Windows

BattleForge

It’s frenetic, gorgeous to watch, even better to play and goes some way to buttoning the holy grail of games development; being easy to learn and infi nitely diffi cult to master. But what’s impressed us most is the seamless way Phenomic has grafted card trading, realm of the uber-geek, onto an original RTS game with a highly original MMO-style hub underpinning the entire experience. You might not be forced to buy any more cards than those that came with your BattleForge purchase, but we’d be very surprised if the booster decks alone don’t pay EA huge dividends. After 27 March there will be a glut of traditional RTS gamers wondering why and at what point they became obsessed with the number of ultra-rare cards in their deck.

Ich kann Ihnen diesen Titel getrost ans Herz legen, auch wenn Sie sich abseits des Bildschirms nicht mit Trading Card Games beschäftigen. Jagen und Sammeln ist vielleicht zu tief im Wesen Mensch bzw. Mann verankert, als dass es keinen Spaß machen könnte - und „Battleforge“ wird Ihre archaischen Triebe mit Sicherheit zufriedenstellen -. und das in einer verdammt unterhaltsamen Art und Weise!

Nichtsdestotrotz ist EA Phenomics Experiment gelungen und spielt ganz klar in der Oberklasse mit. Spätestens nach der ersten erfolgreichen Zwölf-Spieler-Mission sind die paar Unzulänglichkeiten vergessen, und der Chat voll von überschwänglicher Freude. Und die integrierte Freundesliste um ein paar Einträge länger...

BattleForge beweist wieder eindrucksvoll, dass die einfachsten Ideen meistens auch die besten sind! Das simple Spielprinzip ermöglicht einen schnellen Einstieg in das flotte Gameplay, ohne gleichzeitig den strategischen Tiefgang zu vernachlässigen. Nur das Drumherum passt nicht, denn das Konzept des MMO-RTS geht auf Kosten der eigentlich nicht vorhandenen Story und auch sonst haben Solisten eher das Nachsehen. Dafür dürfen sich vor allem gesellige Tüftler und Taktiker freuen, denn BattleForge bietet für diese die passende Herausforderung.

BattleForge is een opmerkelijke game geworden, niet enkel omwille van de naadloze integratie van twee genres, maar omdat het nog eens uniek, speelbaar en leuk is ook – voor zowel real-time strategiefanaten als kaart/bordspelers.

As long as you approach BattleForge knowing that it will take all your money and leave you sleeping under cardboard in an underpass given half a chance, it’s hard to envisage disappointment with its deck-building and co-op carnage.

BattleForge is remarkable not only because its component genres are integrated together so well, or because it's unique, playable, and fun, but also because it can make an RTS fan enjoy a collectible card game. You'd do well to check it out if you're even remotely interested in either genre, and provided the player community sticks around there's no reason why you shouldn't still be enjoying BattleForge many months from now.

Battleforge is een aardige RTS-game geworden met heel wat leuke nieuwe elementen maar ook met de gekende TCG Booster koorts.

Difficile d'évaluer un concept comme BattleForge à sa juste valeur. Pris indépendamment de toute considération économique, le titre de Phenomic est très convaincant, offrant un gameplay parfaitement huilé, riche en stratégies grâce à la grande variété de cartes pouvant entrer dans la composition d'un deck. Néanmoins, cet enthousiasme doit être tempéré par le choix de vendre des cartes au lieu de les offrir aux joueurs les plus méritants, ce qui déséquilibre un peu le jeu en faveur des plus fortunés. Au final, cette note se veut donc plus être une moyenne pondérant le facteur ludique par le facteur économique.

The game could end up picking up a small, dedicated following but the die-hards are more likely going to be fans of collectible card games than real-time strategies. Though on the surface BattleForge is a real-time strategy game, it's a collectible card game at its heart and to like the game you'll need to enjoy the collection, research, and other preparation work of CCGs.

Still, there's fun to be had, but only if you're playing the game with friends, since playing with strangers more often than not results in a similar feeling of frustration experienced in pick up groups in MMORPGs. The 12-player maps are cleverly divided into sub-maps, putting groups of players into separate areas that impact on the overall challenge in real-time. BattleForge is at its best when everyone's on the same page - the sense of satisfaction at a downed boss can be immense, and getting a card you've never seen before pushes all those geek buttons. You'll have your own opinion on the micro-transactions, of course, but the controversy surrounding them diverts attention from the fact that BattleForge isn't as spectacular an experience as it could have been. It's an experiment that was definitely worth the effort, and lessons will be learned, but as a game there are fundamental flaws too pertinent to ignore.

Meng Magic met Warcraft en je krijgt Battleforge. Geen slechte mix, maar wel eentje waar je stevig aan moet wennen. De leercurve is behoorlijk steil en groentjes zullen meedogenloos worden afgeslacht. Maar, de game beloont de doorzetter met smakelijke gameplay en een heerlijk fantasy-sausje.

Whether or not you enjoy BattleForge depends largely on how much of a purist you are. It has the cunning and diverse combos of a CCG, but not the pacing for patient maneuvers. It has the tactics and resource-management of RTS, but not the stability in foes to plan for every possibility. If you can straddle both schools of thought, BattleForge is a uniquely enticing action game with unprecedented levels of customization, and it’ll only get better with future expansions.

BattleForge seems like a great idea and, in fact, it contains many seeds of greatness within it. The visual style of the world and the tremendous range of creatures and powers are definitely the strengths here. But watching these battles in action will give you an inflated sense of the fun you can have here. The missions themselves repeat the same formula again and again, which severely undercuts the point of having such variety and flexibility in the card system. When you add in the awkward auction interface and the additional cash required to collect the cards you really want, it makes it that much harder to see the value in the few things that BattleForge gets right.

Any card game brings with it a certain investment requirement; investment in the time to master the intricacies of the perfect deck, and an ongoing financial investment in the cards to build it. Battleforge is a commendable attempt to find common ground between that mindset and the twin lures of RTS and MMO play, but it can't quite pull them together strongly enough to justify that same level of dedication. A naturally divisive game, a few will succumb to its slightly wonky charms. Most, however, will find that the gimmicks have only limited appeal.