How hearthstone has evolved and what I think of it
Hearthstone is a game I play a lot in my free time. But the experience of someone who has played the game from the start (I have done this.) and someone who is just starting out now can be vastly different.
I'll explain why. When you first start the game you are dropped into the tutorial. It's a pretty good tutorial.
It teaches you the basics of playing the game while also being very fun.
But it doesn't tell you some stuff you really should know, like how most of the cards you use in the tutorial are awful. Or how real players are waay better than the opponents you face in the tutorial.
Now before I explain anymore about this game, ask yourself a few questions.
Do you really hate loosing to luck based mechanics? do you really hate loosing in general?
Do you hate doing the same thing over and over? And do you hate being really far behind everyone else?
If you answered yes to any of these questions Hearthstone might not be the game for you. Many matches can be won or lost based entirely upon luck. It just depends on what cards you and your opponent draw while playing the game.
When you start winning a lot and rise to the higher ranks, you will face the same deck over and over.
In order to get to those really high ranks, people will look up the best decks to use online, since they want to win. This means you will generally face 1 to 4 different types of decks over and over, because they are the best decks.
This is known as the "Meta."
When you first start out you will not have many cards. This means you will loose a lot, since you will be playing against people who have better cards than you do.
In other words you will loose a lot. So like I said before, if you hate loosing,stay away from this game.
I'll explain why. When you first start the game you are dropped into the tutorial. It's a pretty good tutorial.
It teaches you the basics of playing the game while also being very fun.
But it doesn't tell you some stuff you really should know, like how most of the cards you use in the tutorial are awful. Or how real players are waay better than the opponents you face in the tutorial.
Now before I explain anymore about this game, ask yourself a few questions.
Do you really hate loosing to luck based mechanics? do you really hate loosing in general?
Do you hate doing the same thing over and over? And do you hate being really far behind everyone else?
If you answered yes to any of these questions Hearthstone might not be the game for you. Many matches can be won or lost based entirely upon luck. It just depends on what cards you and your opponent draw while playing the game.
When you start winning a lot and rise to the higher ranks, you will face the same deck over and over.
In order to get to those really high ranks, people will look up the best decks to use online, since they want to win. This means you will generally face 1 to 4 different types of decks over and over, because they are the best decks.
This is known as the "Meta."
When you first start out you will not have many cards. This means you will loose a lot, since you will be playing against people who have better cards than you do.
In other words you will loose a lot. So like I said before, if you hate loosing,stay away from this game.
Another frustrating thing is that some decks are just a pain to play against. There is this one type of deck called a Jade deck that I really dislike. Jade decks are focused on playing one type of card that gets stronger and stronger the more you play it.
Basically a snowball effect. The problem is this happens so quickly, that none of the decks I have made, can stop it. The fact is that I just give up whenever I see a Jade deck.
Also, it should be noted that themed decks are generally worse than decks that are just designed to win. I'll give you an example.
One of my decks is based around my cards having stealth. (when a card has stealth you can't attack it or target it with spells.)
The problem with my deck is that it doesn't have enough room for cards that can heal me, or cards that draw me more cards.
So a lot of the time I'm sitting there with an empty hand while my opponent has 5 cards and a board full of minions. See the picture above. It shows how screwed you can be.
I will still keep playing those kind of decks, though. I don't care about loosing over and over and I enjoy playing themed decks way to much to stop.
However, you can avoid feeling like you're behind everyone else. There is a catch though. You pay real life money. In other words, if you spend enough money on Hearthstone, you can get some of the best and most competitive decks in the game.
This can potentially cost upwards of $100, depending on how lucky you get when opening card packs.
If you don't like the idea of someone buying their way to victory, then don't play Hearthstone.
Basically a snowball effect. The problem is this happens so quickly, that none of the decks I have made, can stop it. The fact is that I just give up whenever I see a Jade deck.
Also, it should be noted that themed decks are generally worse than decks that are just designed to win. I'll give you an example.
One of my decks is based around my cards having stealth. (when a card has stealth you can't attack it or target it with spells.)
The problem with my deck is that it doesn't have enough room for cards that can heal me, or cards that draw me more cards.
So a lot of the time I'm sitting there with an empty hand while my opponent has 5 cards and a board full of minions. See the picture above. It shows how screwed you can be.
I will still keep playing those kind of decks, though. I don't care about loosing over and over and I enjoy playing themed decks way to much to stop.
However, you can avoid feeling like you're behind everyone else. There is a catch though. You pay real life money. In other words, if you spend enough money on Hearthstone, you can get some of the best and most competitive decks in the game.
This can potentially cost upwards of $100, depending on how lucky you get when opening card packs.
If you don't like the idea of someone buying their way to victory, then don't play Hearthstone.
However, Hearthstone does have some positives that I'll list here. The animation and sound design rocks. Spells have cool effects and sounds when you use them. And some spells are just really fun to use.
Like the card Twisting Nether for example. It's a giant black hole that sucks in and kills everything. Yep, seriously awesome!
Then there is that satisfying "crunch!" sound that happens, when you attack with a strong enough card.
It's the same when you craft (add cards) to your collection. The card is created on screen as if it was in some super cool assembly line.
However, as I said before... It takes way to much dust (stuff you use to craft cards gained by destroying cards you don't need/want) to craft a single card.
For example, lets say you get a golden rare card...
(golden cards are rarer animated versions of normal cards)
...the game will only give you enough dust to craft a regular version of the card.
Another thing I forgot to mention is the randomness of the game. Sometimes the game feels like you are playing a slot machine.
You could make all the right decisions and play perfectly, yet your opponent may still win, just due to plain old luck. The picture above accurately shows how my opponent has drawn all the right cards to kill me, while I don't have the right solution in my hand.
That's why in the end I am not recommending Hearthstone. I may still play it, but mostly because I don't mind loosing continuously. For anyone else the game will most likely be far to frustrating.
Like the card Twisting Nether for example. It's a giant black hole that sucks in and kills everything. Yep, seriously awesome!
Then there is that satisfying "crunch!" sound that happens, when you attack with a strong enough card.
It's the same when you craft (add cards) to your collection. The card is created on screen as if it was in some super cool assembly line.
However, as I said before... It takes way to much dust (stuff you use to craft cards gained by destroying cards you don't need/want) to craft a single card.
For example, lets say you get a golden rare card...
(golden cards are rarer animated versions of normal cards)
...the game will only give you enough dust to craft a regular version of the card.
Another thing I forgot to mention is the randomness of the game. Sometimes the game feels like you are playing a slot machine.
You could make all the right decisions and play perfectly, yet your opponent may still win, just due to plain old luck. The picture above accurately shows how my opponent has drawn all the right cards to kill me, while I don't have the right solution in my hand.
That's why in the end I am not recommending Hearthstone. I may still play it, but mostly because I don't mind loosing continuously. For anyone else the game will most likely be far to frustrating.
