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- Wizards of the Coast
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- Wizards of the Coast
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- Wizards of the Coast
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- Wizards of the Coast
Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015
Released On: Jul 16, 2014
60
3.2
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
60
20% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
60% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
20% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
60
20% Positive
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
60% Mixed
15 Reviews
15 Reviews
20% Negative
5 Reviews
5 Reviews
Magic 2015 – Duels of the Planeswalkers is possibly the best of the series, and an excellent option for gamers that might be interested in learning how to play Magic: The Gathering.
The card game takes one step forward and two steps backwards. Free deckbuilding is a big plus, but when you consider that the play modes from old Duels are cut completely and some of the card pool available is behind an IAP paywall, the new Duels doesn't compare well against other, cheaper, slicker and - quite frankly - more fun competition like Hearthstone. Duels is simple not on par with the competition. [Sept 2014]
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 127 User Ratings
3.2
20% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
9% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
70% Negative
89 Ratings
89 Ratings
User Score
Generally Unfavorable
Based on 127 User Ratings
3.2
20% Positive
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
9% Mixed
12 Ratings
12 Ratings
70% Negative
89 Ratings
89 Ratings
Unclear why user's are trashing this iteration of Magic, **** fact, I nearly avoided buying it as a result; however, I'm glad I gave it a shot despite the overwhelmingly poor reviews. Objectively speaking, this game is not worthy of a "10", but I feel obligated because of all of the zero-scores it has unfairly received.
I have been playing MTG since revised (3rd ed), I play Magic Online and DoP since 2012...I can safely say, Magic2015 is by far, my favorite so far (220 hrs of play logged). It is lacking some important multiplayer components (Two-Headed-Giant, in particular) but otherwise, when looked at as a whole package, the game has improved (in my opinion) in nearly every respect.
I have spent $10 on this game, and nothing more...this is the least 'pay-to-win' version of Magic thus far. You play and earn a virtual pack of cards added to your growing collection for each game you win. If you don't enjoy playing-to-win, and would prefer just to win, rather than playing, then you have the OPTION of buying more packs. This defeats the purpose of buying this game in the first place, but the option is there. This is also the reason I would only recommend purchasing the $9.95 version.
You can custom build your own decks! There's no limit to the number of decks that you build, since the builds are saved in your inventory, and you can build a fresh deck with any combinations of colors and cards whenever you want. Now, granted, your card pool is solely based on the number of cards that you have won, so starting out, you will be merely modifying your starting-deck until you earn enough cards to freely build. The starting deck deck is somewhat weak, but gives you a strong push in the 2-colors of your choice. Also, an important note regarding the packs that you win, you can never get more than four of any one card. This is huge! It means no redundant copies of commons once you round out a set of four. The cards in the packs are randomized picks that are pulled from M15, Innistrad, Theros, Ravinca, Shandalar and Zendikar; although there are many notable cards from these sets that are MIA, I was pleased overall with the number of cards in the pool and (for the most part) the cards ****'t expect to see any Planeswalkers.
The biggest complaint I have read is that you cannot start over once you have chosen your starting colors...this is both true and completely false. It is true, there is no in-game "NEW" game selection in the menu, however, you can easily shutoff the cloud-sync under the M15 properties on Steam and either rename or delete your current profile that's saved in the 'userdata' folder on your machine. This will start the game over as if you were playing for the first time. I have done this a dozen times already. Anyone who would like the procedure, I'll be happy to share, look me up on Steam "gageSCOTT" and I'll instant-message the instructions to you. Admittedly, I don't understand why WoTC made restarting the game this tedious, but it is an easy work-around none-the-less.
The menus are a tad slow and strangely unresponsive, but not to a point that they deserve the amount of complaints they've received. The play is about as fast as you would want it to be, and is fully tailorable in the options menu. The only criticism I have about the strength of the AI, is it's lack of ability to bluff and it's lack of ability to recognize a non-bluff; ex: if you send a 1/1 token, the computer 99% of the time will block it, no matter how much life it has, allowing to destroy a key creature with a simple trick in your hand. The AI does make some non-nonsensical plays from time-to-time, but typically this occurs after I have already amassed an overwhelming advantage and the game is already won anyway.
