![]() The game currently only supports a few types of tournaments, with basic constructed, sealed deck, and draft formats forming the primary core of it. Easy to cheat in a real card game, interesting mechanic in a digital one. ![]() My personal favourite of these mechanics is called ‘Prophecy’, which causes the next card of a certain type in your deck to receive a buff when you play a card. For example, why should you be content with a mill deck, when you can spawn a swarm of spiders as you drain them of their cards? They have really created some amazing and unique game mechanics that really leverage the space. The cards offer enough diversity that nearly every archetype finds a home within, often in new and unique variants. Hex really has taken the standard TCG experience and simply taken it a degree beyond what has been previously possible and it is only getting better. And it is in this space that Hex finds its strongest element. Card modification on a grand scale, insertion of cards in opponents’ decks, generation of new cards, random elements… nothing’s off-limits once you remove the burden of the physical ‘cards’ themselves. The cards really are doing things never before possible in a TCG. ![]() Right now, it still needs a bit more polish to hit that point, but it is well on its way. Trouncing the CompetitionĪs a competitive TCG, Hex has the potential to absolutely blow away even the most well established competitors. Since the two barely intermingle, it makes the most sense to speak about them as different game modes of the same whole. In the interest if accuracy, I’m going to separate the review into sections about each the above two components. Note: This review is written assuming at least a passing familiarity with the TCG genre, and as such there may be some terminology that may not make sense without it. This component is not yet here, but the seeds of it are present in the form of what is essentially a starting zone for the campaign. Hex is trying to accomplish this via a story driven campaign that should, eventually, lead into a cooperative end game. Many TCGs in the past have had deep worlds beyond the cards: Magic, World of Warcraft, etc… but none of them have ever succeeded in really making these worlds feel like they were truly connected to the card game. Cryptozoic Entertainment has taken up the challenge and is exploring what this concept can offer to a genre that has been around for a very long time.įrom a story standpoint, Hex is trying to make a TCG come to life. Not to say there’s anything wrong with that, but it’s not exactly the same as what a ‘true’ digital TCG can be. Digital TCGs have, in the past, typically just been a paper-based TCG translated to be played on a computer. This is a tall order, and with them having recently soft-launched the game, removing the beta tag and adding the game’s first true PvE component and the first segment of the story, it’s time to see how the game’s coming along.įrom a TCG standpoint, this is the first time I’ve seen a game truly embrace the concept of ‘digital’. ![]() Hex: Shards of Fate is a game trying to combine two genres that really couldn’t be further apart: the MMORPG and a truly digital TCG. ![]()
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