A huge update for Kard Combat [Free] wormed its way through Apple certification today and is now available for all owners of the premium version of the delicious card game. The tentpole addition is the four new mages: Demon, Chaos, Deception, and Arcane. Each deck adds a special a slew of special spells and new cards to use, and each is free for owners of the game. Two new modes of play, Challenge and time multiplayer, have been added as well, shoring up a suite of options that were already pretty satisfying to the player base. The former mode, by the way, is a basic riff on the Tower, while the latter should make for some much, much quicker online battles.
An update wouldn’t be an update without fixes and tweaks, right? New visuals, new sound, and new animations have been added in addition to multiplayer slot, mana counter, and several other bug fixes. Also, you’ll now be able to switch the difficulty of the game mid-campaign instead of having to start over.
If you’ve ever played a little game called Culdcept Saga, or dialed even further back to the days when Magic: The Gathering first hit its stride (when you used real cards and played with people across a table in the same room! Wow!), you’ll feel a warm and familiar rush the moment you lay your eyes on Orions 2 [$2.99 / Lite]. Or maybe it’s just that you played the first Orions [99¢] back in the day, which had a fairly strong fanbase. And now here we have the sequel, with even more of the addictive card-based gameplay that made the first game a fan favorite.
In Orions 2, you take the role of a Deckmaster, navigating an overworld map between lands called Orions to traverse your way between card battles. As you conquer the Orion Lords, you’ll gain more territory, which will come in pretty handy in your quest for world … card domination.
The heart of Orions 2 is the card battling, of course. In the campaign, this is played out on a board that allows you slots for five cards to be played at a time. You’ll start your game with elemental decks such as Fire, Water and Air. Some contain monsters to summon and some contain spells, and you’ll need to learn how it all works and use it to your advantage if you hope to win some battles. Luckily, a double tap on any card will allow you to examine it closely and learn more about what it does.
On this board, placement matters. Your enemy’s cards and your cards are directly lined up with one another. The cards played represent a barrier between your hitpoints and the enemy, so as long as you have cards down, they do the work for you. Once there’s an empty slot, however, the attacks land on your total hitpoints, and once this happens, death can come fast. Each card has an attack power, a defense power, and a casting power, which you’ll need to make sure you can afford. It’s a lot like the mana system in Magic: The Gathering, in fact.
When it’s time to upgrade your deck, you can retreat to your home Orion to do so. You can also erect buildings and other structures there, which can help you to generate more money by converting sunlight into crystals. This adds a nice extra dimension to the gameplay and allows you to balance your attention between card fights and boosting your own land.
If you get tired at grinding away at the campaign, you can also use Orions 2’s Gamecenter compatibility to engage in the duel feature and fight against real opponents. There are also items to be unlocked in the campaign, which you can see in a gallery. Overall, there’s lots of gameplay to be had here, and it certainly requires more brain power than your average iOS platformer.
Fans of Puzzle Quest and Magic: The Gathering will likely find Orions 2’s gameplay pretty irresistible. The learning curve is a bit steeper than the aforementioned titles, but after a few rounds with the card battles, you’ll find yourself right at home.
If you've ever played Spectromancer on PC, you know what you're getting into with Hothead Games'Kard Combat [Free, with in-app unlockables]. Not because it's been ripped off, mind you, but because the co-creator of Kard Combat is Richard Garfield, the man behind Spectromancer and the big daddy of TCGs, Magic: The Gathering.
The thing that sets Kard Combat and its progenitor apart from other card games is the complete lack of deck building. For some, building a carefully constructed deck designed to devastate your opponents is what the genre is all about, but I find it more of a necessary evil. I don't particularly want to spend all my money buying boosters, or spend hours agonizing over whether this card or that card is a better fit for my deck. If you feel the same, you'll find a lot to like here.
For starters, Kard Combat completely eschews the booster pack model. Instead, you earn your cards in the game's substantial single-player mode. There are four mages to take through the campaign, The Tower, each defined by an affinity: Death, Holy, Dominator and Machine. Whichever one you choose, your cards will be randomly chosen from four elements, Fire, Water, Air and Wind, and a fifth that matches your affinity. Each match, your deck is built out of twenty randomly chosen cards picked from those you've unlocked and spread evenly between the five categories.
