Duelyst - Blending genres like noone else

This review is out of date as since it is written the game has changed. It still provides decent information about Duelyst but it misses some key features and some described here are changed. 

Have you seen Star Wars, the original, old movies? Do you remember the cool hologram chess that they had in one of them? I always had dreamed for one of those as it looked really cool. When I started playing CCGs especially digital ones this dream expanded and now I wanted the creatures that I summon to look more alive and not just cards on the table. Basically I wanted Yu-Gi-Oh the anime into a video game! It might sounds a bit lame to some of you, but think about it - your favorite creatures from Hearthstone moving, smacking each other before your eyes. Your massive green beasts in Magic charging at your opponent! Sounds cool, right? Now you can experience this in the new creation of Counterplay Games - Duelyst.

How original it could be?

Duelyst is online game which blends turn-based battles with CCG in a great way. Right now the game is in open beta, but even in this state it looks really close to complete and offers to the player good amount of features.

After a short tutorial you will have few game modes to freely choose from.

The first one is Training where you will be able to complete challenges type Beat guy X in one turn. This mode is great for learning different mechanics of the game and earning a good amount of cash to buy few boosters and improve your card collection. There are 45 challenges right now (v0.49) separated in 9 sets of five, every set harder than the previous.

To unlock harder challenges you will have to play certain number of PvP matches first, which bring us to the next mode. For now the PvP in the game is only 1v1 and there is only ranked. It is also season based with rewards for everybody in the leaderboard, based on their best rank in the season. From what I have seen there is good amount of players and you will not have to wait long for an opponent. The 1v1 PvP is also the only way to complete your daily quests which usually revolve around playing certain number of matches with certain faction.

The third game mode is Gauntlet where you will have to fight matches one after another and longer you survive, the better the reward. Great mode to test your skills and decks.

And the last fourth mode of playing is sandbox where you will be able to test your decks against each other playing for both sides.

After I mentioned decks and factions few times already, let me tell you more about them, before we get to the battles themselves. In Duelyst there are seven factions including a neutral one which is the only one that can be combined with others when you make custom decks. Every faction has its own different play style. For example the Songhai are crafty ninjas which will beat you with backstabs, range units and spells; Vetruvian rely on a lot of summoning; Abysal capitalize on sacrificing weaker units to boost stronger ones etc. 

When I was building my custom decks though I noticed a small problem in that the game does not tell you how many of each card you have put in your deck, making following what you have included and what not harder than it should be. It tells you if you add the maximum 3 cards, but it does not if you add less. But other than this small detail I have not seen any problems with the game. It runs smoothly, its stable, has not disconnected me and have not crashed so far.

Now that you know the basics of the game let's talk about the battles! Duelyst uses mana and muligan systems similar to those in Hearthstone. The different mechanic here is that once per turn you can discard one card from you hand and draw a new one. Also you can have maximum of 9 mana.

But what really set Duelyst aside from other similar games are the tactical turn-based battles. In battle every player has his General which is something like a hero or a Planeswalker if you want. Your opponent General is your target. If you kill him you win the game. All generals have the same base stats - two attack and 25 health. Which makes them pretty weak fighters at the beginning of the duel. To boost them you can use spells to equip them different artifacts. Also you will have to summon your first creatures next to your General. After that you can summon new creatures next to other units under your control. When you summon a new creature unless it does not have the Rush ability it will suffer from summoning sickness and it will be unable to act this turn. All creatures and Generals can move only two spaces. Something a little confusing at first, related to movement is that when you choose path for your units it will not show you that they can move diagonally, but they actually can, though one square diagonal movement counts for two spaces. Also all of your units can pass through your other units. Very important thing to remember, I lost few games because I didn't used that and circled around my own creatures. 

As a whole Counterplay Games have done great job in blending CCG with turn-based tactical game. The battles are not only interesting, but they are also fast paced and end quickly.

