BattleForge Opinions

Anyone have this game? I just got a call from the store saying that it's here. They only ordered one (too expensive to order more) and I was the first they called to see if I wanted it (god, I must really be a huge geek )

First, what exactly is this game? I've read it has single-player game to it, but it holds your cards online.

Anyone play this game? It's gotten mixed reviews. Some places love it, others not so much. http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/pc/battleforge

Does anyone know why this game costs so much? It's like double what I usually pay for a game. Either way I'm still getting it, but would like to hear some opinions from you guys.

BattleForge is a kind of Online-Strategy-Game, which is a kind of original idea, I believe.

It was made by Phenomic (now EAPhenomic), the people, who made Spellforce.

They use a card system for the types of units you have available. You can also buy cards (for real money) to get better units.

I am a huge Fan of Spellforce, but Online gaming isn't my cup of tea, so this isn't for me. That's personal taste, nothing about the quality of the game, of course.

They have a Demo, so you can try it. I did and believe that somebody, who likes the genre, might enjoy it.

I played it at the RPC and found it relatively nice, compared to the short length of time I played there. The use of cards reminded me a little bit of Etherlords 1 I think it was.

Apart from the cards, it imho played like a normal, modern stretegy game : You must conquer nodes, energy nodes, there are different kinds of energies, if I remember this correctly, in order to be able to call reinforcements. But there also is a limit of available forces.
I think I remember there were some kind of building or upgrade nodes, too.

Thanks for the replies. I've even checked the website and they're unsure what kind of game it is, lol. They have singleplayer mode to it. It's probably just a tutorial though.

I like Magic and Etherlords, so might as well give this one a shot. However it is going to be put on the backburner for awhile. My Skaven BloodBowl team comes first

There is a singleplayer game in it, that's true. And it is no tutorial, it is a full mode.

The only thing is, that it is an online game. Completely.

So, I think you can consider the SP mode like some sort of instance ? I don't know, I have no experience with MMORPGs.

To cut it short, see it like this:

- MP mode
- SP mode
- but both only online
- no offline game

Online singleplayer mode? Sounds interesting...At least I won't have to team up with a bunch of people to take out the big boss.

There are both a demo and a free to play version. The full version comes with a gazillion booster packs.

The reviews were very positive in Germany. The game's main problems seemed to be to get people to actually give it a try.

I played the Beta, so things might have changed in the meantime.

The game can be divided into two parts: several series of scenarios, which are for either 1, 2 or 4 players, and PvP (ie. Skirmish), again with varying team sizes (but usually 1v1). Once you beat a scenario on standard difficulty, you can play it again on a higher difficulty - there are 3 difficulty levels, but some scenarios don't have versions in the Standard difficulty. Rewards for completing a scenario are gold and "upgrade cards", which can be used in combination with the real version of said card and some gold to give a minor improvement to the card. There's only one way of advancement, so don't expect RPG elements here.

The card mechanic is well executed - cards are divided into creatures, buildings and spells, and in four schools of magic. Balance is achieved via "orbs" - to cast a card in game, you must have the appropriate number of orbs in the right school (also, some cards require for example 4 fire orbs, while some require 1 fire orb and 3 "anything" orbs, which allows for improved combining possibilities between two schools of magic). IIRC, there was over 200 cards and they are planning to implement more (obviously some are rarer than others, I believe the basic cards already amount to 80 or so).

Once you get into the game, gameplay is fairly standard (which is not a complaint). Other than orbs, you need power to use your cards, which regenerates over time (basically, you've got a "graveyard" pool of used power, it's filled when a summoned creature dies or as soon as a spell is cast, and that power will slowly convert back into usable power). There's a fair amount of units, with varying abilities, balance is alright, there's a strategy element ("should I cast a spell here, or summon more troops over there"). Scenarios are interesting, the odds are usually stacked against you. The group scenarios are interesting too, though they usually boil down to everyone being cleanly divided and it playing like a SP scenarios, with the caveat that if one of the players is doing badly, everyone gets screwed. <grin> Of note is that the network code was apparently quite bad, as my 2mbit/s connection lagged terribly with 4 players (and apparently there was a 12 player scenario too!).

In the end, the game is still mostly about building the best deck, and the game doesn't really disappoint in this regard. There's a simple way of pitting units against each other and testing everything out (sadly, only those units you own), so those who enjoy this will like it. As I gathered, the main criticism was aimed at the price of booster packs or somesuch.

All that said, though, I've no plans to buy the game.

EDIT: And yes, everything is online, you have to connect to their server, even if you want to play on your own.

Thanks Vperic for the summary. It sounds like a game I'll like to play. I still haven't gone down to the store yet, blood bowl is taking up all my time. At least now I know it's worth the price.