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Civilization VI vs Crusader Kings II – The Definitive Comparison

Civilization VI vs Crusader Kings II - The Definitive Comparison

While the games might be of different genres, these 2 colossal strategy games have one thing in common; you won’t be able to stop playing as days and nights, and time in general, becomes a blur.

That said, you’re probably not gonna be playing both games consistently, it’s not about preference as it is about time.

So, if you’re a newcomer, which game is more worth your time? Find out with this comparison, where we’ll compare storylines, gameplay, and visuals.

Without further ado:

Storyline

Neither game has any storyline. Both games follow the logic of “build your own story”. In other words, what you do and the choices you make are essentially your story, because believe me, once you’re done with a playthrough, you’ll have stories to tell.

However… Crusader Kings definitely has more affinity with that. Crusader Kings is more than a simple strategy game. It’s actually an RPG as well, as you have your own character (which you can create and edit if you want), and you must keep your family’s legacy alive through heirs, as your character eventually dies.

That means that the “build your own story” is actually literal here, as every character you have will have various stats and traits, which can be changed by various random events. Talk about unique!

Gameplay

As I mentioned, the 2 games are of different genres. Let’s dig into that.

Civilization as a series has always been a 4X game. 4X games are a strategy sub-genre that goes more in-depth with every aspect of your empire.

That means that, besides managing your armies, attacks, and economy, you also have to look out for things like scientific and cultural advancement, or religion, or even how to keep your people happy and well-fed.

These aspects exist because simply put, they are essential to victory. In Civilization, you can certainly win by becoming the world’s superior power and conquering everything in sight, but there are in particular, 4 more ways to win (plus the default one if you run out of time, but that can be disabled).

By being scientifically advanced, culturally superior, a world diplomat, or by spreading your religion across the corners of the world. These, plus being a warmonger, are all the ways you can seek victory.

In fact, many different factions have different advantages that give them an affinity of some sort toward 1 or 2 of the aforementioned ways.

Crusader Kings is a grand strategy game, but with an RPG twist.

Essentially, you only win through score once the timer expires, but you could theoretically conquer everything, though that’s easier said than done.

From trying to hold your empire together (even if you begin as a county), to keeping good relations and well-managed armies, you’ll play dozens of games before you know what you’re doing.

That is a key difference between the games; while both complicated, Crusader Kings far surpasses Civilization, as you pretty much must micromanage almost everything, from people in your court and wife and tutors for your children to your council seats and vassals.

I won’t go into much detail about their gameplays lest this article becomes too big.

A word about their SFX before we move on.

Civilization has an undeniably unique and awesome soundtrack. Every country has its own theme that derives from the country’s culture and becomes more and more synthesized as you move technologically to show you this progress.

There are voice actors for every leader, and every leader speaks in the country’s native language, even if it doesn’t exist today.

Crusader Kings has an (equally) awesome soundtrack that loops as you play.

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Visuals

Civilization’s visuals are top-notch. It is, after all, considered an AAA game. Even in the lowest settings, any old PC won’t be able to run it. Most bad specs PCs may run it, but expect long-timers toward the end of the game, as it has lots to process.

Crusader Kings has more average graphics that are able to run on most PCs and Laptops without any serious issue. There is no turn timer here, as the game runs dynamically (you can pause it of course).

Final Thoughts

If anyone has the time to play and master both games, I urge you to do so.

However, we’re here because almost no one has the time.

Let’s get the easiest out of the way.

If you want complexity or more of a focus on your actions and choices, or if you generally want an RPG to feel to your strategy game, definitely go for Crusader Kings II.

If you want stunning visuals (and can handle them), or more variety than just war, then Civilization VI is your choice.

For those of you that can’t decide, I’ll give you my personal experiences.

Crusader Kings is overwhelming at the start, and even as an advanced player, you still won’t have an “optimal way” to play.

In fact, as I said, you’ll hardly make it past 3 centuries at the start, as always something happens, and your family gets killed.

But the game is certainly worth it, as you can find a base strategy to survive early and learn from there.

Multiplayer is also more fun in Crusader Kings as well, in my humble opinion.

Civilization is also more complex at the start, but there is a good learning curve there, where, as you scale the difficulties, you learn more and more.

Plus, Civilization also has the aspect of map mastery. Every map is different, and you always have to think differently about how to exploit it. The same goes for the grounds within your empire.

Take these into account before deciding what to play.

If I had to decide, I’d choose Civilization if you wanna play solo, or Crusader Kings if you want to play with company and friends. As always, this is my personal opinion.

That’s it for my comparison. Have you played both games? If so, which do you prefer? You can tell me your opinions below.

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Valorant Review

Valorant Review

Riot Games (who finally earned the name) actually had a dynamic 10-year anniversary of its core legendary game, League of Legends.

They announced their plans to create more games in more genres.

Valorant is Riot’s attempt at an FPS game.

Highly anticipated, the game saw a massive increase in interest when the beta was released and keys were limited.

But how good is it really? Does it deserve all this praise?

As usual, this review will have a Storyline, Gameplay, Visuals and Personal Thoughts sections. Without further ado:

Storyline

We don’t have much in terms of story.

What we do know, is that, set in a future Earth, some people gained superhuman abilities from an event of unknown origins.

A secret organization is trying to recruit these individuals, and anyone who possess technology equal to those individuals’ powers.

Other than that, Riot states that they want the story to be told through character interactions in-game.

Gameplay

Valorant is an FPS. In fact, you will find its gameplay to be very similar to legendary FPS such as CS:GO and CoD.

However, Riot didn’t just want to create another regular FPS, so instead, they drew inspiration from other different FPSs like Overwatch.

The result is a mix of the 2 subgenres.

To start with, each team has a different objective and a different start point.. Fortunately, to stay balanced, you’ll be playing half the game as one team, and for the rest of the game with the other.

Let’s continue with the objectives:

There are (usually) two sites in any given map called the A Site and the B Site. Some maps have a C Site as well.

At the start of the game, you either play as the Attackers or the Defenders.

As the Attackers, you have to take the bomb (called the Spike) in any of the sites and plant it, then protect it until it detonates.

As the Defenders, you have to stop the Attackers from fulfilling their goal.

Generally, a round can be won if every member of one team is dead. However, if all Attackers die, but the Spike is planted, then the defenders have to defuse it to win the round (regardless of any opponent being alive or not).

The Defenders can also win by “playing time”, or in simple words, waiting out the round timer. If it expires, the Attackers haven’t planted the spike and at least 1 Defender is alive, then the Defenders win.

There is a casual and competitive game mode.

The modes are mostly similar between each other, beside the obvious fact that the competitive is essentially ranked, where you will play for your promotion/demotion.

Unlike CS:GO, Riot does give you a clue on how the game’s MMR works, but you still can’t see your direct placement.

The game is extremely competitive due to its complicated mechanics. Despite the objectives, it’s still not just a simple gun fest. The game has many micro and macro mechanics.

For starters, each game has a dedicated economy.

