Magic the Gathering : Battlegrounds

       Demo from www.pcgameworld.com and other sites

                      Reviewed by Sue

The latest game from the Magic the Gathering stable is an action
based game. I enjoyed the card game a lot, casting spells at
creatures to beat them and make progress. In this game you
actually see your spells hitting your opponents and your character
has a physical presence on the screen.

The tutorial is divided into several sections making up Chapter 1:
Enter The Duellist. The screen is divided into two halves. On the
left is you, on the right your opponent. You cast spells to bridge
the gap and strike him (or her). The spells can be pure magic, a
creature that you summon to attack him on your behalf, or a spell
that augments a creature or acts against another enchantment.

I started in Green magic - there are five colours. As the sections
progress, you learn how to collect mana, attack creatures with
spells and defend yourself. As you develop skills, you gain your
first creature spell, Goblin Hero 2/2. Having successfully used
goblin heroes to destroy your opponent, you are rewarded with your
first sorcery spell, Engulfing Flames. Then you gain an
enchantment, fervour, that speeds up your creatures.

Creatures respawn if your opponent destroys them, unless he uses
sorcery, in which case that's the end of them. The same goes for
your creatures, of course. You can have five in the arena at any 
one time.

Your spellbook can hold up to 10 spells so you will have to manage
it to get the best effects and also make it easy to get to and
cast your favourite spells.

As well as the tutorial, there are other duels. There's an Arcade
Duel where you fight each possible opponent in turn. There's
Practice Duel and VS Duel where you select your opponent and
spellbook. Not all options are available in the demo, for example
you can't change and edit spellbooks.

Moans? In a one-player game, it is controlled by the keyboard
which took some getting used to, especially as movement used the
A, S, W and D keys rather than the arrow keys. In a two-player
game, the second player uses the arrow keys. Spells are cast using
J, K, and L (sorceries, creatures and enchantments) using U and O
to move within each category. It's probably just me but I found it
a lot to keep track of. Some mouse control, maybe for movement,
would have appealed more to me. But I enjoyed the Arcade Duel
section.

The full game has a stack of single player quests, over 70
different spells, nine battling wizards and 16 arenas, all based
on the MtG universe.  The demo gives a representative sample and
allows about three hours playing time. It was enough for me to
enjoy myself but not to want to buy it. I prefer the card version.


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