Hearthstone is currently quite a big thing in the gaming community. Even though the game has been in closed Beta for a few months now and some of the hype has died down (especially with all the news about Heroes of the Storm and the new WoW expansion emerging recently), it's fair to say that a lot of people are still checking their e-mails regularly hoping they'll be one of the lucky ones to get a key before the game enters its Open Beta stage sometime in December. I should know, I was one of those people. Until Tuesday evening at least...
One of the first things I'll say is that from the get-go, this game impressed me. Having seen many game play videos on Youtube while waiting for the key I expected the game to have some stutter or lag on my little laptop, which is the only machine I have available for PC gaming. Yet, despite having had this laptop for 2-3 years now, Hearthstone loaded up quickly and runs incredibly smoothly, much better than I was expecting.
As for the game itself, it is basically a card game based off the popular World of Warcraft series. There are a set of different 'heroes' that you can choose to play as and each hero has special cards that only they can use (for example Gul'dan the Warlock can summon all kinds of Demon minions) and a special 'hero power' that they can use which can do everything to striking any character with a single point of damage to sacrificing your own heroes life points to draw an extra card.
Hearthstone starts you off with a set of 'tutorial battles' that introduce you to the game's core mechanics and how to do things such as summon minions, play spells and more besides. After these battles you are into the main game but still need to play and unlock all the other heroes (you start with the Mage alone) which you can do through the Play (facing real opponents you are randomly matched against) or Practice (AI opponents) options. Unlocking all the heroes allows you to access the Arena mode which I consider one of the best parts of this game. Arena gives you the option of three heroes to play as and then will present you with three random cards 30 times to help you build a deck with which to play an Arena round with. Trouble is, as those cards are random you can't be sure what you'll get. It's a fantastic way of getting players used to cards they don't already own or use and also to make them improvise with whatever they get.
The way a battle plays out is usually very interesting too. The amount of cards you can play in a turn completely depends on your 'mana-count' which increases by 1 crystal per turn (if you don't use a card to increase or decrease this) to a maximum of 10, which means as the battle goes along the minions and spells get more and more powerful and/or more cards can be played in a single turn. It gives the game a sense of escalation and makes you ask 'Should I take the chance on trying to rush down my opponent before he gets the 10 mana crystals or wait until I've got more crystals myself and use more powerful creatures?'
Yet this game isn't all drama. The creatures on the board slam down onto the board with battle cries, but some of them are actually rather funny ('Join or die! … Or both') and there are a few different 'stages' for the card game with little interactive bits placed around for you to click upon to make actions happen. You also have the option of making your hero say six different phrases or if your opponent is spamming theirs, right click to 'Squelch' them.
It took me a while to get a key for this game, and it's about a month before the Open Beta is due to arrive and let in everyone interested in this game. But given all that it has to offer, I don't regret having waited for my early access at all. Hearthstone is for the PC, the Open Beta is coming in December and coming soon for the iPhone and Android.