https://www.humblebundle.com/?cardgame_bundle I like card games, but I don't like spending money. (That's why I'm here.) I'm willing to give BM some more money, but I already have everything I want from the Basic Edition. So what do people think of the other games in the bundle? Note that I prefer SP content, which is hard to find in card games.
I quite like Star Realms. There's a free version (with a one-time IAP to unlock harder AI and a single-player campaign) that I play on my phone. It's playable, but at least on my phone the text is tiny, so I pretty much had to memorize what all the cards were before I could really play effectively. If it's good enough that I'm willing to go through all that to play on a phone, it's definitely worth owning a version you can play on a larger screen.
It seems a bunch of the games in the bundle have free demos so people who are super cheap (like me) can try them out before deciding. And since we have 11 days left before the bundle ends, I'm going to try as many as I can for free, and share my opinions here. I'm starting with the one already recommended: Star Realms This in not a CCG, but rather a card game where you build your deck while playing (like a draft, except you draft during the battle not before). Dominion is the most famous of this type of game. The demo contains a tutorial, one campaign mission, and an easy AI to practice against. The full version (minimum bundle level) has 9 more campaign missions, a harder AI (for practice and campaign), and multiplayer. Top bundle level gives you the physical version of this game. The game mechanics are simpler than I'm used to, but the strategy is tough to grasp because it takes several turns to see to results of your choices. I like collecting more than I like winning, so if I buy the bundle I'd try to beat the campaign on hard mode, but probably wouldn't play MP. No effect on my decision to buy the bundle. Next game: Scrolls.
Scrolls This one is a CCG, with a little bit of TBS. The free version contains the easy SP content and unranked MP against random opponents. I'm pretty sure you can get all the cards without paying, though a bunch of things are locked in the shop (most starter decks, avatar sets, and custom idols). Full version (minimum bundle) adds medium and hard SP, ranked and draft MP, full shop, and trading. $12 bundle gives two starter decks and 2 avatar sets. The gameplay is about what you would expect from a CCG, with a little more positioning than normal (enough to make me wish I could attack my own characters because they are in the way). It looks like there are only 360 cards in the game so far, and I haven't seen enough to judge the balance. Free players should be able to grind enough gold each day to steadily build their collection; the Easy Daily Trial alone gives enough gold to buy two random cards. I'm going to come back to this game later.. it's promising, but hasn't actually been fun yet. Next game: Dominion.
Dominion This is the most famous and popular (maybe first?) of the build-your-deck-as-you-play card games. Free version has only the base set, tutorial, part of the SP content, and MP (maybe limited to base set cards?). Better-than-average bundle gives one expansion, and $12 gives two more expansions. While there aren't many cards in the base set (25?), the game mechanics are more complicated and there is much less randomness than in Star Realms. It is not easy to learn, and it doesn't help that they hide the players' scores until the game is over. If you're looking for the card game equivalent of chess, this is the game for you. I believe the physical version of the game deserves the praise it gets. But the game's online interface is absolutely horrible. The scroll bars are almost entirely useless: it took five minutes to enter my birth date during registration, and the scroll bars in the shop wouldn't move more than a few pixels. There are no volume sliders: sounds and music are either too loud or silent. The link to your profile usually doesn't work so I can't tell if you can change your avatar after account creation. When a game ends, there is no message saying who won; they just show the scores for each player, winner first, and because I picked the same avatar as the tutorial opponent it took me several seconds each game to figure out if I won or not. I still haven't figured out how to zoom in on cards during the game. I found the place where you can build a deck, but haven't found any game mode that lets you bring a deck (haven't tried MP yet). If I buy the bundle, I'm not giving any money to this game. Next I have to sign up for Steam to test SolForge.
