Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers

Moby ID: 532

Critic Reviews add missing review

Average score: 69% (based on 6 ratings)

Player Reviews

Average score: 3.2 out of 5 (based on 12 ratings with 1 reviews)

Well overdue for a modern remake.

The Good

  • Original, addictive concept
  • Tons of cards to collect
  • The card game is genuinely fun to play
  • Lots of options outside the main campaign


**The Bad**
  • Graphics and sounds are decidedly ho-hum
  • Luck can swing a lot of games
  • AI can be exploited


**The Bottom Line**
Don't ask me to explain Magic: The Gathering to you. Instead, direct all you inquiries to the link at the end of this sentence. Everybody up to speed? Good. Duels of the Planeswalkers is the third entry / update of Microprose's PC interpretation of the Magic: The Gathering card game. The main quest mode (dubbed "Shandalar", for the world its named after) puts you in the shoes of a wizard, gives you a deck of cards, and sets you loose to protect the land from the ill intentions of five powerful villains. Each antagonist represents one of the five colors of magic, meaning you'll need a healthy variety of spells in your inventory to take on what gets thrown at you throughout the game. You travel to various towns on a randomly generated map, buying and selling cards as well as performing simple side quests to earn rewards. Enemies will appear from every corner of the world to challenge you, and the wizards trying to bend the world to their will won't remain idle either -- every now and then they'll attempt to take over a town on the map and you'll be forced to liberate it within a certain time limit. Let too many of these towns fall and it's game over. Apart from your activities on the world map, you'll spend most of your time dueling other creatures in games of Magic. It's impressive to see the Microprose has managed to capture the mechanics of the game in a PC title, especially considering the depth and complexity Magic: The Gathering possesses. That complexity becomes a stumbling block, however, when playing against the enemy AI. For the most part, the computer will play a competent game against you, but every now and then, it will completely misplay cards, putting itself at a disadvantage. Sometimes, it will pass up open opportunities to deal damage to you at no consequence to itself. The scenarios in which your PC will abandon all logic are numerous, and though I can understand for a game of this depth you can't make the AI run perfectly, I can't shake the feeling that the programmers could have done better than this. Computer glitches aside, no one can deny that the Magic card game is genuinely fun to play, and the world-saving module that Microprose built around the game really enhances the whole experience. If you aren't into single-player spell slinging, there's also the option to go online and compete against other opponents. The game offers the option of creating your own decks, building your own avatars from DOTP's graphic library, and even partaking in a sealed deck tournament with up to 16 participants. As addictive as the core game play is, DOTP's presentation is nothing to write home about. I know this is a late 1990's PC product we're talking about here, but the graphics of this game don't do your eyes any favors. While not truly horrific, there's nothing here that's particularly appealing (aside from the artwork of the cards themselves, which doesn't count for the purposes of this review). The sound effects and music fare much the same -- not outright terrible, but not truly memorable either. It warrants mentioning that DOTP is based on a card game that relies, to a certain degree, on the luck of your draw. As such, you're going to run into games where you or your opponents is stuck without enough mana to cast any of their spells. It's a nice surprise when your opponent goes down with little to no resistance, but it can be incredibly frustrating when it happens to you, especially during crucial duels. The game allows you to save anywhere, which more or less makes up for it, but in a game that can be punishing to newcomers who don't have solid deck-building skills, the added hurdle of sometimes getting a completely unplayable draw can kill the fun of the game. Nonetheless, Magic: The Gathering Duels of the Planeswalkers is still a genuinely fun game. Microprose has crafted a very original and addictive campaign for the single player aspect, and there's lots of options to keep you busy in multi-player. If you've never liked the collectible card game this title is based on, you certainly won't find any reason to play DOTP. Everyone else will find an engrossing, addicting addition to their PC library.

Windows · by The Cliffe (1552) · 2010

Contributors to this Entry

Critic reviews added by Jeanne, Xoleras, Patrick Bregger.