Scrolls (Beta)

When Swedish developer Mojang announced that its second game would be an online hybrid of a collectable card game (CCG) and a board game, many commenters were left scratching their heads since this was such a departure from their mega-hit Minecraft. Debuting in early June, Scrolls ($20.95, for Windows and OS X) shows that Mojang is committed to making fun and fair games, even when tackling oft-abused features like in-game currencies and collectability.

Quite simply, Scrolls is among the best boardgames ever made for a computer. If that sounds like fun, then you'll enjoy the heck out of Scrolls.

Get Scrolling
One launch day, Mojang had some trouble selling copies of the game, but the system seems to be working smoothly now. The $20.95 price tag does seem a bit steep, particularly when most games with real-money marketplaces are free to play or extremely cheap?like mobile-app cheap.

In my testing, I used both a Windows 7 PC and a Macbook Air ?running OS X Mountain Lion. Both are fully supported by the developer.

Once you fire up the game, you have to choose one of the three pre-constructed decks of scrolls?which take the place of cards in Scrolls. Each uses only one of the three types?Growth, Energy, and Order. The game gives a brief description of each, so choose which will work best for your play style. Growth and Energy are probably the most accessible, while Order seems to require more strategy. However, I didn't feel like the types of scrolls had enough individual character to differentiate them from each other?hopefully something Mojang will address as they introduce more scrolls.

Next you're brought into the central hub of the Scrolls universe: deckbuilding, purchases, and battles are handled from within these screens. Your first stop should probably be the Profile screen, where you can edit the avatar that represents you to the world.

Avatar editing is done by mixing and matching different elements, paper doll style. I was pleased that the female avatars didn't look like they were made to appeal to male players, but seemed to match the fantasy environment. If you're looking for gold bikini "armor," look elsewhere. Unfortunately, there aren't any non-white avatar options, which I hope Mojang fixes soon.

Scrolls Skirmishes
At first blush, Scrolls looks like a regular CCG. You have a hand of scrolls which can have certain effects on the battle field?a board of tessellating hexagons. But Scrolls makes several smart moves to differentiate itself from venerable CCGs like Magic the Gathering, while still maintaining a fun board-game style of play.

For instance, instead of relying on independent resource cards?like Mana in Magic or Energy in Pok?mon?any scroll can be sacrificed to increase your available resources by one. This means that there are no fluff in your deck of Scrolls, and forces you to keep your decks lean. Your total resources recharge after each round, so if you've sacrificed five scrolls you'll have five resource points for use at the beginning of the next turn.

Scrolls can also be sacrificed to draw an additional two scrolls, so as a player you're always making a decision about how to manage your hand. There's a lot of room for strategy, especially since you can only sacrifice a scroll once per turn.

Your creatures and structures appear on the hexagons, and act out the effects of the Scrolls, but their positioning on the board is a critical part of the game. Being able to move your creatures around the board is sometimes the difference between life and death, and keeps Scrolls from feeling like just another CCG.

The board is well utilized but I'd like to see Mojang take it even further?perhaps with units that cross to the opponents side or creatures that attack in more than just a straight line. The game has a lot of room to grow, and I'd like to see Mojang push the limits of the system of they've created.

Attacking is automated in Scrolls, where each creature has a countdown number that creeps closer to zero each turn. Once it reaches zero, it attacks. This makes it difficult to time large attacks, but also complicates issues of placement and timing for other spells. It's easy to lose track of, but again offers a lot of room for strategic play.

Scrolls succeeds by keeping gameplay tense and interesting. I've won games that seemed unwinnable early on, and lost others I was sure I'd win. The game demands your attention, and careful prudent play is vitally important.

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/BTdB5LlVVBg/0,2817,2420289,00.asp

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