The way it looks, the way it is

When I heard about Duelyst at first I was really excited as it sounded right up my alley. Then I saw the game for the first time and its pixel graphics almost made me not touch it as I was quite tired of this style already. Thankfully I decided to give it a try and the pixel graphics not only didn't bother me, but I loved them, because they are done masterfully. Duelyst is the second game where I see such detailed and gorgeous sprites (The first is Serpent in the Staglands, for those of you who wandered). And it's not only the sprites. The animations are detailed, well timed, you feel the impact of the strikes; the spells are simply beautiful to watch spirals of fire cascading towards the skies and giant skulls  roaring before horrible curses befall your enemies. What I'm trying to tell you is to not judge it before trying it as it is a lot better than it looks.

Conclusion

When I saw the name of the game I wondered why they have decided to name it Duelyst with "Y", but I thing I know now. This game at first glance looks like something very familiar, but actually it has such great twist to it that it is something absolutely unique. Duelyst has made the greatest dream of countless CCGs players become a reality - to see your summons smash each other on the battlefield. But Counterplay has not just done that they have built upon it, turning the battles in fully fledged tactical ones which in difficulty can be compared to classics like Heroes of Might and Magic or King's Bounty.

If you like turn-based battles and CCG games there is absolutely no reason not to try Duelyst. This game is amazing!

Where to find it:

Official site

  

Warhammer 40 000: Deathwatch - Tyranid Invasion - Is it fit for the Emperor?

"Amongst a hundred men, there may be none fit for the Adeptus Astartes. Amongst a hundred Space Marines, there may be one fit for the Deathwatch."

— Watch Captain Brand

Warhammer 40K - Deathwatch is a turned based strategy game by Rodeo Games. It came out for PC on 16th of October and for iOS on 21st of August. In the game you will take control over the elite marine chapter Deathwatch who has the task to protect the Imperium of men against all alien races.

Here I will tell you about the PC version of the game.

The Hive is here!

The Deathwatch is an elite chapter of Space Marines composed of veterans from all other existent chapters. Their sole mission is to stay guard on the borders of Mankind and be the only obstacle between any invaders and the Imperium. In WH40K Deathwatch the dreaded Tyranids are back and your squads are the only ones who stand between the Swarm and the Imperium.

The game is separated in ten Chapters each with its own four missions. Each Chapter from the Campaign follows an attack from the Tyranids and the actions that the Kill Squad takes to repel the invaders. While the number of 40 missions is good and each can be replayed in three different difficulties, the missions themselves are a bit repetitive. Most of the time you will need to move from point A to point B and/or survive for X number of turns. Sadly these are not the only flaws of the battles. Probably the biggest problem that I had with the game is the slow speed at which everyone moves and that it cannot be changed. Also in battle everything is rather ugly and there is certain lack of basic for such kind of game mechanics. I mean at its base Deathwatch is X-COM with different theme and few twists. But unlike X-COM it is stripped from core mechanics such as covers or indication for line of sight. The only thing it has is overwatch and range indication. And while those mechanics are probably enough for the iOS version as there should be kept certain simplicity, but for PC are far from what is expected. 

And this lack of mechanics and polish on the look and gameplay is rather sad because I enjoyed it to certain degree and can only guess how awesome it would have been if some additional work has been put into the port.

Shiny metal and fancy guns

But let me tell you about the strange part of the game. The Spacemarines section looks awesome!!! Not kidding! All marines have great models, good level of details and beautiful backgrounds. But not in battle...no. Also there is good level of customisation for each marine. They will gain experience in battle and you can distribute it among their three base stats (health, accuracy and crit chance) or you can unlock perks and skills. The marines even have tiers and with higher tier come better stats and more skills and perks. After the end of each Chapter from the campaign you are rewarded with booster which will give you at random new weapons and/or marines. You can also buy boosters for in-game currency (only!). Both gear and marines can be sold for game currency.

The weapons in similar to the marines fashion also has tiers. The interesting idea here is that the highest tier items are restricted for use only by certain chapters. The weapons like their users have good models and are really faithful to the originals.

For the Emperor!

WH40K Deathwatch: Tyranid Invasion is a turn based game which recently got its port from iOS to PC. At its core gameplay it is a tactical shooter similar to games like X-COM and Massive Chalice, but unlike the two it lacks a lot of mechanics usually found in this type of games. Not to mention that the game is neither good looker nor offers much of variety in terms of mission objectives. It is just a direct port fom iOS to PC without any additional effort put in it. This is a bit confusing because sections of the game like the Spacemarines one and the weapons inventory look really good. The game also offers a good amount of character customisation with unlockable skills and different tiers of marines. Not to mention that Rodeo Games has already done similar game in the Warhammer Quest Universe and ti has a lot more in it! It is sad because it could have been a rather decent 40K game. Instead now it will have to rely only on its Universe and name for any success.

