READ THESE NEXT OR YOUR FAMILY WON'T LOVE YOU:
December, 21, 2011
December, 11, 2011
November, 21, 2011
November, 20, 2011
April, 20, 2010
- 1 of 25
- ››
Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers Review
June 26, 2009 by Micah Bleich
I'll be up front. I'm a huge Magic nerd. You might doubt my nerditude levels because of the "oh-so-clever" image that accompanies this post, but I assure you, I'm bonafide nerdtastic.
You might think the fact that I played the paper game of Magic since it's second set (called Beta) until about 2 years ago when the price of booster packs went up higher than the cost of cigarettes, weed and gas. Again though, you'd be wrong. My deep love of the paper game actually skews my perception of the new Xbox 360 Live game negatively. I'll try however to exorcise the demons of fan boy rage in order to give you a fair and informed view of the latest digital installment.
UNTAP (Getting the Game): Score: 10 out of 10
The first phase in a new gaming experience is first deciding what game you want to buy. Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalker executes this perfectly. The demo is a quick download that lets you play the first 3 matches of the game, and then when beaten offers the option to unlock the full game with no loss in progress of any kind. I can't find any fault with the ease of download and setup. It even shines compared to other Xbox Live games which are well known for ease of use.
UPKEEP (Graphics): Score: 8 out of 10
I couldn't believe it, but the game actually look very good for a digital interpretation of a card game. The playing field is full 1080p resolution and looks great on my LCD TV, and the battle animations aren't mind blowing but add a bit of excitement to the climax of the turn that would otherwise be pretty bland looking.
MAIN PHASE (Sound): Score: 3 out of 10
This game has some of the most repetitive music I've ever heard. You'll find yourself playing on mute or with a custom soundtrack very fast.
ATTACK PHASE (Gameplay): 9 out of 10
The game actually plays amazingly like the real card game, with the only descrepency being the inability to react to combat damage (though in the 2010 new Magic rules it will be that way, so they are probably ahead of the curve), and the active timer that only gives you a few seconds to think during each time you have priority unless you hit the pause button. I missed a few moves I want to do because of this feature, but it's a necessary evil for the smoothness it adds to online play.
END STEP (Features): 3 out of 10
Here is where the game loses major points. It's strictly limited to the preconstructed decks included in the game. The only configuration ability you have is to turn on and off the new cards you unlock in the campaign mode, but those cards are almost always big fat creatures or bomb sorcery spells, so you'd have to be crazy to take them out.
Overall: 7 out of 10
For $10 you could do a lot worse. It's great if you have some friends across the country you want to play with that won't shell out the cash for Magic Online on the PC. If you're looking for a deep Magic experience with deck crafting, tournaments, etc. you're not going to find it here. Playing Duels of the Planeswalkers on Xbox 360 is very akin to playing Sealed Deck magic. It's a ton of fun, but gets very old fast being unable to use new cards. I'm anxious to see what future downloadable content can add to this game!
