Recent reviews by Jenubis

So, you're thinking about buying Artifact? Have you:

-Wondered if you would enjoy the mechanics?
-Read some other reviews about in-game pricing and are concerned?
-Thought about whether this game is "for you"?

Well, this review should answer all three of those questions for you. It will appear lengthy (and will likely be a little lengthy) but I assure you that you this review will tell you all you need to know. I will section it off so that it is easier to scroll through.

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Mechanics
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I won't go too deep into the mechanics as there are plenty of videos and reviews online that go into extreme depth, but I will go into the smaller details that I happen to find quite enjoyable.

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-This is a MOBA in Card Game Form
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For those who are strictly CCG/TCG players and are not familiar with a MOBA, look up some gameplay of DOTA 2 as that is the game this is based off of.

For the rest of those reading this, I'll assume you have knowledge of both genres. The three different playing fields share the same hand resources but have separate Mana pools. This often leads to each player getting an advantage in one of the lanes, and they end up fighting over the last one. This unique design alone creates the tension of a "Snowball". We've all been in those games where one lane is super strong, but the other two are not. How you use that advantage is up to you, because...

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-There are TWO Win Conditions
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In order to win, you must destroy the "First Tower" in two of the three lanes, or you must destroy the "Ancient" that spawns after you take down the first tower. The Towers have 40 health each, and the Ancient has 80 health. While two separate towers might seem faster, there may be a time where your only advantage is in one lane, so you might want to try and hold off the other two losing lanes long enough to win in the other one. Needless to say, it gets complicated.

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-Initiative is Amazing
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I've read in one of the reviews that this system resembles "Gwent". (I've never played that one) Essentially, a player starts the turn with initiative and they are allowed to perform an action before the initiative is shifted over to their opponent. Obviously there can be a lot of psychology with this. There are cards that allow you to "steal" your opponents initiative as well; you can play two cards in a row or immediately pass the turn and maintain initiative going into the next lane. Sounds broken? Don't worry, it isn't as game breaking as you might think, but it is definitely a solid strategical mechanic.

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Pay To Win?
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Now, this is the part of the review that everyone is probably here to read: What are my thoughts on the in-game pricing model? Before I answer, I need to ensure that you understand the reality of a person who plays Competitive Card Games. "Pay to Win" is used slightly different in this genre, as it generally means that this is a person willing to spend money (regardless of the amount) to purchase the top tier, meta-relevant cards.

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-Have you played Hearthstone?
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It's easy to look at the Hearthstone Model and say "I can technically get everything free, this sucks!" However, is it really free? How many max rarities have you received from the free-to-play quests in a month? How many times do you just grind the cards into dust because you have maxed out the limit? How much money have you spent on expansions for 3-4 decent cards? Can you remember how frustrating it was to never have received Dr. Boom out of a card pack, only to spend money on card packs to get the extra dust for one copy? Remember when they locked it out of competitive play? Truly, Hearthstone is ultimately a pay-to-win game as there is simply not enough time given to players to farm for the cards they want before they are locked behind a legacy-gate.

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-Yu-Gi-Oh/MTG
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To put this in perspective, you can head over to tcgplayer.com and do some searching for MTG/Yu-Gi-Oh cards. Avoiding the ones that are strictly collectible and have no relevance to the meta, you will find that cards can be as expensive as $80-$200 a piece. Keep in mind, in order to be truly competitive, a lot of these decks needed multiple copies of those cards. When I played Yu-Gi-Oh, it wasn't uncommon to drop $500 on a competitive deck, and MTG has decks that consistently reach $1500-$2000 easy. These games, while immensely popular, feature a pay-to-win structure. Booster packs are not truly as random but are intentionally prearranged to guarantee a certain number of each rarity per Box. (The container that the booster packs are shipped in) The cost for such a gamble is usually at about the same price as that card is going for as a single, and there is still no guarantee that you will get it.