SolForge This is a freemium CCG in Steam Early Access; some things like chat, achievements, and SP campaign aren't available yet. Minimum bundle gives a starter deck, better-than-average bundle gives another starter and a second copy of the first and some premium currency. It looks like every card and tournament can be bought using earnable currency (the prices are insane, but I think you're guaranteed 6K just from playing 3 games each day, even against the easy AI). This game isn't trying to be anything other than a CCG, but it is doing some interesting things with the game mechanics. Cards do not have casting costs, instead each turn you draw 5 cards, play 2, and discard the rest. But each card has three versions: your deck starts with level 1 cards and each time you play a card the next level version is put in your discard pile, which is reshuffled every 4 turns (the card actually played never goes into the discard). I'm going to keep playing this to see how these game mechanics work, but starter decks don't interest me much. Other games.... I don't see any way to try Talisman or Magic 2015 for free, so I can't review them. So on to the two free games: Card City Nights Now this game truly looks like an indie game. Don't bother reading the instructions in the print&play .pdf, they're worthless. Instead play the digital version which is a large and very well made SP campaign (all the NPCs have lots of dialog, even Excitable Student's pet Fishbun). Another CCG with unusual game mechanics, this time you're placing cards in a grid so that their arrows line up to make combos. I'll complete the SP content, but since I already own everything available there's no hurry. Escape From the Aliens in Outer Space This is a game of hidden information, similar to Scotland Yard. It looks like I'd probably enjoy it, but I don't have 3 other players handy to test it. This would be so much better as an online game where the server can enforce the rules. And that's all the games until new ones are added Tuesday.
I am sort of doing the same thing you are, though you seem to be a bit further along than I am. I have pretty much decided to at least get the beat the average tier. I am still debating about the $12 tier. In fact I already dismissed Dominion as a reason to get it. I also don't see the value in it for Scrolls over the base game, as just getting out of the tutorials I already have the gold to buy one of the two decks anyway. So that leaves this game. Don't suppose you would be willing to do a mini review on this game as well? Might help me to not miss something when I try it later this week. I think the $1 tier is worth it for scrolls and it will be nice to get some starter cards for SolForge. The deck does look to contain better cards than the two starter decks I um started with. Hopefully Talisman proves decent as well as whatever game is coming soon. Star Realms I tried on my android device and it did not play well on it, I think it needs a larger screen then the device I used had, but I don't think I will be playing it. I seem to like SolForge so far, so figure it would be nice to get the cards from the second tier as well as some of the gold to use in game. Also, been meaning to try Duels of the Planeswalkers so this will at least have it in my library to stare at me and maybe get me to try magic finally. Dominion, I don't see myself using. Wondering what the added games will be. The chat button for me popped up a steam chat room for the game. There are some achievements in the game, that seem to be hidden. I got one today for winning ten games that awarded me a chest. You have to win three games a day to get the daily rewards, not just play them. One for the first win, and another for your third. You also get a daily reward for you first win against another player, that gives you one ticket towards a tournament. I think it is seven tickets for the draft competitive draft tournament. This is in addition to a daily log in reward. I also found some codes to get some free booster packs, 'scg_free_packs' and 'asc_free_packs' give you 5 boosters each. You can redeem them here. So far I have spent the most time with SolForge, though I think Scrolls has the potential to pass it once I really concentrate on it and learn it better.
(SolForge) I have to hit shift-tab to open the Steam overlay, and if I clicked Chat first, then I get a popup in the overlay saying I need to add games to my account or something. Maybe I need to log into Steam too? Oh well, I don't actually chat much in the first place. I, um, haven't managed to beat a human yet. But yes, it seems the best daily routine would be: Log in (silver and cards) Play against easy AI (silver and cards) Play against human (event ticket) Play against easy AI (silver and cards) And I assume everyone reading this can beat the easy AI, even with the decks they give you to start with. (And thank you for the booster codes!) Sure. CardHunter This is a hybrid CCG and turn-based strategy game, which causes some problems for people who expect one but not the other (even worse for those who come here expecting an RPG). You don't actually own individual cards; instead you own items that have 3 or 6 cards each. In battles you control three characters, each with their own deck made from the items they have equipped. So there's multiple layers of strategy: which characters to use, which items to equip to get the cards you want, and when (and where) to play (or not play) the cards you draw. Timing and positioning is hugely important in this game. The free version gives all the content except the 16 premium SP adventures called Treasure Hunts. The Basic Edition gives 11 of the Treasure Hunts, an alternate skin for each class/race combo, one month of Club Membership (Club members get an extra item every time they win a battle), and 100 pizza (premium currency). That extra pizza if combined with the pizza everyone gets early in the campaign will give you enough to unlock the 6 Treasure Hunts in the expansion (or you can spend it on other skins or chests of items).
