Lately, I have been playing the new
Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game: Champions of The Force, and let me tell you something, I know for a fact that I can say this is a good game without bias. Why am I so certain? Because in all truth and honesty, I am HORRIBLE at this game. Look up my win percentage and you will see tons and tons of losses, and yet, I still find myself enjoying every bit of it. So other than the fact that I am a glutton for punishment, how does
Star Wars Galaxies make itself a good game? Well that is simple; it takes a good formula, and then improves on it.
For those of you who don't know,
Star Wars Galaxies, actually uses the same system as Sony's other online trading card game product
Legends of Norrath, except it tweaks it to better reflect the flavor of Star Wars. Yes, this means that should Sony ever choose, they can easily play versus matches against each other… and yes this has been gingerly hinted at before… but we shall have to wait and see. This means that the gameplay system, from questing, to creature combat, to the creation of your own custom avatars is identical to LoN. Most of you out there already know how LoN plays, however, I'll give a quick rundown for the uninitiated.
Each turn, players gain a certain amount of “power” equal to 3 + the number of quests each player has finished and then you draw two cards. Then you have to select a quest to attempt. Each player has quests of level 2, 4, 5, and 6 in his or her deck and when a quest is completed, they immediately put the next highest level quest available into play. Quests are completed by assigning abilities to them, and when you have assigned enough abilities to meet or exceed the quests level the quest is complete and the effects on the quest card trigger (if applicable). Complete 4 quests and win the game.
You may play units at either of the two quests, and if there are units present when a player goes questing, he must fight them. After the quest phase, you enter the ready phase, when all your exerted cards become ready again, (you must exert to use certain abilities and to attack). Then the main phase happens which is the basic phase where you play cards (items, abilities, units, tactics, etc.) In the main phase you can also have your units attack your opponent's units at a quest, and if there are no units opposing you, the opponent himself. Reduce your opponent to 0 life and win the game.
Combat in the game is easy, units, avatars, items, abilities, and many other cards may have attack, defense, and damage stats printed on them. During battle, the attacker exerts to add points to attack and the defender exerts to add points to defense. The winner is the one with the highest total after no one has moves left, or after no one wants to make a move. The winner then deals one damage to the loser (units or avatar), unless they exert to add points to their damage total. The loser is the one who gets to assign damage if it could be dealt to more than one target.
There you have it,
Star Wars Galaxies in a nutshell. So what makes the game so great? Well first of all, in LoN, there were sets of cards that were just obvious to use. Quests that drew you cards and gained power, tactics that were free to use, and abilities that accelerated you to crazy speeds were common when LoN was first released. None of these seem to be present in
Star Wars Galaxies. Sure there is still plenty of acceleration but nothing is an obvious game winner, which is actually a very good thing for a new trading card game.
Second of all,
Star Wars Galaxies puts more emphasis on non-generic units. In the early days of
Legends of Norrath, generic units were some of the best units in the game. Upon first glance at
Star Wars Galaxies, any experienced deck builder can tell this is not true. This forces the player to make deeper choices in deck building, and to think twice before finalizing their favorite decks.
Of course, these two improvements also bring slights drawbacks. Since no card is an obvious game winner, the meta shifts more rapidly, and deck building is much much harder and somewhat frustrating to the newer crowd. In addition, although the power of generic cards has been scaled back, generic cards themselves now seem a little lack luster, making it feel like Sony hasn't quite reached the balancing point they want yet. Still none of these aspects of the game is enough to make the game un-fun if my addicting run of it has been any indication.
This brings me to flavor, which is probably the best thing that
Star Wars Galaxies has going for it. I was an EverQuest fan when I played
LoN, but I could see how people who were unfamiliar with the EverQuest franchise could look at the game as something foreign and confusing.
Star Wars Galaxies however, while still based on the SWG MMO, is also set in a more readily accepted universe for mass consumption, Star Wars.
Everyone knows Star Wars and just about everyone loves Star Wars and that is a very good thing for
Star Wars Galaxies. You see, I never played the
Star Wars Galaxies MMO, however I know who Darth Vader is. So when I saw that I could include Darth Vader in my deck, my first thought was “HECK YEAH, LORD OF THE SITH FTW.” I didn't need to know anything about the
Star Wars Galaxies MMO or anything like that, I just had to be my natural Star Wars geek self.
So
Star Wars Galaxies has definite attracting power toward people who never played the MMO, but luckily it ALSO has attracting power to MMO fans as well. Much like
Legends of Norrath, loot cards can be won in SWG that help your SWG MMO characters and translate into new items and equipment. Pack dropping doesn't exactly happen like it does in LoN and in truth, the method by which the SWG MMO and the SWG TCG interact is still somewhat being hashed out. All the same, you can still challenge your friends from the MMO anywhere, anytime to a game of the TCG.
The community of the
Star Wars Galaxies TCG has been welcoming thus far, and that is a good thing. A major problem with online TCGs is that they attract online communities, and the internet tends to attract people with… less than helpful outlooks on helping the new guy. When it became apparent that I wasn't good on this game I went around asking for help in the chat rooms, and most people were willing to give me a shot and give me a few pointers.
This is of course very important when you consider the tournament support LoN has gotten over the last year, and by extension the tournament support SWG will get. Since online tournaments are much easier to hold, players will find themselves competing in them more often, which means more interaction with the online community, so it is a good thing that the community is pleasant.
Just like LoN, SWG manages to include several other different game modes into its structure including a one player scenario mode that is just packed with story, and a treasure trove of multiplayer modes and raid scenarios. So there is a little something for everyone, just like LoN. However, this brings me to an important question, can a game thrive if it has… for all intents and purpose… been done before?
Well this question hits pretty deep down into what sort of gamer you are. You see there is no way I can say that SWG is an innovative game. It isn't. Anything it does LoN did before. It may do something better which definitely scores it some points in my book, but any LoN player will essentially just be playing LoN with a Star Was theme. The question is, is that enough for you?
Sony said at the GAMA trade show that they are looking at SWG from the perspective of software design. If a videogame has a good engine, and another game then uses that engine with a different theme, the game is still considered new and accepted and very much enjoyed by a variety of gamers. Sony is using the LoN system for SWG, but is billing it as a new game, and honestly it is. Though it does kind of feel like you are learning to play LoN all over again, there is a big difference between priests and jedi.
In short, ask yourself this. Do you like LoN? Do you like Star Wars? Would you enjoy a game of LoN with Darth Vader? If the answer is yes, go sign yourself up for SWG right away. If the answer is no, sign up anyway, because even though it's a crackpot theory based on no evidence whatsoever, the gamer part of my brain that hopes one day LoN will be able to play against SWG online… and THAT my good sirs would be epic.
|
Presentation Rating = 9.0
The graphics are pretty much the same as LoN but with a Star Wars theme, but ooooooh the music. Hearing all those classical orchestrated themes as you play the game makes the Star Wars fan in me want to go out, buy a light saber, and smash some droids…. Er… in a good way.
|
Gameplay Rating = 8.0
The gameplay is still solid, and the mechanics have been refined, but overall the fact is that it was done before in LoN In the end though I still have to say it's enjoyable whether you are good at the game or not.
|
|
Support Rating = 9.5
As always, Sony continues to astonish with its commitment to its online games. With frequent tournaments and tons of play modes, this game won't get boring easily.
|
Innovation Rating = 6.0
I can't give it a good score in this category. The lack of innovation doesn't detract from the game, but there also isn't any “new” game play.
|
Star Wars Galaxies TCG RSS Feed