The Dolphins Make Me Cry.com - Forums

I got invited into the beta a couple days ago. Here's a quick review of the game.

It's a card game about building and playing your own personal card decks. You can choose from nine different classes that match the classes in WoW, Mage, Hunter, Warlock, Paladin, Rogue, Priest, Warrior, Druid and Shaman. Each class has a hero (based off one of WoW's heroes) and has it's own unique set of cards that make that class play differently, for example the Mage has a lot of spell casting types of cards. There's also a bunch of cards that are neutral which any class can use to round out their playing deck.
 
The idea is that you build a deck by first gathering as many of the cards both class specific and neutral that you can through various means and then choosing 30 cards from those you own to make up your deck. Obviously certain cards are better then others and are more difficult to obtain. There are basically 3 types of cards, minions, spell cards and utility. Minions fight for you, spell cards do a variety of damage or healing and utility cards do things like give you more mana etc.
 
Once you have a deck (you are given a starter deck) you choose an opponent through various means, you get dealt some cards from your deck and you take turns playing cards. Each card has a certain mana cost and you start the game with only 1 mana point to spend. Each turn you gain an additional mana point to spend and any mana you spent from the previous turn is restored, up to a maximum of 10 mana points you'll have to start your turn. How you spend your mana points is up to you, either playing cards to summon minions or cast spells or allowing your hero to use his own abilities which also cost mana. Your goal is to do 30 points of damage to your opponent's hero before he does it to yours. Minions, spells and heroes can all do damage in various ways so the biggest choice you really face each turn is deciding who your target will be. Dealing damage to your opponents hero is enticing, but allowing him to build up his minions is dangerous, so you'll have to take them out too. The Priest class right now seems to be the one that most people have trouble with because he has a variety of ways to heal his hero and his minions.
 
So that's basically it. Choose a class, build a deck of cards, challenge players or the AI and play one on one matches. As you play a class, you earn experience for that class and you get more cards specific to that class which then allows you more flexibility in building your deck for that class. The gameplay itself is pretty straight forward and the game will prevent you from doing something that you can't do, however it is very possible to make mistakes if you misinterpret what a card does or simply click on the wrong thing so there is a lot of strategy involved. How you play does make a huge difference in your chances of winning and losing, but the cards you are dealt also play a role so there's a bit of the element of luck involved as well.
 
Couple of more things I ought to mention. This is going to be a free to play game which as you should know by now means that you will pay for "extra" stuff.  So what is the "extra stuff"? Well first and foremost it's a card game and of course the better cards you have the better your "potential" to be at the game. It's similar to trying to get the best gear for your toon. There are a ton of ways to get new cards, but the easiest will be to just buy them. You may or may not like that approach to games, it is what it is. You certainly don't have to buy new cards, but the allure is there. That's where they will make a lot of money off the game I suspect.
 
The other way for Blizzard to make money seems to be the Arena. Basically this is like entering tournaments for cash and prizes. There is an entry fee to the Arena although they waive the fee the first time you play in the beta. The way the arena works is a bit different as you don't get to use a premade deck, rather you are given a choice of 1 of 3 classes to pick from and then you are given a choice of 1 of 3 cards to pick from repeatedly untill you build a deck of 30 cards. The cards are either specific to the class you chose or neutral. Once you have your deck then you play against opponents until you lose 3 matches. Depending on how many matches you win, you will win prizes. Predictably I lost all 3 of my matches on my first go around, but I'm still finding my way in the game so I wasn't surprised. I did however still win some pretty nice "parting gifts" regardless which is the allure here. I think this could be a very good way of getting good cards, but again there is an entry fee you have to pay.
 
So what's left? Well I haven't mentioned crafting yet. Yes, there is a way to craft cards, but I haven't really played with it yet. You have to disenchant certain types of cards to get dust to craft new cards. The allure here seems to be you can craft very good cards this way, but I'm sure as usual in Blizzard games that crafting will cost a good bit of time collecting the resources and then repeatedly crafting crap till you get what you want. Perphaps you will be able to purchase crafting materials as well although I didn't see that option. All that I saw in the store was various ways to purchase cards. The most common seems to be purchasing a "pack" which is a group of 5 random cards. Imagine going into the grocery store when you were a kid and purchasing a pack of NFL or MLB tradings cards with a stick of gum in them. After you purchase a pack you open it to reveal the 5 cards you got. You might already have the cards or you may find a really rare one, it's pretty much luck of the draw. You can either use gold that you win in the game to purchase these cards or you can use cash to purchase gold. I've purchased 4 or 5 packs already and it is rather fun. No, I haven't spent any actual money on the game yet, just using the gold that I have won from playing. You can spend real money in the beta (to test the system) and Blizzard has said that any cash you spend in the beta will then be converted to gold when the game launches so you won't really lose it, you'll just be able to spend it again when the game goes live. As an added incentive, if you spend real cash in the beta you get some rare card or something or other when the game launches.
 
There is a quick tutorial to start you off and teach you the game, but the game is pretty straight forward at least in the beginning. As you continue to play and get more exotic cards it does become a bit more challenging trying to figure out the best way to use cards, this is where the strategy comes into play and it is possible to do stupid stuff (yes I'm talking from experience). There doesn't seem to be a true chat function yet, you can only choose from several different emotes to communicate with your opponent and the most often one I use is "oops".
 
It's a fun way to waste some time. I'm not sure that it will keep me entertained for long and I'm not sure if there is a way to challenge your friends directly, seems to me that your opponents are chosen for you rather than allowing you to play against your friends, but that option may be coming. You can also practice against an AI opponent, but that gets pretty boring pretty quickly, it's more just a way to hone your playing ability and to check your deck building skills without having to suffer through losses to other players. You do gain experience by playing the AI, but not as much as playing against another player and I haven't really figured out what gaining experience does. Perhaps it's used to determine your opponents?
 
Anyway, since it's free to play I hope everyone gives it a chance. From talking with my son Tyler he says that most people that have signed up for the beta have gotten in. You sign up for the beta in the same way that you do all other Blizzard games, by signing into your Blizzard account and going into the Beta section and opting in. If you are at all interested, I suggest you do this. It's at least worth checking out to see if you like it.

This sounds interesting. I think I'm going to see if I can get in the beta.