brilliantly silly hat. The zombie card Severed Army depicts and army made entirely of chopped off limps and hands and things, marching on a city. Brilliant!
Stuff that sucks
There are a couple of things that suck with this game. The biggest one is the same problem you get with any game based around playing other real people: Some people are dicks. However, in the casual play area (which I spend most of my time in, as I imagine any 5punker would), there is no penalty for losing a game. So if someone you are playing against proves to be a bit of a twat, just concede the game and play someone else. It can be hard, though, at times to not be drawn in to a stupid internet argument against some idiot teenager who's sore over a lost game, or a particularly good play on your part.
The other thing about this game that sucks is its effect on your bank balance. It sucks, hard, and all of your money disappears into its gaping maw. You see, although the game is actually free to play, you need to buy cards. And although you could, technically, just buy one deck and play with that for ever, you really wont want to. You will want to improve your deck. And for that, you need cards, which cost money. An then you will think of something that requires a whole new deck build. And that requires more cards. Suddenly you realise that although one deck costs a mere £5, you have actually spent many times that, and now have a card collection of several thousand virtual cards.
Like me.
Conclusion
Its a marmite thing. You will either love it or it will utterly fail to grab you. However, there is a free trial thing they do, where you can just download a client, hit a button and play for free, with a handfull of premade decks. Although this doesnt give you any of the deck building side of things, it gives you a fair idea of whether or not you will like the game, and hey, its free.
If any of you want to, I shall dig out the link for the client, and show you how to play. Its actually a lot easier to understand than it first appears.
Score :
