by DanTheTimid » Thu Jan 08, 2009 2:25 pm
Now that I've played Warstorm a little more I've found something I'm very not fond of, enough that the something I found that was a good thing really doesn't seem all that great to me now.
Good thing: Its pretty cheap to get alot of cards (they have a campaign bundle up right now that as I understand it gives you a single player story mode to play through that will result in you getting about a box and a half of cards once you've completed it, all for 4.99. I'd probably have a joygasm if they ever had something like that in Alteil)
Bad thing: The game is, with out question, a money game. That is to say, the rarer a card is, the more powerful or easier to play it is. Infact they even have rarer versions of common cards that have the same name, stats, and art except their turn cost (basically level in alteil) is lower! I already lost to another player running almost an identical deck to mine except he had the rare versions of my cards so his all came out sooner thus putting me at a huge disadvantage that had nothing to do with my deck construction abilities and everything to do with the fact he'd spent money on the game and I still haven't. Spending money should give you more options, not straight up superior cards, why even have the common cards at all?
What does this mean? Well I LOVE the idea of having purchasable single player story campaigns to earn cards through. The fact this campaign is only 5 bucks is apparently because they're having a sale, normally its like 13 bucks or something, but either way you apparently get more packs from these campaigns then you would spending the same amount of money on straight up boxes. I haven't looked too much into it but I'm guessing you can only do each campaign once though so after that you got to go back to boxes/packs to get more cards but its still a brilliant idea.
That said, even if cards are much cheaper then they are in alteil, if only the rarest of cards are actually useful, your actually getting alot LESS for your money because I'd argue atleast 90% of the cards in Alteil right now have some use. From what I've seen so far in Warstorm their ratio is more like 50%
Another Bad Thing I've noticed is that while at first its alot easier to get cards (you get packs at every level up instead of just 1 card and you continue to get them at every level even past 10 andyou also get a pack for beating every computer ai opponent in the initial beginners campaign) theres a level cap at 19 and only so many beginner computer opponents. Once you hit level 19 and beat those computer opponents your options for getting packs get much smaller. You can either buy cards with real money, buy a campaign with real money, or you can work toward achievements (such as beating 10, then 50, then 100 human opponents with an elf deck, same achievement ratios again with an orc deck, etc). The achievements will take a while, but they too will eventually run out (and since they involve beating human opponents they can be pretty tough to achive for some one who doesn't spend money). You CAN trade and auction house cards, but unless your ripping people off thats not really gaining you anything, just moving around the things you do have, and the beginner campaign packs cards tend to go for REALLY low prices or trade value do to the fact they are so common.
So long story short, Warstorm does some things I really like (single player campaigns, woot) but it does so many things I HATE in card games that in the end I'd still take Alteil over it any day of the week.
The bunnies of Lavato have special abilities, like 'Action Skill: Make Carrot Disappear.'
