The only movie I’ve ever seen by myself was the Yu-Gi-Oh movie – and that’s because I was a rabid fan…but a lone one. No one would go with me! In the same vein, I was excited by the prospect of Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 simply by its game description – it instantly reminded me of Yu Gi Oh and how much I loved the show growing up. I’d never actually played any of the Magic franchise, but that wasn’t going to stop me — the strategy of the game was pretty much what I had expected, with a few extras that I was able to pick up quite quickly.
The hot: The game made it very easy for players who were unfamiliar with the game to learn, with extensive interactive tutorials and ‘helpful hints’ that you could switch on or off depending on your skill level. Although I didn’t utilise the feature, you are able to participate in an online mentoring game option, which has more experienced players helping the ‘n00bs’ or whatever it is you people call us. This is the first time I’ve ever heard of a game with this capability and I think the concept is really neat.
There are lots of different ways to play the game, including campaign duelling against various AI opponents with extra brain-teaser challenges along the way, quick duels with AI opponents, and online co-op with you and a friend against two other people. There are also online game play options with the option to play with 2-4 players. Microsoft seem to be confident that this game will take off with additional content able to be downloaded from the main menu.
The meh: After a bit of research, I discovered that the fans of the real card game have issue with what they see as the major flaw in the game: the inability to fully customize your deck as much as you obviously can with an actual physical deck of cards.
I found the gameplay with the AIs to be a little bit slow, having to watch the turn timer even though the AI never changes its mind. It’s a bit stupid and unnecessary.
The cold: My pet peeve in these turn taking style of games is when you have to just sit and watch while the AI pulls the most amazing cards from their deck and crushes you in minutes after 20 minutes of close duelling. More than once I was just about to be in a position to win and the AI would draw a card that would turn the entire game around and I would have to slug it out for another 20 minutes or would be crushed. I’m not saying that it’s rigged — well I suppose I kind of am — but the difficulty of the games got markedly harder very quickly. It got to the point where some AIs would play about 5 cards per turn while all you could do is sit and watch and try and follow what the hell was going on.
I did enjoy this game overall, even with the AIs that made me want to throw my controller straight through the TV. Being able to play against friends and Xbox Live opponents makes the game much more enjoyable. As a player who didn’t truly know what to expect, I would say that this game is worth the price and will keep you busy for a good period of time. More experienced Magic players may find the game’s restrictions a bit annoying. As an arcade game there are more gameplay options than I would have expected. It’s definitely worth the 800 Microsoft points, and as always there is a free demo if you are unsure.
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