Lately, I’ve been playing a good deal of Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, the online trading card game by Blizzard Entertainment. There are a lot of things that Blizzard does right with this game, but there are also a few prevalent faults that I believe Blizzard needs to address in order to really drive this game home. The game is still in closed beta, however, so there is still plenty of time to improve the game before it is open to the public.
Even though the mediums and gameplay are different, in an attempt to gauge Hearthstone’s future, I feel it is necessary to compare Hearthstone with other collectible trading card games, namely Magic: The Gathering. I’ve played Magic for only two years, but I’ve invested a lot of time and money into the game and play it on a competitive level. The flaws in Magic are few and far between—I believe Wizards of the Coast, the company behind Magic, has really nailed down the trading card game genre after twenty years of developing Magic.
Magic will be the baseline for success that Hearthstone should strive to meet.
I began playing Hearthstone toward the beginning of its life last fall. It had a lot of appeal for me since I’ve always loved trading card games, and Hearthstone’s fast-paced games allowed me to easily fit it into my schedule. Yet, I still ended up spending several nights playing the game a bit too far past my bedtime. It is addictive.
The art for the game, while not the beautiful masterpieces that show up in Magic, really just fits the game. Hearthstone has that typical Warcraft feel, returning again to the stylized cartoonish characters that first really made an appearance in Warcraft II.
The game is also loaded with that crude, often self-deprecating, humor that Blizzard is so well-known for. Since the game is filled with inside jokes about previous Blizzard games and famous players (like Leeroy Jenkins), I’m confident that players who are very familiar with Blizzard already will enjoy the game much more than a newcomer who just picked up Hearthstone as a card game. Fortunately, I fall into the former group.
Although there are a couple large gameplay differences between Hearthstone and Magic, the games are unlike many other popular trading card games in that they use the mana system. The mana system refers to the resource system that fuels the game. Each spell costs a certain amount of mana, depending on the strength of its effect, and players gain mana over the course of the game, which allows for the casting of bigger and better spells.
Hearthstone does arguably improve upon Magic’s mana system in that each player gets an extra mana each turn (instead of having to play land cards to get mana), which prevents players from ever getting “mana-screwed.” For those unfamiliar with the term, it refers to when a player doesn’t have any mana (because they don’t have enough lands to produce it) and just cannot cast anything, which leads to unfun and one-sided games.
However, Hearthstone’s rigid mana system does not allow for the creative deck building that Magic allows with its land system, so it is a give-and-take.
The biggest reason why I enjoy playing Hearthstone over other trading card games and many other online games is that it is actually free to play. Magic is a very expensive hobby. Hearthstone is not, but there is a distinct benefit to spending money on the game to unlock more cards and thus more strategies.
Now, onto the areas that Blizzard needs to improve upon. My greatest peeve about the game and, unfortunately, probably the only fault that they will not address in coming patches is the huge “luck” aspect. Trading card games are always associated with chance—it’s just a part of the genre—but Hearthstone takes it to an unnecessary level.
For instance, the only chance really present in Magic is the randomness of your card draws and your opponents’ draws. Hearthstone, in addition to every other trading card game, also has this aspect, yet Hearthstone also has many cards whose effects are completely random. The randomness appeals to many casual players, I’m sure, but it absolutely kills Hearthstone for most competitive players. Competitive players, myself included, typically prefer that it is our skill that wins a match and not a “lucky” effect.
Chance is a vital part of trading card games, to keep every game different and exciting, but I feel like it should be minimalized as well to encourage competitive play.
The game does have competitive rankings, but I doubt their ability to accurately detect the truly best players due to the amount of “luck” in the game.
Hearthstone features a class system which features nine playable classes that each has their own ability and cards. This aspect is creative and cleverly takes advantage of World of Warcraft’s popularity, but it leads to imbalance in the game. Blizzard has publicly stated that they wish to balance all nine classes to be completely equal, but after playing the game for five months, I’m beginning to doubt that they ever will. Some classes are just inherently better than others from their very basic concept.
Another problem that I have with the game is the advantages associated with turn order. Players typically flip a coin to decide who gets to go first, just like football teams do before the start of every game. The winner of the flip decides whether he or she will go first or second, depending on miscellaneous game factors and advantages.
In Magic, you typically want to go first, but there are also advantages to going second. (The second player gets to draw an additional card.)
In Hearthstone, however, it is always beneficial to be the second player because the game developers over-compensated the second player. In Magic, each player starts with seven cards, but the first player doesn’t get to draw on his first turn. In Hearthstone, the first player starts with three, and the second player starts with four. Both players get to draw, but the second player also gets the benefit of seeing more cards before deciding whether to keep his or her hand. (Both Magic and Hearthstone feature “mulligan” systems so that a player doesn’t have to keep a hand that will obviously cause them to lose the game.)
Not only does the second player get that extra information though, but an extra card in a three card hand is far more powerful than an extra card in a seven card hand. But that’s not all. The second player in Hearthstone also gets another special card called “The Coin.” The Coin is a free spell that gives the player one extra mana for that turn. While the first player only has access to one mana on turn one, the second player has access to two mana on turn one and thus has the ability to establish an early lead.
Perhaps Blizzard has done a lot of internal testing, but I’m pretty sure giving the second player an extra card is a big enough handicap for going second.
Lastly, Hearthstone is riddled with several bugs, but this complaint is minor and not worth delving into since the game is still in beta. These bugs will only be a problem if the game still has them when it opens up to the public.
Despite my problems with the game, I know that I will continue to play it. Hearthstone is addictive and fast-paced. And, when the game releases for tablet computers in the future, I’m sure it will be a huge hit for those people who want to play on-the-go. Blizzard has impressed me throughout my videogame-playing-life, and I’m sure that Hearthstone will be no exception.