Blizzard’s Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft has been released for Android and iOS.
In an attempt to make me late all the time, and to stop me focusing in important meetings, Blizzard has released Hearthstone for smartphones – curses!
I’m not mad, it’s an incredible fun an addictive game, something that we definitely needed for our smartphones – I didn’t get into all that Candy Crush Saga games, or Subway Surfer, they really felt too casual for me.
The interface has been redesigned to fit smaller screens, and the content is pretty much the same – only your time will be wasted trying to put in a few more games before starting work, or during it.
If you’re not familiar with Hearthstone, let me tell you the essentials.
What is Hearthstone? It’s a digital collectible card game, or for short CCG, and it’s also free to play. Although it offers unlimited paid content, and limited free content – but don’t let that throw you off, even if you don’t pay for additional content you’ll still have tons of fun playing it.
It was released in March 2014, and it was received with open arms and overwhelmingly positive reviews. It’s easy to get into, and the tutorial explain every single thing you need to do in the game – of course, advanced tactics are to be practised over and over again. Superb card animations, great voice-overs, and well paced unlockables keep Blizzard’s motto true ” just one more game…“.
I’ve been playing since release day, and I think I have more than 50,000 games in my backpack. After all this time playing I can say that I’m not bored at all. I still find crazy card combos to win the game, and I still get my hiney kicked on occasion. I also have an arch nemesis that goes by the name KragKiller003 – one day, one day you will feel my wrath!
There are 9 classes from which you can choose from, and every class has a designated hero:
- Druid – Malfurion Stormrage
- Hunter – Rexxar
- Paladin – Uther Lightbringer
- Mage – Jaina Proudmoore
- Priest – Anduin Wrynn
- Rogue – Valeera Sanguinar
- Shaman – Thrall
- Warlock – Gul’dan
- Warrior – Garrosh Hellscream
Almost all the classes from World of Warcraft, except Monk and Death Knight – we will probably see them in the near future.
Every class has specific abilities, unique hero powers, and class-specific cards – which include equipments, minions, and spells.
For example I can play the mighty Druid Malfurion Stormrage and use Shapeshift to give myself +1 Attack on my current turn, and +1 Armour. Then if I have enough mana crystals I can choose to play an additional card – maybe Swipe that deals 4 damage to an enemy and 1 damage to all other enemies, or probably I’ll play the Ancient of War card that lets me choose between inflicting 5 damage, or pumping up my health to +5 and giving the card Taunt. Taunt forces my enemy to attack that specific card until it’s no longer on the table.
But wait a second there. What are mana crystals? Think of mana crystals as food. You start the game with 0, and each turn you get another one until you hit the limit of 10. You use food, mana crystals, to put down cards, use equipment or spells. There are also some specific cards that give you mana crystals, but never above the limit.
I know it seems complex if you read about it, but download the app, it’s free, and start playing it. You’ll learn how to destroy your foes in no-time.
Will we meet on the battleground?
