Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers

Title: Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planeswalkers
Platform Played On: Xbox 360
Release Date: June 17, 2009
Date Played: January 2010
Time Played: 12 hours
Completed (Y/N): Yes
Score: 4/5


Opinion:
My first dabbling in the Magic The Gathering world happened during my college years. I picked up a black deck from the nearby comic book store and proceeded to be owned by the annoying "I counter everything you do" blue deck. After Ive had my share of victories, and after tinkering around with it for a few months I put my decks into a white box for permanent storage.

Fast forward to 2009, and Duels of the Planeswalkers hits XBLA. I debated over the course of about 6 months whether to get it or not, and around Xmas 2009 the game went on 33% off sale. At that point there were no excuses left and I pulled the trigger on the purchase.

The game features a campaign, co-op campaign and online multiplayer with up to 4 people total, where you can play on the same screen with your buddy against two other opponents.  Being a casual Magic player I didnt have many friends that played it, and I wouldnt go out of my way to find opponents, and playing Magic by yourself is pointless. So the fact that I can jump on and find a random opponent online in seconds is a huge drawing point of this game. You can bring any of the decks you have unlocked via the campaign mode into the multiplayer.

The campaign consists of battling AI opponents and unlocking new decks. As you defeat your opponents you unlock new cards to add to your deck. There are a wide variety of decks for all kind of play styles  from single to dual to tri-color decks.

Duels of the Planeswalkers features great graphics and animations with high resolution hand drawn cards. The presentation is such that is always clear what is happening on the screen.  There are multiple tables, and themes.  In terms of graphical presentation it is as good as it gets.

The one major complaint about this game is that I wish there was more freedom when building your own deck. In fact there is almost no ability to make your own deck. You unlock pre-made decks, which you can then customize by removing cards or adding one of the 10-17 unlockable cards (which you unlock via the campagn).  It would be nice to have an ability to make a complete deck from scratch and take it online. That being said though, with the variety of decks that the game provides it is not hard to overlook this fault.

Overall Duels of the Planeswalkers is an excellent rendition of the card game, it is very enjoyable to play. If you are a Magic player this game should be in your collection, and for those who have never played, but always wanted to, there is a great and easy to understand tutorial built right into the game. It will teach you all of the basics.