Do you remember how Magic: The Gathering came to the PC? As a video card game. All … three … times. You fire up your machine, with the latest in graphics and sound cards, and then proceed to push a static character around a large map. Your goal: to find enemies with whom to battle. Finally, you stumble across a Doppleganger or a Lich, and out comes that deck of cards. Draw a hand of seven, hope you don’t mana crunch, and spend the next 20 to 40 minutes playing a kind of fantasy-art Solitaire. The most action you saw on the screen was watching a card rotate 90 degrees.
Oh, and you got a small sound when it happened.
Now, forget all that because Infogrames and Secret Level have takenMagic: The Gathering and done it up right for your Xbox.Magic: The Gathering—Battlegrounds is what you want to expect when a card game is translated into the video venue—when itevolves. You want something that is going to push the technology, or at least make it work, and that also stays faithful to the Magic: The Gathering aesthetic. Don’t worry, it can be done.
It still falls to a wizard-against-wizard smackdown. This time, however, the wizards are part of the action. Your alter-egos step into one of the many “arenas,” all based on the Magic: The Gathering universe, and summon up mana to power their spells. Each of you have your own side of the arena, reminiscent of the times you’ve spent claiming your half of the table, convention carpet, or the school hallway at lunchtime. Take your opponent’s measure if you like, but don’t spend too much time because there is no flipping a coin for initiative. No simple turn-based, polite give-and-take.
This is where everything changes.
No cards, just spells. Summonings and sorceries. Enchantments. Here is where Magic: The Gathering—Battlegrounds takes the stage (and turns it into a true wizard’s duel). Mana appears as crystals to be picked up and used, and spell effects come to mind in a good mix. You gather your power and cast, and from within a circle of arcane energies, your creature of choice lumbers forward to attack. The process of “tapping” a card is wonderfully translated into the time it takes for a creature to physically cross the arena and return, or to defensively set itself in the way of your enemy. Meanwhile, your opponent has conjured up a fireball of death to toss your way, burning his mana in a one-shot attempt to do massive damage.
These are the effects that have always been implied in the card game, but left to your own imagination to supply. The problem being, you were usually too concerned with the mechanics—trying to figure out how to squeeze two green and three colorless from you mana pool and still leave two blue for that counterspell—to think about the awesome power at your command. Now, you can marvel at the action taking place right before your eyes.
But, the more things change, the more they need to feel the same. Even with this speed up in the action, Magic: The Gathering—Battlegrounds maintains the classic feel ofMagic: The Gathering, by paying attention to the old balance of gameplay. “Red” spells still focus on direct damage and aggressive monsters. “Black” spells control the undead. White spells focus on purity and healing. And, “Blue’”spells throw a touch of chaos into the mix.
As a “green” wizard you still need to manage your resources carefully to work on powerful combinations. Want to get that Giant Spider out quickly? First, you need to summon a Llanowar Elf. Remember him? He’s the low-level fighter that adds mana to your mana pool. In a one-two combination, you soon have the giant arachnid lumbering forward. No time to stand in awe at your own magnificence, though. With a few last vestiges of ability, you can throw out a Giant Growth and super-size the sucker. (And, that scream of frustration and fear? That’s your buddy sitting next to you, scrambling to erect some kind of defense—any kind of defense—that might save his life from your masterpiece of magic.)