This is the best version of Magic to date. I have played more hours in 2015 than I have 2012, 2013 & 2014 combined. The games are fun, the AI decks are challenging (sometimes unfairly so) and for anyone to claim there isn't $9.95 worth of value here is insane. I understand the temptation to submit negative reviews when a game is flooded with negative comments from users, but they just aren't justified here. 2014 was a bigger money-grab, have to empty-slots just to play the custom-pack building portion of the game, which was the best part of 2014, and also the biggest rip-off. The iteration of magic allows you to do this from the start and through-out the entire length of the campaign, and beyond, and you do not have to pay another penny to do so. How can people justify complaining about this!?! I have found this game to be great fun, have built countless number of decks in multiple color combinations, and will continue to do so for some time to **** for $9.95.
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I don't understand the bad reviews i love this game better then the rest of the planes walker games its hella fun! Great cards Great decks u can actually create fully custom decks which is the best ever!
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Though it's still fun to battle opponents without having to fray my cards, dish out game night snacks, or use up gas to go where the in-person action is, I'll likely return to my Magic 2014 stock, and hope next year's entry provides more sustenance.
The poor AI becomes increasingly apparent and even more of a chore upon completing the campaign. [Issue#152, p.114]
Magic 2015 Duels of the Planeswalkers fails to reach the heights of previous games
Slow, technically flawed and dogged by premium microtransactions. A sorry take on a classic card game.
Magic 2015 is really well done. I will not repeat what all the others have said about the game. I will say this, there are a lot of people complaining about the micro transaction in the game for more cards. If you played any of the previous Magic the Gathering games, you will have noticed that they require you to do micro transactions to unlock all of the cards / decks in them too. The only main difference between Magic 2015 and the others at this point and stage, is that there is no Two-Headed Giant (2v2), no Archenemy mode, no puzzles, or Revenge campaign. I am certain they will be adding patches / expansions that will add them. Even in Magic 2014, you had to buy the expansion for the revenge campaign and buy separately, several decks. Overall, far better then the previous games and the decks you can build are far better / challenging / fun to use.
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Considering the surplus of negative reviews, there's not a whole lot I can say that would suggest this game is worthy of a purchase. As someone relatively new to Magic (but not TCGs), a game like this was perfect for me to get comfortable with game flow, strategy and deck building. For newer players this is pretty good value, especially if you don't have experience playing with certain colour combinations or themes.
There are a few things that can spoil which should be a great introduction for newer Magic players. For one, it is not possible to unlock the Premium cards unless you pay for them. It is possible to beat the game without them but not having an alternative way of unlocking them is pretty depressing. Especially compared to its casual-friendly competition: Hearthstone, where dedicated players can unlock the vast majority of the cards with enough patience and luck. Having a paywall to separate basic players from premium players is not only exploitative it creates a lopsided advantage in favour of those who spend the extra cash.
As for the core game itself, I like the overall design. The presentation is clean, card mechanics are demonstrated in a clear and concise manner, and it is relatively minimalistic, leaving only the information relevant to the player. This is a welcome change from the looks of MG:O which looks overly busy by comparison.
The gameplay works as you would expect but there are some slight nags. For one, there's no way to cancel a card from being played if you click on it. The only exception is if it requires some kind of confirmation. This means if you misclick the wrong card, there is no way to cancel your selection and choose the card you would like instead. A major inconvenience for a game centred around strategy. The AI doesn't really feel like it offers much of a challenge so much as it forces the player to be very patient. The AI very rarely has bad draws and will often have perfect counters to the cards that you play. Beating AI opponents doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment, but rather just replaying until you muligan into a perfect hand. The worst part is, the endboss requires that you draw twice (it has two forms). This means you could have an amazing first half and if your next series of draws is terrible, you might as well just hit the reset button and start all over.
I don't know how the game's shuffling system is coded but it really needs some work. I don't care how unlucky a person can get, I have never had so many games where 95% of my cards were land. It seems to happen very frequently in Magic 2015. Nothing says fun like being unable to play your hand as the AI opponent beats you senseless.