Where to find it:

Official site

Steam Store

Apple Store

Nova - 111 - Turn by turn it turned out to be great

During The Greatest Science Experiment which tried to unlock "real-time" something went wrong...the laboratory is destroyed, the scientists are scattered through the worlds. You have to find them!

In Nova - 111 you will fly your strange orange ship through quirky worlds where you will solve puzzles, defeat bizarre creatures and save scientists. The game is by Funktronic Labs and hit the market at 28.08.2015.

Nova - 111 was something that I barely remember hearing about from PAX-East 2014. The game actually has made a real buzz around it, impressing pretty much everybody who tried it. Now it is officially out and after I gave it a try, let us see what it is about.

I'm Dr. Science...

In the game you will pilot Nova, your orange ship and you will be moving around in a grid. Yes, Nova - 111 is a turn based adventure game with a twist. More about it little later. The main objective of the game is to save 111 scientists who took part in the Greatest Experiment and to find the exit for the next level. At the end of each level you will get points. Finish the level for as few turns as possible and you will get even more points. Getting the scientists to be honest is not necessary for your progress, but if you are into high score attacks you will want to find them all. Of course you can always go to level already beaten to try again. 

The first scientist you rescue is named Dr. Science and he will be the narrator for the rest of the game, will teach you the controls and tell you what has happened. Dr. Science's lines are the first indication of the game's pretty good sense of humor that will make you smirk more than several times while you warp your brain around the puzzles. I kind of was expecting more science jokes from this game and more dialogue from the rest of the saved scientists, but all they do is say something silly when you save them. This felt like a missed opportunity to me, I mean how often you will fly with Schrodinger's cat and Alan Turing?

Now that I mentioned the puzzles, let me say a bit more about the "action" part of the game. In your search for the scientists you will encounter two types of hazards - enemies and puzzles. The first are all kind of strange creatures who don't like you. And with them comes the twist in this turn-based game - some enemies act in real time. You will usually have few seconds to react but the first time you meet a new enemy you will never know how it will act. Will it charge at you, will it shoot or it might just start to multiply when you bump it with your ship. Against this onslaught of bizarre creatures you will have few tricks - protobombs, laser beam, phase ability and even the ability to manipulate time, not to mention that those will help you pass different puzzles too. Of course don't think you will get all this from the get go. Oh no, you will gradually find different modules and upgrades while progressing through the game.

The puzzles you encounter will usually implement time as their main element too. You will phase around, stop time at the right moment and dodge deadly lasers and falling stalactites. All this while evading and destroying real and turn-based enemies.Often keeping both concepts in mind might prove too much especially with the good amount of enemies. And because this might not be enough of a challenge there are even boss battles.

Quirky it looks, quirky it is

When you need to look at a game for a long time, it is good if its looks good and luckily Nova - 111 does! The game is colorful, with good amount of effects and things that explode. The levels are with good variety, the enemies are done with great amount of imagination and it sounds good. 

As a whole the game works and looks great, but there is one thing that heavily cripple it. The save system Funktronic has decided for their game is very strange. Almost as strange as the mash up of real time and turn-based mechanics. Sadly unlike its main mechanic its save system is horrible. Every area in Nova - 111 is made of three levels which you need to complete before moving to the next. The game saves your progress only at the start of each area. Which means you will need to replay the whole thing if you turn off the game before finishing the area. This way of saving also makes it really hard to return and replay certain levels which you remember you have not completed at 100%.

Conclusion

Nova - 111 is something truly unique as I have never seen other game blend turn-based and real time mechanics at this level. While solving the puzzles and fending off the enemies you will have the feeling that time is really warped around you as you will never know how the next enemy or trap will act. Beside its innovative mechanics the game also offers great look and pretty decent sense of humor. Sadly it has one big flow and that is its save system which almost remove the only reason why you might replay Nova -  to beat your score.

