Card Hunter Beta: Exceeding All Expectations

I’ve been patiently refreshing my inbox since I heard that Blue Manchu was sending out a new bevy of beta invites for their tactical RPG Card Hunter. I wasn’t lucky enough to get one in the first wave, but much to my F5 button’s relief, Charles was. He knew exactly how frothy I was to get my hands on the game after playing it at PAX 2012, so he reluctantly handed over his beta key to allow me to write this piece.

Card Hunter already seemed like a polished and fun experience at PAX, but demos are a hard beast to judge. Whole teams can be whipped up to create an alluring and functional facade while all that lies behind is a mess of a game. Now that I’ve had the opportunity to spend a few hours with the beta, does Card Hunter deliver the fun experience it promised at PAX?

Fuck yes it does, and more.

Surprising Depth and Challenge

The elevator pitch from PAX: Card Hunter is a free to play browser-based tactical RPG where you pilot three heroes against teams of monsters in tactical fights. Each hero and monster has a deck of actions that are determined by their equipment. Moving around the battle field, armor blocking damage, swords swinging, and wands zapping are all governed by these cards. A fresh hand is drawn for each combatant at the beginning of each round.

All of these elements were in the demo at PAX, firing on all cylinders and hitting all of my nerd buttons simultaneously. What I didn’t expect when I loaded up the beta was how I had to get my head around it. I feel bad that I expected a more “casual” game due to the fact that it was run in a browser and had cartoony graphics. I quickly discovered that Card Hunter wouldn’t hesitate to hand me my own ass if I didn’t learn how to overcome its challenges.

The single player campaign missions and the deck building mechanics offer a huge amount of depth. Even though my characters still have levels in the single digits I’m making tough decisions and adjusting strategies constantly. The melee-heavy build that was rocking early missions left me completely high and dry in an adventure filled with imps that danced away. Fighting goblin shamans with spells left me cursing the armor that did little to block the incoming damage. Each campaign mission provides a challenge like this: something new to build around, a new suite of cards that force me to approach the tactical combat in a new way. Card Hunter remains fresh and somehow doesn’t feel like it randomly punishes you through bad draws. Blue Manchu has done the impossible and made this game feel supremely balanced.

Charming and Genuine

Card Hunter sticks to an evocative, simple presentation. All you ever see in the game is a faux-gaming table filled with RPG minis, dice, and Cheetos. The designers successfully used playing Advanced Dungeons & Dragons in a basement as a spring board to make a fun and unique feeling game.

But what wasn’t clear in the demo at PAX was the charm that seeps through the entire game. The narrator of the game is Gary, a well intentioned but green “Dungeon Master” running the Card Hunter game for you. Gary has a neckbearded older brother that believes in his little brother but is frustrated by his lack of attention to details. Even the pizza is delivered by Karen, the pizza girl that Gary can’t (yet) muster the courage to talk to. Narratives quickly arose where I only expected a card building skirmish game. Although Gary might wear a cape, the characters don’t devolve into stereotypes, and no one makes effortless jabs at generic nerd culture. The dialogue is brief, but genuine. The laughs are there without being cheap. And everything is still filtered through the nostalgic and loving lens of folks that played D&D “back in the day”.

I thought that the references to AD&D in Card Hunter were going to be mostly visual, a cribbed campy illustration style and screen-as-gaming-table gimmick. I underestimated how saturated the game would be with references. The player’s base is the Keep on the Hinterlands, the store that sells skins for your heroes is Cuthburt’s Costumes, even the first mission takes place in the village of Ommlet. While not at all necessary to enjoy this great game, noticing a call out to a module I remember is very fun and I know I must be only catching about one in every ten references.

Meets and Exceeds All Expectations

Card Hunter wowed me at PAX 2012. I never would have thought that I could be more pleased with Card Hunter until I spent some time with the beta. The game offers tactical combat and team building with an impressive level of complexity. The quality of the visual style I fell in love with at PAX is mirrored in the characterization, writing, and loving treatment of its D&D roots. I have yet to jump into the multiplayer mode of the game, but I did get to spectate a few other matches and it seems just as fun and functional as the single player campaign.

My suggestion? Sign up for the beta immediately. All of this and it’s going to be free to play, where actual dollars only give you extra loot (generated the same way as normal loot) and unlock new reward-rich adventures. Blue Manchu can’t get this game out fast enough!