It’s all card games all the time today, as Jagex have also launched their deck’n’draw-based MMO spinoff Chronicle: RuneScape Legends into closed beta this week. It uses an indirect form of one vs. one battles where your deck is filled with challenges for your own hero, which then give them buffs or deal damage to opponents before a final direct fight at the end of the chronicle.
We’ll be keeping an eye on this and many more for updates to our best PC CCGs list.
I’m fascinated by how differently this is using the deck-based tools at its disposal. There’s a trend now of using cards as a shortcut to mechanics-heavy, phone-friendly multiplayer games that allow for a lot of customisation and have an already-accepted amount of RNG to them. I love it as a Magic fan, but they’re all so different that it’s barely the same genre. You can’t even really compare Chronicle to Hearthstone, for example, despite the similarity of some of the art. The pillars of tempo and card advantage aren’t there.
That was Phil’s favourite thing about it when he had a shot a couple of months back. Now we can all jump in and give it a try, with “over 270 cards” already available in the closed beta. You can sign up for a key on the official siteor wait for the full release some time next year.