First a minor confession: I don’t know that much about Magic: the Gathering. To put it lightly, I’m a bit of a novice. I bought a couple of decks and dabbled a little while I was in University but that is about it. So when I sat down to play Magic 2014: Duel of the Planewalkers, I was expecting there to be a steep learning curve. Collectible card games by and large get progressively more complicated as time progresses and Magic is the grandfather of them all.
But, to my surprise, it was incredibly accommodating, well initially anyway. After a nice CGI intro video showing one of the game’s Planewalkers running from some great evil, the game asks you how much of the card game you’ve played before. I chose a little because although it had been a long time I was familiar with the game’s concept at least. The players are known as Planewalkers, magicians with the ability to summon creatures and powers from different dimensions (wearing a cloak and actually believing that playing cards give you magical powers however are completely optional and probably not advised unless you want to be seen as either a headcase or a pretentious twat.)
Each player has twenty health points, the first to successfully bring their opponents count down to zero wins. Each of the game’s creatures and spells are all powered via land cards which come in all the usual elements, fire, earth, water and wind as well as death, forest and light. The trick is to try to amass enough land cards on the field early on to successfully summon bigger beasties to defeat your opponent. Throw into the mix other variables like cards which add additional buffs to your creatures or cripple your opponents as well as numerous other cards which grant conditional effects and special abilities and the game can quickly appear incredibly daunting, bordering on impenetrable to a newcomer.
Magic 2014 does an amazing job of teaching you the fundamental rules of the game through a series of tutorial battles which go over the various stages involved in a match as well as slowly and steadily introducing new rules and card types at a relatively brisk pace, but at no point does it ever feel overwhelming and the AI, at least in these early stages was incredibly fair. Sadly this doesn’t last long because after the tutorial levels you are metaphorically kicked out the door and left to fend for yourself against the rest of the single player campaign’s Planewalkers which you have to defeat in order to unlock the various different pre-constructed decks which can then be used in multiplayer.
The problem is that the AI is utterly ruthless, it knows all the rules, it knows how to overcome whatever pitiful defences you may have amassed and it always seems to get just the right card at just the right time. The deck isn’t stacked, but it sure as hell feels like it sometimes.
There is one thing I did forget to mention though, that makes the games bastardly AI appear just that little bit more shady. There is another way to unlock those new decks and extra cards that will make building a deck that’s more capable of overcoming the odds a hell of a lot easier. That is, of course, if you don’t mind paying for them with real world money via microtransactions available within the game’s deck builder. Sure its only 80ms points a deck, and compared to the absolute fortune collecting real Magic: the Gathering cards cost, its nothing, but since you’ve just paid for the game one does not expect to be presented with the kind of tactics usually employed in free to play games of the same type.
As such, it gives the game a distasteful pay to win feeling at times. Funnily enough, this is why I never bothered getting into the actual card game. Despite this, it’s worth persevering with as on the whole it’s an enjoyable experience and chances are eventually you’ll get lucky, beat the house and unlock some more interesting decks to mess around with. The story and cutscenes that accompany the main campaign are also nicely put together, although pretty straightforward. There’s an evil force destroying everything, your 1337 magic abilities can stop it blah blah, you know the drill. It’s literally there to facilitate you playing cards against the computer.
The biggest addition to this years version though is that players have finally been given the ability to construct their own decks from scratch within the game’s Sealed mode which has its own campaign, and, more importantly, multiplayer. In single player you’ll be given six packs of randomly generated cards which you can then use to try and construct a half decent deck to take on the same gits from the main campaign although this time your reward is additional booster packs instead of pre-constructed decks. If you don’t feel confident constructing your own deck though, don’t worry as you can ask the game to sort through your stack of cards and make a serviceable deck for you which you can then go back and tweak and edit to your heart’s content.
After you’ve managed to battle your way through the campaign you should then be ready to take on the game’s multiplayer which come in several different flavours including one on one and free for all match ups against up to three other opponents using either the game’s set decks or your own creations from sealed mode campaign.
On the whole, multiplayer is a lot of fun but be warned there are a lot of veteran players online so be prepared to get your ass handed to you on a semi regular basis, but it does make victory at the end of a close game feel all the sweeter as well as help you become a better player.
So should you bother with Magic 2014? I’m going to say yes, despite the obnoxious microtransactions, it is still a robust, challenging and genuinely satisfying game, as well as a great way to learn how to play or get back into the game without having to worry about finding real world opponents or the expense of having to buy different decks and booster packs.
However if you already own Magic 2013, unless you really like the idea of being able to make your own decks and are happy with the level of play that is already available in last years iteration of the series, you might be better off skipping 2014. If you were looking to get into the real game but it appears overwhelming or conversely are a seasoned player I would certainly recommenced giving Magic 2014 a go.
