Hello everyone, or few ones, or you alone that read those few lines...
And welcome to the first edition of my Gamer review on Steemit: GHZ !!! I will try to maintain a weekly post on this review at least, with no further ado lets explore Hearthstone a Blizzard game and much more ;)
Hearthstone a game by Blizzard
Hearthstone is an online Collectible Card Game developed by Blizzards.
I have to admit, I am addicted to this game. It is fun, easy to play, easy to understand, absolutely no time consuming… To simplify: I adore it!!!
At first I was afraid to again fall into an expensive and addictive CCGs as I fell and played Magic: The Gathering for years and years and years…. and dollars and dollars and dollars…
But no, Hearthstone is in the same « fun » alignement as MTG is but much more simplified due to the fact that playing a video game allows you to have much more better effects than playing a real Card game. Card effects such as random, multiplication, end of turn, death rattle are made in a very fun and simple manner online. On the contrary in MTG it was sometimes difficult to handle: dices, coins, pieces of paper… HORRIBLE…
If you’re new to collectible card games, they can be daunting. Learning how to play well can drain the fun from playing. Hearthstone isn’t like that: you’re not going to find yourself grimacing when a enormous rule book is dumped into your lap: there isn’t one.
Instead of that you have very simple mechanics. They are explained on the cards on one line, even one word sometimes… You have some manas. Cards cost mana. You have one more mana each turn. Stealth means the card con’t be targeted until attack, taunt cards you have to attack them before anything else etc…
Mixed with that EVERYTHING is visual: taunt has big shields, stealth hide in a mist. Spells fly across the board in a very visual manner.
A match is very easy: each player has 30 life and 30 cards in the deck. A coin is flipped to determined who goes first. The goal is to reduce your opponent life to zero or below, which will make him explode.
And that is it, as simple as this!!! No more to get some fun!!
But you can also have a different approach to the game and try to earn your way through the rank… You have 25 ranks, and the last one allows you to get ranked legends… This means you have been through ALL different ranks and climbed the ladder to the top. Then you have a rank legend, a simple number which tells you where you are in the ranking system.
But to get to this point it will take some time, lots of time and card games, a LOT of strategy and a perfect knowledge of your environment. You HAVE TO know the meta game!! Anticipation is the key to get through the ladder. I personally achieved rank 2 at best, but could not escalade the last rank. You have to know that ranks are reset every single month, and you have to climb the mountain again.
The game developper made a hard choice since day 1: you’re not allowed to communicate with your opponent other than through a series of pre-selected emotes. I was disappointing at first but eventually better like this as online game brings a lot of hate and inappropriate language. Even the ‘threaten’ line, is solely in character. Players seem to appreciate the touch; most battles end with a “well played” or a “sorry” emote. But in any case you can silence him for good if he used to many boring emotes :)
As for the hurting part: price!
You can earn a basic set of cards for each character by playing in practice matches with AI opponent. This will be enough to show you the ropes of each class of character.
Everything else has to be bought using your own cash (approx 1.50$/1.50€, with discount on bulk purchase).
But only by playing you can earn dust, or gold which allows you to craft for free any card you want.
The "booster cracking" is very well made and addictive.... It is actually fun to discover your new cards !
There will be accusations that Hearthstone is pay-to-win. That’s difficult to argue with. Some cards are unarguably more powerful than others. True too that if you’re looking for a natural, none-moneybags way to earn those cards, the rate at which you accumulate gold and arcane dust is very slow if you want legendary cards, BUT possible.
Well since the beginning they have made many new editions. Count one every 6 months in average, twice a year. I will be honest I spent a few hundred notes on that game and worst of all… I don’t regret it. The good thing is that you have plenty of fun, when you want where you want. You can play on mobile phone on PC, Mac, 5 minutes, 3 hours 3 days…. no matter you will have your load of fun. You don’t need to buy anything you have fun, but if you want to be competitive quickly there are no other option. You can also be patient and unblock the extension card by card with gold and dust… I am too eager for that…
For 150 gold you can also play arena, which is more « fair ». 150 gold is the equivalent of 1.99$ and enter thanks to your pass to the arena mode. The goal is simple you spend 150 gold and you are sure to have one pack at the end of the last expansion. The more you win the greater the payback! You can go up to 12 wins, if you lose 3 times you lose the arena. Go to 8 wins you will make your gold back and some extras.
It makes sense not to buy packs with your in game gold, but rather play arena and be guaranteed to have your pack PLUS extra if you play well!
Hearthstone is a wonderful game, I probably missed a few things or did not talk about some like adventures, tavern brawl and so on… But if I told you about everything that would not be fun :)
This is by far the best online collectible card game you can play. Just be careful… Addiction comes fast!
News
The big event everyone is waiting for is the announcement of the release of Destiny 2.
I will surely made a review in a few editions, but I did not have the chance to play it yet.
It has just officially launched, and will soon be available worldwide!
Here a few "before" release reviews from specialists around the world of gaming.
"Destiny 2 doesn't necessarily feel like full sequel to Destiny, but it doesn't need to. So far, what's here is fun and engaging. As I polish off the Story Campaign, partake in the current elder game, and await the unlocking of the Raid next week, I'm having fun. I don't know if it stands up to the best MMOs yet, but I'm liking what I'm seeing so far." -- Mike Williams
"At the very least, what I've played of Destiny 2 is an incredibly promising start. In plain English, it feels like Destiny without all the bulls***. It seems like the sequel Bungie needed to make--not a fundamentally different experience, but improved enough over its predecessor to reel veterans back in and attract people who skipped the original Destiny. Now we have to see how it holds up." -- Samit Sarkar
"So far, while I'm in the endgame grind I'm still having a good time, and I'm excited to hop back in and get my first max-level character. But as I mentioned, there's not a lot of clear direction from Destiny 2 after completing the campaign, and as much as I've loved the story I'm left feeling like I've seen it all, and I'd really like to see more. The upcoming Raid and Trials multiplayer mode do promise more narrative threads for me to pull at and I can't wait to dive in to see if they satisfy my content hunger pangs. Still, I'm thrilled to see Bungie deliver on its story promises and give a more balanced PVP experience. " -- Destin Legarie
Well we will see what is going on as soon as I will be able to try at least this game... The online part is looking pretty impressive and I am very eager to try it :)
Games Calendar
As promised the next BIG games title and their expected release date ! Enjoy
Horizon: Zero Dawn - The Frozen Wilds
Coming Nov 7, 2017
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - The Champion's Ballad
Coming Q4 2017
Hello Neighbor
Coming Dec 8, 2017
Call of Duty: WWII
Coming Nov 3, 2017
Final Fantasy XV: Epsiode Ignis
Unknown Release Date
Injustice 2 - Fighter Pack 2
Coming Sep 12, 2017
NBA 2K18
Coming Sep 15, 2017
Resident Evil 7: biohazard - Not a Hero
Coming Dec 12, 2017
Assassin's Creed Origins
Coming Oct 27, 2017
NBA Live 18
Coming Sep 15, 2017
I hope you Enjoyed my first review, took me more time than I thought to complete it but I will get used to it by the time and get faster ;)
Peace!
Mangoo
Source: Hearthstone game screenshots, Blizzard, destiny