It's no secret that free to play titles are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Both independent studios and behemoth publishers are experimenting with different ways of reeling in new players and holding their attention. In doing so, they are becoming ever more adept at striking the enticing balance between valuing the player’s investment of time with coaxing them to dip into their pocket. There will always be those poorly-considered, thinly-veiled attempts to grab your cash, but the industry appears to be getting a handle on what makes the free to play model appealing rather than abhorrent.
Ubisoft is a company trying hard to get this right and the publisher-slash-developer has a robust free to play line-up launching over the coming months. This is evidenced by none more strongly than its Might & Magic franchise, which the publisher has been in charge of for close to a decade: there's the immediate smash and grab gratification of Might & Magic: RaiderZ; the more considered option of Might & Magic Online; and the specialised nature of Might & Magic: Duel of Champions. It’s this last title that I’ve been tinkering with since its open beta launched earlier this month and I’m a little surprised to say that this card battler is gratifyingly deep and undiluted.
Decks are constructed around a single hero, of whom there are four for each of the primary factions: Necropolis, Inferno, Haven and Stronghold. Each faction has creatures loyal to it and can be boosted by the game’s fifth, neutral faction, which has no heroes of its own and exists only to supplement the dominant four. In addition to factions there exist seven schools of magic, the use of which is dictated by the hero at the centre of the deck, and each hero is typically able to wield cards from two or three of these schools. Added to the spell cards are trap and fortune cards that affect both the opponent and/or the hero, as well as event cards that sit outside of the battlefield and are changed each turn, potentially affecting the flow of play on a turn-by-turn basis.
There’s a lot to get your head around, but one of Duel of Champions’ most fundamental concepts (and where it varies most from the granddaddy of card trading games, Magic: The Gathering) is battlefield position. Creatures are placed on either the front or back line depending on their attributes and can then either attack enemy creatures directly opposite them or move to a vacant field position to block incoming attacks. Depending on how the attributes of different decks stack up against each other and the skill of the players, duels can last anywhere from five to forty minutes.
The starting decks are adequate, but it won’t be long before you’ll want to venture to the shop to spend the spoils of war or exchange real world cash for in-game currency. The cards that form the lifeblood of the game come in an assortment of varied flavours. There’s the quick gratification of the smallest, two-card pack costing 2,000 gold (representing around two to four online duels or approximately 30 euro cents), all the way up to multi-pack boxes that can only be purchased with Seals, which are obtained by levelling up or by purchase, and cost 1,000 seals for 120 cards or 3,000 for 384 cards (approximately €15 - €35).
In playing to level 5 over several hours, I earned enough in-game currency for around four 8-card Heroic packs, a 12-card Reinforcement pack and enough Seals for the 120-card box; a total of around 164 cards on top of the starting deck of 56, of which 140 or so were unique. The community against which to wield these cards seems to be fairly bustling, meaning you rarely wait more than 15 or 20 seconds for a duel. This is just as well, because the open beta campaign fought against the AI is limited to a handful of introductory missions, making online duelling the only way to earn in-game currency.
Deck building is initially confusing due to a sparse interface and lack of guidance or feedback, but once mastered it proves to be a rewarding time sink and invites frequent revisits to tinker with your line-up in between duels. Meanwhile, duels can feel a little overwhelming as you get to grips with different effects and mechanics, but you can take a closer look at any of the cards on the battlefield or discard piles. This helps reveal why your seemingly flawless master plan to conquer your opponent fell apart just as you were about to deliver the crushing blow or why a card you were sure was invincible fell to a low-level runt.
There have been some complaints from the community about the balance of the game, with one faction in particular accused of being overpowered from the start. However, prolonged play suggests that while some factions are indeed easier to get to grips with, others have the edge in longer duels. It is likely a case of Ubisoft tweaking the starting contents of certain decks to redress the balance in the early stages of the game, which is exactly what beta testing is intended to uncover.
Might & Magic Duel of Champions is a satisfying card battler whose depth belies its free to play status and it appears entirely possible to play the game without spending much, if any, real world cash. That said, the mark of well-designed game of this ilk is not how adequately its initial glut of cards perform, but how satisfying it is to open those virtual, shiny foil packets to reveal the potentially precious contents inside. In that respect, Duel of Champions has the power to transport us all back to school, to those days of coveting the cards of our friends and opponents; it’s just a shame we can’t play swapsies.
Stace Harman is a freelance contributor to IGN and is convinced that zombies will one day inherent the Earth. You can follow him on Twitter.
Source : feeds[dot]ign[dot]com
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