Spectromancer (Demo)
Verdict: strategilicious!
In a Nutshell: Spectromancer is a strategic card game similar to Magic: The Gathering.
“In Spectromancer, an online fantasy card game, players participate in a magical duel against other mages by strategically summoning creatures and casting spells. Each mage uses five magical elements during a duel – Fire, Water, Air and Earth, plus a fifth related to the specific mage type. There are six mage types in the game: Clerics use Holy power; Mechanicians use Mechanics; Necromancers use Death; Chaosmasters use Chaos; Dominators uses Control and Illusionists use Illusions. Players are able to duel against the computer or against other online players live.”
- Fun Rating: Really Fun
- ESRB: n/a
- Players/Mode: Single-player/Campaign, Two-Player/Duel
- Game Duration: the demo campaign took between 2-4 hours on normal. Individual duels can last as long as it takes to strategize (usually about 6 minutes)
- System: PC
- Developer: Three Donkeys
- Website: http://www.spectromancer.com/
- Cost: $19.95 over at greenhouse
- Demo: download it from greenhouse
| Would I play this again? | absolutely |
| Would I recommend this game? | yes |
| Was the story good? | it’s o.k. |
| Was the music good? | yes |
| Were the graphics good? | yes |
| Was this game difficult? | yes |
| Was this game frustrating? | no |
| Was this game offensive? | no |
| Was this game worth your time/money? | yes |
Playing the game
Players start each duel with a computer selected set of cards and a number of hit point. Players then select cards to either defend themselves, boost their hit points or card points(spent to play cards), attack their opponent or attack their opponent’s cards. The player that looses all of their hit points first looses the duel.
What the game gets right
Spectromancer is incredibly “easy to play / difficult to master”, as the saying goes. For someone like me who’s still pretty new to card games, this one only took a couple of practice games, and the very short “How to play” section of the help manual, to understand the basic gameplay. With all of that said, Spectromancer requires some serious strategy on the more advanced levels of play.
One of the biggest pluses is that there is no card management required of the player. For each duel, the computer gives you a random hand from your available cards (either from the class you’ve selected or cards you’ve gained as you progress through the campaign.) This will keep you on your toes when your favorite cards don’t show up every hand. This also seems to keep the duels extremely well balanced
Finally, a demo that lasts more than 20-30 minutes! By the time I finished the demo, I felt like I had already played an entire game or, at least, an episode.
What the game gets wrong
If we’re splitting hairs, the story could have been better. As a disclaimer, the story wasn’t bad enough to detract from the game. After all, Spectromancer is about the duels.
Sum it up
When I first started up Spectromancer, I thought, “Oh, it’s just a card game.” (My previous experience with card games was a handful of Magic games about 10 years ago and I didn’t play with anybody that was really into it.) Little did I know how much I like card games, ESPECIALLY when there’s no card management effort on my part.
Now that I’ve gotten my feet wet with Spectromancer, maybe Alteil won’t be as daunting to dive into.
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