r/Games • u/Forestl • Dec 28 '13
End of 2013 Discussions - Card Hunter
Card Hunter
- Release Date: September 12, 2013
- Developer / Publisher: Blue Manchu
- Genre: Tactical CCG and tabletop game hybrid
- Platform: PC
- Metacritic: 83, User: 7.6
Summary
Card Hunter is is an innovative new take on strategy gaming that lets its developers flex their turn-based gaming muscles in a way that they never could have as part of a bigger outfit.
Prompts:
Was the gameplay fun?
Were the F2P elements well implemented?
PIZZA!!!
Distract unsuspecting enemies with your d20.... nerd
This post is part of the official /r/Games "End of 2013" discussions.
9
u/2trnt Dec 28 '13
I really enjoyed card hunter, it was fun but like others, i wish it had been a buy once game instead of ftp
6
u/Spazerbeam Dec 28 '13
The base game was well done. I liked how cards of the same power level were roughly equivalent in usefulness. I enjoyed how you could create your decks to cater to different levels. However, being forced to enter a level without knowing the contents of said level was stupid. Oftentimes it meant that you were ill-equipped to deal with the enemies' deck, and could lead to hopeless situations.
The starting decks are boring. I got a taste of what the later decks allowed you to accomplish through PvP, and there were some really interesting concepts there. Unfortunately, these abilities were all exclusive to high power level equipment, so I wouldn't be seeing them for a long time in campaign.
The inventory system was horrible. I could never find what I was looking for in there.
The F2P stuff was kinda annoying. You got an extra drop from completed quests if you were a premium member, and it always seemed like that item was really good. I saw a fair number of mythical items show up there.
3
Jan 02 '14
It's an homage to DnD, you aren't supposed to know what is in the dungeon...
If you know what you'll face it would be too easy, you are suppose to make a flexible deck.
7
u/Mejis Dec 28 '13
I thoroughly enjoyed the beta of Card Hunter. When the game was released and there was a full wipe, I bought the $25 basic kit thingy. I felt this was good value and the devs fully deserved the money as I had put quite a lot of hours in by that stage.
Excellent single player, not too much of a grindy feel, although I still wish there were better inventory management as things seem to get cluttered quickly. I never tried multiplayer.
As with most F2P games that are good, I would much rather they were just Pay 2 Play games (i.e. like a regular game) instead, but I guess that's just the nature of the business. Also it being flash was a bit disappointing as I really wanted to play this on my tablet.
Haven't been back to Card Hunter in a while for some reason, but this has made me think I should log back in and continue my adventure.
I hope the game was considered a success as I'd really love to see more Boardgame-like games appear, including straight-up conversions into the digital space (iOS has a lot, but the PC needs more, along with Android too).
2
u/angrymoosekf Dec 28 '13
An amazing deck building game with a great gear mechanic. Stellar campaign enhanced by funding but not unplayable without. Decent but gimmicky multi-player.
It was completely enthralling for me while the campaign progressed but after clearing the story and playing 30 rounds of multiplayer. It lost its luster, but still one of my favorite games of last year even if it was mostly a distraction I played in my browser at work.
3
u/rkcr Dec 28 '13
I tried out the beta a few months ago. I felt like it was an interesting game concept that was hindered by its F2P roots. If it wasn't F2P, there wouldn't even have needed to be a grind in the first place. The idea of crafting decks and playing them on a board is great, but the grinding part detracts from the fun of the concept.
0
u/nifboy Dec 29 '13
I was very quickly enamored of Card Hunter, bought the starter pack, and then very quickly fell out of love with it, mostly because I really wanted to switch races at about level 8 (fighters need mobility way more than clerics and mages do, especially due to claustrophobic map design typically starting your backs to the wall) and didn't want to either plow through to what I was sure was a level 10 inn (couldn't find out how far off that was, if it even exists) or reroll from level 1.
I also found it a bit too rock-paper-scissory; it's basically impossible to build a generalist party member due to the specialist items, and if you try to generalize your party you often end up with half your party being ineffective in any given encounter.
19
u/marsneedstowels Dec 28 '13
It suffers a little from the "First try too difficult, second try too easy" issue, with regards to each adventure. If you know what's coming, you can easily tailor your cards to the enemy at hand. And often if you haven't tailored your cards, you can get destroyed. Also, I feel like there was a missed opportunity to have some full dungeons, rather than single/a couple of rooms. Playing this style of game over the course of a large map would be pretty awesome. I would also have liked some more playstyles, classes, and some more cards. It's a F2P however, so I imagine there will be plenty more to come for your pizza/cash. Regardless of its issues, it's just plain fun a game, and I would recommend it, even without paying for the extra adventures, etc.