As someone who spent all too much money on booster packs and base decks in their youth, I can inherently appreciate Might & Magic: Duel of Champions. The newest entry in the long-running series merges the expansive world of card collectible games (CCG) with a free to play system, which is a perfect combination. CCGs, in their physical form, were all about micro-transactions in the form of extra cards. Ubisoft has had experience with this in the past with Assassin’s Creed: Recollection, an iOS game centered in their most popular series. This time around, they’ve expanded to the PC with Duel of Champions, and we had the opportunity to take the game for an early spin.
Right off the bat, the game gives you one deck for free. After that, you’ll have to accrue currency by playing the game, either online or off. Like most free to play games, there are two types of currency of varying rarity (Seals and Golds), and you can use both to buy full decks or booster decks. In an odd decision, you can’t mix and match cards from preset decks. This means that you can’t use cards from a pre-existing deck to make a custom one, you’ll have to use cards from booster packs entirely. It’s not a huge setback by any means, but you’ll be more torn when deciding what to buy.
But even with all the cards out there, the most important part of the game is the battling, which is both inviting to newcomers while remaining deep enough to keep veterans coming back. Like most card games, your goal is to chip away at your opponent’s health until they reach zero. Cards take the form of monsters, enchantments, and spells for the most part. While the type of cards you play are critical, you also have to take into account how you position your cards. Each player has their own “field” to lay down their cards, with melee fighters going in the front, ranged shooters going in the back, and flying units going anywhere that’s open. Unless there are abilities which dictate otherwise, units attack horizontally towards the enemy, and if there’s nothing in the way, they will deal direct damage to your rival.
Choosing a faction that matches your playstyle is important, as this will dictate how your battles will play out. I chose the “Inferno”, which focuses on heavy offense and high damage troops. Those who enjoy a good defense can side with the Haven, while Necropolis relies on attrition gameplay, with constant creature resurrection and poison. It’s nothing that hasn’t been seen in card games before, but the balancing between all the factions works well enough, regardless if you’ve been playing the game for two hours or twenty.
While there is a short singleplayer that will get you accustomed to the basics of battle, most of the game revolves around online multiplayer. While I initially had some trouble with Ubisoft’s Uplay system, after a while I was joining matches with no problem. I had more fun with the simple one-on-one matches, and although daily tournaments are always available, they don’t use a knockout or league structure, instead relying on rewarding gold based off a sliding scale.
Despite my lack of experience with the genre as a whole, I was impressed by Might and Magic: Duel of Champions. Its gameplay provides enough depth for those who are looking for it, without shying away newcomers who want to get their feet wet. And unlike so many other games in the genre, the free to play system isn’t overbearing, never requiring you to pay to play, win, or simply advance.