Each player has his own pot. You can earn money (called credits) by killing enemies, and a set amount after losing or winning (obviously you gain more money by winning rounds).

You’ll gain increasingly more creds by lose streaking, but no more than an upper limit, that is still lower than winning creds.

There are many more things with the game’s economy that you’ll learn by playing. One simple thing is an “eco” round, in which you buy (almost) nothing to save money. The economy fully resets when the players switch sides.

Besides weapons, you can buy skills.

Every character has 4 skills. 1 of their skills is always available in each round, and refreshes after every round. Some skills can refresh and used a second time in a round.

There are also 2 other skills for each player that you need to buy. They work similarly to grenades, and most of them are crowd control and AoE skills.

Finally, each player has his Ultimate. This can be recharged by killing enemies, finding black orbs around the map and securing them (making you vulnerable for a few seconds), dying (only once every round) and by defusing or planting the Spike.

The weapons are also quite complicated. As expected, each weapon has a different recoil, magazine, power, etc.

You will need to learn which weapon is optimal in which situation, when to burst fire, continuously fire, or one-tap (throwing a bullet at a time), which weapons can penetrate walls and doors, how much damage you deal and most importantly, where to aim to hit the head.

You can also right-click to get enhanced zoom on most weapons (for the cost of mobility and rate of fire). Some weapons have a secondary attack instead.

The game has friendly fire as well, but only on abilities.

Competitive requires A LOT of communication. The game has in-game voice chat, and you must use this to the fullest lest you want to lose every time. You must use it to give info on the enemy position, or enemy damage taken.

You can also use it when you want to cover a specific point, or trade a weapon, or before you use a grenade. Generally, you’ll want to use it as much as possible, as info is key to victory. I’m not even exaggerating!

It’s even possible to hear someone coming (unless he’s sneaking).

As you see, the game has a lot of macro (economy and positioning) and micro (grenade placement and weapon usage) to handle. That’s why I recommend trying out casual a lot before going to ranked. Maybe even finding a team of friends to make things easier.

Visuals

When we’re talking Riot Games, you can expect a game that runs on very bad PCs and Laptops, which is one of the company’s reasons of success.

That said, the graphics are polished and quite good, despite not being as realistic.

Personal Thoughts

The game definitely looks like a CS:GO clone with some Overwatch elements incorporated.

In fact, I wouldn’t blame you if you call it that.

But Riot seems to have the secret to success, and like their previous “tests” into other genres, it’s probably gonna be extremely popular.

That said, it might not be bad at all. I mean, there isn’t something similar, and if it’s fun, why not?

This game is serious enough to be taken as an actual FPS but also has elements of an RPG for the more adventurous out there.

I suggest you try it out. Besides, as we’re talking about Riot here, it’s completely free of charge.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 7.0

Gameplay: 9.2

Visuals: 7.5

General Rating: 7.9

That’s it for my review. Do you like Valorant? Do you prefer it than CS:GO and/or Overwatch? Leave a comment below.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page and sharing our articles.

The images I used are from this site(s):

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DotA 2 vs HotS – The Definitive Comparison

DotA 2 vs HotS

This comparison is gonna be on the more amusing side, due to Defense of the Ancients 2 (DotA 2) being based on Defense of the Ancients, which was built on Blizzard’s Warcraft 3 servers, the same Blizzard who develops Heroes of the Storm (HotS).

In fact, you will find that most of DotA’s Heroes bare a striking resemblance to a character belonging in HotS’ Warcraft universe. That’s because the original DotA actually used the models from Warcraft 3.

This comparison will focus on each game’s storyline, gameplay and visuals. I will also tell you my occlusive thoughts in the Final Thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

DotA 2 doesn’t have much of a focus on its storyline. Generally speaking, every Hero is fighting for 1 of 2 Ancients (the Radiant and the Dire) to advance their own purposes.

HotS has deeper lore and has also managed to combine its storyline with its gameplay. In the game, there is a big, multi-dimensional storm called the Nexus. The Nexus can stabilize some Realms. Those stabilized inner universes are called Realms, and each Realm has its own lord. Some Realm Lords fight with each other for dominance. And that’s where you come from. The heroes you choose are on the side of one of the Lords, and are fighting the Lords’ wars.

Obviously HotS has much deeper lore if you take into account that every single Hero has hos own huge background in his/her respective universe.

DotA 2 also has some additional stories through comics.

Gameplay

Both games have what you’d expect from any typical MOBA. You choose your picks, fight along with a team of random people and/or friends, against opponents and both teams’ purpose is to destroy the enemy’s final building (Ancient for DotA 2 and Core for HotS).

Every pick you choose can level up in the game gaining more power and abilities. At a specific level, each pick unlocks its strongest skill, or more commonly known as Ultimate.

In both games, Heroes can choose a Talent. For DotA 2, this happens every few levels. For HotS, every level gives you a new choice. That’s because in DotA 2 you get ability points with every level, which you use to either unlock an ability you haven’t or to strengthen an already learned one.

There are general categorizations for each pick which shows their role in the game.

The maps have these roads called lanes where small weak NPCs called creeps/minions respectively. Between the lanes, there is the jungle which serves a different purpose in each game. They both have jungle camps however; a group of NPCs stronger than the usual which gives an advantage (mostly experience in DotA 2).

As you advance and destroy enemy structures you gain better minions.

Each map has 1 or more Epic Monsters, huge NPCs that usually require multiple team members to take down. They give a huge advantage to their team.

That’s where the common ground stops. The games have some differences that make them completely different from each other.

For example, DotA 2’s gameplay is reliant on you killing enemies (minions and players) in order to gain gold, which is used to buy items, which in turn give an increase in various stats, as well as some bonus effects. Many items also have an active skill you can use, further complicating the game.

HotS doesn’t have any items, nor any currency. You just gain experience by killing enemies (or being near them when they die). Also, unlike DotA 2, experience is shared with the rest of the team, promoting teamplay and cooperativeness, and cutting on solo players single-handedly carrying a team.

DotA’s typical game lasts so much longer than HotS.

The long game is justifiable as both teams battle for control. Maybe some players just have better late game, even the earliest games in DotA 2 take at least 30 minutes, due to its general balancing (things like losing gold on death, long death timers and others).

HotS relies on its objectives.

Objectives are kinda like minigames, where both teams have an objective to fulfill. The first team that does gains a huge temporary advantage. The game gives out objectives up until it’s finished.

Due to this, the games don’t drag as long, as every objective is much stronger every time.

Another difference is the jungle camp system.

DotA 2 ‘s camps just give gold and experience. Sometimes, a champion relies on spending a big chunk of his time there instead of any lane. That guy is called a jungler. Some heroes even excel at battling the jungle camps and relish the lack of PvP.

In HotS, you usually go to the jungle between switching lanes or objectives, as every camp joins you for battle.

The competitive scene is also dramatically different.

DotA 2’s is world-renowned, and one of the most profitable e-sports business in the world. There are many pro teams competing in regional and world tournaments for prize money.

