Magic: The Gathering is a well known card game that smashed on the scene in the early 90′s and is created by Wizards of the Coast who are also very well known for Dungeons and Dragons and the Pokemon Trading Card Game. In Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers, a computerized and digital approach to this real life trading card phenomena is presented similarly to the way Magic 2014 was released on Steam. These titles essentially offer a more convenient way for gamers to play the Magic card game together, but everything is not identical to the physical game.
One thing that is identical between the physical and digital versions of Magic is the fact that you will have to buy extra packs of cards after buying the original starting kit (or in Magic 2015′s case, the original game). This is not necessarily mandatory though, and the digital game will give a lot of cards to start with. Playing single player, one could complete the title without buying any additional cards.
Micro-transactions will have you pouring in a lot more than the asking price, but the community is great and a lot of people on Steam own this and will be glad to play with you. Another issue is that when you are dealt a bad hand and choose to randomize it before jumping into play, it simply gives you another terrible hand or the same exact hand. I’m not quite sure why this happens, but it seems like something that could be easily fixed in a patch.
Magic 2015 features excellent audio voice-overs in the tutorial quests reads out loud to you and teaches you how to play magic the gathering from the very basic beginning starting with different color decks, basics of mana and turns, as well as attacking and building up spells. There’s also a boss battle which must be played without a helping hand in order to get a true grip on how Magic works.
Experts can just skip over this of course, but shouldn’t unless they already fully understand how Land cards work as well as the other basic rules of Magic. After tutorial players choose their starting deck and prove their worth before gaining entry to the game’s campaign. A horde of monsters threatens to overrun a local village. Armed with the new spells chosen, it’s time to put those tutorial skills to the test and stop to the onslaught.
Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers has an interesting plot that centers around an artifact holding immense power as well as the individuals who manage to get their hands on it. Most are too weak to survive its curse, some have been twisted and ruined by its dark magic, others become a threat to all.
Final Verdict:
In the end, Magic 2015 is good, but like all Magic games that aren’t Magic Online deck building is lacking. There is only so much you can do in the game. So basically, it’s alright but if people want the full experience they need to play Magic Online or actually buy the cards.
That being said, this is a very fun and affordable game which has a way of keeping players’ interest, satisfying the strategic gamer within, and of course giving a full taste and introduction to the world of Magic for anybody who is new to the system. Music, graphical fidelity, sound effects, voice overs, and other technical aspects are all pretty top-notch and no glitches were experienced during our play-through of the game. The replay value is great because there’s always somebody to play online with, but if they’ve spent a lot of money on micro-transactions they are going to flat-out destroy you.
Overall Score: 8 / 10
RGN Rating: Silver Game
Developer: Stainless Games
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Available On: PC | XO | 360 | iOS | Android
Played On: Windows PC
Review Copy Info: A digital copy of this game was provided to RealGamerNewz for the purpose of this Review.