Duelyst, the TCG/Tactical RPG hybrid that started out as a Kickstarter project almost two years ago is currently in open beta. It’s actually has been that way for 3 months, but I had only managed to gather enough willpower -and time- to try it out yesterday. To say the least, my initial hype of the game was not misplaced.
Duelyst takes a lot of cues from successful precedents such as Blizzard’s Hearthstone. In fact, the core TCG rules are practically the same: Each player plays with a deck of cards containing spells and units, and starts with a default boss unit. In order to use spells/creatures, players use some kind of mana point that recharges and increases each turn. The player who destroys the opposition’s boss unit by depleting its health first takes the win.
To elevate the core gameplay, Duelyst adds a layer of complexity into the game by introducing the playing board. Unlike its older brother, Duelyst’s playing board has a spatial element in the form of grids where you can place and move your units akin to Chess. The tactical side of the game is what sets the game apart from its competitors and it sure seems like the developers are aware of this; Duelyst tries to eliminate the natural randomness of TCGs that comes from drawing from your deck by allowing players to draw 2 cards instead of 1 and providing an optional free card switch each turn. This makes playing Duelyst feels more like playing Chess instead of a TCG. Judging from my experience playing it so far, that’s a great thing.
By adding the dimension of space, Duelyst increases the permutations of actions that you can take in one turn exponentially. The tutorials showcase this fact splendidly; Duelyst’s tutorials mainly consist of puzzles where you need to defeat the enemy in one turn, with each tutorials highlighting one keyword in the game. The clever part of the tutorials is that the solutions for some of them are not the obvious one. When you’re stumped, the tutorial will give you a piece of hint that leads you to the correct sequence of action. The act of getting things wrong and finding the right answer afterwards not only feels satisfying, but also brings the depth of the game to your attention. In one of the tutorial, you win by placing a string of minions in the holes of your opponent’s formation so that you can summon a minion right beside his general to finish him off. It felt fucking awesome.
My most favorite aspect/feature of the game, and arguably the biggest improvement it brings from Hearthstone, is the ability to consecutively input your actions without having to wait for the action animations to finish. By the time you finished your long sequence of inputs, you can sit back and watch the whole your plan unfolds in order until finally that single minion of yours deal the final blow to your enemy general. To complete the experience you just need to laugh maniacally like a legit evil mastermind.
The game is not without its fault though. The balance of the cards, and in turn the meta of the game is not as good as it should be yet. The overall look of the game, especially when the illustration of the generals shows up on the screen, sometimes felt a little bit off when paired with the game’s 8bit in-game animation. However, the beautiful sprites and custom attack animations by Glauber Kotaki (Rogue Legacy) and his team for every single unit in the game more than makes up to it. The game’s still in open beta so we can hope for improvements in the future, especially about the balance thing since to be fair, it’s the hardest one to get right.
Duelyst’s open beta will presumably continue for the next several months. In spite of that, the game already generates some revenue for Counterplay, I presume; Additional cards can be bought via boosters that you can buy via in-game gold or real money. The card circulation and acquisition model is identical to Hearthstone’s, meaning you can’t trade cards from other player and must create your own cards from disenchanting unneeded ones. It’s a true-and-tested system where money can’t really take you to the top of the ranks, so I’m kinda okay with that. Since the player base is relatively new, the chance to get competitive at the scene is still wide open, and I have to admit, it’s quite tempting to do so.
untimelypop.wordpress.com 