Magic the Gathering: Battleground
Score: 70% ESRB: Teen Publisher: Atari Developer: Secret Level Media: DVD/1 Players: 1 - 2 Genre: Strategy/ Miscellaneous
Graphics & Sound: Another CCG turned video game and once again I am left asking 'Was there something wrong with the system that required it to be changed?' The system used in the Magic: The Gathering card game set the standard for all other card games, so why try something new? This is, unfortunately, why most electronic Magic games have failed -- because they go too far beyond the strategy and basics of the game, the two components that make the game popular in the first place. Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds is a fairly decent representation of the card game which tries to remain true to the game, but at the same time the system moves a little to far from the sprit of the game. Special effects are among the strengths of the game -- everything else is just 'bleh'. It's good, just not great. Summons -- the creatures that do your bidding in battles -- look like they do on the cards, but still look underdone. Given the zoomed out perspective of the game, you don't get to see a lot of detail in some of the smaller creatures. Bigger ones, like the Volcanic Dragon, look better -- but you probably won't spend much time taking notice. Legends are probably the best looking characters in the game, although Maraxus of Keld does look a little on the wimpy side. Battleground arenas look okay and help set the setting for the color you're battling against, but there is little, if any variety between them. Animations aren't all that much to look at, and it seems as though a few frames are missing. Sound is forgettable. The voice acting is about as interesting as a dramatic reading of the phone book. Thankfully the game's story is non-existent, so you won't have to endure many story scenes. You will, however, have to hear your wizard yell out every spell name when casting -- which gets annoying. Sound effects are decent, but most of it just feels like stock effects.
Gameplay: Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds features a few modes of play. Quest mode is the main part of the game where you'll unlock spells. Here you'll travel the world trying to collect 5 jewels for this magic ring -- or something like that. The story really isn't there and serves mostly as a vehicle for having you challenge other wizards. During the Quest mode you'll be introduced to the schools of magic. Schools come in of five colors, each with their own abilities. Red magic is fire based and includes lots of direct damage and powerful attack spells. White is the magic of healing and black the power of death. Blue mages can attack the mind of their opponents and employ a variety of counter spells, while green mages can cast lots of spells due to its speed. In addition to unlocking spells, Quest mode also serves as a tutorial. Arcade mode lets you select from a number of Avatars (based after the Legends cards) and a group of prebuilt decks. Winning duels in this mode unlocks new avatars to use. Both your Quest character and Arcade characters can be used when dueling online over Live. Battlegrounds uses the same general rules of the game. You are a wizard (or Planeswalker) battling other wizards with a book of spells. However, there are a number of changes between the Battlegrounds and the card-game. The play area is set up like a volleyball court. Each wizard stands on his/her side of the play area with a line separating the two sides. You are free to move anywhere in the arena, but if you pass on to your opponent's side you'll take damage. Instead of tapping land for mana, you instead have to wait for mana crystals to appear on your side of the battleground. Large crystals will appear at random and shards, which also give you a little mana boost, appear after defeating your opponent's creatures. The deck system has also been replaced. Instead of having a deck of 40 cards to duel with, you instead are limited to a spell book of 10 cards that you can cast at anytime, provided you have enough mana. Spells come in three types -- Enchantment, Summon and Sorcery. Summon spells, as described earlier; allow you to summon creatures to the battlefield in order to attack your opponent. Enchantments are spells that can be cast on your creatures (or your opponent's in some cases) and will usually give them a speed or attack bonus. Sorcery spells are usually some sort of direct damage spell, such as Scorching Missile, but can also include things like counter spells or life drains. What they do will depend mostly on the school of magic you're in. Just as in the card game you can mix two colors, but given the 10 spell limit you probably wouldn't have much room for deep strategies. The variety of spells in the game is nice, but doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of what is available in the CCG. In addition, some spells abilities have been stripped down in order to fit the mechanics of the game. The card selection is supposed to get bigger via downloads on Xbox Live, so there is hope.
Difficulty: The AI isn't all that challenging and can usually be defeated rather easily. Over time, their moves become outright predictable, lending a cheap feel to the game. I'm not one to exploit glitches in games, but it's just so easy in Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds it's hard not to. Many of the game's challenges come from external sources, such as battles that require you to defeat a duelist in a set amount of time. The game's real-time mechanics also lend to the game's difficulty.
Game Mechanics: Being a Magic fan and former tournament duelist, I wasn't too happy with the way the game handles casting. Most of this can be attributed to the real-time nature of the game. Magic is about 80 percent strategy -- something that Magic the Gathering: Battlegrounds doesn't have. Summons can only attack on set paths, so if you don't cast the creature in just the right spot, it's likely that it won't attack the creature you want it to. In addition, mana regeneration is rather slow, so you'll have to do a lot of bobbing and weaving in order to avoid attacks. Yet, at the same time you're trying to collect new mana crystals -- pushing you deeper into the fray. This gives the game a frantic pace that makes it harder to plan strategies in. You're not thinking about what spells would work better, but instead just trying to throw whatever you can when you can and hoping you do it faster than the other guy. This could have all been fixed if the game used a turn-based system and a wider selection of spells. The spell casting interface is terrible and pretty close to unusable. Each spell type is linked to one of the face buttons. Pressing a button will bring up a three-button menu that shows the cards you have in your spell book of that type. If you have more than three cards of any type in that part of the spell book you have to scroll through using the analog stick (or black/white buttons). In a turn-based setting this would have been a nice setup, but it doesn't work in real-time. For one, the spell book is hidden at the bottom of the screen, making it hard to concentrate on what you're going to cast next and what's going on in the battleground. Also, once you cast a spell you're backed out into the main menu again, requiring you to go through all the menus again in order to cast another spell. This makes it hard to cast multiple types of one spell at one time -- which is sort of the point of the fast-paced system in the first place. As far as games based around Magic: The Gathering go Battlegrounds isn't THAT bad, but its not THAT good either. If you're looking for something different, Battlegrounds might make a nice rental. Hardcore magic players might want to give this one a rental first in order to see if the new mechanics appeal to you.
-Starscream, GameVortex Communications AKA Ricky Tucker
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