RTS In The Right Direction
Lets get something straight here. Battleforge is a different kind of game. Nothing really like this has been retailed before especially by a company as large as EA. While micro transactions are nothing new to the video game scene, never before has it been implemented in a playstyle reminiscent of Magic: The Gathering and the art direction of Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends. The result of this is something very unique and something easily recommended, even with a few shortcomings.
When you guy the game, you are given 3000 "Battleforge Points" to spend. This is the game's currency. It is used to buy more cards whether in the form of packs or in the form of the in game auction house. If you choose the pack route, which is recommended to get your collection starting, you will start with 14 packs to open or 84 cards. Each pack contains 1 rare (or ultra-rare), 2 uncommon and 4 commons. These cards will supplement the 4 basic starting decks you begin with.
The game is played in a very new way for RTS. Units can be spawned wherever a friendly unit or building is located. Cards all have cost though and their cost is very reminiscent of Magic: The Gathering. The two types of control points you can capture are power nodes and monuments. Power node give the equivalent of any standard currency from any RTS. Monuments are the colors. One example of a card is the Shaman, an early game green medic unit. It requires that you have one green monument and 70 power. Larger more powerful units require more monuments (Up to tier 4) and more power. A good deal of units require colorless monuments, which mean one monument can be of any color.
What you do after getting these cards is largely up to you. The game contains a total of 19 PvE mission style maps for up to 12 player co-op. You earn experience and gold by completing these missions as well as unlocking more maps as well as lore. The game's story and lore though can mostly be ignored and such it is. While there's pages and pages of text in a book similar to Warhammer Online's Tome of Knowledge, there is no reason to read through it. Scattered around these maps are gold chests. Gold is used to post cards in the auction house, send mail and upgrade cards. Upgrades are also achieved by completing these maps and are awarded in a need/greed, random or assigned fashion. The higher the difficulty (Standard, Advance and Expert) the better the upgrade cards. While one might think repeating the same map just on higher difficultly might be repetitive, you are presented with new challenges in the face of old ones and even the AI increases in difficulty. Co op missions are very fun and provide a good challenge on standard. However once you hit advance some missions can seem impossible, but when you tinker with your deck and figure out efficient strategies it is very rewarding and the game rewards you with better upgrade cards. My only complaint here is that the game suffers from random lag. In a room with three people, two people were lagging and one was not and the lagging computer kept switching around. One person would stop, another would start and by the end of the map, no one was lagging. Hardware was not the issue here either.
What's unfortunate is that the PvP is not nearly as fun or rewarding as the PvE. The game in its current state has some balance issues. There are deck combination that are simply strictly better than anything else. This is understandable however, as the game currently has 200 cards, balancing 200 units is an audacious task, and EA Phenomic is constalty patching. There is also a severe lack of PvP maps. I've only played two. One 1v1 and one 2v2. EA Phenomic says its going to have an April map update. However, the specifics of such is not known.
The game's auction house is a double edged sword. On one side, its extremely addicting that can suck hours of your time. This is because unlike most MMOs where travel time and areas split the population, one trade channel unites the users logged in. Its as simple as typing "/trade X" to open a trade window with someone after striking a deal selling your ultra rare you just opened in a pack in homes of buying another tome. (6 packs for the price of 5). However, the auction house's interface is downright awful. Interface lag is an issue that plagues everyone. While workable, its something that needs to be fixed.
This game was a gamble, but the addicting nature of the card collecting will probably keep the micro transactions flowing. While its entirely possible to play with the core 3000 points you start with, you most likely will be outplayed in the PvP. You're doing the right thing EA, its a new idea and a completely new IP. The result is a game that while is not perfect, is fun to play and has plenty of room to polish, which EA Phenomic has clearly stated it will be doing.
