Quick Look: Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

Almost had me, then completely lost me at "always online". Fuck that

Hmm, guess the Card Hunter guys better get out of Beta soon or Blizzard will steal the show.

This looks really good on the presentation side and it really draws on my long history with the Warcraft franchise.

It doesn't have legs like Magic or the depth, you can see that just from the video. It will ride the hype train as hard as it can tho because Blizzard. I mean look at Brad, "I don't care for this type of games but i want to play it because of this presentation and polish"

Ner'zhul is Gul'Dan. They are literally the same person, becoming Ner'zhul was his punishment from Sargeras for failing to destroy humanity, and then he was sent back in the armor to try again.

Drew with the Whose Line reference. 1000 points for Drew.

An invite to the North American beta would be appreciated. =)

How would you know if it has legs after 2 weeks into beta vs a game that has been around for 10 years?

Looks like a super fun game!

If this doesn't become wrought with microtransactions then I might be able to get into this.

Yeah it was a little tough to follow. I was kind of like Drew trying to get a grasp on things since they were moving so fast. Like when Drew asked how'd he get 2 mana to start, and he just kept chuggin along hovering over stuff and clicking things.

It seems really neat, but definitely needed to slow down a bit.

I really need to get the beta for this. I love card games so much.

I guess it's just me that's grossed out they are taking actual money during a beta and it will wipe your account and give you a "gold credit" or "gift" at the end?

Also, it certainly appears that if someone wants to, they can just buy all the boosters they want (maybe there is some kind of cap?) and assemble a good deck by paying for it. One of the best things about the yearly Planeswalkers games is that everyone has access to the same pool. I mean, it's pretty, but there seems to be a little bit of Blizzard Kool Aid drinking going on around this game.

It's a slightly "dumbed down" version of the Warcraft trading card game. The mana system is simpler since you get one resource a turn, whereas in the TCG you have to play one from your hand (unlike Magic, any card can be placed face down and it becomes a resource). The main thing that seems to be missing from the TCG are "interrupt" abilities that you can play on your opponent's turn.

I'd probably just chalk that up to lack of experience doing quick looks.

Somebody slow Rorie the hell down, good lord. Take a breath, explain things.

Too bad this is Warcraft (which I dont care too much for, or the universe) I may have liked this Card game as well.

Solforge is pretty fun.

if @rorie had show that you can interact with the background that would probably have blown @brad's head clean off. If you play the warrior there is a catapult that you can actually load and fire.

Are we gonna get more card game coverage? Should this become its own feature? We shall call it....Drew-Gi-Oh.

I want this game so much....

I didn't think I would but after watching is streamed for a week I really do.

Where's my beta key, Blizzard!

Sorry if I was going too fast! In the second match, especially, I didn't want to take too much of my opponent's time. I wish we could've pumped this out at 1280x720 to make some of the cards more readable on the screen, but for some reason that wasn't an option in the settings.

It has those, but they seem rare. They are called "Secret" cards and it seems you can only have one active at a time. The Mage has a Counterspell card that stops a spell, hunters have "Trap" cards that trigger on attacks, I think there's a few others, every class might not have one.

You're too nice Rorie. I've seen lots of people take forever on their turns all the time.

No death knights or monks, just how it should be.

@amafi: In vanilla he also was part of a long hunter quest line.

oooo man this seems really fun and not ultra shady moneitzation plans. 2 bucks for 2 packs seems fair and with how everything is setup dosen't appear to be any pay to winage

Please finish one sentence Rori before wondering off to another topic

dude ... I think I love you.

Giant Bomb Card Club is pretty...ace...

So...um...anyone got any beta keys?

The entire video I was waiting on Rorie to click on all the surrounding board stuff. >> Speaking of which, I don't think they're charging for boards because you get different ones randomly as you play, each with their own clickable things.

As far as pay-to-win, it's no more so than any other CCG. It's also not as bad as SolForge, where the power disparity between rarities is fairly mind boggling. Also, since you can only have 2 of any one card in your deck it seems much easier to get a play set than most card games, especially since you can craft. Oh and Legendaries are all powerful but you can only use one of them in a deck (that's why it had a star instead of a x1 in the decklist). The main reason they have disenchanting/crafting is so they can get around having a market/trading. Honestly, I'm fine with that, it will stop a lot of the stores you see on Magic Online.

@samdrugbringer: You can have more than one secret at a time.

@p_r_deltoid said:

No, actually they're different people. Ner'zhul was the original shaman that was tricked in to making the blood pact with the Burning Legion. Gul'Dan was his apprentice and was much more eager to serve the Burning Legion for power. http://www.wowwiki.com/Ner'zhul

I hear Brad has lots of them.

What a tense game, I'm glad you were able to pull it out. From his perspective, he probably felt alright given that he wiped your board. But you could have also won via your power and that 1 damage battle druid. It certainly looks interesting but I think I'll stick with Magic for now as I really enjoy doing 2 v 2 with my friend more than any solo stuff.

He also was the subject of the bonus campaign in Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne.

Edit: wait, that's what the guy above you said. Ignore me, I'm dumb.

oh man this game looks really good I was not expecting that.

Whatever you spend will be given back in gold equivalent when beta is over. And since anything you can purchase with real money can also be purchased with gold it doesn't seem like a big deal. Part of the beta is to test the store functionality, and overall the beta is in a pretty polished state anyway so having purchases available doesn't seem that bad.

I love comments on Blizzard games. People just throw hate everywhere, why? "Because Blizzard." Makes me lol every time. Who cares that a lot of beta players and press are saying the game is fun. I think Brad was being cautious about it being a Blizzard game because he knows just how addictive they can be. (also expensive)

Anyways, I really wish Rorie knew about the interactive tables. Clicking on that junk takes the insane presentation even further and would of got a nice reaction from Drew and Brad. Also, Rorie it costs 2 dollars to do the arena again! You just quit out of it! Ahhhh!!! You can use gold as an alternative though, but that takes forever to get.

Not normally a fan of card games, but this looks really cool.

There's a nice mix of heroes. Rexxar was in WC3 but also in WoW, Anduin was introduced in WoW and plays a roll in Mists of Pandaria. Gul'dan is old school WarCraft 1. Uther was in WC2, 3, and WoW, Valeera is mostly from the comics etc. If it seems a lot of these characters are from WC3, than it might be because that was the game to really start focusing on hero units and making them stand out. So characters like Uther, Jaina, Rexxar, Thrall all began to stand out as real characters.

Blizzard definitely has something here. Easy to access yet competitive that will get people to invest the time or purchase the card packs. Like Penny Arcade suggested, I'm curious to see how Blizzard will tie this to World of Warcraft to earn cards, pets, achievements, etc.

My biggest problem with digital systems is what happens when the company decides to shut the servers down for whatever reasons, either due to lack of player interest, earnings or trying to push a new IP version. Going digital is beneficial with no need to carry cards or difficulty finding a player at whatever time of day but the moment the servers are shut down, what then? All the time invested or worse, money, are gone. Guess people could argue it was the experience they had which made time/money worthwhile but I'd rather have physical cards to have in the future.

Hell, would be awesome if Blizzard just gave out source code so it can be played after Hearthstone gets shut down.

That was genuinely interesting. I know absolutely nothing about Warcraft but it was interesting to watch.

So Rorie might be streaming this? Does that mean he's done with Dark Souls?

I really want... No, NEED to get into this beta. God damn it looks good.

This looks really fun. Can't wait for the actual release

Man, I really want a beta key for this. I guess I'll be playing scrolls until I can play this.

Matt needs to work on his multitasking with talking and playing, but this game can't get deep and complex really quick. Good job fellas.