HotS… well, HotS has a ranked mode. There are some tournaments hosted, but they are by no means official, and Blizzard doesn’t support this aspect of the game anymore. So it’s nowhere near as worth it to play competitive HotS.

Their competitive systems are different as well.

DotA 2 only has 1 map, contrary to the many rotating maps of HotS.

Visuals

The visuals are pretty similar. HotS need slightly better specs though, and DotA 2 will be able to be played on older and worse PCs.

Final Thoughts

Both games give reasons to play them.

DotA 2 is very competitive and complex with all its Heroes and items. It’s also the closest to the original MOBAs.

HotS gives you nostalgia through its Heroes (if you played any of Blizzard’s legendary titles) and a much more casual, team-work oriented playstyle.

Ultimately, is up to you to decide which you prefer. Fortunately, I gave you a comparison to make the job easier.

That’s it for my comparison. Have you played both games? If so, which do you prefer. You can tell me your opinions below.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page, and sharing our articles.

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LoL vs HotS – The Definitive Comparison

LoL vs HotS

Despite Blizzard heavily cutting funding toward their MOBA, Heroes of the Storm (HotS) and League of Legends (LoL) are still comparable. In fact, I’m sure some people will actually prefer HotS altogether, not as just a casual experience.

So, what are their differences and what do they have in common?

This comparison will focus on each game’s storyline, gameplay and visuals. I will also tell you my occlusive thoughts in the Final Thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

Now that they’ve been out for some time, both games had the chance to flesh out their lore. At start, both games’ lores where really scrambled out.

League has its very own universe that’s completely parallel to the game. What this means is that every champion you choose has his own fleshed out story and purpose within his/her universe, but the matches he’s competing as your champion are all non-canon.

HotS has managed to combine its storyline with its gameplay. In the game, there is a big, multi-dimensional storm called the Nexus. The Nexus can stabilize some Realms. Those stabilized inner universes are called Realms, and each Realm has its own lord. Some Realm Lords fight with each other for dominance. And that’s where you come from. The heroes you choose are on the side of one of the Lords, and are fighting the Lords’ wars.

Generally, both games have a big universe, but League’s is definitely way bigger. That said, every character in HotS has his own story in his respective game, and you need to dig really deep in other games’ lore in order to have the full picture.

I have to note here that Riot’s Champions are completely new and every new champion brings something new to the lore. Blizzard on the other hand uses Heroes from its most known games with very few characters being directly tied to the HotS universe.

Gameplay

On to the main stuff.

Both games have what you’d expect from any typical MOBA. You choose your picks, fight along with a team of random people and/or friends, against opponents and both teams’ purpose is to destroy the enemy’s final building (Nexus for LoL and Core for HotS).

Every pick you choose can level up in the game gaining more power and abilities. At a specific level, each pick unlocks its strongest skill, or more commonly known as Ultimate.

There are general categorizations for each pick which shows their role in the game.

The maps have these roads called lanes where small weak NPCs called minions. Between the lanes, there is the jungle which serves a different purpose in each game. They both have jungle camps however; a group of NPCs stronger than the usual which give an advantage (mostly experience in LoL).

As you advance and destroy enemy structures you gain better minions.

Each map has 1 or more Epic Monsters, huge NPCs that usually require multiple team members to take down. They give a huge advantage to their team.

Both games also have bushes, which hide any unit in them.

That’s where the common ground stops. The games have some differences that make them completely different from each other.

For example, LoL’s gameplay is reliant on you killing enemies (minions and players) in order to gain gold, which is used to buy items, which in turn give an increase in various stats, as well as some bonus effects.

HotS doesn’t have any items, nor any currency. You just gain experience by killing enemies (or being near them when they die). Also, unlike LoL, experience is shared with the rest of the team instead of each player having his own. Finally, HotS has a talent system. Every hero, when he levels up, he can choose 1 new talent that strengthens one aspect of his kit or stat.

LoL as a matter of fact, doesn’t have any Talents. Instead, every level gives you an ability point which you use to either unlock an ability you haven’t, or to strengthen an already learned one.

LoL’s tempo is pretty stable. In the early game, players go to their designated lane (based on a years-long meta) and stay there until later in the game when they have their ultimate, and even later for some champions.

In the mid game, more teamfights happen, and the teams battle for control of the map and objectives.

Late game is where the game’s judged (if it ever reaches there that is). The winning team presses the advantage, and the losing play defensively, waiting out a mistake and/or trying to catch-up.

HotS also has these phases, but the game’s tempo is dictated by each map’s objective.

Objectives are kinda like minigames, where both teams have an objective to fulfill. The first team that does gains a huge temporary advantage. The game gives out objectives up until it’s finished.

Another difference is the jungle camp system.

In LoL, jungle is a designated role. 1 of the 5 players spends the majority of his game in the jungle to farm the camps and gain his gold and experience this way. He’s also something like the Epic Monster master, since it’s very hard to do one without him since he has the tools to secure it.

In HotS, you usually go to the jungle between switching lanes or objectives, as every camp joins you for battle.

The competitive scene is also dramatically different.

LoL’s is world renowned, and one of the most profitable e-sports business in the world. There are many pro teams competing in regional and world tournaments for prize money.

HotS… well, HotS has a ranked mode. There are some tournaments hosted, but they are by no means official, and Blizzard doesn’t support this aspect of the game anymore. So it’s nowhere near as worth it to play competitive HotS.

Their competitive systems are different as well.

LoL only has 1 map, contrary to the many rotating maps of HotS.

Visuals

The visuals are pretty similar. HotS need slightly better specs though, and LoL will be able to be played on older and worse PCs.

Final Thoughts

Both games give reasons to play them.

LoL is way more competitive, with a bigger team working on it, and many more players actually playing it.

HotS gives you nostalgia through its Heroes (if you played any of Blizzard’s legendary titles) and a much more casual, team-work oriented playstyle.

Ultimately, is up to you to decide which you prefer. Fortunately, I gave you a comparison to make the job easier.

That’s it for my comparison. Have you played both games? If so, which do you prefer. You can tell me your opinions below.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page, and sharing our articles.

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Ziggurat Review

Ziggurat Review

Ziggurat is a combination of first-person shooter and dungeon crawler, all these purely single player.

It is developed by Milkstone Studios and received its last update in the distant 2016. the devs said that it would probably be the last update the game gets, and surely enough, this goes until today.

The game generally never really exploded or anything, but ever since 2014 (its release year), it’s been a stable dungeon-crawler choice for the fans of the genre.

Now, at this time, is it worth to buy this game?

This review will have a Storyline, Gameplay, Visuals and finally, a Personal Thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

The storyline is that the character you use, who is proficient with various magical skills, attends a meeting held by the Daedolon Brothers; the most powerful circle of wizards in the realm.

Every “ten winters”, they host a challenge for the more talented magic users in order to join the guild. In order to succeed, everyone must pass the Ziggurat.

Not much is known about the Ziggurat, other than that it houses dangers beyond comprehension. Additional lore tidbits are revealed through various Lore Scroll Rooms.

Once you finish, you get 1 of 3 endings depending on how much you explored in your gameplay.