A kind and generous soul gave me their spare product key so I can review another game! Talisman: Prologue Take a randomized RPG, convert it to a board game, write some single-player rules, then digitize it. They did a really good job of squeezing the complexity of an RPG into the limits of a board game, and this is a very accurate recreation of a board game (you even click to roll each die). But I really miss that complexity; this is just a little bit too simple and random. Even with 16 classes to choose from (each with different abilities) and six quests for each, the game is already starting to feel repetitive. I keep saying I want SP instead of MP, but I may like the MP version better (Talisman: Digital Edition, also part of the minimum bundle). Tomorrow: New games added to the bundle!
OK, I am a CCG fan for more than 20 years. Yes, I was playing Magic in 1994. I am trying to play all games of this genre, even the most awful and buggy ones. Thus, I am something like an expert here I've bought the maximum bundle on the first day, even before I've received e-mail from Cardhunter. I have to say that I really hate the "deckbuilding games" like Dominion and Star Realms. Most of the CCG pleasure comes from defeating the opponent with your own deck (I mean not the cards you own, but the ideas you've implemented). In the "deckbuilding games" you function like a computer, having very limited options each turn. That's why such games are very popular among the fools and bring a lot of money to their developers Fools make a vast majority of the population, but I guess the Cardhunter players aren't among them. Dominion. Nicely painted "deckbuilding game"; probably the most famous of them. A right strategy means a lot, but paying a few "zaps" to convert your copper coins to silver ones helps much more. The game has a major interface drawback IMHO: it doesn't show who's currently winning. Only after the game is over you get to know this. Verdict: funny for a couple of hours, then forget about it. May be useful to kill time with pleasure. Star Realms. A badly implemented "deckbuilding game". In addition to being stupid as all of them, this one has awful game interface with a lot of strange icons. You rarely have any choice here at all; most of the time you can buy just one of 2-3 cards for your deck. Scrolls. Nice and funny CCG with board positioning elements. Reminds Kings and Legends a bit, but without that awful money race. You aren't limited to the "random cards" as Kalin wrote; the game has a "black market" where you can buy ANY card you need - for a price. The board and graphics reminds Plants vs Zombies The number of cards is really limited, but the game is really funny and entertaining. I was happy to get this game almost for free. SolForge. I am playing this game for a long time, and I must say it's great. The graphics is good, the interface is simple, and the main idea is at least interesting: your played cards rise in level and you will draw more powerful versions of them later in the game. Some cards are great early but bad in the late game, others are weak early but very good afterwards. The problem is only power creep, but that's a problem of all CCGs AFAIK. The game has good rewards for logging in and winning 3 games every day (even vs the AI). Oh, and you can play SolForge both on PC and your mobile phone. The only thing I don't like here is the "you can play only two cards per turn" rule. I know why this rule was made, but still prefer some resource system, even as simple as in Hearthstone. Playing cards without paying for them makes balancing cards extremely difficult. Magic: the Gathering 2015. It's really huge - more than a gigabyte to load. The game interface is awful - slow and awkward; I am still unable to play instants in combat. But the graphics is nice, and, after all, it's a good old Magic! I am enjoying opening the virtual boosters almost as if they would be real. I didn't try the other games yet.
It's okay to not like this kind of game (I don't either), but insulting people who do like it just makes you a jerk. True, but I included that in "trading" or "full shop"; either way you need the full version to use it. How is your collection doing? Are you spending your silver on boosters? I've been looking at the numbers, and boosters may be a bad investment. Most of the time you'll get cards that could be purchased individually for less than half the cost of the booster. So I'm going to try to only buy Legendary Chests from now on, even though I'll have to wait two weeks between purchases (I'll still get boosters and individual cards from the daily rewards). This is something I like, because it forces people (especially the devs) to think about balance. It also eliminates one of the most common frustrations in CCGs: getting your expensive cards early and your cheap cards late. Oh dear, are they trying to implement Instants in an online game? Does Magic still have Interrupts? Online card games really need to have any reactions be automatic (like they are in CH and Hearthstone).
