Magic 2012 Duels of the Planeswalkers Review

Magic: The Gathering – Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is a strategic card game developed by Wizards of the Coast for the XBLA, PSN & Steam services for $10. It is the direct sequel to the original game in the franchise, Magic: The Gathering.

 

 

You play the game as a planeswalker who is a powerful mage that is able to travel far and wide through the “planes of existence”. You are thrust into the game after a short but sweet looking story filler scene. Once you are into the game, you can go through the lengthy and highly informative tutorial that explains most of everything in gameplay that the game offers you if you are a newcomer to the Magic series. However, don’t expect the game to be easy if you are just starting out! It will take a lot of time and practice to understand all the tactics, moves and combos that you can play. The campaign does a great job of easing you in with the new player experience though, so there is no reason to fret.

 

 

Within the game, you are offered several different game types to choose from. There is the traditional single player campaign which follows the traditional 1v1 duel scheme like in the previous game. Every time you beat an opponent, you are awarded with a special card unlock for your decks as well as unlocking the other campaign types. The other mode is called the “Revenge” mode which is unlocked after beating the traditional campaign mode and soups up all the AI with better decks switch are just superior and tougher to duel.

 

 

The third game type is called “Archenemy”. In this game type, you and two other buddies/AI battle it out against a supercharged boss that requires a lot of teamwork and communication to beat. This is the co-op portion to the game and it is great addition to the game. It offers up a great challenge and is very rewarding once completed. The boss has a secondary deck that consists of special “scheme” cards which are always destructive and can make you frustrated easily as these cards have the potential to wipe out all monsters that you’ve placed on the battlefield and much more…

 

 

The other portion of the game is the multiplayer. Here, you can play the Archenemy game type with buddies over your online gaming service. You can also play the traditional 1v1 or 2v2 duels against match made foes that meet your skill criteria. Once you are done your campaign, this is usually the spot where you will lurk around to test out your newly created deck and tactics which brings us to the next point.

 

 

One of the great additions that the developers added to the sequel is the ability to customize your decks with your newly unlocked cards by replacing the default cards in the various decks provided (there are certain elemental decks that you can use and you can unlock these decks as well as their cards by winning duels in the campaign).

 

 

The game also shows an amazing display of artwork by Karl Kopinski and other very talented artists. The art is truly amazing that helps bring Magic 2012 alive and enhance the gameplay and draw in the player. The game also has a tutorial for new players can jump in and play as well and have fun doing so.

 

 

So, in conclusion, you should definitely give this game a try if you like (d) playing table top card games or you played the previous title in the franchise. The improvements and additions are very welcome to the franchise and this game at least deserves the demo!

 

 

*Bonus: When you purchase Magic 2012, you are given a code which you can use to redeem a physical card that you can pick up from a list of local vendors that support it. This card can be used to go with your table top Magic game set if you are into that sort of thing 🙂

 

 

Game 2 Gamer’s Final Score 3.5 / 5