Valve's First New Game In Years, Artifact, Releases This November

Valve's new game, Artifact, finally has a release date. The digital card game launches for PC on November 28 and will be available for mobile at a later date.

Artifact is conceptually based on Dota 2, another game by Valve. Artifact has players facing off against one another on three separate game boards--like the three lanes in Dota 2--and victory is given to whomever successfully navigates to their opponent's side and either destroys two out of the three enemy towers or defeats the "Ancient" that appears after one tower is destroyed.

Each player has their own deck composed of 40 cards, five of which are heroes. At Artifact's launch, 40 different heroes will be available, allowing players to start coming up with different strategies. The other 35 cards in a player's deck are hero abilities and items, divided into four different color themes--red, green, black, and blue--depending on their unique effects on the board.

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Like Dota 2, Artifact will be entirely player versus player. Matches are always played online, although an offline tutorial mode against a computer will be available to teach newcomers about the game.

Artifact is designed by Richard Garfield, the same man behind the hugely popular Magic: The Gathering card game. Artifact launches via Steam on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and will be available for Android and iOS in 2019. Artifact costs $20 in the US. We've reached out to Valve to ask about international pricing.