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-How Does Artifact Stack?
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So now that we have perspective; the most expensive card in Artifact at the time of this writing is Axe; who is fluctuating between $17-$18 USD. A solid 98% of the market contains cards that you can get three copies of for less than 15 cents total. With that being said, it is worth mentioning that this is like every other steam game that allows users to sell and trade on the market. These prices are apt to change based on balances and what the community considers to be strong/rare. In a worst case scenario, you will spend more money on a single meta-relevant core card for a competitive Yu-Gi-Oh or MTG deck than you will with the initial $20 and then proceeding to purchase max copies of every card in the marketplace. Keep in mind, if you have a little patience then you will most likely get a return on the money down the line. In the meantime, practice the game! You are given 5 keys to enter the Arena. If you win 3 games before losing 2, you get your key back and can try again. If you win 4 or 5 games, you get free booster packs (they contain 12 cards each) on top of that. This is the equivalent of running down to the local card store and playing a quick tournament on a weeknight. Taking all of this into consideration, the game has some Pay-To-Win Elements, but ultimately the best cards are well within reasonable reach and are not locked behind a $200 paywall per card.

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Is This For Me?
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This is ultimately going to depend on the kind of experience that you are looking for. Are you a filthy casual, or do you plan to climb the ladder?

There are elements for casual players. You can play against a (surprisingly) strong Bot, even giving it a deck that you created yourself and having it act out as a sparring partner when your friends are away. There is an unlimited mode where you can play against other humans in the Preconstructed mode, or in the Shadow Draft Mode. This means you are not locked out from enjoying the full experience just because you don't want to drop some money on the Keys needed to enter an arena with prizes.

With that said, this game was designed to be played as a Competitor. The complexity of the game as a whole offers a satisfaction that you simply cannot find from other CCGs at the moment. It is extremely satisfying to comeback from behind, or to completely dominate while ahead. There are some RNG elements, but even the "Cheating Death" card isn't as influential as you'd think it would be in the game. If you are looking for a way to challenge yourself to think critically and outside of the box, then you should pick up Artifact.

Let's start with, the DLC is priced extremely reasonable, especially considering how expensive real escape rooms are. Not to mention, if you fail the first time through, you can try again without having to drop more money.

The puzzles were challenging enough that I don't think anyone could solve them entirely on their own (Despite what some reviews might say, it isn't possible) - there were a few that were hard to do with 4 people in our party, and we all solve escape rooms as a hobby.

Now for the "meat" of this review:

-Pros
Puzzles are above-average difficulty

The lore/backstories have just enough detail to feel immersive

The worlds are extremely detailed and there is a nice balance between what is interactive and what is not (This means you can't just scale a room and find the answer because one random item can be interacted with but you don't have to sort through every little leaf on the ground for a clue)

Sound effects are really good and spooky, I thought that I was going to get jump-scared several times. (Thankfully none of that is in there)

The environmental clues (Not hints that help you find the answer) are not so obvious - some may consider that a bad thing, but this is key to a successful escape room experience


-Cons
The puzzles all revolve around the same concept - finding and entering a 4 digit code. In the escape rooms that we have went to in person, there are a number of things to solve such as directional locks, combination locks, and even locks that will penalize you for getting something wrong three times (to deter "brute force" techniques when 3/4 numbers are known); we have also encountered puzzles that require us to piece together an actual jigsaw puzzle after finding where the pieces are at and then we had to decipher the picture for a clue, which admittedly is a bit more advanced but would be nice to see some creativity and diversity

-Up to You
The puzzles are solved linearly; this means that solving one puzzle/lock leads you directly to the next one, then the next one, etc. This is usually good for smaller parties or for people who are inexperienced with escape rooms as it makes it easier to focus on one puzzle at a time. The drawback to this type of escape room layout is that, as a player or party, if you get tripped on a puzzle, you won't be moving forward anytime soon and can be pretty frustrating. There are escape rooms in real life that are designed to be more abstract, allowing participants to solve multiple puzzles at the same time, but these tend to be much, much harder as a whole as there is no indication on when an item is meant to be used to solve a puzzle.

The other thing that is "up to you" to decide is that there are certain items that are not even used once, despite appearing in a chest or cabinet that you just spent time to unlock. It doesn't seem to make sense that there are items specifically placed inside of these boxes that you would not use, especially in linear-style puzzle like this, but it doesn't really detract from the game itself.