Gameplay

The gameplay is that of a classic dungeon-crawler.

Your character begins with his/her Magic Wand, which has different fire rate, damage, and various other abilities per character. In the first room, you also get 1 random weapon from 1 of the 3 random categories; Spell Books, Staves, and Alchemy Weapons. There are many different weapons for each category.

Generally speaking, Spells are better dealing burst damage and effects, Staves are DPS oriented and Alchemy is AoE.

Every weapon uses its own respective mana; blue for Spells, green for Staves, and orange for Alchemy. The Wand uses its own purple mana. With the exception of 1 or 2 characters, only the Wand recharges over time. For the rest, you’re gonna have to find mana gems dropped from enemies and sometimes a few breakable stuff in the environment.

You start exploring. Every room has enemies to defeat in order to advance, except if it’s a special room (more on that later). You can also run for faster exploration.

As you beat enemies, you will gain experience. With every level, you will get increased maximum HP, and a choice between 2 random perks. Some perks can be chosen multiple times (assuming you have them as choices on many levels) to strengthen their effects.

Some rooms might have champion enemies, distinguished by their colored aura. The difference between a champion and a regular enemy is that the champion has some form of advantage (either in stats or by being able to turn invisible for example).

Some rooms might have modifiers, like more mana spent for specific weapons, not being able to run, more experience, double enemies, etc.

Your purpose is to find the Portal Key and head to the Boss Room beat the big baddie and head to the next floor. There are 5 floors in total.

Every floor has 10+ rooms. I mentioned that there are special rooms. Unless stated otherwise, these special rooms contain no enemies. The special rooms include:

  • Starting Room: Obvious on what it is, the Starting Room always contains a new weapon every floor.
  • Portal Key Room: I mentioned it as well. In there is the Key to the Boss. If you go to the Boss room without the Portal Key, nothing will happen. The Portal Key Room has a spike trap on later floors.
  • Boss Room: Here, you fight the boss, as long as you have the key. In order to initiate the fight, besides having the key, you must move toward the center of the room. That means you can circle the room by touching the walls without initiating a boss fight. After the boss, this room contains the portal to the next floor
  • Treasure Room: Contains a box in the middle. Despite its name, there is a good chance it contains enemies. Other drops include health drops, experience, amulets, a new weapon, and mana gems.
  • Hazard Room: Is based on 1 or more hazard (among lava, arrows, and many others). Usually connected to many rooms.
  • Challenge Room: More hazardous the Hazard Room, its end contains a treasure chest. Unlike the box, it always contains something beneficial, with a chance of containing a random perk as well.
  • Lore Scroll Room: Already mentioned as well, this room contains Lore Scroll which gives you information about the Ziggurat and some experience. There are many breakable things as well.
  • Shrine Room: Contains 3 statues of deities. Each statue can randomly give you a Divine Blessing, Indifference, or Punishment. These are like positive or negative perks. The leftmost statue gives you 1 randomly for free. The centermost requires paying with health. The rightmost one needs 1 of the 3 types of mana (chosen at random on room generation).
  • Secret Room: This room is not visible on the map until you first go there. You can find it by searching all the walls on the floor. The Secret Room is behind a wall that is cracked. All you need to do is hit it a little with the wand. While that might sound hard at first, but it’s really no big deal. As you play more and more you’ll know where to start looking. The room contains a free perk and some information on various games from Milkstone Studios.

Besides experience, the enemies can drop mana gems and health pots. I also mentioned amulets. Amulets are short term buffs that recharge as you kill enemies.

As you play, you will unlock more perks for future runs, more weapons, and more characters.

Visuals

Zigguarat’s visuals are very well done and polished, and the more impressive feat is that with these graphics, it still runs on low spec PCs. There’s nothing noteworthy however.

All in all, Ziggurat’s visuals are not too good, not too bad.

Personal Thoughts

Ziggurat is a great game to pass the time. Especially if you can find it on a sale, it’s a great game to have in your collection.

Don’t expect the hundreds of items gameplay of other dungeon-crawlers however, Ziggurat has less content for a smaller price.

In the end, Ziggurat is a perfect 10-minute break from either everyday struggles or an intense competitive gaming session.

Final Verdict

Storyline: 5.0

Gameplay: 7.5

Visuals: 6.8

Final Verdict: 6.4

That’s it for my review. Do you own Ziggurat. Have you done all the achievements. If you have any questions or anything to add, leave a comment below.

You can support us and get notified when we post a new article by following us on Twitter, liking our Facebook Page, and sharing our articles.

The images I used are from the following site(s):

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Terraria vs Minecraft – The Definitive Comparison

Terraria vs Minecraft

Hi guys!

If you’ve ever done any research before purchasing (or intending to) Terraria, you’ll probably have come across some comparisons to Minecraft.

That does not mean that it is a worse game, rather, Minecraft is the best game to compare it for new players as it’s more popular and quite similar.

I’m here to help you with this choice.

This comparison will focus on each game’s storyline, gameplay and visuals. I will also tell you my occlusive thoughts in the Final Thoughts section. Without further ado:

Storyline

The 2 games have very similar storylines, in that neither has any.

Being of the sandbox genre, they prefer to “let you live your own story, your way”.

Minecraft does have some lore tidbits however, but it isn’t really anything.

Terraria’s developers have released some backstory as well.

Neither game has in-game lore however in the forms of quests or NPCs, or even a specific path to follow.

Gameplay

As sandbox games, they inevitably would have similar gameplays. And that’s why we’re comparing them.

I’ll start with the similarities.

The first thing you’ll notice is that at start you start with scarce resources and you’ll have to mine them from your surroundings.

The games are very similar from then on; you build a base while finding better and better materials to craft better and better equipment.

Another similar thing in gameplay is how the night is far more dangerous than the day.

You can also create farms in both games, both for enemies and for resources.

The NPC system relatively similar as well, as each NPC requires a house in both games, and each house has requirements in order to be considered a valid house.

NPCs are used for trading, though trading itself is different between the games.

Even smaller things like the inventory and hotbar are the same.

Crafting works similarly as well, with each item requiring their exact materials from their recipe.

Now to the more important part; their differences.

I said their crafting are similar. That’s because Minecraft requires you to have the materials and also place them in a specific place. Terraria just requires you to have the ingredients and be near the correct crafting station.

That’s another difference by the way. Terraria has many different crafting stations which can get frustrating.

I also mentioned how trading is different.

In Minecraft, in order to trade, you need Emeralds which isn’t common to find. Some of the NPCs though offer emeralds for other resources but at a scarce rate.

In Terraria you trade gold, which is the in-game currency, collected by enemies and by selling to said NPCs.

Another difference is the sheer amount of items. Minecraft has less items with actual functionality but many decorative items.

In fact, combat is actually completely different.

Minecraft has 2 melee weapons, swords and axes. The sword does swiping damage to multiple enemies, and the axe deals more damage to a single enemy.

It also has 2 ranged weapons, the bow and crossbow, which work similarly.

Minecraft also offers some potions as thrown weapons in order to debuff enemies or hurt them directly.

