As soon as I saw the card back from the April season, I wanted cupcakes. If Hearthstone was going to inspire me to make cupcakes, I might as well make Hearthstone cupcakes.
I obviously took a little liberty with them. I enjoyed the sprinkles on the card, but I didn’t really have a “background” to the real cupcakes. I opted to put the sprinkles right on the cupcakes. The colors don’t match perfectly and blah blah blah, close enough.
At least I have cupcakes.
I wrote this to post on Game Boyz, where I’m the iPhone editor (and only active poster for over the last year). However, the site appears to be down. Because it was already written, I decided to post it here, even though it’s not the type of writing I usually do here. Note that Game Boyz reviews are required to have sections for introduction, graphics, sound, gameplay, and conclusion.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is Blizzard’s online collectible card game based in the Warcraft universe. Fans of Warcraft should be familiar with a lot of characters and themes in the game, while fans of earlier CCGs should be familiar with the game mechanics. It reminds me of a simplified and more fun Magic: The Gathering set in the Warcraft universe.
Hearthstone was first released on PCs in March of 2014 and before that time was in an extensive beta. The iPhone and Android phone version of Hearthstone is very similar to the PC version but uses smaller graphics and a condensed interface. It’s very playable, and I have no problem switching between the two versions.
Graphics
The graphics are still great even on the smaller screen. In both the PC and the phone versions, you can select cards to get a closer view of them. Because of this, you don’t really lose much graphically. The game boards on PC have interactive parts in each corner. For example, clicking the hanging sign on the house on one board enough times causes it to break. On the phone, two of these have been removed to make room for the interface. I miss clicking on them mindlessly, but they’re not vital.
Sound
The audio is still excellent in this version of Hearthstone. There are a ton of sound effects in the game. As far as I can tell, each card has a unique sound, and they’ve all made the jump to phones. If you play enough, you might know what card’s being played just based on the sound. It’s a high level of polish.
Gameplay
Hearthstone is Hearthstone, regardless of platform. You’re still using the same account with the same people playing because it’s completely cross-platform. Hearthstone is free-to-play, but you can spend real money as well. Everyday you get a quest. It might ask you to win three games as a mage, deal 100 damage, etc. Completing a quest earns you gold that you can spend to purchase adventures or card packs. You can also spend real money in place of gold.
To save space in the mobile version, your hand is tucked into the corner in the bottom-right. When you tap on it, it pops up into the center on the bottom so you can select one to read it in full. It’s a good way to save screen real estate and is very smooth once you start using it.
Card packs contain additional cards with a chance at rarer cards, similar to buying cards in traditional CCGs. Expansions add many new cards. So far, one expansion has been released – Goblins vs Gnomes. Adventures on the other hand are single-player challenges. You fight against NPCs using decks that might not be completely balanced for every class. You’ll usually need to make custom decks to beat them. In addition to a normal mode, they also contain a harder, heroic mode as well as class challenges. Adventures follow stories from WoW and contain voice-acted introductions. They reward cards as well, although adventures introduce less cards than expansions.
Curse of Naxxramas released in July, but Hearthstone just got something new. Blackrock Mountain was released April 2 of this year, making this the perfect time to get into (or back into) Hearthstone. It has five wings – Blackrock Depths, which contains the Grim Guzzler, Dark Iron Arena, and Emperor Thaurissan; Molten Core, which contains Garr, Baron Geddon, and Ragnaros the Firelord; Blackrock Spire (releasing April 16), which contains Highlord Omokk, General Drakkisath, and Rend Blackhand; Blackwing Lair (releasing April 23), which contains Razorgore the Untamed, Vaelastrasz the Corrupt, Chromaggus, and Lord Victor Nefarius; and the Hidden Laboratory (releasing April 30), which contains Omnotron Defense System, Maloriak, Atramedes, and Nefarian.
Conclusion
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has always been an excellent card game, and now it can finally be played on phones as well. I’ve never spent money in the game and have still had a blast with it. Whether you’ve played the PC version or not, I highly recommend you download Hearthstone on your iPhone or Android phone. Getting in a quick match in bed before going to sleep is a new perk that I really enjoy. For the Horde!
As was hinted by the cards sent to various news outlets, Blizzard announced an expansion to Hearthstone – Goblins vs Gnomes, full of mechanical mayhem. It functions a lot expansions for traditional CCGs; it’ll introduce a large amount of new cards along with some new mechanics on some of those cards. They’ll be obtainable through new card packs that are earned the same way they’re earned currently. There’s something kind of comforting about the familiarity of the process.