Okay, now things are getting really violent... BloodRealm Another freemium CCG in Steam Early Access. Free version gives 1 starter deck and it looks like all content so far can be unlocked with earnable currency. Minimum bundle gives a second starter deck and 3 boosters, and the better-than-average bundle unlocks the campaign expansion. The game mechanics are pretty close to Hearthstone. You have champions which determine which elements you can use in your deck, and each has stats and unique special abilities. And each turn your max mana automatically increases. I really like the huge SP campaign (36 battles in the free version, another 36 in the expansion, three difficultly levels for each). Also, there are lots of little quests to give you cash to buy boosters, starter decks, and the expansion. Unfortunately, it's pretty buggy (random disconnects, quests not finishing, etc). Also, the story is super violent even for a CCG: you are trying to save the world by killing everyone you meet. And you're told that only you can do this, which is an odd story for an MP game. Even in the campaign it's your champions (plural) who are leveling up until they become gods. And I'm a little worried about the quests running out before I have everything I want. You may be able to earn cash in MP, but I haven't manage to beat anyone yet (3 queues, 1 loss, 2 failures to find opponent).
Oh come on. Everybody knows there are more and less clever people on Earth, call it IQ or something else. Clever people like the games with multitude of choices; stupid people like the games with limited choices or no choice at all. I didn't tell that all lovers of deckbuilding games are stupid (sometimes even the most clever people just want to turn off their brain and relax), but the games were clearly designed for mindless play, and that's why they're so popular And you are getting the full version in the bundle! I've managed to get a top tier deck, but I play rarely: too many other games are demanding The silver is never wasted on boosters; it's used to buy the cards you need for your deck. Is this a problem in Magic? No, you can take a mulligan. Is this a problem in Hearthstone? No, you can replace the expensive cards before playing. Plus, there are games where the resources don't disappear at the end of turn, and you can just collect them for several turns to buy that expensive card. Balancing all cards to be equal is the real problem, though. It's nearly impossible, and in fact only the small portion of cards gets played. No, there are no interrupts for a long time But they surely have to implement instants in such a large and expensive game like this.
Woo, they've added two more games to the bundle! War of Omens. The only deckbuilding game I've played for some time. This is a true masterpiece: stunning graphics, great interface, awesome player interaction, and, most importantly, you get to build your own deck. As usual, you start the game with coins to buy the cards from your deck, then gain more and more power. The game is free to play, but in this bundle you get some game currency and. most importantly, an enchanted coin, which is a real treasure here. Try this game, but beware, it's highly addictive! You may spend all your weekend hunting for "one more booster pack" BloodRealm. I've played this game a little and didn't like it. This is basically a clone of many simple games where you and your opponent both have a row of 5 cells to place your creatures. Unfortunately, this is a "leveling" game: you have to level-up your cards more and more. Ultimately, that means "pay to win", since you will have to pay to level up.
War of Omens This is a cross between a CCG and a deckbuilding game like Dominion: you buy cards during the game, but you're buying from a private bank you built before the battle. Also, you have a hero with a special ability like in Hearthstone. They have plans for a decent sized SP campaign, but only about half is available now. Seems to have a good selection of daily quests to earn cash and every seven days you'll get one of the premium currency. Free version gives you two starter decks, and I think most content will unlock eventually though you'll have to open boosters to get the other hero cards (I've gotten one already, and almost enough cards to use her). Better-than-average bundle gives two more starter decks, an exclusive coin, some of each currency, and (most importantly to me) unlocks the good boosters. I'm not happy about the story; I don't enjoy being forced to play a psychopath (I have the same problem with BloodRealm). Also, there doesn't seem to be much room to add new cards to the existing factions, and I'm worried expansions will add new factions that make the old ones obsolete.
