Got myself an invite to Blizzard’s latest entry into the digital card game market… Hearthstone: \u00c2\u00a0Heroes of Warcraft. \u00c2\u00a0Since there is no NDA covering the beta, I recorded a few of my first matches.<\/p>\n
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Some quick thoughts.. \u00c2\u00a0It’s clear this is targeted at low end\/mobile devices..it’s a very undemanding game (graphically), \u00c2\u00a0I’d love to see Blizzard spice up the graphics some for computers (I couldn’t see much difference graphically between ‘high’ and ‘low’ settings). \u00c2\u00a0I am thrilled that Blizzard continues their tradition of simultaneous release for PC\/Mac…though, I have yet to play on my Mac as I didn’t have enough free disk space to install it (oops!).<\/p>\n
The audio is great.. I liked the trash talking between the heroes at various points in the matches.<\/p>\n
Gameplay seems pretty straightforward..cards require mana to play, you gain 1 mana per turn (plus all the mana from your previous turn). \u00c2\u00a0Winning the game requires reducing the health of the enemy hero to zero.<\/p>\n
Each card that you play has a set health value, and a set damage value. \u00c2\u00a0Attacking another minion card will result in your minion both dealing, and taking damage…so you can (and will) kill off your own cards in order to defeat the other guy.<\/p>\n
Some cards have special abilities that get used automatically when you play them (Taunt = forces enemy minions to attack that card, draw a card = you draw a card (or two) after playing it, heal (this one should be obvious), and damage enemy hero).<\/p>\n
I haven’t played another person yet, but I imagine that gameplay follows the same flow as the vs AI modes.<\/p>\n
Here’s the two videos I recorded. \u00c2\u00a0No voiceover, just the straight game audio so you can hear it all.<\/p>\n
First one is Jaina Proudmoore vs Hogger, and Milhouse Manastorm (the first two tutorial fights).
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