I haven’t even purchased all the wings of the Curse of Naxxramas yet, but I’m still excited for this too. I play Hearthstone very casually, and even though I’ve yet to unlock all Basic cards, I still find myself excited for this release. I suppose it’s partly the novelty of seeing new cards in play even if I don’t have them. The new game board (and spectator mode) are nice touches as well. Unfortunately, no mention of the next adventure!
If you don’t find Ben Brode’s laughter infectious, there’s something wrong with you.
As soon as I heard him start speaking on the panel, I was reminded what a great presenter he is. It’s not just skill at presenting either. It’s obvious how much he loves the game, which is really important both for creating a game and for talking about it. Seeing it through his eyes helps me to appreciate the game more. Not that Ben reads this, but thanks for your contributions to both Hearthstone and BlizzCon!
This is the card back you can earn during the October season in Hearthstone. I got the image from Blizzard’s announcement. I think it looks pretty cool. I can’t way to use it when it unlocked on November 1st, the same day I put up my Halloween decorations and bust out a costume. Oh, you usually do those things in October? Apparently Blizzard doesn’t. I feel like they didn’t think this through. Thanks for the pirate card back on October 1st also – 12 days too late for the day celebrating pirates.
Source: Hearthstone October 2014 Ranked Play Season – Hallow’s End!, Zeriyah, Hearthstone News, 10/1/14.
The Hearthstone panel at BlizzCon really reinvigorated my interest in the game. I really enjoyed it when I first got into the beta, but I hadn’t even played it since the reset. Without having friends playing it, and with all the PVE content finished, I just lost interest. After seeing all the thought that went into the design and hearing about some new features coming, I started playing it again almost immediately. I can’t wait for some of that content, too!
BlizzCon attendees and virtual ticket holders get a Golden Elite Tauren Chieftain card. The coolest part of the card is what it looks like when you play it. Of course, it plays some cool music too! It looks like a fun card. In addition, it wasn’t the only card shown that made a big entrance.
I really enjoyed hearing about the evolution of some of the aspects of the game. For example, they discussed how standard drafting became the arena mode that’s currently in the game. My summary here misses a few intermediate versions, but here’s the idea. At first, they had normal drafting. You take one card from a pack of how ever many cards. (Let’s say eight.) You pass the remaining seven to the next player and get seven from another. You keep doing that until you’re down to just one card, and then you keep it. This works in physical games, but it would mean possibly waiting for a long time in a computer game.
They came up with an asynchronous way of doing something similar. You get seven cards and choose one to keep. You swap your six cards with the cards in the envelope with the “6” label. You keep doing this until you have just one card, and you keep it. After trying this, they realized that it was still most fun when you had a few cards from which to choose that were all applicable to your deck. However, sometimes you’d have only a couple choices and none would be right. They eventually decided that three choices was the most fun. They gave players three cards that were all applicable to that player’s deck, and that’s the version that made it into Hearthstone.
Because it was so different from the idea of a draft, they renamed it “Arena.” They felt it was no longer recognizable as drafting. Honestly, when I first tried that mode, I immediately saw it as a type of draft. Yes, the way you did it was different, but it very clearly accomplished the goals of drafting. I really like it.
I particularly liked the ideas of adventures. These are single-player, PVE matches. They could be a single boss or a series of bosses, and they’ll unlock cards as you play through them. It seems like a similar idea as raid decks from the World of Warcraft: Trading Card Game possibly (although single-player). I suppose the current tutorial series of matches is basically an adventure. I wish they would have teased some ideas for the adventures will be, but it might be too early for that. Regardless, I’m excited.
There were two people on the Hearthstone panel – Lead Designer Eric Dodds and Technical Designer Ben Brode. As soon as Ben Brodes began presenting, it was immediately apparent that he was excited for the game and truly loved it. He had so much enthusiasm and energy and was a great presenter. I decided to talk to him on Twitter.
@bdbrode I loved your energy and excitement at BlizzCon. What a great presenter! Got me more pumped to play the game.
— Peter Anargirou (@TheUser) November 11, 2013
@TheUser thanks!! Glad to hear it :)
— Ben Brode (@bdbrode) November 11, 2013
And then I realized something about his name and the fact that I currently live in Irvine, I went to school in Irvine, and Blizzard is in Irvine.
@bdbrode Also, are you related to Will who went to UCI a few years ago? (Not sure how common your last name is, heh.)
— Peter Anargirou (@TheUser) November 11, 2013
@TheUser haha yes he’s my brother!!
— Ben Brode (@bdbrode) November 11, 2013
It’s a small world.
This weekend, I played a lot of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. My friend gave me a beta key, which was really nice of him. Hearthstone is a lot of fun. It’s very similar to other collectible card games, but at the same time, it’s a bit different. I feel like Blizzard must have put significant thought into what makes CCGs fun and makes them annoying. Having too much mana is annoying. Having too little mana in annoying. In Hearthstone, you use mana crystals, but they don’t come from cards. Like other games, your available mana is reset every turn. Your maximum is one on the first turn. On every subsequent turn, your maximum increases until it caps at ten.
