CorruptDictator
I want a custom title, but I dont trust VintagePC
So, on a whim yesterday I decided to buy Scrolls (it is currently in "beta", buy it and you can play it while still in development like they did with MC). I had previously paid very little attention to the game and did not know much beyond the fact that it was a card game/board game hybrid of sorts.
So far I have been pleasantly surprised. Outside of some issues with the client hanging or freezing up, it has been pretty fun. When you start it up you have to pick one of three pre-made decks (one for each resourced type) and I opted for Energy based off the description provided at the menu. Now I kind of wish I had gotten Growth, but whatever. They have a little tutorial match to teach you the basics and you can always play vs AI games or try out the "trials" (challenge matches with varying difficulties that award bonus gold the first time you complete them). You gain gold for playing, win or lose, that you can use to buy more cards. I have not tried to play against other people yet, so I do not know how stable the network side of the game is right now.
One thing I have read some complaint about however, is the fact that they have included a cash for cards option in the form of "shards" thus allowing you to buy you card collection faster. If you play the game regularly, your gold gain rate is pretty reasonable (if you complete all the trials alone you can net a bonus 9k+ gold). Also that game has the option to trade cards between players to help flesh out a deck/collection (decks are 50 card, max 3 of any individual card). Right now there are only the three mentioned resources to build a deck from (and the game is not currently friendly towards trying to use multiple resources in one deck) with plans to add more in the future (I think one called Decay is next). Unless you are obsessive about wanting every single card the system is reasonably well set up to get what you need just by playing.
The game play is reasonably fluid and requires some battlefield strategy. Each player has 5 totems they have to protect, if you loose 3 it is game over. Each turn you draw a card, can option to sacrifice a card to gain resource or draw two more cards (one total sacrifice per turn) and play as many cards as your current resources allow (total resources are refreshed at the beginning of each turn). What takes planning is the fact that each totem has a "path" to defend it (3 spaces in front) and the same units used to defend are also your attackers. However, attacking is not something you control directly, everything you summon has attack/countdown/life states and the countdown stat determines how many rounds between the unit taking action. This means you can potentially play a really powerful card, but then have to wait 3 turns before it can act during which your opponent may destroy it if your side of the battlefield is poorly laid out. Games seem to take around 15-20 minutes.
I see myself enjoying this game enough to have made it worth my money. Hopefully Mojang will stick with their habit of long term updates to keep the game interesting. I do definitely feel this will appeal more to people who like board games and have played ccgs and enjoyed them over just casual pc gamers.
So far I have been pleasantly surprised. Outside of some issues with the client hanging or freezing up, it has been pretty fun. When you start it up you have to pick one of three pre-made decks (one for each resourced type) and I opted for Energy based off the description provided at the menu. Now I kind of wish I had gotten Growth, but whatever. They have a little tutorial match to teach you the basics and you can always play vs AI games or try out the "trials" (challenge matches with varying difficulties that award bonus gold the first time you complete them). You gain gold for playing, win or lose, that you can use to buy more cards. I have not tried to play against other people yet, so I do not know how stable the network side of the game is right now.
One thing I have read some complaint about however, is the fact that they have included a cash for cards option in the form of "shards" thus allowing you to buy you card collection faster. If you play the game regularly, your gold gain rate is pretty reasonable (if you complete all the trials alone you can net a bonus 9k+ gold). Also that game has the option to trade cards between players to help flesh out a deck/collection (decks are 50 card, max 3 of any individual card). Right now there are only the three mentioned resources to build a deck from (and the game is not currently friendly towards trying to use multiple resources in one deck) with plans to add more in the future (I think one called Decay is next). Unless you are obsessive about wanting every single card the system is reasonably well set up to get what you need just by playing.
The game play is reasonably fluid and requires some battlefield strategy. Each player has 5 totems they have to protect, if you loose 3 it is game over. Each turn you draw a card, can option to sacrifice a card to gain resource or draw two more cards (one total sacrifice per turn) and play as many cards as your current resources allow (total resources are refreshed at the beginning of each turn). What takes planning is the fact that each totem has a "path" to defend it (3 spaces in front) and the same units used to defend are also your attackers. However, attacking is not something you control directly, everything you summon has attack/countdown/life states and the countdown stat determines how many rounds between the unit taking action. This means you can potentially play a really powerful card, but then have to wait 3 turns before it can act during which your opponent may destroy it if your side of the battlefield is poorly laid out. Games seem to take around 15-20 minutes.
I see myself enjoying this game enough to have made it worth my money. Hopefully Mojang will stick with their habit of long term updates to keep the game interesting. I do definitely feel this will appeal more to people who like board games and have played ccgs and enjoyed them over just casual pc gamers.