If you do decide to play with friends it is pretty fun for what it is. It doesn't quite compare to the real thing but it's a good way to scratch the itch.
All-in-all, Magic 2015 is great if you're brand new to Magic and need something to get you accustomed to the basics. If you're not new, it is very hard to recommend this purchase. Do some research before you buy if you're on the fence.
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Magic 2015 is a game based on Magic: The Gathering where you collect cards, build decks, and battle opponents. They've made several Duels of the Planeswalkers games, and I've played all of them.
Magic 2015 is a huge step forward for the series, yet also a huge step back. It's really pretty frustrating.
This game finally implements the one feature people have been asking for since the beginning: the ability to make a custom deck from scratch. You get a pool of cards that builds over time, and you can build your own deck out of the cards you have, and it's a major improvement. The game has several ways of helping you build a deck, or you can hand-select each card, like I did.
If it wasn't for that, though, this game would be among the worst in the series. There's a somewhat diverse selection of opponents, but the difficulty curve is all over the place. It puts you against a big green deck really early, and that's a tough deck to face with only a handful of starter cards. The puzzle mode from previous games is gone. No alternate play modes either, such as Archenemy or Sealed from previous games. What's worse is that the card pool, even when you've unlocked everything, just isn't quite diverse enough, so there aren't that many great decks you can build out of it. If my opponents can make a Sliver deck, why can't I? As a side note, the menus in this game are really slow and animation-heavy. Magic 2014 had way better UX design... what happened?
The microtransactions in this game aren't as bad as the infuriating Sealed Deck mode in Magic 2014 (I'm still mad about that), but they keep a few cards locked out of the main game unless you pay more to unlock them. They're good cards, too. The white Paragon, for example, would be an amazing inclusion in the Convoke deck. I think they're usable in multiplayer too, so this could be called a pay-to-win mechanic (you can still build acceptable decks without those cards, but they really help).
There are two other pluses that I haven't brought up yet. Fighting random opponents in single player is a good inclusion. I wish there were more, though... there are only a small number of opponents per location. Also, as someone that follows the card game's storyline, it's nice to see what actually happens to Garruk (and Ob Nixilis).
Ultimately, I would still recommend this game if you're interested in Magic, though I don't think I could recommend it over Magic 2014. They're not asking for much with the $10 price tag, and I don't regret having spent the money on this. Magic is still fun. Also, it's nice to build decks from scratch for a change. For now, steer clear of the extra paid content.
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This year wizards made me really sad. This game is filled with micro-transactions even if you buy the most expensive pack. Challanges are gone. Deck building is done poorly, for example no search for words function and theres really not that many cards to have any fun. even if you count copies theres
like 980cards overall, Yu-gi-oh on Wii had 4000! Background in the game is just plain obviously so it runs well on tablets. In the end, magic is still fun which would give like a 7 but those things take it down to a plain average 4
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Magic 2015 could have been a 10, but they inexplicably took out all game modes other than single player and multiplayer free-for all. Two headed giant has been a staple of this series, and in my opinon, the most enjoyable game mode of the DotP franchise. It's what kept me coming back year after year. Not only did they take it out, there was almost no warning. I would never have bought this game if I knew there was no 2HG.
All that said, the amount of freedom this game gives you to craft your deck is awesome. Unlike Hearthstone, you aren't limited by your "class" in your access to cards. You can literally make whatever deck you wish with every card in the game at your disposal. The types of decks you will encounter in multiplayer will be endless.
Still, the microtransactions and left out features kill this game, and I cannot recommend it to anyone unless they are a die-hard MtG fan. Wizards of the Coast and Stainless really dropped the ball on this one.
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Summary Track down bigger game on a bold new adventure with Magic 2015—Duels of the Planeswalkers. Command powerful creatures and wield devastating spells to defeat your opponents in this game of strategy. Hone your skills as you battle your way across the planes of the Multiverse. Beware though, Planeswalker. Your biggest danger lies ahead. Gar...
Rated T
for Teen
Platforms:
- iOS (iPhone/iPad)
- Xbox One
- Xbox 360
- PC
Initial Release Date: Jul 16, 2014
Developer:
- Wizards of the Coast
Publisher: Wizards of the Coast
Genres:
