Intro:

Once in awhile, a game comes out that you start to play and you have to struggle to get yourself away from it.  This doesn’t happen to me too often, but with this game, it certainly did.  And the best part is, its free to play and you can play it forever without spending a cent.  Want to find out more about Hearthstone? Read on my friend!

In a Nutshell:

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is based on two things – Collectible Card Games (CCGs) and World of Warcraft.

Fans of CCGs (like Magic: The Gathering) will definitely find a liking to Hearthstone, as it provides all the same fun factors that a CCG always has.  I myself am a fan of MTG, and everything I knew and liked about playing MTG came coming back as soon as I started getting into Hearthstone.

The opposing player casts ‘Rockbiter Weapon’ to boost up his minion ‘Sen’jin Shieldmasta’

Fans of World of Warcraft may want to try this game as well.  A lot of characters from WoW are part of Hearthstone, such as human wizards like Jaina Proudmoore and races like Orcs, Humans, and Night Elves.  However, some WoW players may not like Hearthstone as the mechanics in a MMORPG are much different from the mechanics in a CCG.  The good news is though, if you want to try a CCG, this would be a great place for you to start.  Novice to Expert players can play Hearthstone, and you will be paired up against players of your own skill level so you will not get pwned every game you play.  Alternatively, if you are a pro, you will get paired up with pro players like yourself.

It is also good to know that for player’s new to CCGs, and Hearthstone in general, that there is a very good tutorial to learn how to play Hearthstone before going out and playing other players.  It teaches the basics of Hearthstone, as well as more advanced techniques, in a fun and easy to learn manner.

More about Hearthstone (in detail):

Anyways, a little bit about CCGs.  If you’re going to play Hearthstone, you’re going to need to know what CCGs are all about!

A collectible card game is a type of card game where you collect and buy cards in order to construct a deck.  You then use this deck to play against other players who are constructing their own decks to play against yours.  The key is to try and build a deck that will defeat your opponent.  And this is one of the key formulas to a CCG – selecting the right cards out of your collection to form a deck that will win you games.  And the number of ways you can construct a deck is limitless!  There are many aspects to constructing a deck, and your decisions in deck building are easily as important as playing the actual game itself (probably more so).

In addition to building a deck, there is also the actual playing of the game itself.  In Hearthstone, you start by drawing 3 cards (if you play first) or 4 cards (if you play second).  When it is your turn, you can use your mana crystals to play the cards in your hand.  And like most CCGs, you only start out with 1 mana crystal on your first turn.  On your second turn, you have 2 mana crystals, on the third you have 3, and so on.  There is a maximum of 10, after which you do not get more mana crystals.  Mana crystals replenish themselves too – if you were to cast ‘Stonetusk Boar’ on your first turn, on your next turn your mana crystals replenish and increase by one, thus leaving you with 2 mana crystals to cast ‘Novice Engineer’ on your second turn.  And then for your third turn, you will have 3 mana crystals, and so on.

For MTG players, this is something to note – there is no need to play cards (land) for your mana.  Thus, you will never lose a game due to being either mana flooded (all land and nothing else) or mana screwed (no land at all)

There are three types of cards in Hearthstone – minions, spells, and weapons.  I will talk about the first two types below.

Minions are the main ingredient for forming your army.  Minions can include warriors, such as the troll ‘Sen’jin Shieldmasta’ or the human footman ‘Goldshire Footman’. Minions also include wizards, dragons, goblins and more.  Each minion has two main stats – Attack and Health.  The ‘Attack’ is shown in the bottom left corner, and the ‘Health’ in the bottom right hand corner.  For example, Goldshire Footman would have 1 Attack and 2 Health.  This means that when Goldshire Footman attacks, he will inflict 1 damage.  A player can choose whom to attack too, whether it be the opponent’s hero or any of the opponent’s minions.  Note that in Hearthstone, each hero starts with 30 health (in most games) and once a player’s hero is reduced to zero or less health, that player is defeated.  Thus, health is the amount of damage a minion (or hero) can sustain before being killed.

As an example of combat, if a player chooses to attack Goldshire Footman with Sen’jin Shieldmasta, the result is that Sen’jin will inflict 3 damage on the footman, killing the footman, but would sustain 1 damage to himself, reducing his Health to 4. Note that health does NOT replenish on each turn.  Once a minion is damaged, the only way to restore his or her health is with spells.

Along with Attack and Health, some minions will also have abilities.  In the case of Sen’jin Shieldmasta and Goldshire Footman, they have the ability ‘Taunt’.  Taunt allows these minions to act as tanks, and when in play, an opponent cannot target any other minions (or the player’s hero) until the minion(s) with Taunt are destroyed first.

Spells are different from minions – they do not always stay in play like minions, and usually provide a one-shot play to help the player out in the game.  For example, ‘Arcane Missiles’ is a spell that deals 3 damage at random to the opponent’s characters (includes both minions and the opponent’s hero).  This spell is helpful for destroying enemy minions and/or damaging the enemy’s hero.  But once it is played, it is then discarded and thus no longer in play.  It should also be mentioned that this card is a ‘Mage’ class card.  This means only a Mage deck can have this card.  Other decks (Druid, Priest, etc) cannot play Arcane Missiles in their deck since it is a Mage card.

As the game goes on, player’s will continue to cast spells and minions, and plan their attacks against their opponent.  Eventually, once a player reduces their opponent’s health to zero, they will win the game.

Conclusion:

Hearthstone is a great game to play, it is free to play, and has all the qualities of both a CCG (like Magic The Gathering), and World of Warcraft (without the MMORPG part).  The tutorial is great for training players how to play, and once you get into the game, you can build decks to play against other players (including your friends) and fill them with all sorts of fun spells and minions.  And if your deck has the right ingredients, and you play it out the right way, you will conquer your opponent in a fun and rewarding manner, wanting more each time.  And if you lose, you can keep tuning that deck and your skills in order to take the win next time around.

Score:

9.5Amazing

The good things:

• Limitless amount of Gameplay
• Multiplayer is great and never gets stale
• Can play your friends too
• All the great flavour a CCG has to bring
• All the great themes and characters from World of Warcraft
• Free to play

The bad things:

• Some decks, when built right, are very hard to beat and may lead to ‘ultimate’ decks being the winner all the time.  But even these can be beat if done right.

Outro:

All in all, Hearthstone is very fun to play and will entertain you for hours.  I’ve been playing it exclusively for the last couple of months, and still plan to play it for awhile.  Feel free to join in, and see you at the inn!

Written by ZdoctorZ

 

 

Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

 

Published by: Blizzard Entertainment

Developed by: Blizzard Entertainment

Platform: PC,  Macintosh

Genre: Strategy / Collectible Card Game

Release Date: March 11, 2014

ESRB Rating: Teen

Other Games Like Hearthstone:

Magic: The Gathering

World of Warcraft