Magic: The Combattening - Hearthstone

[lac]

2 hours would put you above the curve. It was meant to be about 4 hours of content for a proficient player. It's a buck an hour game if they can help it. While, obviously, a lot of casual players don't quite spend that kind of money. It's still less then what you can expect competitive card buyers or arena players to spend in their first few weeks.

[Ginaz]

I don't get this "expansion".  It's just playing games against an AI with a different skin and a few new cards. 

[Ironwood]

No, it sounds like you get it. 

[lac]

The best part is where you get to pay to play the next wing.

Still having fun though.

[naum]

Hearthstone for Magic Players

[eldaec]

That article includes the phrase "many of the famous Hearthstone players".

I am really old and out of touch but.....

[schild]

Famous for Hearthstone means, "has streamed" maybe?

I don't know why PVDDR would write about Hearthstone unless someone is paying him to do so.

[Rokal]

I don't get this "expansion".  It's just playing games against an AI with a different skin and a few new cards. 

New AI has unique cards, character powers, and behavior. There are also the challenge modes to beat the AI with a pre-made decks which are okay. Not nearly as fun as something like puzzles in MTG: DOTP, but then DOTP dropped puzzles in the 2015 version anyway.

It's alright as a free content update, and it may have even been a reasonable amount of new PvE content if we were judging all the wings at once. If you're spending gold on the wings it's a reasonable value too, as you are guaranteed to get new cards which are generally pretty OP. If you were paying $5-7 per wing, it would feel like  a pretty terrible value but then TCGs have a long history of fleecing customers.

Compared to something like a MTG expansion, it's pretty disappointing. There are hardly any new cards (30 total) and they don't do enough to change-up what decks are strong/popular.

[schild]

There are hardly any new cards (30 total)

This makes sense since the design space is about 10% of Magic.

[Lakov_Sanite]

It should be mentioned that every wing can be unlocked for 700 in game gold which does not take all that long to accrue, especially since each new wing takes a week to unlock.  It's a lack luster expansion for the time it took to come out but the cost is not unreasonable and other games should take note of the accessibility.

[naum]

That article includes the phrase "many of the famous Hearthstone players".

I am really old and out of touch but.....

Scoff, you may, but the game already is one of the more popular ones (is in top 3 on twitch.tv, and even was in #1 slot the other day). I believe it has more active players than the previous king of CCGs, at least in digital form and probably overall too -- it's 2X or greater showing up in Google Trends, Tumblr, etc.…

[Ginaz]

That article includes the phrase "many of the famous Hearthstone players".

I am really old and out of touch but.....

Scoff, you may, but the game already is one of the more popular ones (is in top 3 on twitch.tv, and even was in #1 slot the other day). I believe it has more active players than the previous king of CCGs, at least in digital form and probably overall too -- it's 2X or greater showing up in Google Trends, Tumblr, etc.…

Which is just further evidence that Magic shit the bed when it comes to their online offerings.

[Tannhauser]

Which is Hex's business plan; make a Magic clone with a slightly more tolerable UI.

[Job601]

Famous for Hearthstone means, "has streamed" maybe?

I don't know why PVDDR would write about Hearthstone unless someone is paying him to do so.

From his article:  "It’s simpler than Magic, but it has a lot of overlap in terms of how it’s played and what skills are necessary to win—many of the famous Hearthstone players have played competitive Magic at some point. It’s also quite fun and, from my experience, way more complex than people give it credit for; it turns out there is a lot of room for a game to be simpler than Magic and still not be simple at all."  Pretty much what some of us have been saying this whole threat, from a player in the MTG hall of fame.

[Slayerik]

Famous for Hearthstone means, "has streamed" maybe?

I don't know why PVDDR would write about Hearthstone unless someone is paying him to do so.

From his article:  "It’s simpler than Magic, but it has a lot of overlap in terms of how it’s played and what skills are necessary to win—many of the famous Hearthstone players have played competitive Magic at some point. It’s also quite fun and, from my experience, way more complex than people give it credit for; it turns out there is a lot of room for a game to be simpler than Magic and still not be simple at all."  Pretty much what some of us have been saying this whole threat, from a player in the MTG hall of fame.

Take cover.

[Paelos]

I still haven't tried it yet. Been playing too much SWTOR (never thought I'd say that).

I'll load it up today and give it a whirl.

[schild]

Famous for Hearthstone means, "has streamed" maybe?

I don't know why PVDDR would write about Hearthstone unless someone is paying him to do so.

From his article:  "It’s simpler than Magic, but it has a lot of overlap in terms of how it’s played and what skills are necessary to win—many of the famous Hearthstone players have played competitive Magic at some point. It’s also quite fun and, from my experience, way more complex than people give it credit for; it turns out there is a lot of room for a game to be simpler than Magic and still not be simple at all."  Pretty much what some of us have been saying this whole threat, from a player in the MTG hall of fame.

Famous for Hearthstone means, "has streamed" maybe?

I don't know why PVDDR would write about Hearthstone unless someone is paying him to do so.

Edit: Hex brought in Magic pros for the same sort of commentary during their Kickstarter. I'm sure they were compensated in some way. I'm not saying this is one-sided, but rather, going to become more common given Magic's popularity.

[Morat20]

Heroic is a fun puzzle to figure out.
All in all the first week of the expansion was a nice 2hr distraction.

