Artifact Reviews
Artifact is a challenging, deep, and surprisingly approachable card game.
Building the best decks will cost you, but Artifact is an intricate and rewarding card game.
For card game enthusiasts, Artifact is an intense, clever conflict that offers a continually shifting board where hundreds of micro decisions lead to eventual victory or defeat.
Artifact's mix of Dota 2's mechanics with that of a trading card game is a brilliant flip on the TCG formula that allows for new and complex strategies.
Artifact is daunting. But if you’re willing to take the time and delve into it, Artifact can be intensely rewarding. It’s not for everyone, but for the deck-building, number-crunching card nerds like me, it’s something you need to see.
Ultimately, though, Dota and Artifact both appeal to me for the same reasons. Both can feel overwhelming and unfair, but both those feelings can be quashed with experience – at least, outside of the competitive modes. For now, those are the preserve of the wealthy – and a question mark on the game’s longevity for everyone else.
Dota 2 fans will find a lot to love about Artifact if it stays on this trajectory. Those who don't have any particular attachment to the Dota franchise and want something simpler might want to focus their attention elsewhere.
Artifact is not for everyone. It isn't for people who are red/green colorblind, for one. It isn't for the die-hard deck builders who would rather grind games than pay cash. But it is for people who enjoy card games with an incredible set of fair and unique mechanics that reward out-playing your opponent over luck and randomness. And while it may be based on Dota 2, with a lot to love for its fans, knowledge of the Heroes or universe is in no way needed to enjoy Artifact. All you'll need is $20 and an open and creative mind.
Artifact is a game with a lot of good things going for it, but its complexity might be a problem.
Artifact presents a challenge that is not suitable for everyone.
Robust tactics and elegant design ensure Artifact's often sublime strategy isn't complex. But a lack of long-term goals and a risky monetisation strategy leaves the game's future feeling uncertain.
I desperately wanted to enjoy Artifact, but it currently stands as a monument to the flaws of early CCG design. It's random, it's expensive, and it does a horrible job of teaching players both basic gameplay and high level strategy.
We were hoping for the next big evolution is card game design. As it stands, Artifact’s main positive quality is making us realise how good we had it with Hearthstone, Legends, and Gwent.
Artifact is an engaging collectible card game that's sure to excite fans of Dota 2. Unfortunately, the business model inarguably favors those who are willing to spend real money and it could use some additional features and modes.
I am not out here hollering for a specific mode of card game design, and I love that we live in a world where there are a plurality of games for people with different desires and likes in their card games. I am simply saying that Artifact has emerged into a world where digital card games finally seem to have figured out the sweet spot between mechanical complexity and friendliness for new players, and it has totally ignored any and all of those lessons in favor of a model that, to me at least, seems to be interested in attracting diehard fans of massive complexity and basically no one else. And maybe that works for Valve and the Artifact design team, but it sure as hell doesn't work for me.
Artifact is as hard-core as Dota2 and you might feel exhausted when you finish a single round which usually would last half an hour. The greedy economy system is lacking in long-term reward and it makes players no choice but cost more and more money. But despite all those flaws, Artifact is also an innovative game which put basic MOBA mechanics and TCG rules together, and those elements actually work well. It's still full of potential.
Review in Chinese | Read full review
One of the best card games on the market, which is no small feat. Easy to learn and enjoy, definitely hard to master. And that's great.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Artifact is a dashing card game that has a big potential to shine. innovative and fresh style of the game that is a mix of card games and strategic genre are the reasons that Artifact is a lot different than other card games out there. however you can sense Valve's greed for money everywhere in the game and this has a direct impact on every player's experience, considering this you can call Artifact the most pay to win card game of all time.
Review in Persian | Read full review
Take caution before letting Artifact consume you. The monetisation is an egregious disaster, the RNG practically runs the game sometimes, and casual players will have no reason to keep coming back. There’s some fun in there; it’s just locked behind statistically improbable gauntlets and marketplace auctions. Worth the asking price? I’d lean towards no. Worth the investment required? Absolutely not. The buy-in isn’t enough to sustain your time with the game, and it’s almost insulting that there’s no way to earn cards when Valve already takes a cut from marketplace sales. The cards must flow, and thy wallet is tribute.