You also have the option of enchanting your weapons granting them more damage, or various effects.

The same goes for your armor.

In terraria there is a huge amount of weapons. They are all split into 4+1 categories: melee, ranged, magic, summoned and thrown. I’m saying +1 for thrown because thrown weapons are worse as the game goes.

Melee weapon doesn’t mean it’s actually just melee, many melee weapons have projectiles, the classifications are for their damage. So, for example, a projectile from a melee weapon is going to deal melee damage.

Damage type is very important as the game goes as you have to choose a class to specialize eventually.

Beside that, armor types help with your specialization later in the game, and they also give you set bonuses (a bonus if you have all the armor pieces of a type).

In terms of content, Terraria has more of it.

Beside the items and armor types, Terraria has a myriad of different enemies, various events you might get every day or night and many, many bosses.

Minecraft doesn’t have as much content, but it gives you lots more freedom to do what you want.

In Terraria there isn’t much to do than follow a walkthrough and go through with it.

In Minecraft, you will certainly get sidetracked from anything you have set as your goal.

Their differences extend to their difficulties. Speaking on their default difficulty level, in Minecraft, if your adequately prepares, few things will give you any real trouble.

In Terraria, being adequately prepared is the basis to give you a fair fighting chance. Their hardest is miles apart, as in Terraria it’s almost impossible not to die in Expert mode, but in Minecraft, you only have to play it safe.

I’m not saying it’s easy, it’s just easier than Terraria, the only thing that can screw you is bad RNG.

A huge difference they have is the map itself.

Minecraft’s map is “limitless”, it’s not infinite, but it has billions of blocks. Terraria’s biggest maps take only about 2-3 minutes to traverse (with mounts).

Not to mention that Terraria is 2D, while Minecraft is 3D.

Finally, another big difference I’d like to point is the hunger system that is utilized by Minecraft, but not from Terraria.

In other words, in Minecraft, you have to be careful not to die from starvation, something that doesn’t exist in Terraria.

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Visuals

Terraria has tons of player customizability, allowing you to set anything you like in your social slots. Social slots won’t grant you the item’s effect, but will be visible. There are also lots of dyes to further enhance it.

Minecraft does have dyes, but they’re mostly used for blocks, flags and carpets. That means that Minecraft leaves more room for construction customization, but on the character end, there’s not much to do. If you really want you can download a free mod that allows your armor to be invisible so your character can be visible.

In terms of graphics, they both have the same pixel-art graphics. Minecraft is more polished though, and can be further enhanced by resource packs, which are supported officially by the main client.

Final Thoughts

The games are very different as you can see, but in their core, they are the same casual, sandbox adventure games.

Of course, fans of the one will try to bash the other if they think they are wronged. But in the end, I think that both games are awesome, and they both deserve a chance to play them. If you can play both, you definitely should.

But for the one who can afford (or want) only 1:

Minecraft is freer, with an emphasis on creating big interesting contraptions. In fact, it even has a material that encourages many weird machinations.

You are freer to do things, and you can have a lot of fun adventuring outside of the “main quest”. You can build a castle, rearrange the landscape to your will, and the possibilities are endless. Even more so on Creative Mode.

Terraria is more of an adventure style game, where you have an ultimate purpose, and almost everything you do leads to that point.

You will be fighting enemies and bosses, finding better and better weapons, improving your class. Sometimes you’ll get sidetracked looking for the perfect hat to match your attire, or a great companion (with no other bonuses whatsoever).

Of course, each game can do the opposite, I’m just stating their main focus.

What’s for sure is that Terraria didn’t take the successful Minecraft engine and tried to replicate the success, instead, it’s a brand new, fresh experience.

Though I’m pretty sure that everyone who likes 1 of these games will like the other.

That’s it for my comparison. Do you agree with me? Do you have anything to add? Which game do you prefer and why? Leave a comment below.

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Terraria Review

Terraria Review

Terraria is an action-adventure sandbox game developed by Re-Logic. Released in 2011, Terraria has been updated for several years after that.

Many people go ahead and compare it to another similar game, Minecraft, however, I think it’s undeserving as they are 2 different games.

We’re not here to compare though, but to review, and so we will do.

As usual, this review will have a Storyline, Gameplay, Visuals and Personal Thoughts sections. Without further ado:

Storyline

As with many sandbox games, Terraria has no actual storyline.

This is because games like Terraria like to give the player the agency to “choose their own adventure” or “create/live their own story”.

As such, Terraria lets you do whatever you want.

Gameplay

The first thing you should know about Terraria is that it’s 2D. The 4 cardinal directions are all you have.

As soon as you enter the world of Terraria, you can do whatever you want (with the only limitation of your starting gear).

Being a sandbox game, you have no real objective, nor some story or questing system to follow.

The best thing you can do is start mining stuff.

But we’re talking gameplay here, not a guide.

The gameplay is simple; using materials you find or harvest in the world, you build increasingly more complex tools and materials. In order to craft something, some advanced crafting stations are required.

At your spawn, the Guide NPC will also spawn to give you tips and tell you what every material can craft and how. He won’t tell you which crafting station to use, however.

At some point, naturally, you will have a base. In there, you will learn how to create a valid house and move an NPC there.

If you meet certain criteria, when you build an empty house, an NPC whose criteria has been fulfilled will come to live over there.

I have to remark here that you will want to use a guide to progress as it can get overwhelming when you don’t have the slightest idea of what to do.

Anyway, as you progress you will create a mine, and maybe explore the world a little. As you explore, you might run into some events randomly like Rain or Blood Moon.

Events are random, and offer unique enemies to beat. Some of them are very dangerous.

As you dig down, you will end up in the Caverns, where there are many Mineshafts and Abandoned Houses and other generated things.

The most important things you can find are chests (usually inside of the abandoned houses) which contain valuable loot and powerful weapons.

You will also want to find ores in order to step up your crafting game.

After some good gear is acquired (or crafted), you will feel more confident exploring the world.

Terraria has many different biomes to explore, and I don’t need to address every one separately.

However, there is one that requires special notice; the Corruption/Crimson.

Firstly, I will note that every world can have only 1 of the 2 biomes. There can’t be both.

With that out of the way: you can recognize each biome easily.

Corruption is purple-themed with the wasteland/decay theme being prevalent. Crimson is completely red, and easily distinguishable.

These 2 get special attention because firstly, they have special exclusive enemies that keep spawning, making them extremely dangerous to traverse.

Also, their blocks cannot be mined with any early pickaxe, which means that you can’t just go over there and create a mine or hide or whatever.

The most important things are definitely the Shadow Orbs/Crimson Hearts respectively.

They are kinda like chests; they contain loot, but you must break them using a hammer.

The reason why they’re important is simple; the first one you break will open your world to 2 new events.

The first event is a meteor crash. After smashing the first, you have a 50% chance to have a meteor land somewhere in the world the next day. Smashing more won’t affect that chance.

Smashing an Orb/Heart will also give your world a 2% chance of having a meteor every day. However, there is a maximum limit of how many meteors can strike a world to protect from bad RNG (irrelevant: I love controlled RNG).