When you face off against an opponent, you each get a field with six positions to fill. On your turn, you can play one card, which is either a unit that can be placed in one of those six positions, or a spell that affects you, your opponent or his cards directly. Units face off against the cards placed directly across from them. Each card has a mana cost, and you have a pool of mana for each category of card - this mana starts out at random levels and increases by one point each round, barring any cards that modify your mana growth. Both players have a pool of health, and the loser is the one that runs out of health first.
There are two ways to unlock cards. You can play through the Tower, which is free for the first few levels and can be opened up with a $0.99 in-app purchase for each mage (or $2.99 for all four). Each opponent you defeat on your way up the tower gives you a new card or an item. If you'd rather just hop straight into multiplayer fully armed, you can unlock all the cards, mages and items with a one-time purchase of $9.99.
Kard Combat has asynchronous multiplayer through OpenFeint. Strictly speaking, this means you can walk away and take your turns whenever you want to, but most of the community seems to play as though this is a synchronous game. There's nothing to stop you from playing in real time, and with such a fast, strategic game, you'll probably prefer it that way.
That's a lot of technical stuff, but the technical stuff is pretty important here. You know what else is important? The art. The card art in Kard Combat is pretty great, in a moody, gothic sort of way. Unfortunately Hothead has chosen to only let you see it in tiny little boxes to keep the game's file size low. Since the game's interface isn't much to speak of (it's functional, but with an unpleasant 90s-retro-gothic style), and the art is so small, the whole thing is a bit bland to look at. The sound design is also underwhelming, leaving us with a somewhat uninspiring package.
But looks aren't everything, and thankfully Kard Combat makes up for its weak points with a great personality. It's a fun game, and the lack of deck-building means it's easy to get into -- even for card game newbies. The single-player campaign has three difficulty modes, so you should be able to find a challenge no matter your skill level, and the multiplayer is both functional and well-balanced. Our forum users are pretty into it, too. Kard Combat has a bright future ahead of it, and Hothead Games has given every indication the plan to keep it growing for a long time to come.
Reviewing card games is always tricky for me. As I've mentioned in previous card game reviews, I've been playing Magic: The Gathering on a competitive level since the earliest days of the game which gives me an entirely different perspective on card games from most gamers. People on our forums are having a fantastic time with Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer [$4.99 / Lite], and from a technical perspective it's absolutely fantastic, but all this really does is make me wish that we could finally get iOS ports of some of the better card games out there.
From a technical standpoint, there's really not much more you could ask for. First off, the game is universal and plays great on both the iPad as well as smaller iOS devices. I find myself preferring it on the iPad since the increased screen real estate really lends itself to games like this, but it's just as good on the iPhone. The touch interface works great with card games, as anyone who has basically played any card game on an iOS device could tell you, and Ascension is no different. There's options to make the game run as fast (or as slow) as you'd like, multiple levels of AI, and even online multiplayer via Game Center.
Does the name Richard Garfield ring a bell? No? Well, the man is responsible for creating both Magic: The Gathering, the Star Wars Trading Card Game and a ridiculous list of other less notable (but still fantastic) collectable card games and board games. Better yet, he's lending his lifetime of incredible expertise to co-creating a brand new strategy-based iOS card game called Kard Combat.
Kard Combat features a 33 battle campaign that sounds a little similar to how Duels of the Planeswalkers works in addition to single duel mode. Initially there's going to be "over 100" cards, along with "four unique mages to master." I however have a feeling that the free online multiplayer mode is going to be the star of the show.
As someone who has spent more of my life playing Magic than not playing Magic, seeing Richard Garfield involved in an iOS game is fantastic news. There's a ton of M:TG-like games on the App Store, but to someone who is familiar with lots of collectable card games, these always seem to feel half-baked and like they're borrowing mechanics from existing card games. Also, the fast development cycles and low price points of iOS games don't exactly allow for extensive testing to make sure these game are balanced as masterfully as something like Magic: The Gathering.
Like many online free to play games, Kard Combat is currently available in Canada before being unleashed to other regions. If you're a "Canadian" or an actual Canadian, give it a try. I'll be playing some battles today in preparation for a review whenever it actually goes online in the rest of the world. I've got my fingers crossed that Richard Garfield being onboard allows Kard Combat to side-step the issues other similar games have, it sure would be disappointing if it didn't.