Where to find it:

Steam

Official site

Concrete Jungle - Decisions, decisions

City-building always has been a genre towards which I had mixed feelings. It's very interesting and it is very satisfying to watch my city prosper under my leadership. But because of its nature (imitating a city) when one thing go down everything follows. That infuriates me so much that I usually stop playing for some time. But I always return to the genre.

My come back this time is with a small game called Concrete Jungle. Work of the small indie studio ColePowered Games the game appeared on the market on 23th 2015 and while almost no one spoke about it, it turned out to be a hidden gem.

Welcome to the Jungle

Concrete Jungle is deck-builder. With a twist. In most deck-builders you have constant market from where you buy new cards for your deck. Here you don't have this, instead every time when you collect certain amount of "money" you are present with the option to choose one card or to take one "ability" which most of the time is also a new card. The difference is that the abilities give more control over what you get. Unlike the market where the cards are random.

The game has 8 characters with different abilities which give you plenty of room for experimentation and creation of different decks.

The idea of the game is to get certain amount of points by reaching block thresholds which is done by building different buildings. The trick is that only certain buildings collect points while others buff building squares and there are such that even debuff squares, but provide other things. You also gather points from blocks only if previous blocks are collected. You can force remove blocks, but it costs lifes and doesn't give you points.

Add to this the strong puzzle element that Concrete Jungle has with all the building fitting in the most harmless place and you get a game that will make your brain hurts.

The game features more than 200 cards which you will unlock gradually trough the campaign where you will try to save a city from its foolish mayor. And when you beat it there are other mods to try including competitive local and co-op play as well as versus AI mode.

Concrete Jungle is also a good looker and has a decent sound plus fully voice acted story mode. And mentioning the voice-acting most of them sounded really fake and forced to me and while it is probably done to add to the funny story that goes through the campaign, in the beginning they were rather annoying to me.

Conclusion

Concrete Jungle is interesting mix between a city-building and deck-building game, where you will have to carefully plan your moves or face the consequences. The main objective of the game is to reach certain thresholds and clear blocks by placing point collecting and manipulating buildings. At the start you will build simpler buildings but by advancing the campaign you will unlock fancier things like business towers, military bases and skyscrapers.

But while it is colorful and relaxing at first Concrete Jungle will make you use your brain in later levels where you will need every trick you have to complete your tasks.  

If you're into puzzles and city-building there is no reason not to try it. You will thank me later.

Links:

Official site

Itch-io

Humble Store

Steam

Jotun

Around the World Three Yggdrasil swirl all the worlds of Creation. In one of them called Midgard rages a horrible storm in the midst of it together with her men Thora tries to navigate her ship, but the storm proves to be stronger... Now the young warrior should prove to the Gods that she is not great only by name.

Jotun is a hand-drawn action-exploration game, created by Thunder Lotus Games and it is heavily inspired by Norse mythology. Jotun hit the market on 29th of September and became instant success. Let us see if this is deserved or was it just because of the great hype there was around this game.

From Ginnungagap to Valhalla...

As I already mentioned during vicious storm the young Thora together with her whole crew perishes, but because of her inglorious death now she should impress the Gods to be allowed in the Halls of Valhalla. Until then she will have to reside in the primordial abyss Ginnungagap. To win the favor of the Gods our young heroine will have to explore five realms and collect 10 key runes to open her path to the five monstrous Jotuns that guard each realm. But before talking about the Jotuns lets talk a bit more about the realms.

Every realm is drawn directly from the ancient Norse Sagas. You will visit places like the forge of the dwarf Brokkr who crafted Thor's hammer and the lake where the Thunder God fished for the World Serpent. And with each visit you will learn a little about each place. Most planes are also elementally themed, which give them even more character and variety.

Your task in each area is to locate a magical Rune...actually to find the way to the Rune which may not be that easy and usually involves solving some kind of puzzle. In each area you will also find one well with the head of the wise Mimir in it which will heal you, one three with the golden apples of Idun which will increase your life and one shrine of a God which will give you a certain power. All powers have two charges and you need to go back to Ginnungagap to recharge them.

