Hearthstone

Hearthstone

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Hearthstone is a free-to-play collectible card game that spins off the Warcraft game series.  It’s a relatively easy game to play, even for newcomers. The game’s mechanics are not so different from what you’ll find in other popular card games. It features over 500 cards (with the regular addition of new ones), an exciting drafting system, and 9 different heroes.

The card system is an interesting one. There are hero cards and regular cards, with each hero having their unique cards. The heroes have access to the regular cards, which they can use for deck building. This unique card system offers variety to players, with many options for building a deck. The game is available on Android, iOS, MAC, and Windows.

Other interesting features of the game include an exciting craft system, Great Arena System with rewards, and an exciting Ranked System. So, whether you’re just a casual player or a hardcore one, Hearthstone makes for an excellent option. With a player base of over 25 million people, you have everything to believe it ranks among the best card trading games out there.

Introducing Hearthstone

Hearthstone isn’t like every other card game you’ve played. Since it’s based on the World of Warcraft, it borrows its universe. Not only that, but it also replicates its characters, cards, and even location. So you have a brilliant word that makes the game an intriguing one. The game starts you off with a tutorial that takes you through the ABCs of the game.

Still, on the tutorial, you get to play against AI, allowing you to learn the dynamics of card interactions. When you’re done with the tutorial, you immediately get pitted against real players. As you progress in the game, you unlock other heroes aside from the initial one. However, you have to first prevail over the hero in the practice mode before you unlock them.

The Warcraft universe has nine heroes, and Hearthstone takes after that. Also, the heroes have unique hero powers, which give them amazing abilities. For example, the Paladins have the power to invoke a minion to the scene.

An Easy, but Enthralling Gameplay

If you’ve played Magic: The Gathering, then Hearthstone will seem like familiar ground. However, it takes a detour in the randomness and ease of playthrough. When a game begins, each player draws three cards. To minimize the chance of drawing a terrible hand, players can reject their initial cards and redraw them. Gameplay depends heavily on mana, which lets players cast spells or summon minions. We can as well regard the mana as the in-game currency. The power of a card depends on how much many it cost. To have a great deck, you have to build it with different cards of varying mana costs.

The over 500 cards in Hearthstone offer players unlimited options in the way they can build decks. However, several of those cards are basically useless. In my several playthroughs, I’ve never needed to add the Magma Rager card to my deck. Even a rare card like the Millhouse Manastorm hardly possesses any power. On the other side of the divide, there’re many useful and powerful cards in Hearthstone. Also, the regular introduction of new cards by Blizzard even makes deck-building more exciting. 

Unlock New Cards for More Fun

In Hearthstone, you unlock new regular cards as you level up. Also, you can increase your card count by buying booster packs that come with five ordinary cards and one rare card. Each booster pack costs one hundred gold, which you earn from excelling games and quests. The game also allows you to buy these booster packs with real cash.

On quests, Hearthstone excels above its contemporaries again. Besides the regular game with opponents, the game sets specific tasks or quests for you to complete. For example, I once had a quest that required me to win 12 games with the mage. You could also get a quest that will have you kill a specific number of minions. As exciting as these quests were, I never had more than three at the same time.

Besides completing games and executing quests, there’re other ways to earn gold in the game. These ways, also called achievements, can include winning a century of games and beating a top AI player. Whenever you get a particular achievement, that’s the end of it – you can never earn the gold reward again. Therefore, achievements don’t make for dependable ways of earning gold. However, the once-in-a-game reward can prove to become very helpful in a playthrough.

Move To The Top of Your Game

Hearthstone not only lets you face off with other real players but gives you a challenging PvE environment. The main menu of the game features the solo adventures area where you can access several missions that put you up against powerful AI opponents. What’s more exciting about these missions is that your opponents often possess special hero powers alien to you. If you know your onus, this won’t be a problem.

While you have the option to play the casual mode, the ranked mode offers more challenge, and of course, more excitement. You start at the very bottom, Rank 25. Then you battle your way up to Rank 1. When you get there, you discover there are still plenty of steps to climb. The Legend Ranking puts you at the very top level of players in your region. If you’re ranked Level 200, it means you’re the 200th-highest-ranked player in your region.

Final Word

Hearthstone is an entertaining cross-platform card game. It’s an easy game to learn and both casual and diehard players enjoy the game. Many of its millions of players – including me – will agree it’s the best card collectible game out there.

7.0

Author's rating

Overall rating

Design
8.0
Features
7.0
Performance
7.0
Value
7.0
Overall rating
7.0
The good
  • Over 500 collectible cards and regular addition of new ones
  • Nine hero characters, giving players a good variety
  • Supports multiple platforms
  • Large playerbase
The bad
  • Several dozens of the cards are either useless or have little power
  • Gameplay depends largely on the amount of gold the player has