Graeme Devine is a hip guy to say the least. You should store his name somewhere in your brain: he was the co-founder of Trilobyte and did a bunch of work on the original The 7th Guest as well as other core titles like the RTS Halo Wars for Ensemble and Doom 3 for id Software. He even worked for Apple for a bit. Now, he’s doing his own thing and creating “casual” titles with his actual family.
We last caught up with him at GDC and things seemed good: in addition to speaking to the experiences he had with his Full Deck series, Devine also chatted with us about his idea for an item shop game and a fun little ARG-like title called "Super Unicorn." On his blog, he provided a fresher update on his progress on the latter.
“Well, the cat came out the bag a little with an article in the press. But yes, I’m really excited about this game,” he wrote. “I think as much as 7th Guest made something of CD-ROM that opportunity exists and is even stronger on the iPad.”
“I’ve been working on this game for many years, really, in my head. Writing bits down here and there prior to working at Apple and then since leaving having become intent on producing the real thing,” he explained. “A game that is like no other, but a game that makes you get up, go places, look, wonder and experience an adventure on your own.”
Sounds neat, right? As for how his casual games series are going, Devine seems up on them. They’re not making money because they're free, but he is having fun with his family, and hey, that's what counts, right?
One down-side of the sheer madness of planning for, scheduling meetings, and actually attending two back to back conventions (GDC and PAX) was the amount of things that slipped through the cracks during that time. I've been going back and pouring through releases from the last few weeks and one that sticks out is Shadow Era [Free], a collectable card game by Kyle Pool, the man responsible for bringing Battle for Wesnoth [$4.99 / HD]. Shadow Era is universal, and there's even a browser version that can be played at ShadowEra.com. There's also plans for additional clients for PC/Mac/Android, with all of your cards and decks synchronized online.
The one drawback of that kind of cross-compatibility is that Shadow Era requires an internet connection, but as someone who is constantly frustrated by having game saves that are trapped on a particular device, this seems to be a worthy sacrifice. Gameplay seems to be a cross between Magic: The Gathering and the World of Warcraft card game. An in-game tutorial does a great job of explaining how the game works, but if you really want to get in to the strategy of the game I'd recommend taking a look at this thread on our forums as well as the Shadow Era forums themselves.
Judging by the overwhelmingly positive response on our forums about this game, I know I'm in the minority here, but these kind of collectable card games drive me crazy. I've played Magic: The Gathering on a competitive level on and off for close to 15 years now and all of these home-grown CCG games just pale in comparison. The card pool is limited, gameplay feels like an amalgamation of elements from existing games, and so much of the fun of playing a CCG is the social aspect-- Something sorely missing from Shadow Era. But would you pick up on this if you haven't spent most of your life playing collectable card games? I doubt it.
That being said, the way Shadow Era is being sold is a fantastic representation of what freemium games should be. It's totally free to download and try, and you're given one starter deck from the get go that allows you to just go to town playing the game. Similarly, winning games awards you an in-game currency which can be used to buy more cards. You can either slowly grind this currency up by playing, or you can just flip out a few bucks and buy whatever you'd like. Also, because this is a strategy-based game, throwing money at it doesn't necessarily make you any better, so it's not like you're at much of a disadvantage if you only ever play with what you can get for free.
Even though it's easy for me to complain about nitty gritty CCG details that likely few people even care about, I still highly recommend giving Shadow Era a try. I hope the game is wildly successful too, as maybe it will prompt Wizards of the Coast (or Hasbro via EA or whatever corporate dragon is sitting on top of the M:TG pile of gold) to release a iOS version of either the Magic: The Gathering Online client or Duels of the Planeswalkers. I'd be satisfied with either.
You know I'm not a fan of proof of concept stuff. It’s just no use to you, as the consumer, to be exposed to mechanics that might not make it into the final build of an iOS game (if the game makes it out at all). But in talking with Gale Force Logic this morning at GDC in San Francisco, I got a strong vibe in, at least, the direction of their upcoming game Pocket Aces that I’d like to share.