Nothing of these things except the Runes is not necessary for you to reach the Jotun boss in each area. But they will be extremely useful if you want to stand a chance against the giants. Especially the apples and the gifts of the God Altars.

The fights with the Jotuns are one of the several things in the game which won my heart and reason is how epic they are. But to understand better what I'm talking about, I will tell you a bit more about the main character - Thora. This flame haired warrior is not like the most female chracters you have seen in video games. She is brave, strong leader and carries huge battle axe which she swings with such ferociety that whole bands of dwarves fly when struck and even the roots of the World Tree tremble and retreat under her attacks. But this woman that is equal to every man from her village and is named after the greatest warrior amongst the Gods is a mere gnome compared to the Jotuns that guard the way to Valhalla. 

The Giants that you will face will call thunders, posion clouds will cover the battlefield and the earth will tremble under their feet. They will literally squish you like a bug if you are not careful. At the same time you will have to dodge their attacks, pay attention to different henchmen they have and nick at their health bar with your now-its-not-so-big axe. Every Jotun have different weak spots, attack paterns and behaviour during the fight which guarantee unique experience in every fight. In other words there are some damn hard fights expecting you...but if they were easy, how will you impress them Gods?

Like a Saga came true...

The other thing with which Jotun won me over was its aesthetic and sound. Every move of Thora, every swing of her axe is so smooth that its almost like she is alive. In every area you visit its easy to see the hard work that is done while crafting them. They are simply gorgeous, more than once I have stoped just to admire the scenary that opens in the background. And sometimes what I saw was scary. The voice acting was another thing that added a lot to the immersion of the game. Because there is not single line spoken in English...

Conclusion

Let's Conclude! Jotun is a amazingly looking game where you take the role of the warrior Thora which after her inglorious death in sea now should immpres the Gods if she wants to ever get into Valhalla. For this she will have to collect ten magical Runes guarded by crafty puzzles. And slay five monstrous Jotuns, which can easily splat you on the ground, in epic fights to the death. And in the end stand and defeat Odin himself. The game is heavily inspired by Norse mythology and during your adventures you will visist many places described in old stories. You go as far as the roots of Yggrdasil and wander trough the blacksmith where Thor's hammer Mjolnir has been crafted.

If you're like me and like Norse mythology and epic boss fights then there is absolutly no reason not to try Jotun, where you will get plenty of both!


Links:

Official site

Steam

King's Quest 2015 - A Knight to remember

Have you heard of Sierra Entertainment? Yes? Well I wasn't expecting another answer. But did you knew that they have risen to glory with the series King's Quest? No? I didn’t know it until recently too. For many years I have known Sierra as the guys behind games like Empire Earth and Caesar.

Anyway believing it or not their golden series has been King's Quest and it is now alive again with the latest re-imagining by Odd Gentlemen and Sierra. But let's start from the beginning. What is King's Quest, who is the King, why he gives quests to people?

Disclaimer: I have never played the old King's Quest series, so I'll compare this one to other adventure games instead of its predecessors. If you're looking for an opinion how the new game is compared to the previous ones I'm afraid you will not find it here.

In the five series re-imagination you will follow the story of Graham. From his hopeful knight exam up until the time he becomes King Graham. Now, now, no need for harsh words. It's not like I spoiled anything, you will learn this in the first minutes of the game.

King's Quest itself is structured in way of a story - Graham tells his granddaughter her favourite story about how he tricked a dragon and stole his treasure - a magical mirror and returned it to the King who was so thankful that he made him a King. After the end of the story Graham's granddaughter is not satisfied though and he decides to tell her another one, one she has never heard before - the one of how he became a Hopeful Knight.

Honestly there is not much to say about the game. King's Quest even re-imagined is a classic adventure game. You walk around talk to people, they request certain item from you, you hunt for it, solve puzzles, bring them what they need, they give you new item and ultimately you complete your main objective. By its spirit and mood the game reminds me of another classic and that is Monkey Island. There are differences of course, like Graham is a lot smarter than Threepwood for example. Not to mention that the series has more action in it, well not as much as other similar games like Wolf among Us. But I divert, KQ remind me of Monkey Island, because of its silliness and goofy characters. For example the royal guard which after being chased by bees jump in the water one by one only after they're attacked by the bees. Or...I'll actually let you find the others on your own. Also as I already mentioned the mood of the game is light and without much tension. The humour of the game is also of similar "not-laughing-out-loud" type but more like "smirk knowingly". A type that I have started to like more and more.