Meteors give you a new ore; Meteorite. With it you can craft a Meteor armor and one of the best weapons up until that point in the game and for a lot more; Space Gun.

Be careful though, as stepping on Meteorite burns you, making mining an extremely difficult task.

The second event is the Goblin Army where you have to fight about 100+ goblins attacking from all sides.

The Goblin Army doesn’t offer anything too special, it’s more of a hindrance.

Anyway, from there on, every 3 Orbs/Hearts broken will summon the biome’s respective Boss.

As you explore the world, close to the edge you will find a Dungeon, with an NPC guarding it. I highly suggest you do not explore it before beating its guardian, summoned at night through the NPC.

If and when you defeat him (Skeletron is his name), you can access it.

The Dungeon is huge and filled with monsters. At the start, you will find some biome colored chests that can’t be opened yet, some regular, and some Golden ones that require a Golden Key to open.

The loot in the dungeon is invaluable, and I highly recommend exploring it.

At this point in the game you will want to beat every boss (besides the final one) and explore a huge portion of the map.

At some point, you will want to dig further down and reach the Underworld. There, you can find the most powerful (so far) material and start preparations for the final boss.

The Wall of Flesh is the final and hardest boss. Once you beat it… Congratulations!!! You just finished 50% of the game.

Beating the Wall of Flesh unlocks the Hardmode. In Hardmode, everything becomes harder, new tough enemies spawn, more difficult and annoying bosses and events become available, a new biome called the Hallow is introduced (that is harder than both the Corruption and Crimson) and it also spread, and generally, it’s like a huge start over.

Did I mention that the Corruption/Crimson and Hallow spread, corrupting more and more of your world?

There are lots of preparations needed before you unlock, so again, I suggest a guide.

In Hardmode, you are free to do anything. However, using a guide (again) will lead you to the actual final boss of the game.

Once you finish that, you can actually do whatever, from building the best base ever to PvP.

One fun thing about Terraria is the fact that there classes.

Especially in Hardmode, your armor gives you better bonuses to specific usage of weapons.

The classes are 4 (+1 pre-Hardmode):

  • Melee: Just as it sounds, melee uses short-ranged weapons that are very powerful. He also has the best defenses.
  • Ranged: Playing with bows and guns, Ranged has the best DPS output. Get caught and you die.
  • Mage: User of magic weapons, Mages have great DPS and lots of buffs like Lifesteal.
  • Summoner: Relying on his summoned units, the summoner uses some other weapons to help him fight, but generally, tries to avoid combat and let his minions do the work.
  • Thrower: The +1, Thrower relies on limited Thrown weapons. Viable on pre-Hardmode.

Before you fight the final boss, you will go through an event in which most of the world will be split in to 4 different “factions” with 4 celestial Pillars respectively.

Each pillar will correspond to 1 of the 4 classes I mentioned, and you should beat them all, although you should beat the 1 that corresponds to your class first.

As you can see, Terraria has lots to do, and trust me, you can play 100 hours and still not have reached the final boss, even with a guide.

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Visuals

The graphics will probably not impress you as Terraria is pixel art.

However, Terraria has tremendous player customization through numerous dyes and vanity items.

You can even equip a piece of armor you really like (but doesn’t go well with your class) in the social spot which means that it is visible, but you still get the effects of the armor you have actually equipped.

Personal Thoughts

Terraria is a great game.

The amount of stuff to do with or without following the optimal route is staggering.

I definitely recommend this game as its price is far from deterrent. Any fan of sandbox games will enjoy this game.

the game even offers a 4-pack which is awesome as its even better when you play with friends.

Final Verdict

Storyline: –

Gameplay: 9.0

Visuals: 6.0

General Rating: 7.5

That’s it for my review? Have you played Terraria? Do you enjoy it? What’s your favorite class? Leave a comment down below.

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Legends of Runeterra: Is It Worth It

Legends of Runeterra: Is It Worth It

Legends of Runeterra (LoR) is Riot’s newest CCG.

While we already have a review of the game, we haven’t talked about how much it’s worth as a CCG.

If you want to check out the review and learn how the game is played, check here.

CCGs have various problems which discourage more casual (or free) gamers to play.

The problems are actually amplified in online CCGs.

So, we will tackle those problems now, one by one, and talk about LoR’s place in these problems in general.

P2W

Arguably, one of the biggest problems on online CCGs (and gaming in general) is progression “soft-locked” behind a paywall.

In other words, many CCGs allow players to gain cards and resources for free, but heavily encourage paying to gain more cards. Clash Royale is the best example of this.

LoR takes a place away from all that. 

As of the time of this article, Riot announced some changes within the progression system, and the main gist of it that they allow for payers to complete their collection overnight, which was not possible before.

This does seem like a step in the wrong direction, but truth be told, it’s very easy to gain a full collection in the time that Riot intends to release new content through expansions.

The cadence will probably be around 3-4 months for each expansion, and I don’t think you need more than that to have at least 85% of the collection.

Even if you’re really casual and play only for the daily quests, having 50% of the collection is totally possible.

Think of it like any other competitive game that requires you to play a certain amount of games or reach a specific level milestone before you play competitively.

Of course, you can play competitively as soon as you have your first deck.

All in all, LoR is definitely far from being P2W, both due to the above and because of something we will address in the next section.

Balance

Closely tied with the above, many CCGs are really imbalanced, with a few cards taking the spotlight and creating a stale meta of 3-4 decks.

Even nerfing these stronger cards, others take the spotlight.

I’m not going to say LoR has perfect balance (there is no such thing after all).

But at least you can build many different decks that are viable.

I recently saw some stats about decks used in really high elo (Diamond Tier for those who know), and players there (who mostly play seriously) played lots of different decks.

There were more than 10 different decks used that were about the same level of power!

Riot has 2 goals that they try to pull in regards to balancing LoR.

The first is that every card in the game has a place in some deck where it performs well, even if it is a niche deck.

The second is that every Champion can realize their dream and have at least 1 deck where they’re viable and strong.

Balance should be no issue, and you will certainly find a deck you like and is viable, even if it’s not meta.

Besides, there is always Riot’s 2 week balancing system, so any real outliers will be nerfed.

This whole balance section also brings us to the next issue at hand:

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Powercreep

The scariest word in every CCG, solved by rotating card availability.

LoR doesn’t intend of doing so, nor does Riot want to create a banlist.

I’ll be honest; we don’t know if LoR’s gonna fall victim powercreep, as Riot hasn’t introduced any new content.

Based on their aforementioned goals, it seems impossible to create any serious issue (in regards to powercreep) as for every champion to be able to realize their dream and be viable, old champions have to be just as viable as the new ones.

I will update this section when their new Bilgewater update hits live and share my two cents.

Staleness

CCGs become stale after a while, mostly due to the genre’s playstyle in general.

That is a serious risk, and it will all depend on you as a player, but a card game that has a huge variety in meta certainly helps against it.

