Want to play a card game based on one of the most popular MMORPG's of all time?



This is Hearthstone, WoW's CCG!



Welcome to the Inn, where players meet to play cards and win gold and fame! Choose from nine characters, each with a different ability and different cards to choose from. These characters range from a mage to shaman to cleric, most of the classes from WoW. Level up your characters while earning gold!





Gameplay

The way this game plays isn't completely original but it does do a few things differently from other cards games I've played.



1. Your resource is mana crystals and are normally gained one a turn until ten at maximum. Your crystals are renewed completely at the beginning of your turn.



2. You spent crystals to cast spells and creatures/minions. These run the gambit from vanilla, just attack and defense, to creatures with battlecry. Battlecry means the ability is triggered when the minion is played. Just like in other games, this ranges from a constant effect to a one-time effect and effects that only happen when the creature is damaged.



3. The biggest difference between this game and any other is that the character you have can play a weapon and attack the opponent directly or a creature. Weapons have an attack and a durability that is reduced when the character attacks. Also each character has a special action only that character can do. A Rogue can spend mana and summon a dagger while a Shaman can summon a random totem and each of five or so does a different thing.



Graphics



Graphics are done in the manner of WoW so they're good. Many details, nice colors, and the colors just fit the circumstances. A Druid has many earthy colors while a Rogue is darker...



Sound



Hearthstone is actually a very noisy game. There's background sounds of the Inn that you play in, creatures spout off lines when attacking, being attacked, and etc. You can right-click your character to make use of several lines like a hello or a threat. The dialog on the creatures can be annoying but you go through them so often that the lines never really grate.



Addictiveness



There are three Facets to the game right now. There's a single player mode where you unlock characters and level up their decks while playing against AI opponents. There's an online mode where you play against other people using the pre-made decks or your own. Finally there's a sealed mode where you pick a character and build a deck from a bunch of boosters. There's not much depth but always something to do if you play against others.



[b}How the game plays

Two players each have a thirty card deck filled with creatures, magic, and maybe weapons. First turn you have one chance to pick cards from your hand to place back in your deck and draw cards to replace them.



Then the player who went first draws a card and the player who goes second gets the "coin" card that gives a free temporary mana crystal.



Players then play creatures and spells until someone loses their thirty life points.





Summary



This game is pretty fun but is very grindy, from earning gold to leveling characters. Maybe it will have more content when it clears beta? It is free now so if you like playing cards online and like World of Warcraft, maybe this game will eat up your hour!