True, there is fail state in the game but when you die the game brings you in front of the giant mirror where your story is displayed while you tell it and old Graham or his granddaughter says something along the lines of "This is not what happened" and then the game brings you back to your latest checkpoint. Their remarks about your mistakes are mostly witty and funny but not many and they quickly become repetitive (or I just failed too many times). Will you fail as much as me? Well it depends how good you are at QTE segments. The puzzles probably will not give you any trouble as they are not really hard. For comparison Book of Unwritten Tales 2's ones gave me a lot more trouble. The big issue that you will encounter is that you will need to walk around a lot. This first episode is a lot bigger than other episodic games. But the problem is not the wandering itself but the fact that for some reason Odd Gentleman has not included a map in the game or any matter of traveling fast between locations, so be prepared to get lost.

A cool thing that they did and is related to the puzzle solving are the multiple solutions with different consequences. For example when you need to find a new wheel for a cart, Graham goes in search for something round and you might steal a shield or a table...or you might even buy them, this choice also has its own consequences. Which only show how much more thought the developers have put in the puzzle solving than it looks.

Another thing that I like in the new King's Quest is the aesthetic. The game looks like a fairy tale of high quality and style. The animations are nice, detailed and with good variation. The colours are vibrant and bright. And while we are at this matter the voice acting is at top level too which is great bearing in mind that there is a lot of talking going.

Conclusion

As someone who has never played the old King's Quests I came to this game without any expectations. And I left impressed and inpatient for the second episode. King's Quest is a lot longer and meatier than other episodic adventure games and I find this fantastic. Also the game has great aesthetic; it truly brings you in a fairy tale. A silly one, but greatly voiced. In other words King's Quest does great job in immersing you in the tale. The game is also not trying to be something that it is not and its jokes while not hilarious definitely bring exactly the right amount of humour. 

Under all this for good or for bad you will find a classic adventure game. Graham with your help will help people...creatures...characters to get certain items, then they in turn will give him items that will allow him to advance the story. And this will repeat until the fulfilment of the main objective. I cannot miss to mention that the Odd Gentleman has gone a bit further in puzzle solving when they have made some puzzles to have more than one solution, each with different consequences. This logically brings also more than one end to the episode.

Now the classic aspect that I mentioned combined with the size of the world that you roam and the lack of map creates a problem. You will go by foot trough the same places quite a lot and this may be a problem even for the biggest fans as it become tedious quite quick. Sadly even if it sounds like a small problem it is a rather big one as it breaks the immersion and turns the game into a choir.

Luckily this is the only real problem of the game and if you can look past it, King's Quest 2015 is an adventure game that if you are a fan of the genre you cannot miss. I hope that in the next episode they will fix what they have missed in this one and will allow this great otherwise game to shine in it’s fullest.

Links:

Odd Gentlemen

Sierra Entertainment

Steam

Magic: Duels - Free mana for everybody!

Some of you might be following me for long enough to know that I'm big fan of Magic: The Gathering. Most of you probably even know what the game is about, but for those who have no idea I will start a bit further back.

Twenty-two, almost twenty three years ago the thirty years old Richard Garfield with the help of Wizards of the Coast published what is accepted as the first CCG game - Magic: The Gathering. The success of MTG was so big that it continues even today with new sets coming every year. Not to mention that the game inspired a ton of other card games.

But what Magic is actually? This is a game in which two or more wizards clash into a duel, fighting by summoning mystical creatures and using devastating spells. For this purpose they use different types of mana that they drew from the surrounding nature. What all this have to do with video games though?

After their huge success on paper in 1997 Wizards tried their hands on video games with some doubtful success until the coming of Duels of the Planeswalkers in 2009 and in 2011. Since then we see new DoP every year. The games focus only on the card gameplay usually featuring short single-player campaign and option for multiplayer over the internet. The other rather successful video game about MTG is the online version of the classic.

