Infinity Wars Reborn Review – A Unique Card Game Missing Some Key Ingredients

Infinity Wars Reborn Review 

Honesty is of the upmost importance, which is why I’m telling you that I’ve never been into cards games. Whether it was Pokemon trading cards back in my elementary school, or in-depth games like Magic: The Gathering, outside of Uno and Poker, I’ve only dabbled in the world of cards. But with the popularity in Magic: The Gathering’s digital games from 2011 on, to the all mighty Hearthstone, it’s no surprise that there’s been a surge of titles released in this genre as of late. Infinity Wars is neither as prolonged as Magic, nor as immediate as Hearthstone. Intelligently, Infinity Wars Reborn occupies its own unique branch of gameplay.

Rules are the same regardless if you’re playing online, practice, or the story campaign. You and the enemy begin with 100 Health and 100 Morale points, whomever reaches 0 in either resolve, loses. Your battlegrounds consists of support, defense, and offense zones, however, with a majority of cards, they need to be placed in the support zone before they can defend or attack. This means that if you want to place down your high damage card, you need to reveal its existence to the enemy, allowing them a full turn to defend themselves or prepare a counter attack.

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“These devastating cards are capable of changing the tide of a match.”

It’s a small but grand change that results in a more interesting gameplay experience. When playing against live opponents, the games as much a contest in the mind as it is in numbers. And if that’s not enough to keep you and the enemy on their toes, there’s the handful of cards that can be deployed in an instant. Snipers, artillery, magic spells, etc. These devastating cards are capable of changing the tide of a match.

Thankfully, in the rounds I played, the game properly accounts of their existence. Not only allowing just a single use for them, but also changing which player attacks first each turn, allowing someone to plan ahead for such an event. But in order to truly be prepared for everything that can be used against you in this game, it’s going to take many hours. The amount of cards and factions on offer is enormous and is evident of a rich world where every character brings something unique to the table.

To play the Sleepers requires an entirely different mindset than the tech heavy Genesis Industries, or warriors in Flame Dawn. While the story-mode may suffer heavily from being an elaborate tutorial, the ability to play a mission from each faction really demonstrates the depth of this games cards, and the variety of playstyles. It’s unfortunate that the game forces you to complete the Flame Dawn’s story-arch until the rest are unlocked though. The game could’ve easily just recommend them for new players instead of requiring their completion.

Speaking of which, the story-mode isn’t fully effective at telling one, nor instructing the player. While not blatantly intrusive, there’s too many occasions when the game only allows you to do exactly what it says, and will prevent any turns being taken until you listen. Occasionally missions open up with more flexibility and even optional dialogue between characters to be initiated, but the characters on display here lack relatability, and often come across as dry and unlikable.

Motion-comics and animations are of solid quality, but the voice-acting accompanying them often with little to no sound-design, leaves much to be desired. The focus of Infinity Wars is set on its strategy and gameplay, and while the campaign often bores due to its tedium, the online-play satisfies. There’s just one major fault, and it’s sadly something that has nothing to do with the gameplay itself, and that’s the population.

At this time of writing, I’ve only been able to play Multiplayer with friends, as it’s virtually impossible to find a proper match, even at optimal times of the day. The game’s intelligent option of allowing you to search only for those who are also starting out is left pointless, as you need a blessing from god just to find someone who may or may not kick your ass to Jupiter.

At the end of the day, Infinity Wars Reborn is a solid digital card game with copious amounts of depth in its decks and factions, but it’s campaign isn’t nearly interesting enough to keep you interested for long, and the multiplayer doesn’t have the population to sustain itself unless you’re really taken in by its mechanics, or have friends that will play with you on a regular basis.

***A PC code was provided by the publisher***