Hearthstone Impressions

I’ve played a little bit of Hearthstone now and I want to drop a little feedback. Keep in mind, it’s still in beta, but it plays like a pretty complete game. For that, I’d say they’re doing a good job with it so far. It’s fun, but it’s far too simple. I have a decent win/loss ratio (I think) but games are nearly always one sided. Either I wreck them or they wreck me – it’s hard to be much fun on either side of that. This is because of the simplicity. Bad draw early on can create a deficit that can never be recovered from. However, it’s the lack of countering that is my real complaint. I played a game where on turn 3 or 4, the opponent played a card to “steal” one of mine, used that to kill my taunt creature and (clearing my side of the board) and dealt 10 damage. Prior to that turn we were equal with full health but I had 2 strong(ish) cards in play and he had one weak one. At the end of the turn I’m down 1/3 of my health and he had 5 minions to my 0. No way to stop it. No way to counter. What I’d love to see is a Magic the Gathering style counter spell mechanic. The ability to cast certain types of spells during the opponents turn would be such a huge improvement. It would at a little complexity. Do I save this burn spell to see what my opponent does or use it now? I’ve seen many games where either side could have stopped a loss by simply being able to stop one spell or one minion during a key fight. It just needs a little more.

The below above, which you can also view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV3jV9LltNk has two great examples of what I mean. After building my Arena deck (watch the start to get an idea of how that works in Hearthstone) the first game is actually very close, until about 17-18 minutes in the video where I completely turn the tide with only two cards and he can do such massive nothing about it, he surrenders. The second game, is a good example of a thoroughly one sided match. Both games in my favor, I hope you’ll see these complaints aren’t just the sour-faced thoughts of one slighted by the system. What do you think? Too easy or just right?

 

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