Until the release of Magic: Duels though all Magic games costed money. Duels is absolutely free. I guess you can look at it as Wizards Heartstone. Although this comparison is unfair as the two games are quite different in their core gameplay. But for sake of simplicity we will work with it.

Now let's look in more details what Dules have to offer and what it lacks. On launch the game features the new Battle of Zendikar card set. This is quite cool as you will be able to try new cards and strategies for free. Of course you will not start with all cards from the set. You will have to... gather them (do you see what I did huh?). But if it wasn't this way what fun it will be, what CCG it will be right? Getting more cards works by getting boosters. You will be rewarded few while completing the single player campaign and after that with duelling you will earn coins which will allow you to buy more boosters. I'm sure you already suspect it, so I'll just confirm your suspicions - In Duels also you will be able to buy in-game currency (coins) with real money. I'll say no more about it, take it as what it is - a fact. There is a lot written on the topic so I'll not make this article longer than it should be by talking about this. 

Similar to Hearthstone Duels also has daily quests which should be completed with different two colour decks. What Duels has that I have not seen in other similar game are the Community quests. This type of quests continues one week and all people playing the game can take part in it by contributing for completing the threshold of the quest. It's objective usually is something like "Play 10 000 Instant cards". If the quest is completed and you contributed to it, when its over you get the reward for it. This is great way for both helping new players and keeping the game experience fresh and new, because those quests are always different from the Daily ones.

But there is more! Unlike its predecessors Duels also features variety of play modes. I already mentioned one of them - the Campaign. You can also play versus AI with several difficulty settings. Against opponents online and the star of the group - The Two Headed Giant. This is a mode in which two players stand against two others and work in a team to achieve a win. I tried it and I must say that it is really fun and cool. There is small problem with its balance when the game matches you with an AI so it might be a good idea always to have some to play it with. You can even play offline although playing this way the game will not save your progress and you will not be able to earn coins

And I almost forgot Duels continues the tradition of Magic games with great, detailed tutorials which will lead you through every aspect of the game. This is important because Magic is a hard and complicated game and without proper tutorial it will easily turn away every new player who might try it. There is even deckbuilding helper which will help you make your first decks. In other words this is probably the best way to get into Magic!

All this said Duels also inherited some of its predecessor’s problems.  For example it still looks terrible. I mean the "battlefield" which you will look at in 90% of your time playing the game. It is just huge metal table (steel I guess after all it’s developed by Stainless Steel Studios.). Always! If not else it breaks the immersion of the game. You are nor feeling like summoning those great beasts and using cool spells. You feel like just playing cards to the table. Where is the fun in that? Very few other digital CCG games have blank boards like that. Not to mention that some are trying to bring the genre even further by combining it with fully fledged MMO mechanics.

Other big downfall of the game is its speed. Duels as every Planeswalkers before it is slow. This is mostly a result of its animations and the fact that MTG is a slow game to begin with. Here some of you will say " Well but Magic is Magic and with all the strategies and stuff you cannot play it faster.". I disagree strongly. Other digital CCGs like Infinity Wars and HEX which are not lighter by any means play a lot faster. And look a lot better!

The only explanation I can come up with is that Wizards don't want to change something that obviously works and will continue to make their MTG games this way as long as people continue to buy them. Now I can understand that. The game has existed in this form for 4-6 years already and usually it’s not good idea to change something that works. My problem with that is the fact that they don't use what the possibilities that digital technologies give them and by doing this they may fall behind other games on the market.

Conclusion

I have babbled enough. Let me now sum up everything until now. Magic: Duels is brave step in innovative direction for Wizards of the Coast. With it they will probably try to take place in the race of free-to-play CCGs. But while it definitely has a lot to offer like Daily quests and various game modes including the great Two Headed Giant. My hope for this game is that they will continue updating it with new sets and that they will implement more single player campaigns. Sadly Duels is far from perfect. And to make it worse, MD has inherited some flaws from its predecessors. Like the boring look and slow gameplay which puts it behind its competitors on the market. 

Still, still! If you can look over those flaws Duels is without doubt the best way to get into Magic: The Gahtering.

Links:

Official site

Steam

Magic:The Gathering Official site

Wizards of the Coast Official site