Extreme fun. The Far Wilds is probably close to the order of crack on the addiction scale. Alc, linked us to this on Subcreation about a week back and I started playing (thanks to Valoren for the motivation) about a week ago. I just have to say that I am completely impressed with this game.
If you have ever played an TCG such as Magic the Gathering (awesome), Pokemon (not as awesome), or Yu-Gi-Oh (why not cut yourself?) then you will already feel on fairly comfortable turf before stepping into the fray. The game essentially plays as a mix of RTS and TCG. The objective is fairly simple. control flux points, which nets you glory points at the end of your turn provided that you control more flux points than your opponent. The first to reach the glory cap wins the game.
How it is a TCG:
You build decks. decks contain various cobminations of creatures, buildings, enchantments and spells. Four major card types help provide the diversity. Similar to the way you have color themed decks in Magic the Gathering. You can mix and match color sources as well to make cool combos. The four factions are: Slyvan, healy range types mostly, the Mountain Fold, lots of defensive abilities, the Dark Legion, a largely offensive batch of cards, and Elemental mostly control cards.
How it is a RTS:
The game takes place on a map as I mentioned above (no I am not an idiot I just thought it was worth mentioning twice :p). The map has five flux points positioned in the same place every time you play. However the terrain of the map changes randomly every time you play a new game. Terrain can come in various forms, such as deserts, mountains forests, and so on, and can actually be helpful or harmful to you while playing. For example most creatures exhibit reduced movement while traverse a mountain or forest. The strategy comes into play not only in the order in which you play your cards now, but where you place your buildings and units.
The game itself:
There are a few pros and cons to the game as with any game. It is up to the player to determine how they weigh for each. I will start with my cons since bad news is always best to be heard first.
The game client sucks. No offense developers but it really is buggy a lot of the time. Fortunately there is a second client, and for anyone who happens to get extremely addicted to the game all you need is a modern web browser and flash player installed. The browser based version of the game runs extremely well on all platforms. I tested it out on Ubuntu + FF and there was zero difference in game play. Another downside to the game is that if you are attempting to play the game for free (it is entirely possible to do so by the way) then you may end up burning yourself out on the game before you can do anything. Gold is primarily earned through placing on the ladder and winning tournaments. Sadly if you start free that means you start with the basic decks available to all players and they suck. Right now this is part of the experience I am going through. I am currently trying to either justify dumping $20US into gold purchases or maybe giving up entirely.
The good news. As I mentioned before the game is free to play for those with patience. There is also the added bonus that you get phantom cards (they have a 20 day timer on them) for use in ladder play and challenges only. The browser client does make it possible to play the game from pretty much anywhere. It would be pretty cool to see it played on. Also the community is fairly small. You can actually interact directly with the developers in game and you can quickly get to learn who the fan base is. Last but not least the game does seem to be fairly balanced. Granted if you don’t have any cards it sure makes it hard to play well in a game, but once you get a few phantoms you will be surprised at how much more fun the game becomes.
All in all I have had a lot of fun with the last week I have been playing. Its a nice challenge and a new presentation for two old but great game styles. I highly recommend anyone who is a fan of either TCG or strategy games play this a bit.
