Review: Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

I admit it. I have a long and obsessive history with Magic. When I played in the Pokémon TCG league, I was introduced to Magic circa Mercadian Masques, and I immediately set out to obtain more cards from there. I couldn’t get enough. One thing lead to another, and I found myself with the original PC translation and later on Magic the Gathering: Battleground. Because there was quite a dearth of regular players here under the age of 30 that my parents would comfortably let me associate with, I found myself turning to the software more often than the physical cards. Unfortunately, the games were quite riddled with bugs. In the middle of a heated match where I was about to tap some serious mana, the game would close unexpectedly. Not cool. Luckily, Wizards of the Coast saw fit to bring Magic: The Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers to the XBLA. Game stability, matches with other human beings, and achievements, here I come!

Duels of the Planeswalkers an ultimately delightful yet sometimes very flawed digital representation of one of the most popular TCG ever to exist. With that said, there have been a few changes made in order to reach out to the Xbox 360 audience who may never have picked up a Magic deck in their lives. To aid in helping these poor souls find their way, there is a standard tutorial mode that should help get new players into the loop rather quickly. If that fails, Wizards of the Coast saw fit to integrate a “mentor” mode that allows inexperienced players to match up with gamers who know their way around a Magic deck or two. While in theory this should be a good idea, players won’t always be matched up with someone who has the patience or intention to actually get any teaching done - it IS Xbox Live, after all. Still, the notion to include newbies as much as experienced players was a welcome move.

Aside from the mentor mode and tutorial mode, you’ll find Challenge mode, which tosses out different scenarios that could happen in-game, then asks you to plot the best possible way to take out an opponent with the cards given. For seasoned vets this is a fantastic way to measure skill, and for new players it should be a good proving ground to test out what was just learned in training sessions or rounds with the tutorial mode.

After players have had a chance to familiarize themselves with the game and its rules, they’ll likely turn to the campaign mode, which is the meat of the game. Taking up arms against the wily AI opponents of the campaign should prepare players for the sea of sharks that is Xbox Live, where the experienced do lie. Though the campaign is comprised of only sixteen card battles, there are over 130 unlockable cards you can earn if you play them right (just couldn’t resist that pun). There are countless options that can be used to tweak game rules, what decks are comprised of, and an even harder campaign mode should the first prove too simple for your elite Magic skills. When you’ve had enough of the campaign mode, you should be left feeling satiated and as if you were met with some real Magic challenge, as the AI is rock-solid, if a bit wonky at times.

To control how badly you get trounced or how bad you destroy your competition, there are three different modes of AI control: Mage, Archmage, and Planeswalker. While each is obviously harder than the one before it, you’ll find that at the higher difficulties, the play style doesn’t change so much as the cards that your opponent is dealt. They’ll begin receiving more tide-turning cards that you won’t be able to combat, seemingly out of nowhere. This is, of course, unfair, but at the very least you’ll be learning ways to thwart such high difficulty in your real games, armed with this knowledge.

In an attempt to simplify the game even further for those who have never played, deck building has been capped at 60 cards for all players, and you will be given prebuilt decks prior to modes you complete until you have unlocked a sizable amount of cards in order to build your own. Deck-building is fun and intuitive, though it’ll likely leave you hankering for the physical cards in your hands - the slight bend and give, the smell, the feel! I know. I’m a nerd. You cannot change the core cards you are given in your prebuilt decks, either, which is quite a shame. I would have loved to have seen more customization here, since Magic has always been about taking the cards you have to build something to decimate other players. Oh well, perhaps in a sequel?

Online mode plays the same way as you’ll find in the campaign and tutorial modes, with various game variations to try out if you happen to get bored with the original, boring 1v1 matchup. You can even go so far as to use your Vision camera to interact with another player during a game. This is a bit of a strange move, as I’m not sure it should matter what your opponent should be doing while you’re playing an online game of Magic. Perhaps you should waent to read their poker face?

As far as graphics go, this is an absolutely gorgeous Magic game. Beautiful artwork on the cards is represented faithfully onscreen and you’ll come to appreciate it even moreso than you would holding the actual card, especially in high definition. Unobtrusive, epic tunes will waft through the atmosphere as you’re getting into the matches, but there are no truly memorable tracks here that you’ll need to rush out and purchase the soundtrack for.

This is a fantastic translation of one of the best TCGs you can get into as far as wide fanbases go, and it’s a great attempt at bringing Magic to the masses. While the lack of customization for decks is inexcusable, and the game does suffer a tad bit of slowdown here and there, this is 800 Microsoft points well spent. Take Magic online with you, and enjoy some matches now. Hopefully this game will attract some fresh blood to decimate.

Doin’ It RIGHT:

- A great way for newcomers to the series to get into Magic.

- Great-looking play interface.

- Nice selection of cards.

Doin’ It RONG:

- Little deck customization.- Iffy tactics in higher difficulty AI.

- Hangups here and there.