[Review] This Review Made me go Aggro
This is my review for Might & Magic: Duel of Champions - the digital, free-to-play CCG.
Due to the nature of this game being digital, there will be some minor differences to the format of the review, but for the most part, this should be quite similar to my AGOT Review.
Might & Magic: Duel of Champions (from now on referred to as DOC) is a 2-player strategy card game from Ubisoft set in the Might & Magic realm. Each player constructs a deck of 50 or more cards, adding an additional eight Event cards that can affect both players, as well as a Hero. There are dozens of heroes available to choose from, and every hero will influence your strategy and how you build your deck.
Each hero starts with a set amount of Hit Points, and the goal of the game is to reduce your opponent's Hit Points to zero by playing Creatures, Spells, Fortunes, and Buildings (all different card types).
The hero you choose will be from one of six factions, and will have anywhere from one to three associated spell schools. Your deck may only include cards that match the faction and spell schools of the hero you choose, or it may also include neutral cards.
Because this game is digital, as opposed to a traditional CCG, the metagame is developed much more rapidly due to the number of games being played and the sharing of information through forums, websites, and other digital media.
The primary feature of this game is the Hero. Not only does this card dictate what you are allowed to put into your deck and keep track of your HP, but it also sets the foundation for a major game mechanic: the leveling system.
Every card you include in your deck will have both a cost and a set of requirements. These requirements are based on three separate trees that the player will have to upgrade throughout the game: Might, Magic, and Destiny. As a general premise, Might is the primary restriction for deploying more powerful Creatures, Magic restricts Spells you are able to cast, and Destiny determines which Fortunes you can play. Each turn, a player may "use" his hero to increase one level of his choice. All heroes start with 0-2 levels in each tree, the standard hero beginning with 1 Might, 1 Magic, and 2 Destiny.
The leveling system is one of the many interestingly good concepts presented in this game, as it forces a player to think both in deck building and during play. For example, when building a deck, players will usually plan to focus on two of the three trees, and will limit how many times they want to spend their hero action increasing levels. When playing the deck, a player will have to consider which tree to level first, a decision that is not always clearly defined, especially when you are playing with more advanced, creative decks.
The reason a player doesn't want to spend every turn increasing one level is because a hero action can also be used to draw a card or use a special ability unique to each hero.
Another key mechanic in the game that sets it apart from others is battlefield placement. As with other CCGs like MTG, most decks use Creatures to deal damage to the enemy hero. Each player is presented with eight different locations to place creatures, depicted as a front line of four and a back line of four. Some creatures have the trait "Shooter" which allows them to be placed in the back line, while "Melee" creatures must be placed in the front. However, in order to block your opponent's creatures with your own, you must place your creature in the same row as the attacker. If a creature is not blocked by an opponent's creature, the player may attack the enemy hero directly - resulting in removal of HP.
This feature creates a more complex combat system where players must determine if it is beneficial to attack with their own creatures on the board or to move them in front of an enemy to block.
Outside of these features, the gameplay is fairly straightforward, card selection is crucial, and a variety of deck styles are encouraged, including Rush, One-Turn-Kill, Mill, and many other control styles and hybrids.
The game allows players to play as competitively or as casually as they like. There is a very open "practice" area, where players can test decks without risk of losing points, and there are a variety of competitive modes including single ranked matches, Swiss tournaments, and Jackpot tournaments. The ranked matches can all be played in three different formats: Standard (limited to the most recent expansion and base set), Open (unlimited - no card restrictions), and Weekly (random restrictions).
There is an integrated friends list and a messaging system that works fairly well, you can easily challenge your friends and chat with them whenever you like, and you can even talk to each of your opponents (as opposed to Hearthstone).
The community is, like all online communities, kind of a crap-shoot - I've met dozens of awesome, helpful, competitive players, and I've met dozens more rage-filled scrublets. For the most part, it's a small community and you can easily find someone willing to help you, and the top players are all very involved in the betterment of the game. That said, support from Ubisoft is waning, needed changes are very slow to come, and the player base has shrunk continually since January.
Almost every competitive tournament, except for the World Championships, is run completely by players and often lacks proper organization. The reason this is relevant is because the ladder system is all but meaningless and most top players have nothing competitive to play for.
Offers a lot of different areas to think about, giving a variety of complex decisions to make
Is free-to-play and has a very large selection of different cards
Encourages a variety of different playstyles and decks
Games are quick, you can play a lot of games even if you don't have much free time
The community of top players and streamers is easily accessible, there is a strong sense of camaraderie between players
Ubisoft is clearly quite confused about how to run the game's economy
Recent states of the metagame have become very dull - once a top deck is found, 80% of your matches will be against that deck
New players are at a significant disadvantage since card collection plays a more important role than strategy
While the developers seem to listen to the community's complaints, they take far too long to implement changes (there are still bugs that have been in the game since launch)
Lack of marketing for the game shows a huge lack of effort from Ubisoft's decision makers, often feels like they are trying to grab as much cash as they can before shutting it down
Other Things to Consider:
The game itself is great, and is my top choice as far as digital CCGs go, well beyond Hearthstone
This is a game for CCG players - if you don't have patience when trying to create a new deck, your creativity will not be rewarded
To get the most out of this game, you should go to the fansites, forums, and popular Twitch channels for DOC
I give DOC a 6.5/10. I played this game almost nonstop from August '13 until the end of the year. It was quite addicting during the time it took me to build my collection and learn how to properly play, but once I had all the cards I needed to compete and the knowledge to win, there was nothing there to really play for. If there was a more interesting and relevant ladder system, and more involved tournaments from Ubisoft, or more rewards for player tournaments, the game would have stayed fun for a much longer period of time.
I would play DOC over Hearthstone any day of the week due to the more interesting gameplay, but the game is not polished and it just gets old once you find you have nothing left to accomplish.
Here is the breakdown of my rating: (65 total points out of 100)
Interesting decisions: Very Good (17)
Inherent competitive aspects: Above Average (12)
Unique/new design: Good (15)
Player input-over-RNG: Average: (10)
Social interaction: Average: (11)
When rating the "social interaction" criterion for digital games, this score reflects the community's general vibe, quality of media for connecting with other players, and my own personal experience with communication in the game.
