A few months back I was thumbing through my Game Informer and I landed on the indie games section. I usually just give a quick glance of the pictures to see if I'm interested, and when I saw the image from Card Hunter, a free PC game, I had to find out more. The game is still in Beta, but if this sounds like the game for you (and how could it not be?) then make sure you sign up for the Beta!
Card hunter is a tactics-style game, meaning that you and your opponent take turns moving your pieces around a grid-based battlefield. If you've ever played Dungeons and Dragons with miniatures, you'll feel right at home with this game. It is a lighthearted game with several "in jokes" that most geeks will appreciate, like an ooze named Blpbpbpbqpl, cliche story hooks, class roles, paper stand-up models, and a hilarious Dungeon Master to help tell the story.
Everything in this game will feel immediately familiar to most. You start with a warrior, mage, and warrior priest at first, with more classes likely to come later. Combat is unique in that you draw a series of movement, armor, and action cards each turn. Unlike games like Magic, you don't necessarily choose your cards. Rather, your available attacks, armor, and different movement cards are granted by each piece of equipment on your character.
Everything in this game will feel immediately familiar to most. You start with a warrior, mage, and warrior priest at first, with more classes likely to come later. Combat is unique in that you draw a series of movement, armor, and action cards each turn. Unlike games like Magic, you don't necessarily choose your cards. Rather, your available attacks, armor, and different movement cards are granted by each piece of equipment on your character.
The game is fairly straight forward, but so far all the battle I've fought have had enough creature variety to make it unique each time. The battlefields are rather bland so far, with black borders around impassable terrain and the occasional difficult terrain that stops movement when you enter it. I haven't found terrain to be terribly important other than letting me create choke points - as a DM I find it disappointing that terrain elements aren't a bit more interactive, but it's a minor complaint that could easily be fixed later.
Card Hunter is free-to-play, which of course means that there's a cash shop that uses "pizzas" in the same way other games use gems.
Blue Manchu has made it a point to eliminate the "cash wall" that may prevent players from seeing content unless they pay. With the exception of adventures and frivolous things like different character tokens, everything in the game is attainable without lightening your wallet. How Manchu will handle this remains to be seen, as many games with a similar model practically strongarm you in to paying lest you spend countless hours acquiring enough gold to buy a single upgrade. For what you can get with Pizzas I do find them to be rather overpriced, but I hope the Beta will serve as a way for them to make it more of a desirable purchase.
There's no real story to speak of, and instead each point on the map is an adventure featuring a series of battles leading up to a "big bad evil guy," with each adventure being repeatable daily. As I said, each adventure feels unique enough, but I can see things becoming dull if Manchu doesn't have more elements to combat than a simple death match.
On the other hand, the game is fantastic in bite-sized chunks. When I would try grinding through several adventures in one sitting, I'd last maybe two adventures (8-10 battles) before I had to be done. But when I'd do 2 or 3 battles for about 15 minutes, the game had just enough strategy and excitement to make the time worthwhile. And since there is no wandering aimlessly through a dungeon, every minute you spend in Card Hunter will have you dealing with equipment or killing baddies so that you can get enough gold to deal with equipment.
Despite being in Beta, I think the game has shown me enough to make it worth recommending. The three characters bring unique abilities to the table, and each one can be customized to fill different roles. The game is fast-paced and enjoyable, with enough whimsy to make it easy to relax to. The lack of story and map creativity is disappointing, but for a game meant to be played a few minutes at a time it's easy to forgive. If Blue Machu handles the cash shop properly, then I think this will be a great game for anyone looking to goof around at work or when they have a few minutes to kill at home.
Remember, it's still in Beta so you can't play it just yet. There's a Beta sign-up on the site if you really want to give it a whirl, otherwise stick around because I'll definitely be letting you know when it goes live.
See you tomorrow!
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