Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Reviews
And that's why I love Hearthstone, but hate recommending Hearthstone. I think it's an incredible game. It's pervasive: I love that I can spend a few hours slumped in front of my PC playing, then transfer to an ipad to play casually while watching bad telly. I love being part of the community – browsing new deck ideas and ranting with friends about how overpowered Grim Patron really is.
When the decks are all shuffled and the cards are dealt, Hearthstone shines as a fantastic casual free-to-play digital card game. If you're looking for a bit more substance, though, you might want to go elsewhere.
Heroes of Warcraft is an amazing game that knows how to make use of a free-to-play business model. While the absence of a tournament mode is a let down it's not enough to destroy its re-playability.
Overall, Hearthstone is a well-executed and fun card game, one which lives the "easy to learn, hard to master" mantra to the utmost. If you like either card games or Warcraft, this is definitely worth checking out. And if you - like me - are a fan of both, you owe it to yourself to at least give it a try.
It is safe to say that we can expect Blizzard Entertainment to come up with more ways to make Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft more fun and more enticing. As the developers did claim how creating a game like Hearthstone is something quite out of their comfort zone but despite of their worries, it did turn out quite well and still has a lot of room for improvement. It makes me wonder how far they can go with this game when the world knows that Blizzard Entertainment goes all out when it comes to jaw dropping updates and making things more interesting.
All of which makes us a little suspicious. Are we being suckered with the sweet stuff now, only to be hit with expensive expansions later? Perhaps, but we'll revise our view if and when Blizzard introduces the CCG equivalent of WOW's 'Sparkle Pony'. For now, Hearthstone is very much a triumph, and with a mobile client rolling out there's a sense that we're at the beginning of a phenomenon rather than in the midst of one. Yet again, Blizzard seems to have played its cards absolutely right.
When Blizzard announced they were making a digital CCG, we all expected it to look and sound beautiful, and there was little doubt that it would be well-balanced, but I don't think anyone anticipated this level of sophistication and subtle brilliance. Its turn-based nature and straightforward mechanics make this one of the most immediately accessible competitive games ever devised, but at the same time its depth is positively cavernous.
If Hearthstone looks too static and boring or even too simplified and limited, you'll be hard pressed after playing the game to not want to spend more time in this wonderful off-shoot of the Warcraft universe.
Overall, Hearthstone is another fantastic game from Blizzard. If you're even remotely interested in trading card games, you'd be crazy not to give it a go, especially as it's free. But beware, as always, the micro-transactions.