It's fun, its polished, its f2p model is more than fair and its unique enough from what else is out there to be worth playing. Your first impression will be 'Hearthstone in space', but it really is more than that. I've only ever played maybe one or two classes in Hearthstone and quickly got burned out with the level grind because of facing the same meta decks over and over. In SC the deck variety is rather large. there are six factions and a neutral faction and your commander can be loaded with 3 modules. that results in a large variety of themes and playstyles within each faction. I currently have 8 active decks that I enjoy playing and none of them play the same. I could never say that in HS. its hard to say how big the playerbase is currently, I don't play raid mode, and in casual there is a bot that will fill in the gaps if you don't get matched right away, but it ranked mode ive never had to wait more than a 20 seconds before getting matched and never have fought the same player twice in a session. There is a new faction being released soon so the playerbase will probably see a bump around that time as well. anyway, ive mentioned this game a couple of times here without really any response, I think you guys are missing out. I'm having a blast.
the mechanics of playing the cards and attacking the commander are HS yes. But the variety of what you can do that the modules provide is way more than what you can do in HS. Half the fun is the deck building. That being said its a card game. you play cards on the board and they attack each other or the enemy commander. in that respect ALL card games are the same. here is a link to a deck guide to give some idea of the variety possible. http://steamcommunity.com/app/415270/discussions/0/355043117519587685/ but like I said, its worth a look. and the f2p model is generous so it wont cost you anything but time to try it out for yourself. I haven't spent a dime and already have decks that can beat players in the top 1o ranks.
sorry to rain on your parade. im glad you like it, but as someone whose played magic for 17 years and HS for several more, I find the endless clones of both tiresome. No more games with Power/Toughness creatures and attackers/blockers/Life points. It was played out a decade ago already.
Yes but magic and hearthstone both have a fantasy theme. Star crusade has a sci-fi theme. That means awesome pew pew sound effects. Anyways, for those who still enjoy hearthstone, that game (as many card games do) gets a little stale between expansions. Star crusade could offer an alternative play experience during those times where their HS skills are relevent? That's my best pitch. I've done my part.
Dunno about Arkham Horror, but Netrunner is all about attacking the other player...s cards. But seriously, it's only really "different" in the same way that L5R is, albeit far more asymmetrical. A perpetual "Aggro vs. Control" game that one. Indeed, that's what Card Hunter, Shadow Empire, Pox Nora, Dominion (speaking of different types of card games...), and Baldur's Gate* are for. Granted, none of them are Sci-Fi so maybe... *(I know BG isn't a card game, it's just one of the few games I seem to never get tired of going back too in spite of beating it several times).
I played it a bit when it first came out, but not at all for the last 8 years or so. Assuming we're talking about the same thing. Runner is essentially always attacking the Corp, going after cards to score before the Corp can fund them, which is somewhat similar (superficially) to running and attacking provinces in L5R, using Ice Breakers and other effects to break through defenses, while setting up between runs, while the Corp tries to limit what the Runner can do, and needs to balance building defenses against getting victory conditions completed (and/or trying to kill the Runner via Black Ice or sending hit teams after tracing them). It's entirely possible the dynamic of the game changed drastically since.
indeed i don't fully understand the argument that a ccg needs to be 'different' in order to be worth playing. I also like 4x games and have AoW III, galciv II, galciv III, Endless Legend, Endless Space 1 and 2, Warlock 1 and 2, Stars in Shadow, and Civ V in my steam library and play them all. one could easily argue that they are all essentially the same game. and yet i find playing them to be unique experiences. the difference in flavor seems to matter to me more than the subtle difference in mechanics. but i guess if youre a hard core Spike the mechanics are everything.
why would you not play eu4 ragic? of all the things you've said on these forums, that one actually hurts me ):
its looks interesting. just never crossed my radar. i play fantasy and space 4x games and the historical ones don't get mentioned on those forums i guess. Civ 5 is a recent game for me and only because Sok kept mentioning that series.
stellaris is out of the same developers, it's like eu4 but in SPACE and also not much for realworld history
it's in real time*- for all of the paradox games i've played in that line (CK2, EU4, Stellaris), the time is adjustable between very ****in slow and pretty goddamn fast (5 speeds), as well as pausable at any point. i tend to play eu4 at 5 speed but pause a lot.
It could be related to a sum-cost fallacy. "Well, I've already invested into this CCG and this other one isn't any 'different' so why should I invest in that?" Sort of like why some people are happy to keep playing LoL or DotA but not even consider HotS or [insert other such title here]. Or why some people will talk about how "terrible" Overwatch is while singing the praises of Team Fortress 2 (or vice verse). *shrug*
well i might understand that argument if by investment you meant money. some of these games aint cheap and if youre goal is to get a full collection (if that's indeed the only way you can enjoy these games) then i could understand wanting to pick one and stick with it. i guess that would explain taking an either or approach but i think newsbuff was also denouncing SC on another level. that the game didn't bring enough new to the genre to merit his patronage. aside from the space vs fantasy difference i still think that the module mechanic (that you don't get a sense of from an outdated screen shot) adds another layer of depth to the game beyond what HS offers.
Time is money, friend. But really either or both of time and money can count towards investment. Potentially one could speak of emotional investment (to a brand or game) though that's more of a nebulous thing and I can't really say it would exist without financial and/or temporal investments. I'd expect the game to be significantly different from HS regardless, personally. Even if you compare Shadow Era to the WoW TCG (that is NOT HS) you get a completely different experience and game just from some minor tweaks in how things are ultimately costed and a few mechanics changes, to say nothing of different card content. All that in spite of being incredibly similar in terms of mechanics and even terminology.
I'm still recommending this btw. they actually made a game where f2p'ers and whales can enjoy the same space.