Gale Force thinks there’s a market out there of older gamers with the cash for games, but not the time required to really dig into them. So, their games will cater to this audience. Pocket Aces, at least for right now, does demonstrate how they will.
Pocket Aces is, basically, a card game with casino hub worlds. The game's basic narrative supports this hub structure: you'll play as a detective investigating the death of a New Orleans councilman, and your travels will have you rolling around in a variety of casinos. What triggers progress is the card play. I saw Blackjack in action and poker will be included, too.
But how does it cater to this audience of dudes with limited time? Getting into card games is super snappy -- while purposeful or not, Gale Force didn't incorporate any elaborate dealing animations into the game and there's no UI to speak of; click, deal, hit or stay, and get your card. If you've played other games with card games bolted on to them, like, say, Red Dead Redemption,you know how dragged down the card action can get when developers pile on supplemental animations and nonsense elements.
Pocket Aces, as a whole, is a little like Epic Citadel [Free] (it uses the UDK, actually). It's first-person and you'll rove around environments in full 3D with the same basic movement mechanics. The effects I saw were rough and the same for the visuals, so this is definitely a wait-and-see kind of project.
iPhone developer Moregames Entertainment has an impressive collection of games under their belt. iDracula [$2.99 / Lite] was one of the first really great dual stick shooters released on the App Store, and both Knights Onrush [99¢ / Lite] and Knights Rush [99¢] are great castle defense and action games set in a similar fantasy universe. One game you might not be too familiar with of theirs is Orions: Legend of Wizards [$4.99], a fairly complicated card-based battle game with a seemingly small but very hardcore following.
If you were a part of that following, you're in for a treat:
The sequel is set to land next month, and aside from a totally redone campaign mode, and even the ability to customize your decks for use in single duels. There is even going to be online multiplayer. The down side of all this is that the small but hardcore audience I mentioned earlier that loved the original aren't too happy to see many of the features and functionality originally slated for updates now appearing in a brand new game. Personally, I'm just glad to see them at all, as the original Orions was a ton of fun, and I can't wait to play it online.
Back in January of last year, developer Gaia released a unique game into the App Store called Sword & Poker [$2.99/Lite]. Similar to how games like Puzzle Quest 2 [$4.99] or Dungeon Raid [$2.99] wrapped a simple match 3 mechanic around an engaging RPG system, Sword & Poker is build around making poker hands from a 5x5 grid of cards and fleshes out the experience with all the usual RPG trappings of leveling up and upgrading equipment. It’s a formula that we really enjoyed when we reviewed the game upon release, and the sequel Sword & Poker 2 [$3.99/Lite] offered even more of this satisfying gameplay when it released several months later.
Then, for whatever reason, both Sword & Poker games and accompanying lite versions disappeared from the App Store late last year. Even more puzzling is that the titles still appeared in the App Store but if you actually tried to download any of them you were met with a message that they were no longer available. I had since emailed Gaia, as did many members in our forums, to see if I could find out what the deal was. Unfortunately none of us ever received a response.
While we still don’t know the reason for their absence, Sword & Poker, Sword & Poker 2, and both lite versions have since become available for download once again. I can’t say for sure if something like this will ever happen again, so I would suggest that if you’ve had interest in any of these titles you should waste no time picking them up just in case. At the very least give the lite versions a try, as both Sword & Poker titles offer a fun and unique experience that shouldn’t be missed, and it's great to see them finally return to the App Store.
When the original Sword & Poker [$1.99 / Free] was released early this year, it served as a perfect example of a game concept that sounded so insane we just had to try it. The idea of a poker-powered RPG was extremely unique, and the original Sword & Poker was a huge hit, both on our forums and amongst my circle of friends.
The basic gameplay remains identical to the first. From our review:
At the core is a card-based strategy/adventure game where battles take place by making poker hands on a 5×5 grid. When each game starts, nine cards are dealt in to the center of the grid and you take turns with the AI opponent placing pairs of the four cards you're dealt on the perimeter of the game board to form hands down, across, or diagonally. Jokers are wild, and as you play more hands a gauge in the bottom left slowly fills which allows you to swap a card for a joker as well.