Let me put it this way: in League, you must have a favorite champion, and a bunch of other champions you really like.

I myself like dozens of champions (besides my all-time favorite).

Imagine trying to build a deck for every single one, or even combine some of them!

The choices are endless.

The gameplay also helps as it isn’t the traditional “my turn your turn” CCGs have, rather, each player alternates between attacking and defending, but both players can summon and play spells at all times.

RNG

RNG is an issue in all forms of gaming, bite more so in CCGs. Only few genres have more RNG than CCGs.

You just have to accept that there’s always going to be RNG, but I have to say, while I have played many other CCGs (both digital and physical), my defeats in LoR almost always feel like my fault, like I could’ve done more to win, and not a result of RNG.

You can check all my thoughts about RNG here.

Final Thoughts

LoR is certainly fun, that is for sure.

What I can say for sure as well is that Riot really tries to tackle a lot of the issues that other CCGs have, and is doing so quite well.

If you are a fan of League’s lore, this game will be a fun addition to your list of games.

If you aren’t, and/or are a fan of CCGs, then this is definitely worth a shot.

If you want to get into the world of CCGs and are new/casual, then this game is perfect as you can actually have a good collection without paying, and without needing to grind for endless hours.

Do you agree with my thoughts? Do you have anything to add? If so, just leave a comment down below.

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Pokemon Masters Review

Pokemon Masters Review

Pokemon Masters was welcomed with huge hype after its initial announcement, and rightfully so; who doesn’t want to interact with literally every gym leader and elite four from every Pokemon main series game?

Not only that, many protagonists, rivals and champions are part of the game, with more to come. But, does the gameplay justify the hype, or is DeNa just using nostalgia and fanservice to gain their downloads?

This review, being of a mobile game, will instead have a general, gameplay and personal thoughts section. Without further ado:

General

Developed and released from DeNa, in collaboration with the Pokemon Company, Pokemon Masters is a fast paced, 3 on 3 game.

Due to its gameplay, as well as its storyline, I have to say, this game resembles the main series Pokemon games more so than any other Pokemon game on mobile.

For the gameplay, more on the gameplay section. As for the storyline; you are a Pokemon Trainer that arrives on the artificial island of Pasio. Trainers from around the world have gathered to participate in an event called the Pokemon Masters League (abbr. PML).

Two young Gym Leaders from Kanto, Brock and Misty, get to know you and see potential in you. So they decide to partner with you.

The rest of the story is you and your team traveling around Pasio in order to recruit more members and take on the 5 PML Leaders who hold the 5 badges you need in order to compete in the PML.

Like any other Pokemon game, you have your own dedicated rival, and a regional bad guy team called Team Break. There is also a “regional” professor, whose main field of interest is sync moves (more on that later).

The story hasn’t finished yet, and many updates come with new chapters.

As mentioned, the game is filled with characters from past games, and every one has a voice actor, which is another cool touch.

Pokemon Masters Review
ALL THE CHARACTERS!!!

So, all this makes it look very much alike to an actual Pokemon game. So where are the differences? In the gameplay of course.

Gameplay

Unlike the main series Pokemon games, every character only has 1 Pokemon. The pair of Trainer / Pokemon is called a Sync Pair. Every character has their own unique Sync Pair which usually is 1 of their signature Pokemon. The protagonist’s Sync Pokemon is Pikachu (duh!).

Before any given battle, you must choose the 3 Sync Pairs that you will take to battle with you. Every Sync Pair has a Type and Role.

Type determines the Type of your moves. Every Pokemon only has one weakness so the game can be more balanced. The Pokemon weaknesses are based on their actual in-game weaknesses.

Role determines your role in the fight. There are the Attack Sync Pairs, which focus on inflicting damage, the Support Sync Pairs, which rely on defending and supporting through healing and raising the whole team’s stats and finally, the Tech Sync Pairs, which mostly inflict conditions. Weather changing pairs are always Tech as well.

So, after you choose your Sync Pairs, you go into the battle. The 3 on 3 battle system is not the traditional turn based combat, instead, you are given an energy bar, which slowly replenishes over time (depending on your Pokemon’s Speed stat). Every battle move has a specific energy cost.

Every Sync Pairs have 2 battle moves and 2 “supporting” moves called Trainer moves, which raise stats for the Pokemon or the whole team. Sometimes they might heal or cure status conditions, or even replenish the energy bar. The “supporting” moves don’t use energy, but count towards the Sync Move counter.

Every Sync Pair has at least 1 Passive Skill that applies for the whole combat duration. Of course, not everything is unlocked from the start; every Sync Pair only begins with 1 attacking move and 1 “supporting” move.

Every Sync Pair can also have a Lucky Skill. Lucky Skills usually either strengthen moves, or reduce/negate stat reductions.

Lucky Skills are unlocked with rewards obtained from the Battle Villa.

You have to spend various items you find in the story, or missions in order to unlock regular moves and abilities.

Every chapter in the story unlocks a new Sync Pair, but you can unlock additional ones by spending gems; the in-game currency. When scouting for Sync Pairs, and already obtained one can appear, which will give you points toward upgrading their Sync Move.

And at long last, the Sync Moves. After a specific number of actions, one of your Sync Pairs can use their very own Sync Move. Lore-wise, Sync Moves signify the bond between Trainer and Pokemon (that’s why most have really fun names that fit each character’s personality).

Battle-wise, they are very powerful moves. The Sync Move also may Mega-Evolve the Pokémon depending on the pair.

Ever since the release of Leaf & Eevee, Sync Moves may also buff the whole team instead of dealing damage.

Every Sync Pair also has its Potential (signified by their stars) and their Level. The Potential basically dictates the maximum level you can reach, while the level is very similar to the main series games’ leveling system.

Each level gives you a raise in stats. Every Sync Pair has a starting level cap, but you can increase that. You can also increase each pair’s potential.

The stats are identical to the main series stats; HP is your hitpoints, Attack for the physical moves, Special Attack for the special moves, Defense for defending the physical moves, Special Defense for defending the special moves and Speed, which is the only one that differs and as mentioned, fills up your in-battle energy gauge.

Some Sync Pairs can evolve their Pokemon after a certain level. To do that, you just do a special story mission. There are also general story missions (called “A Day With … “) that you unlock for every Sync Pair by just recruiting them, which adds to the lore part for all geeks out there.

And to satisfy the weeaboos out there, there is Japanese voice acting without changing the in-game language.

There is also the co-op mode, unlocked after enough progress in the story. You play with 2 other players and their own Sync Pairs and cooperate with them in various battles and events.

Do note that co-op is much harder than single player, and sometimes requires specific niche pairs to play optimally.

Fortunately or unfortunately, there is no PvP, nor is it planned (of course, this may get changed in the future but don’t count on it). Pokemon Masters is designed as a cooperative Pokemon battle game, and PvP could ruin that.

Then again, I wouldn’t complain if there was PvP, since the game is running the risk of becoming stale. But that’s not for me to decide.

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Personal Thoughts

A Pokemon game with every famous trainer, that you get to choose your favorite and go fight battles? Sign me up!!!

