Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012, the sequel to the 2009 downloadable game of the same name,
is a Magic: The Gathering-based game that allows players to play with pre-built
virtual decks in order to duel their friends and progress through three
campaigns, each more difficult than the last. The original game was met with
generally positive reception, despite getting plenty of complaints for the
complete lack of deck building. Does this sequel pan out to be a better
experience? Read on to find out.
Duels 2012 uses gameplay elements that are core to what appears to be
the Mirrodin block of the trading card game’s history. This means that
artifacts, which are colorless permanent cards that can be creature, passive,
or equipment, take a relatively large role in the game, with a specifically
built artifact deck available to players a few battles into the campaign. I’ve
been an off-and-on Magic player for quite some time and I have generally
enjoyed the way that the game’s flow played out. Rules are directly stated on
most cards, and when they are not, they are listed via a “more information”
button located to the side when you zoom into a card. The game’s logic system
does a good job of parsing rules, making little guesswork for players when they
aren’t sure what can or cannot be targeted, and tends to be forgiving by
letting you cancel a card provided any other effects have not went into effect
originating from it. My only major gripe about the gameplay itself is how
completely calculating the game’s enemy AI is. It seems to always be a step
ahead, even on the easy difficulties, and while it is relatively easy to trick
it by exploiting its logic, oftentimes it just outright gets better cards. It’s
been said that on the hard difficulty, it even “cheats” by pre-placing
powerhouse cards towards the top of the deck. That is no good.
Deck building, or the lack thereof, was a major complaint in the original 2009 Duels
game, leaving a lot of players frustrated that they couldn’t remove any cards
from their deck to even out the cards they unlocked and added from the
campaign. Generally, that hasn’t changed outright, but Duels 2012 allows
you to both add unlocked cards from your sideboard into your deck, and also to
remove existing cards that you may not want as many of. It also lets you put as
many cards in as you want, similar to the first game, but it does enforce a
strict 60 card lower limit. Targeting was a small issue as well while playing,
as it wasn’t apparent in 3- and 4-player games that you could click and drag to
target specific players. For the first few games, my friends and I assumed you
were simply stuck attacking the person to your right at the virtual table. In
addition to this, clicking on cards gets generally difficult and annoying when
a lot of cards end up on the table, as they’re clustered together so close you
can easily mis-click on the wrong card.
The graphics in Duels 2012
are surprisingly amazing, which is surprising from a game where the only real
thing you need to render is a table and the cards themselves. The user
interface is a great improvement over the first game and navigating menus are a
lot less frustrating. There are unique tables for each game mode and the number
of players participating, which somehow ends up being more interesting than the
first game where you played on various mana color-themed tables. The general
polish is there, and it shows through very well. The only gripe here is the
same as I had in the first game, which is attack animations. Damage and attack
animations pop up during creature combat, and while some may like this feature,
for most players it will just be turned off as it is simply time-consuming and
not that interesting to watch. Granted they are short, but some will just hate
them for being there at all.
Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 ends up hitting a lot of high notes, doing a very good job of improving upon its predecessor. There are a few minor annoyances, some new, some carried over, but overall it ends up far surpassing what many expect a retail trading card-based video game to be. Whether you are a longtime Magic veteran, or if you’re just wanting to see if it’s a game you’ll enjoy, Duels 2012 is nice and cheap, very well made, and is incredibly fun and satisfying (if a little frustrating) to play. Pick it up and share it with your friends. It’ll be well worth it.