Magic PC Game: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers

2010 PC Games Magazine

Developer:Stainless Games Ltd
Distributor:Steam
Release Date: June 17, 2009 Xbox - June 15, 2010 PC

Over the 90 years, Richard Garfield invented a trading card game’s most successful ever: Magic The Gathering. Even now, after more than ten years of the enthusiast community is growing and the constant release of titles and expansions inspired this fantasy world is its best evidence.

A new version for new Duelists

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker peeps PC after being released last year for Xbox 360 and comes in a version unchanged in content and appearance and feel. We will try now to explain in broad terms how to deal with lots recalled that the Magic is a complex game, which has a really huge number of rules and that only long gaming sessions, you will understand all the facets that belong to the title. The challenges will be opposing two to four players, each with 20 points early life and the sole objective of defeating the opponent. To do this you have supplied a pack consisting of a minimum of 60 cards that represent you magic power. The duel will take place in rounds and each will be divided into five different phases: the main attack, block, resolution of the damage and once again the main stage. In the first phase of the game will be permitted to fish 7 cards, watched your hand you can decide to continue or shuffle the deck and draw again. You can repeat this process whenever you want, but every time I perform this action you will be forced to draw a card less. During the main phase will be given the opportunity to place a floor and activate it to summon powerful creatures or cast spells. The lands are divided into five different colors and each reflects an environment. The red soils are the mountains, black marshes, the green forests, blue islands and the white plains. Each invocation has a cost and color to evoke a small creature such as a goblin you will need to have at least one clay soil while the more powerful creatures will be necessary to simultaneously activate different lands and sometimes combinations of colors different.

Once all the creatures played by our hand will reach the stage of attack. You can only directly attack your opponent with monsters already in the field by at least one turn. Attacking, our baby will get tired and you can not use it until the beginning of our next round even to defend. Once this phase is to touch your opponent to decide how to protect themselves. Each creature has an attack value and a defense must be destroyed and suffer damage equal to or greater than his health in one turn. If this does not happen all the wounds are regenerated automatically at the end of the battle field leaving it unharmed.

The last phase will allow us to play again some creature in case there was some advanced resource or fold and prepare for the turn. These are broadly the basic rules of the game, but as noted above the variables of each card are numerous. There are such creatures with the ability to fly, which can be blocked only by others who have this trait or even monsters can overwhelm the enemies smaller and pour excess damage on the health of players. Fortunately, the title has a good introductory tutorial and each card before being played on the field puts automatically pauses the game, giving you the chance to read all of your time.

It ’s time to jump into the fray

Finally learned the basics you can try the single-player campaign. You will have to start a preset deck of 60 cards. By defeating certain enemies you can take possession of their decks and a new card for each victory. The main story unfolds through 16 different levels and give you the chance to win on Sept. 8, each with maps, strategies and methods of their game. These are acquired gradually, giving the player more time to assimilate the new mechanics without ever leaving left to itself. The IA stands at a good level of play and will often be placed in difficulty by the dueling computer-controlled, aided by fate that will deliver their papers at the right time. The title also offers a co-op campaign to deal with a friend from the same PC, but need an additional controller installed. We sincerely preferred to use a combination keyboard / mouse, perhaps with the ability to pause to change the current player without needing to buy an additional device. For the more experienced players and savvy is also a special mode of eight challenges to be overcome in which we will be allowed only one round of a game already started to bring to 0 hit points of the challenger.

Do not miss the chance to play online via the host server directly or from the players in ranked matches where you will see the true essence of Magic: The Gathering duels between players.

The undisputed master of the mountains of Shiv

Since the implementation of a digital trading card game the graphics certainly did not play an important role, however, developers Duels of the Planeswalker have done a good job customizing the interface and on the board. The maps are reproduced with great care, the designs are the same as the real counterpart and have added unique animations during the fighting for each. You will notice that the legs and bites during the attacks of beasts and lightning and fireballs created in the cards when using spells. Possible to use the cards in one turn is highlighted by a yellow border and organized automatically according to the cost of evocation, thus facilitating the player and avoid having to scroll through the hand to find the best magic. Unfortunately, the use of resources is automatic, preventing use of complex strategies with multicolored bouquets is impossible to choose the order of the land to be capped. The soundtrack that accompanies the duels efficiently play its role with melodic background music and not bother with sound effects in the media.

Doctor, my heart is missing!

The heart of a card game like Magic is the absolute possibility to customize your deck and create the strategy that best matches your playing style. In Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker this possibility has been almost totally excluded, you can indeed play with the starter deck and add each time the cards won but you have the ability to change it radically less create a 0. This severe lack deeply undermine the gaming experience by making the title more suitable for beginners, so it will learn the basics at a nominal price, rather than the veterans, harnessed into a product too small for their needs. Steam is also available now through the first expansion, sold separately at a price of € 3.99 will add the title three new decks and new cards for each of the three clusters in the original game.

Hardware

OS: Windows XP with Service Pack 3
Processor: 2GHz CPU (Pentium 4 or equivalent)
Memory: 1GB RAM (2GB for Vista)
DirectX 9.0c or later
Hard Drive: 700MB
Sound: DirectX 9.0c compatible
Video: GPU with 256MB VRAM, Pixel Shader 2.0
Review Game Magic: The Gathering - Duels Of The Planeswalkers

Final Remarks

Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker is a faithful adaptation of the homonymous collectible card game. The cards and mechanics are reproduced with care and great detail but the serious lack of ability to customize the deck of a deep game undermines the Last Judgement. The title is suitable for those approaching for the first time in the world of Magic as the low price that is offered and enthusiasts looking for some fast playing online without the commitment of having to rummage through hundreds of papers scattered around for your room.