In this video, I’m playing a practice round against Malfurion. Hearthstone has three modes that I see – Play, Practice, and Arena. The play mode pits you against a similarly skilled player online with one of your constructed decks. I only tried one match of this, and I beat my opponent.
Practice mode allows you to pick one of the classes for your hero and then pick your opponent. When you beat a class / character, you unlock it for your own use. I’ve unlocked all nine. As you play, you also gain experience and can level your heroes. When they level, you unlock additional basic cards. After unlocking all the heroes, you also unlock expert mode practice, but I haven’t tried it yet.
The arena mode is particularly interesting. It’s a sort of draf. First, you pick one of three heroes. After that, you get to choose one of three cards thirty times to build your deck. You then play online with the deck, but after three losses the deck is retired. It’s pretty cool!
I’m having a great time with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft. I expect I’ll have more to say on it in the coming weeks as I keep playing.
F2P and Crafting, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 3/21/13.
Rohan explains why crafting conflicts with monetization in F2P games.
Hearthstone Gameplay, Rohan, Blessing of Kings, 3/24/13.
Another look at Hearthstone.
The beauty of classic WoW’s Molten Core, Sarah Pine, WoW Insider, 3/19/13.
If you joined late and have ever wondered what the big deal with Molten Core was, Sarah will tell you.
Oondasta in China is full of… tombstones, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 3/20/13.
This is my wallpaper at work now.
The quest of a lifetime, Olivia Grace, WoW Insider, 3/21/13.
A very cute marriage proposal.
Star Wars: The Old Republic’s first expansion is BioWare’s hope to win back lapsed players, Griffin McElroy, Polygon, 3/25/13.
I’d give it a look, but we have too much content in WoW now!
Know Your Lore, Tinfoil Hat Edition: Azeroth, Anne Stickney, WoW Insider, 3/24/13.
What’s so special about Azeroth?
The OverAchiever: The game’s 13 vanished titles, Allison Robert, WoW Insider, 3/21/13.
Scarab Lord, Champiuon of the Naaru, Hand of A’dal, Argent Defender, Celestial Defender, Champion of Ulduar, Conqueror of Ulduar, Conqueror of Naxxramas, Death’s Demise, Grand Crusader, The Immortal, The Undying, The Magic Seeker, and Obsidian Slayer. And none of me.
Mantid Archaeology, Cymre, Bubbles of Mischief, 3/22/13.
Check out the sweet gun!
World of Warcraft Patch 5.3 PTR Patch Notes, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 3/22/13.
Heroic scenarios, loot specialization, bonus rolls with progressively better bonuses, removal of most resilience, gear scaling in PVP, and new BGs and scenarios.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft seems like it might be a cash grab at the casual market, but I’m optimistic that it’s going to be fun. I enjoy collectible card games, and I enjoy Warcraft, so what could go wrong? It seems a little odd to me that there will now be two Warcraft card games, but they seem pretty different.
Hearthstone makes me think of the card games inside the Final Fantasy series, Triple Triad in Final Fantasy VIII and Tetra Master from Final Fantasy IX. They weren’t required to completely their games’ story, they were very simple, and they were very fun. I keep thinking of them when I think of Hearthstone, although honestly, that’s probably not a very apt comparison. Triple Triad and Tetra Master existed within other games. Now if Blizzard put Hearthstone into World of Warcraft as an addon, that would be pretty amazing.
You can see some gameplay above courtesy of MMO-Champion. It appears to be similar to many other collectible card games such as Magic: The Gathering. The big differences I see are that there’s only one energy source, your total amount of energy increases automatically without the need for playing lands, and effects are resolved immediately. These seem like good changes to streamline playing. The energy system, I’d say, is better. Resolving effects immediately takes out some of the complexity and strategy that Magic: The Gathering has. This is probably good for Blizzard given that it’s a free-to-play game that’s going to be marketed to a wide variety of people. It’s probably not so good for gamers who appreciate a complex game, but I think the game still looks very enjoyable.
I’ll need to wait to try it to really form an opinion, but right now, I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a while since Blizzard has a created a relatively simple game. Their usual games are high quality (besides some problems with D3), so hopefully they keep it up with Hearthstone.
More information:
Hearthstone – WoW TCG Game Announced, Boubouille, MMO-Champion, 3/22/13
What we know so far about HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft, Adam Holisky, WoW Insider, 3/22/13
Polygons & Pixels WebPageless
earthwormgem
Peter (Devee)
Kor'kron 501st 