Yes. I've banged my head against the first boss a few times. Honestly, I'm not sure I've got the cards to beat him. You can't burn him down -- he can summon a 4/4 for two mana every turn. He's got those goddamn "battlecry cards cost more mana" cards.

I'm trying to huddle behind taunts and let him make shit trades, but I can't seem to survive long enough to gain control. Seriously, he can throw a 4/4 at me every turn for 2 mana, plus whatever other bullshit he's got. It's not like I can make even trades with that.

Edited: Finally beat the first boss with a hunter deck. Basically just sat there behind grizzlies, hammering any creatures he popped up until I could kill him with whatever that +2/+2 for every dead beast thing could kill him. (The two starving buzzards to keep my hands full of removal cards helped). Strangely, never actually got to cast Unleash the Hounds -- I kept him down to one creature or so the entire time.

[Morat20]

Ended up beating all three Heroic bosses with Hunter decks. And no reward, which is kinda dumb.

I find it more annoying than challenging, mostly because the opponent had no class/card number restrictions so it was a really cheesy fight. It wasn't "tough", you just had to build a deck around a very stupid opponent using (to you) illegal card combinations and numbers with an OP class ability.

Yay for building three of the stupidest hunter decks ever to live, as they would be obliterated by even a shit player in a real game.

[schild]

This is NOT an attack against Hearthstone. I'm saying this because the same is going to go for Hex.

What the fuck did you expect?

[Morat20]

This is NOT an attack against Hearthstone. I'm saying this because the same is going to go for Hex.

What the fuck did you expect?

Don't know. Smarter AI? Not basically a Civ I AI type of thing (you know, rampant cheating basically). I'm watching Hex at the moment. Hearthstone's just for...fucking around, really. It's been free so far. :)

[schild]

Even the Hex AI will just be rampant cheating, overpowered cards and effects, and stupidity.

It'll be years before we can rationally expect otherwise.

[Ironwood]

Yup, quite right.

[Merusk]

Yay for building three of the stupidest hunter decks ever to live, as they would be obliterated by even a shit player in a real game.

Welcome to the same pve vs pvp schism that has resided in mmos since their inception.

[Jeff Kelly]

Played around a little bit with the expansion.

It's very very dull. Three not very smart bosses that only get by with rampant cheating and 'game mechanics'. Also 'half-assed' doesn't even begin to describe the way they integrated the expansion into the game. If this is the best they could come up with after a year then I don't even want to know what else they've got in store.

Couldn't even be bothered to finish the bosses on normal.

[Lakov_Sanite]

Could we stop calling pve stuff in a card game "cheating" please? If you want each boss to be virtually identical to playing against other players then the whole concept of pve is pointless.  That said yes it's a disappointment in terms of length.

[Jeff Kelly]

Basically all of the Naxxramas bosses act exactly as stupid as all of the other computer opponents in Hearthstone. The only 'challenge' involved is countering their ridiculously overpowered hero abilities. I consider that to be lazy and uninspired gameplay and I also consider it to be cheating in the same sense that all computer AI is basically cheating to stand any sort of chance against a human opponent.

Without that one ability all of those opponents would be no more challenging than the basic or expert AI in the tutorial mode.

[Jeff Kelly]

It's not even on the same level as the classic 'boss fights'

[Lakov_Sanite]

The only difference in boss fights in a single player game or even an mmo is:

More hp
Stronger attacks
New mechanics

Hearthstone npc bosses fit all that criteria, what do you really want out of pve here?  Super hard AI?  If you want super hard AI that uses the same mechanics as other players just, fight other players.  Each heroic boss fight is a little puzzle to solve and it's entertaining but very, very brief.

I believe this wouldn't be an issue if there were something to do besides "fight three guys, then fight them again"  the fights themselves aren't offensive, it's just that is all there is.

[Jeff Kelly]

I'd disagree on new mechanics. For me a new hero ability is not a new mechanic per se. Although a boss technically has more HP, stronger attacks and new mechanics I'd argue that a great boss also has 'variety' and challenges you also by making you rethink your own strategies and the game mechanics you use.

Maybe it's just that the concept of a 'boss fight' doesn't really seem to work in a CCG setting, or at least in HS. I agree with your conclusion though. It feels like there's really not that much do do besides those three bosses and this adds to the problems I have with it.

[Slayerik]

Combination of Mind Control tech, 1 cost and 3 cost life gain guys, and the Murloc 2/1 that makes a 1/1 really hurt the horribly bad AI for heroic Maexxna. Then I had blizzard/FS for board clear. Other than that, my good pally deck one-shot every other encounter in there. Even so, it was good for an hour of entertainment.

[schild]

This is the best video I've seen of Hearthstone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V7aA0RHK-Q

[MrHat]

This is the best video I've seen of Hearthstone: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8V7aA0RHK-Q

100% accurate.

[HaemishM]

I thought I knew the rules to Poker. I had no fucking idea what was going on in that video other than wanting to punch everyone at the table bar the dealer.

[Kitsune]

It's shitty fake poker which is inexplicably popular of late.  The players are dealt two cards, no discarding, what you get is what you get.  Then the dealer puts down four cards and whoever makes the best hand out of what they have and what goes on the table wins.  Both players had a fantastic hand (as texas hold-em goes), both threw in all their money, then realized that the other guy had the other two aces, which pretty much screwed them both out of a possible 3 or 4 of a kind and left them with weaker hands than they thought they had.    Then guy number one lucked out and wound up with a flush.  The end.