Magic: The Gathering - Battlegrounds

"It couldn't get much worse..."

Magic Battlegrounds is a ghastly, pathetic, deficient game whose flaws drown out its merits like a herd of elephants drown out a whisper. You should most definitely avoid this game, unless you enjoy Magic: The Gathering so much that your bedroom is coated with original card artwork and you wake up each morning underneath your Shivan Dragon bedsheets in your Serra Angel pajamas and your Ernham Djinn cap.

I'll begin with the graphics and sound. You have a choice of about 30 arenas that have no actual effect on gameplay, each of which has a different musical theme. The arenas look nice enough, but the music can be pretty repetitious. The creatures and spells all look normal enough.

Now, we come to the gameplay. This has to be one of the worst games I have ever played. You play as one of a bunch of characters who are all bland and who also have no effect on gameplay. How does the game work? It sounds good on paper. 70 whole cards from the Magic universe, turned into usable spells in the game. Then you realize: "That's only 14 cards from each color!" Indeed, it is only a pittance of the great sea of Magic cards out there, a teaspoon taken from an everlasting ocean. The gameplay also has gaping flaws. It turns into, "Make Creatures As Fast As Your Trigger Finger Can Battlegrounds." You just make wave after wave of creatures, of which you have maybe 7 per color, and cast wave after wave of spells.

In addition to the extremely, atrociously, horrifically limited set of cards, there are some major balance issues. For example, say you're playing red against green. You will notice very quickly that your respective two-mana creatures are not equivalent. Green has a 2/3 for 2, while you have a 2/2 for 2. So, green is ridiculously overpowered, with its bargain bin 2/3 and its giant, powerful creatures.

How about modes besides multiplayer? Guess what? They're devoid of any enjoyment whatsoever! You have a ladder mode where you play and beat 6 opponents in a row to get the next identical deck in the color you played as with 1 or 2 cards added. The "campaign," used lightly in this sense because it doesn't have a "story," is not fun at all. You unlock cards 1 at a time for custom deck-building. For instance, you will play the first mission, and you will be able to use 1 card TOTAL. Then, 1 by 1, you unlock cards in the first color, red, by playing battles against annoying AI. Then, you unlock the last red card. You sigh with relief. "Now, maybe I can make a custom deck using the best red cards to destroy my opponents with my new complex red strategies!" No, you can't. You're now in the green campaign. I hope you enjoy your 1 starting green card! "Noooo!"

In conclusion, avoid this game so the company won't make an even worse sequel!

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 10/31/05