Being a former Magic: The Gathering card collector there’s quite a lot of appeal to a video game that not only localizes all the booster packs but also vastly reduces the cost of such a habit. It’s also nice to have the often complicated rule set firmly enforced by software.
The first thing that becomes unavoidably obvious is the fact that, on the PS3 at least, is that while your internet connection is enabled the game won’t work. Admittedly this can probably be fixed with a patch but it’s inexcusable that the game crashes the console completely and your internet connection must be turned off in the XMB settings. Despite a potential fix in the patch that has been released the problem persists. This is not exactly a great first impression and an inexcusable problem. I can live with minor glitches, especially before release, but this isn’t really a minor problem and as of today (11/07/13) still no fix has been provided.
So, internet connection disabled, you can finally arrive at the main menu. The usual options of single player, multiplayer and a deck manager present themselves. The deck manager seems quite confusing at first and takes a bit of time to figure out how to use it. Once you do it can be quite entertaining but as you can only view the decks you have unlocked in the single player campaign there aren’t a huge amount of options open to you. Card swaps can be made here and there but the deck will still predominately be the one you started with and full customization isn’t allowed.
Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. The decks you get given contain some fantastically powerful cards the likes of which I never saw in my days of collecting. For those who wish to build a deck from scratch and put their own mark on the game a new game mode has been added, “Sealed Play”. Sealed Play offers players a random selection of cards to build a deck with. Once your deck is built you can proceed to do battle with various other Planeswalkers and occasionally win extra booster packs. It sounds like a great mode and like it could in fact be the main way to play the game. But there aren’t enough options for any real sense of progression or personalisation.
The same goes for the campaign mode. You duel with various Planeswalkers with your deck and if you win you get a card to add to your deck. Bearing in mind the deck has already been given to you rather than created by you. I found this frustrating not really because the decks are bad but often because they’re good! There’s a satisfaction to be had from creating your own deck and perfecting it. If you can’t find good deck customization in Magic then where are you going to find it?
There is a decent tutorial which should help novices get up to speed and the tooltips that you can view on any card at any point in battle are invaluable. It’s short enough that most shouldn’t fall asleep but informative nonetheless. It does feel a little bit like it holds your hand for those who know the world of Magic but I felt that overall a good balance was struck between being informative and being dull.
Visually speaking the game’s UI is similar to previous instalments. This is definitely an area I’m glad Stainless Games have left reasonably unaltered. Everything is clear to see and many of the animations can be turned off to make matches quicker. The only slight grumble I have is that some of the views of the table where less zoomed out in previous games and I found it easier to see everything at once. And whoever decided that pressing left and right on the d-pad should shift the view to your opponent’s view needs to be sacked. On a game that is almost entirely menu based why can’t I use my d-pad?! Looking over my opponents shoulder really helps me in no way at all. Maybe I can alter this setting in the options. No chance.
A good looking and slightly updated addition to Wizards of the Coast’s ever increasing roster of video games. Unfortunately game modes that sounded clever and entertaining are almost entirely joyless due to lack of deck customization and a frustratingly limiting system of acquiring new cards. In fact it’s so limiting that the only real way I can see to earn new cards and improve decks is by paying for unlocks with real cash.
I know the micro transaction model has worked very well for certain games but in Magic 2014 it feels a little bit like pay-to-win to me. You can perhaps acquire cards easily online but unfortunately I don’t know because it simply doesn’t work on the version that was given to us. This is the first time in the six years or so of the PS3 that I have encountered a problem this bad that hasn’t been fixed. Perhaps it’s just the version I was provided with but it was directly from the PSN and I have tested it on several PS3’s and repeatedly attempted to reinstall it to no avail.
There is some enjoyment to be had out of Magic 2014. The gameplay itself is superb and the AI really pushes you to the limit. Animations are slick and a great UI makes it easy to follow, and keep up with, the flow of the game. Lack of decent deck customization options (and working online) greatly limit Magic and make progression slow and painful, if not non-existent.
Reviewed on PS3. Also available now on XBOX (Live), Windows PC, iOS and Android.
