Duels: Warstorm is Challenge Games’ newest browser based game, based loosely on a collectible card game. In it, players assemble decks of certain cards and battle each other to see who can top the leader boards. As is normal for Challenge Games, the graphics to the game are slick and polished, but the game play leaves quite a bit to be desired.
The ironic problem with Warstorm is that it’s made by Challenge Games, the developer of Duels. I found myself unable to avoid comparing the two games. Warstorm, a very basic card game in which the entire strategy is building your deck and praying that your cards get drawn in the right order, pales terribly in comparison with Duels, which is all about equipment, skills, strategy, and build. Frankly, I’m surprised that Challenge Games began developing a collectible card game and essentially threw all the strategy out the window.
In Warstorm, you’re awarded cards from leveling up and winning competitions. These cards are split into 4 races: humans, elves, orcs, and undead. In building your deck, you’ll need a hero card (either human, elf, orc, or undead) and then six cards which match the hero’s race. Each different card has the normal collectible card game information on it, including health, strength, and special abilities. Planning and building your deck is the only strategy to this game, and a good portion of the actual game play relies purely on luck.
In a normal gameplay session, each player draws a card and puts it face up in front of them. Each card has a “timer” on it, which shows the number of turns that must pass before that card can be put into play. Once the card is put into play, it automatically attacks every turn until it is destroyed. There is absolutely no input from the player. In it’s entirety, Warstorm is a giant, glossy, colorful version of the card game “War”.
Challenge Games put in their usual touches, however. Some of the troop cards are green or blue, which indicates their rarity. However, the rarity of the cards is nearly useless considering how much this game relies on luck. It seems like a gimmick cooked up by Challenge Games to get people to spend money on new cards.
There are, of course, tournaments in the game. However, you must be a paying member in order to compete in these tournaments. Also, Orc or Undead cards are only available to pay-to-play members, which means that most of the cards you’ll see will be Human or Elf. It seemed to me that the Orc and Undead cards were extremely overpowered compared to the lowly Human and Elf heroes and troops. Nearly every Orcish card played has huge amounts of health and strength, and almost every Undead card I saw inflicted some sort of disease or degeneration on my units.
It’s too bad that Challenge Games took a great formula from their first Duels game and utterly wadded it up and flushed it down the toilet with this game. The only strategy in the game is building the deck and, even then, it’s all up to the luck of the draw. Maybe it’s unfair to compare Duels with Warstorm, since one is an RPG and the other is supposedly a collectible card game. However, it would have been great to have some strategy and planning during game play instead of a glorified version of “War”. You might as well boot up Solitare instead of Warstorm, if you’re looking for strategy with cards.
EndOfLeg
if you want a bit more depth to your online CCG take a look at http://www.battlegroundsonline.net – it’s free to play, browser based, doesn’t need any install (not even flash) and even has a battlebot you can practice on.
November 25th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
HedonicWill
And if you want something even better than that…http://www.poxnora.com
Crazy game. I started when it first came out, I really wish I stuck with it. It has developed so much. Now I would be overwhelmed to try and jump back in. I have some runes up for grabs if anyone plays.
November 26th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
GenXsis83
I play pox under the same name genxsis83, if your runes are up for grab I’ll take them ^^
December 9th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
Janus
Although this game might on the surface appear as if luck were the most important factor, it’s pretty clear that the reviewer did not give the game more than a cursory look. There is tons of strategy in the deck construction aspect of this game, and top players consistently win tournaments, even when possessing a limited card collection.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:39 am
_C_
Well, the graphics r very nice, and the game appears to be entertaining. i tink ill go ahead and try it.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:19 am
Nameless
Try http://www.baseballboss.com if you like baseball and ccg’s.
February 4th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
Joven
Janus, the reviewer DID say that there was strategy in deckbuilding. The problem is that there is no strategy in the gameplay itself. Games that are all preparation and no play are doomed — just look at what happened to the very short lived G.I.Joe TCG and Upperdeck’s failed QuickStrike system (Avatar, Pirates of the Carribean).
I’d rather play a game than watch it play itself. A 5/10 was way too generous here.
March 12th, 2009 at 9:38 am
MacBryce
I’m sorry but this review doesn’t do the game right. Let me explain why…
As a game designer, I started to Warstorm because its luck-based mechanics sounded like a terrible idea to me. Having played Warstorm a lot by now, I must say that I was wrong about that. Luck, chance or alea (as Callois put it) can be a fun experience. Why else do people play dice games, right? Of course, different people prefer different games and some people want their games to be as skill-based as possible. Many CTG players probably fit this category so Challenge Games might be aiming at a different demographic than the hardcore, competitive player.
That said, only fool would say that Warstorm is only about luck. Building a better deck definitely leads to more wins. There’s a lot of strategy involved. In fact, the game allows you to create a deck by combining squads of 7 cards. What that means is that the game draws cards from a pile of seven until they’re all in play, and then it will move on to the next pile. A deck can consist out of six of such squads. You can’t control the order the cards in a squad will be played, but you can control the order in which quick units, ranged units, powerful spells, heavy hitters, and so on will appear. As a result, you lose a bit of control with regards to timing (as you can’t chose when a card enters play) and you gain a bit of control with regards to timing (because you can choose the order in which cards will be played to a certain extent).
For example, I’m playing a three squad deck. My first squad is a combo of small but very fast spamming creatures along with two barriers that will make those small creatures a lot tougher. Unfortunately, that’s pretty weak against a rush bigger creatures and specific counters against that type of creatures. Nevertheless it will take some health points away from my opponent. My next squad are big bad white dragons. They will kill almost anything that’s thrown against them except for archers. Unfortunately archers can be quite common, so much next squad is primed to destroy archers because it’s a full-scale rushed cavalry. I rush them so they can keep some additional dragons alive if possible.
Now, if you’ve read that then tell me that that doesn’t a skill-based game, right? I defintely agree that luck plays a part but it’s more about being a n00B than about having a game that’s similar to rolling a dice.
All in all I highly recommend Warstorm. It’s true that you need to invest about $40 in it for it to become fun, but it’s definitely an interesting game.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:15 am
MacBryce
I forgot to mention… An additional upside to the Warstorm approach is that matches are fast, very fast. You can easily play 15 games in half an hour, go for deck building, and play 15 games again. That’s great in my opinion. I love deck building and trading, and Warstorm gives me a lot of time to do that as well.
October 11th, 2009 at 2:17 am
Kevin
Warstorm is awful. Build a deck, watch the computer play it for you. Way too much randomness.
The worst part about it is that you can’t be competitive at all without spending a lot of money on it. Glad I didn’t waste a penny on it.
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:45 pm
Scott
Have to agree with MacBryce here — the game is good and there is significant strategy in how you assemble your squads, spells, heroes, etc. Play through more than just a couple campaigns and you’ll start to catch on to the strategic elements. And of course luck is a factor, the ability to beat a powerful hand with the luck of the draw is definitely part of the charm here.
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:13 pm
ben
It is random but no more than some live ccg I’ve played. Its not too random though since you make up a 6 card deck. You don’t need to spend a penny if you don’t want to. You can get rares in the regular and expert pack. Play five days a week and you get a special pack which seems to have all different and more rare cards
March 8th, 2010 at 3:54 pm