There is a surprising amount of strategy in placing cards, as you need to look at what you've been dealt to try to determine the best order to play them as your opponent could also have plans for the same squares you hope to utilize on your next turn. Furthermore, as the game board fills up, you can potentially form multiple hands. A well-planned hand placed on the diagonal could also form many other hands going down or across.
The "Sword" portion of Sword & Poker comes from the roleplaying game layered on top of these poker battles, which could practically stand alone as its own game. Instead of just playing poker battles of increasing difficulty, the games are structured as floors in a dungeon and the challenge differs based on the type of monster you're fighting. ...Read More
We absolutely loved the game the first time around, and eventually ended up rating it 5 stars along with the other January iPhone games. The good thing about Sword & Poker 2 [$1.99] is that it's extremely similar to the original, almost to the point of feeling like less of a sequel and more of an expansion. This is also the bad thing about Sword & Poker 2, as if you didn't really like the first one, or simply are looking for more than just even more dungeons to make your way through, Sword & Poker 2 has very little to offer.
If this is the first you've heard of Sword & Poker, I highly recommend at least giving Sword & Poker Lite [Free] a try. If you like it, you should give some serious consideration to picking up Sword & Poker if not Sword & Poker 2 as well.
And chances are, if you played the first one, all you need is the iTunes link to the sequel:
Early this year we first caught wind of the hybrid poker RPG Sword & Poker [$1.99 / Free] and instantly fell in love with the game to the point of awarding it 5 stars in our January best iPhone games listing.
The basic premise of the game is explained in our review:
At the core is a card-based strategy/adventure game where battles take place by making poker hands on a 5×5 grid. When each game starts, nine cards are dealt in to the center of the grid and you take turns with the AI opponent placing pairs of the four cards you're dealt on the perimeter of the game board to form hands down, across, or diagonally. Jokers are wild, and as you play more hands a gauge in the bottom left slowly fills which allows you to swap a card for a joker as well.
There is a surprising amount of strategy in placing cards, as you need to look at what you've been dealt to try to determine the best order to play them as your opponent could also have plans for the same squares you hope to utilize on your next turn. Furthermore, as the game board fills up, you can potentially form multiple hands. A well-planned hand placed on the diagonal could also form many other hands going down or across.
The "Sword" portion of Sword & Poker comes from the roleplaying game layered on top of these poker battles, which could practically stand alone as its own game. Instead of just playing poker battles of increasing difficulty, the games are structured as floors in a dungeon and the challenge differs based on the type of monster you're fighting.
We don't really know anything yet about Sword & Poker 2 other than that it is coming soon, and the other sparse details on the Sword & Poker 2 web site. Obviously there are going to be new dungeons, and even new weapons and magic to players to wield. The story is a continuation of the original game, and from the sounds of it, Sword & Poker 2 is going to provide even more Sword & Poker gameplay.
Personally, I can't wait for the sequel. Sword & Poker really surprised me with how much fun I had with the game and I look forward to making my way through even more dungeons in Sword & Poker 2. If this is the first you've heard of Sword & Poker, please, if nothing else, try the lite version.
On the first day of PAX East I met with Rob Lemon and the rest of the Gilded Skull game to get a closer look at a fairly functional build of Galactic Keep: Dice Battles. Inspired by table top RPG's, Galactic Keep is set in a sci-fi fantasy universe and as the title would hint, weighs heavily on dice battles amongst the various enemies you come across on your adventure.
The game is still in development, but you can get an idea of what's to come by this brief teaser trailer and series of screenshots:
The developers have been very active in the thread on our forums where they've been answering questions and holding various contests to include forum members in the game's development. Galactic Keep: Dice Battles is still a ways off, but as a fan of dice powered RPG's, I cannot wait to finally have this game on my phone.
Last year we reported on an upcoming multi-player update to the iPhone card game Durak. The promised update has finally arrived and delivers a number of new multi-player features.
Durak is a popular Russian card game typically played between two to six people (two to four in the iPhone version). Each player receives six cards and the objective is to get rid of all your cards. The game is a trump-card based game where players take turns being on the attack. Attacking involves placed a card down face up. The defending player must place a card of higher value with the same suit or a trump card. Attacks can continue if you have additional cards in your hand whose face values that match any of the cards in play. If the defender can't defend, then they must take all the cards into their own hand. If the defender does successfully defend the attacks, all the cards get swept into the "graveyard" and remain out of play. The goal is to get rid of all your cards.
