REVIEW: Magic: The Gathering -- Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012

During middle school, my life more or less revolved around Magic: The Gathering. Then my friends stopped playing, the comic book shop near my house closed, and I discovered girls. In the last decade, I haven't played the card game more than a dozen times. But sometimes I wistfully remember those days of non-stop Magic and wish that I had the opportunity to play again.

Enter Magic: The Gathering -- Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. I always considered buying the first game, but I was skeptical that it could really provide a positive experience. When the sequel came out, however, I knew I had to try it. After watching a needless opening cut scene that sets up a story that is never revisited, I jumped right into the single player campaign on the hardest difficulty. And it's Magic. It's not as good as playing with actual cards, but for someone without the means to do so, it's a great alternative.

There are actually three parts to the single-player campaign. In the first portion, you play the owner of each of the game's decks in a head to head match. Each win unlocks the defeated deck for your use. In Archenemy, you and two other players (either A.I. or online) compete against a single opponent, the archenemy. In order to even the stakes, however, this opponent starts with 40 life points and gets a separate deck of "scheme" cards, which bestow one powerful effect to the owner per turn. Your team takes a joint turn, combining each phase in an attempt to defeat the archenemy. The final campaign, Revenge, again pits you in head to head matches, but this time the opponents' decks are upgraded with premium cards, making each match that much harder. Also available are several "challenges," where you are placed into a specific game scenario and must use the resources at your disposal to defeat an opponent before he can defeat you.

The gameplay mimics that of the card game quite well. As far as I can tell, no concessions were made in the process of programming the card game's complex rule system into a video game. Even better, the computer A.I. is fantastic. The vast majority of the time, the computer makes decisions that a very good human player would make. I have not found any exploits that make competing against the computer easier than competing against a live player.

My primary complaints about the game have to do with processing time. Especially in Archenemy mode, the processing time can make these games last for as long as an hour. As you get further into the match and the computer has more options, even just revealing which scheme card is in effect during a given turn can take upwards of thirty seconds. I realize there are millions of variables the computer is processing, but it doesn't change the fact that all the waiting detracts from the experience.

The cards are the real star of Magic: The Gathering, and this game does not disappoint with its deck selection. There is at least one deck of each color, in addition to several dual-colored and one tri-colored deck with a focus on artifacts. Themes (e.g. vampires, dragons, elves, etc.), direct-damage, and sweet combos all make an appearance. One of my favorite selections is Ancient Depths, a blue and green deck that focuses on supplying lands quickly in order to summon huge creatures early in the game.

Some deck-building tools would have been great, but these were not provided. However, the game does allow for some deck customization. Each time you win a match with a deck, you unlock one or more cards for use with that deck, with a maximum of sixteen additional cards. The deck manager allows you to remove any non-land cards from your deck, as long as you do not fall below the minimum of 60 cards. It's not perfect, but it's something. Short of complete freedom to build decks, I would appreciate the opportunity to transfer cards from one deck to another or to duplicate certain cards. The ability to adjust the number of lands in my deck would also be nice.

The trophies available for this game are somewhat of a disappointment. The game has twenty trophies, which is high for a downloadable title, but all twenty trophies are of the bronze variety. They also do not encompass everything one can do in the game—getting 100% on the trophy list does not mean you have unlocked or beaten every portion of Magic 2012. For example, one of the trophies is rewarded for collecting twelve additional cards for any one deck. Even though it would take much more time, I would prefer a gold trophy for unlocking twelve or even sixteen cards for every deck. Trophies should encompass a whole game, not just a portion of it.

Nonetheless, collecting all the trophies for this game will take at least ten to fifteen hours. If you want to collect every card in every deck, you'll spend several dozen hours completing the task. And then there's multiplayer! The multiplayer offers free for all matches with up to four players, two-headed giant matches, and archenemy matches, although you won't be able to play as the archenemy (very disappointing). For some reason I was unable to join games, but had no problem getting players in the games I created. The online gameplay was as seamless as that of the single player. My only other complaint regarding the multiplayer is the lack of a stat-tracking system. That would have been very nice. However, with so much to do and at a price tag of only $10, this game is a fantastic value, and I recommend purchase for anyone interested in Magic: The Gathering.

Summary

The good:
-Excellent replication of classic Magic gameplay.
-Good deck selection.
-Challenging A.I. makes even the single player campaign rewarding.
-Great value for the price.

The bad:
-Processing time is aggravating.
-No deck-building tools.
-No gold or silver trophies.
-No stat-tracking system in multiplayer.

My grade: B