I invested $12 as I like card games and while I could probably have saved the money I will enjoy the bonuses and am supporting games I like. So far I only played Scrolls, and only against the AI, but I played it quite a lot. My comments on Scrolls: As said above, you don't need to pay (unless you care about avatars) as you can buy all cards for gold and it comes easy enough. Playing the daily easy and medium trial, beatable with the free starter deck, earns you about 800 total, and you can play skirmishes against the AI for 100-150 a time. You can get booster packs for 1000-1200, and the two starter decks you get with the bundle cost 8000 each (they are not especially powerful IMO). I beat the hard daily trial once (700 gold) but really it needs either a well-constructed deck or a ton of luck and/or skill. It does vary every day though. The game is interesting and tactical, with a lot of positioning involved, but the board does get crowded. I think deck construction is relatively easy compared to most games of this type, because there are 50 scrolls with a max of 3 of each type, you will nearly always sacrifice one scroll for resources or deck turnover each turn, and while there are certainly synergies between cards, they are not as strong as in (say) Magic. So there is less room to go wrong, which will suit players who don't mind a bit of deck design, but who prefer the tactics of play. There are deeper games, but it's fun. From what I see above, War of Omens or Solforge will be next up for me!
Decision time: Should I buy the Humble Bundle? (average price is holding steady at $7.99) Lots of good games that do interesting things with game mechanics (which is very important to me). But will I want to keep playing these games? I'm the sort of person who feels guilt and regret throwing away something I payed for, which is why I try to avoid paying for games in the first place. I like CCGs because I like collecting things, but since I don't like paying for games I have to earn my cards. As a result, I feel a need to do any daily rewards offered. So the next question is: How many battles do I want to fight every single day? What I want: Scrolls: full SP content and cosmetic options ($1) Star Realms: full SP content ($1) BloodRealms: campaign expansion ($8) War of Omens: exclusive coin and the good boosters ($8) I'm not going to go higher than that. As much as I like the idea of giving away the Basic Edition key as a contest prize, it's not worth $4 to me. I'd rather just give Jon money directly for whatever EttSC is. What I don't want: I don't care for what I've seen of the stories in BloodRealm and War of Omens (I've avoided reading any stories for the others). I also don't like most of the art (Dominion and Star Realms were fine). In War of Omens it can be really hard to tell cards apart when the view zooms out (because your opponent has dozens of cards in play). Balance: I haven't seen most of the cards yet for these games, and I've played very little MP so balance is hard to judge. Also, balance doesn't really matter much when playing SP. But I'm still a little worried by what I've seen, especially if I need to play MP for daily rewards. In the first place, in every game where I tried MP my first match was against someone with a large collection. SolForge: doesn't have SP yet, and I just noticed a case where a higher rarity card was strictly better than a lower rarity one. War of Omens: I only played one match and my opponent had a horribly broken deck (he ended the game with about 30 cards in play, over 2000 gold and over 500 skulls). And it looks like each faction is more complicated than the previous ones, which is troubling. Now let's see what the daily grind will be at each payment level: Free 2x CardHunter 3x SolForge (3 boosters or cards + 0.06 legendary chests) 1x Scrolls (0.25 boosters) 3-10x War of Omens (9 poor boosters) $1 2x CardHunter 3x SolForge (3 boosters or cards + 0.06 legendary chests) 3x Scrolls (1.25 boosters) 3-10x War of Omens (9 poor boosters) ?? Talisman: Digital Edition $8 2x CardHunter 3x SolForge (3 boosters or cards + 0.06 legendary chests) 3x Scrolls (1.25 boosters) 3-10x War of Omens (3 good boosters) ?? Talisman: Digital Edition ?? Magic 2015 Last night I didn't have enough time to finish all the free dailies. And I'm afraid that a month from now I'll be back to only playing CardHunter. Each game has things that interest me, and things I'd like to see more of, but each also has things I'd like to see less of (like the art). OTOH, I just found out I'm getting a raise, so I have a reason to splurge a little on myself. PS. I'm not really asking for advice, just thinking aloud. However, I am interested in other people's opinions.
Your time, especially your free time, is much more important and valuable than the asking price of the games. Don't buy a bunch of them at once if it leads to you feeling compelled to play them every day until you burn out for the whole concept and never play any CCG again. You can always get a single one you're particularly attracted to on the cheap in some sale or another. Soon enough they'll all be free-to-play anyway.