We described the iPhone implementation of Durak to be "top-notch" and the only real criticism we had was the lack of any sort of online multiplayer. A list of new features include:
More difficult single player
Online multiplayer (3G and Wi-Fi)
Bluetooth multiplayer
Chat
Buddy lists
Push notifications
Nudge notifications
Profiles
Private games
Local and global leader-boards
If you already own Durak, now's your chance to upgrade to try out the online features, or buy it if it interests you.
One of my favorite things about the App Store are all of these insane game concepts that likely would have never seen the light of day if it wasn't for the low barrier of entry in to iPhone development. Discussed during our most recent podcast, Sword & Poker [App Store] is a game we greatly enjoyed with an odd combination of gameplay elements that surprisingly enough work very well together.
At the core is a card-based strategy/adventure game where battles take place by making poker hands on a 5x5 grid. When each game starts, nine cards are dealt in to the center of the grid and you take turns with the AI opponent placing pairs of the four cards you're dealt on the perimeter of the game board to form hands down, across, or diagonally. Jokers are wild, and as you play more hands a gauge in the bottom left slowly fills which allows you to swap a card for a joker as well.
There is a surprising amount of strategy in placing cards, as you need to look at what you've been dealt to try to determine the best order to play them as your opponent could also have plans for the same squares you hope to utilize on your next turn. Furthermore, as the game board fills up, you can potentially form multiple hands. A well-planned hand placed on the diagonal could also form many other hands going down or across.
The "Sword" portion of Sword & Poker comes from the roleplaying game layered on top of these poker battles, which could practically stand alone as its own game. Instead of just playing poker battles of increasing difficulty, the games are structured as floors in a dungeon and the challenge differs based on the type of monster you're fighting.
The various monsters have different amounts of coins, which is how your life is measured in game. Forming a hand like a flush subtracts far more coins from your opponent's coin purse than a simple pair, and when either you or the monster you're fighting runs out of coins the battle is over.
As you get farther in the game, the shop eventually unlocks where you can use the money you win from battles. Aside from upgrading your coin purse to increase your stamina in battles, you also can buy a number of different weapons. These weapons change your damage output, and some of the later ones you come across also have special abilities when you form particular poker hands.
Weapon selection adds yet another layer of strategy on top of Sword & Poker, as some weapons are bottom heavy, and do more damage when you form simple hands like one or two pairs. Other weapons are top-heavy, and while they do very little damage when you match pairs, they inflict devastating strikes upon laying down hands like straights or flushes.
In addition, certain weapons (along with some monsters) have special effects associated with certain hands. For instance, the thief's knife I'm using now steals a card from my opponent's hand when I form any kind of straight. Other special effects include shielding yourself from damage, causing your opponent to skip a turn, and more.
This is barely scratching the surface of Sword & Poker, a game which nearly defines the term "a hidden gem of the App Store." There are a few things that are strange about the game, such as there seems to be a huge benefit in passing your turn to make sure you are able to play the last two cards of each game board as you're often guaranteed more than one poker hand.
Also, as you progress in the game, poker battles can drag on for quite a while especially when fighting harder "boss" monsters. These fights can be a lot of fun, but the battle music is a painfully short loop that quickly becomes very repetitive as it has a very clear start and finish. However, these are merely minor complaints for an otherwise fantastic game.
If you like poker, RPG's, or just strange games that actually turn out to be a lot of fun you owe it to yourself to at least try the five levels in Sword & Poker Lite [App Store]. We discussed the game on our last podcast, and there is a thread on the forums where several people have posted about how much they're enjoying it if you need any more reason to give the game a try.
A huge update for Kard Combat [Free] wormed its way through Apple certification today and is now available for all owners of the premium version of the delicious card game. The tentpole addition is the four new mages: Demon, Chaos, Deception, and Arcane. Each deck adds a special a slew of special spells and new cards to use, and each is free for owners of the game. Two new modes of play, Challenge and time multiplayer, have been added as well, shoring up a suite of options that were already pretty satisfying to the player base. The former mode, by the way, is a basic riff on the Tower, while the latter should make for some much, much quicker online battles.
