With E3 came a small trailer from Wizards of the Coast regarding their fabled game Magic: The Gathering this time in the form of Duels of The Planeswalkers 2013. While I was out of the loop for 2012 I did experience 2010 and have been an occasional player of the title up until recently when I received 2013. So did Wizards of the Coast make a successful title once again or is it lacking in just the right places to make this a title you should overlook? Read on to find out.
I would classify myself as a newcomer to the Magic series overall, I knew it existed all while growing up and while Pokemon was the hot new thing as soon as I hit the age of eight I never actually played it just collected the cards and could say I had them, so to say card games held my interest for their actual purpose was an understatement. But recently that has changed with the digital Duels of The Planeswalkers titles. Stainless Games developed a wonderful title with 2013.
The starting point for anyone new to Magic is probably going to be the campaign, luckily even though Stainless tucked a tutorial away in the settings it pops up here as well. Over the first set of the campaign the tutorial is an option at any point and is greatly appreciated, I honestly checked it out just to see if they included the new gameplay elements into the tutorial which sadly they were missing and I was left guessing on how to do some of the things I had heard about.
The main campaign is pretty straight forward, with deck duels (unlock the opponents deck) and encounters in which you must overcome your opponent who will play the same cards every single time. The one thing I noticed after finishing a duel is what appears to be a “rating” is given in the form of Bronze, Silver & Gold. Now these weren’t explained at all and I have looked through the entire game to find an answer with no luck so I cannot honestly say how you earn better ratings as I have all three throughout the campaign.
Within the campaign menu option lies the choices for “Revenge”, “Planechase” & “Challenges” as well. Revenge seems to be essentially “Campaign part 2” with you facing the deck duels for a second time. Planechase is something new to Magic and is a unique twist on the normal four person duel, pitting you against three fellow A.I members a larger deck is placed in the middle with cards that apply an overall effect to everyone. These can be a blessing or curse when it comes to this mode, some cards will boost all your creatures with a +1/+1 while others will wipe out the entire field for everyone. Challenges return and these honestly I wouldn’t have been able to do or learn from at all if it weren’t for video guides honestly these are insane and any determined Magic player could probably solve these without any outside help.
As I stated 2012 was something I skipped over so “Player Status” is something new to me, allowing you to see some of your best statistics as well as what color you prefer to use, “Promotional Unlocks”, “Achievements” & your “Persona” are also all located here while it isn’t something super amazing it is nice to have and look at. Already 10 universal promotional unlock codes that unlocked one new card for each deck allowing all users to earn 10/30 cards for each deck.*
The “Deck Manager” returns for those who love to form a strategy based on how they can play their personal deck. Honestly I know this option can be very useful but I seem to only find myself looking at the new cards I unlock during normal duels and admiring what my cards would look like if I spent $1 to make them a “Premium foil deck”. However I did notice the 10 promotional cards you can unlock remain locked in this screen showing “30 locked” instead of 20 as it should.
Multiplayer is better than ever, with very few glitches showing up during my play time you may choose between the normal “Ranked” or “Player” matches along with the “Two-Headed Giant”, “Free For All (2-4), & “Planechase” to get your online career started. Honestly didn’t find anything fancy in these modes just had a bunch of fun dueling with friends. The community for the 360 did seem very lively though as even when trying to setup private player matches I had to kick quite a few people who joined in before I could close the slots.
Overall Magic: The Gathering – Duels of The Planeswalkers 2013 is a great title and provides hours upon hours of entertainment. While I honestly was a bit upset with the introduction of new gameplay features with no explanation it didn’t hurt my overall experience. For instance I didn’t learn how to manually select which mana I wanted to use until I was actually done with the main campaign and had started attempting the challenges and I have still yet to figure out how your rating is added up to give a color rating but I digress, those are two very minor things within the entire title which provides hours upon hours of fun and allows people the opportunity to develop very deep deck strategies. This game is worth checking out and honestly even if you are just a fan of strategy games you should give it a shot like I did with 2010 you might just discover a new title you enjoy.
*Here are the promotional unlock codes mentioned in the review for personal use. Enjoy!
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