In all seriousness, the game has tons of positives and very few negatives (which I will mention). But it still is a mobile game so maybe the expectations were a bit high. Nevertheless, if you are a Pokemon, then you will enjoy the game.

The best thing is DeNa (her?)self. DeNa makes a huge effort to adhere to its community, always listening for feedback and implementing based on player requests.

It’s very nice to be part of a game that you know that your opinion matters.

There is something though that I believe could lift the game to new heights.

It’s the PvP.

I get their reasoning, I really do, but no one would be forced to play PvP and lose that “cooperative feeling and making friends”, but the more competitive players would be satisfied.

There doesn’t even have to be a reward system, just some form of ranking.

The game started really rocky, but thanks to player feedback and DeNa’s hard efforts, the game’s at its peak and going higher.

I definitely recommend it.

General Rating: 9.0

Have you played Pokemon Masters? Do you like it so far? If you’d like, you can leave me your trainer ID down in the comments so we can become in-game friends. Let me know below.

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Trading Card Games – Should you Play?

Trading Card Games - Should you Play?

Just to be clear, I’m talking about tabletop TCGs, not digital.

TCGs are the most popular tabletop getaway for gamers and casual players alike. Be it from casually playing among friends to huge international tournaments, TCGs are an integral part of the gaming world.

But are they worth getting into? Should you play any TCG, whether casually or competitively? Let’s start with:

The Basics

TCG stands for Trading Card Game, which means that TCGs are practically that; a card game.

Usually, the company that releases new cards will release them in the form of Booster Packs, which contain a number of cards.

Usual gimmicks include different rarities among cards, different playstyles and deck archetypes and some preset rules like number of cards in a deck or maximum number of the same cards in any deck.

If there are different rarities, then Booster Packs will probably feature a chance to get some of the limited copies of the rarest card(s) of the set.

Usually, there are more expensive and quite larger packs that aim at helping newer players build a deck. These usually contain a preset basic deck of some specific playstyle or archetype.

These packs have some great individual cards that can also help older players. Though usually, these packs tend to be very weak on their own and serve as an introductory deck for new players.

There can be event packs as well, on anniversaries, or if a new season of the game’s anime version is released, among other things.

Your goal is to build a deck that is viable enough to stand in the current meta and its rules.

Most TCGs have many ways of winning a game, but the classics are reducing your opponent’s HP (life, health call it whatever) to 0 and your opponent is unable to draw cards.

The most popular TCGs are Yu-Gi-Oh, Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon TCG.

The Market

Since we’re talking about physical products, it’s rather obvious that each and every card will have its own value. Rarer or more limited cards tend to be the more expensive cards on every new set.

Older cards, or cards unable to be used at all but have some form of error in their text, or alternate art, or even is just plain old are worth way more.

Finally, card strength in the current meta is usually a criterion to price but is the least priority.

The prices always fluctuate depending on the players, the meta and new releases.

That’s the first problem with TCGs. Since some cards are bound to be much more expensive than others, that means that at some point, players who can afford to pay more are going to have an advantage.

As with most markets, if you are experienced (or wealthy) enough, you can collect cards, and when (if) their price skyrockets due to anything like new releases, new balance changes, etc, you can sell for a profit.

But we’re not here to talk about how to make money from TCGs, it’s pretty pointless anyway, the point is to lose money and have fun (like gambling which I do not endorse).

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Balancing

TCGs must be balanced by their respective companies.

Else, you have an optimal strategy that anyone who can afford it will play and win.

I mean, of course, there are going to be optimal strategies and decks, but at the very least, they should be beatable by some other powerful decks.

The meta should have about 2-4 dominant decks, as well as up to 5 strong decks that can compete with the dominant ones.

Among the strong and dominant decks, usually, you will be able to build a plethora of non-meta decks for fun.

There are 2 main ways that TCGs are balanced, and both have their problems.

The first is by a banlist. A banlist is a list that dictates which cards can be played and how many times.

This way, if something is too strong, you just ban it or reduce it at least. Of course, this can always be used to make players force buy new cards by banning the meta but who am I to point it out?

The second way to regulate things is by creating formats. Essentially, this means that most new cards can be used and old cards become obsolete. This also means that most official tournaments will be held using this format.

Of course, when playing casually, the players make the rules.

The 2 above regulations have both positives and negatives.

The banlist has the positive of ensuring that players can keep their decks as long as they stay relevant, and since you only ban outliers, you ensure that the only way to shake up the meta is by introducing new archetypes and decks that are interesting.

The negative is split into 2 parts.

The first is that if a company gets too greedy, they’re gonna release intentionally OP generic cards for everyone, and, due to its power and age, it will become very expensive.

Thus, most players who play competitively will be “forced” to buy them. And since the banlist exists, and this is an obvious outlier, it will get banned, and the next big thing will be introduced.

The second is known to everyone; powercreep.

Now don’t get me wrong, powercreep can be a problem without a banlist.

In fact, many games, TCG or not, suffer from powercreep.

Before I get into this further, I will explain powercreep.

Essentially, powercreep means that with newer releases, old cards become literally obsolete.

When someone talks about powercreep, they mean that a company is intentionally creating stronger and stronger strategies (and in this case cards), in order to “force” players to buy the newer cards.

A banlist can further help with powercreeping, as the company can just release anything they want and correct it afterward with the banlist.

Now about the format system.

The positives and negatives should be obvious. The positive is simply the fact that every tournament will be different than the last, with new decks and strategies to go around.

The negative is of course the fact that you’re gonna have to keep paying to be relevant in any officially supported format.

Epilogue – Pro Play

Most gamers have probably dreamt of going pro one day. Has anyone wondered why it’s so hard to do it?

There are 2 main reasons here. The first is a pro’s ability to be emotionally detached. This means that he won’t favor 1 strategy (or deck) over another due to personal preference in type, art, concept, etc.

He is able to ruthlessly choose the most optimal strategy and execute.

The second is their mentality.

Any gamer thinks that becoming pro is “so awesome and cool ’cause you get to play games all day!”

It’s not.

Being pro means (like any other job) spending hours over improving yourself and/or your strategies.

With these in mind is it worth pursuing a professional career in TCG?

I don’t think so.

A pro in any digital game only has to practice, practice, practice.

In TCGs, pros will have to always spend some of their money on newer cards and releases. Not only that but with the way TCGs are structured, you can literally be the best, only to lose to something you weren’t supposed to just because of a bad draw (simply put, RNG).

In the end, I don’t think that becoming pro in TCGs is that much something anyone should aspire unless they have tremendous talent, but even then, RNG still looms over the horizon.

Epilogue – Casuals

Now to the casuals.

I guess if you enjoy the respective product and any animated shows or games they produce (simply put, if you are a fan), there’s no harm in playing TCGs.

If anything, they offer something fun to do with (hopefully like-minded) friends.

But know this; if you are to become a TCG player, you will lose money.

And it’s not optional.

Do you play TCGs? Which is your favorite? What don’t you like about your favorite TCG? Leave a comment below.

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