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Home > Categories > Games & Puzzles > PC > Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers review
All-new and redesigned, Magic: The Gathering - Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 takes last year's massive hit game to even greater heights with better graphics, more options, and new challenges!
Face off against the AI, or gather your allies for the new multiplayer format: Archenemy, where you team up to take down a single opponent. And if one of your fellow Planeswalkers drops out, no problem - the AI will step in for uninterrupted action!
Featuring ten unique decks, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 also lets you customize those decks. As you progress in the game, you can enhance your deck by swapping in new, unlockable cards!
In the expansion you can "Ascend into Darkness" with the ability to play against Planeswalkers and players as the Archenemy! This expansion also features three new playable decks, four new unlockable cards for each of the original ten decks, seventeen new single player campaign levels, 4 new Archenemy challenges, six preview cards from Innistrad and you will be introduced to Ral Zarek, a new Planeswalker exclusive to Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012.
Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 is available for download for your Xbox 360, your Playstation 3 and your PC via Steam in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish. On the Playstation 3, it is also available in Japanese.
Key Features:
• All-new and redesigned: Bigger and better in every way, Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 takes last year's massive hit game and adds new graphics and music, new cards and decks, new challenges, and new multiplayer game modes!
• Gather your allies to face new Archenemies: In the new Archenemy format, you and two allies (players or AI) must work together to take down a powerful Archenemy and survive the extra powers from the Archenemy's special scheme deck
• New decks using some of the newest cards: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 features ten new decks using cards from the latest Magic:The Gathering expansions, including your first chance to play with cards from the Magic 2012 Core Set. Each deck also offers 16 additional cards that can be unlocked as well.
• Modify your deck for your own play style: We listened to what the community asked for, and in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012 players can now modify their decks to play the way they want. Players can add or remove cards from both starting cards and earned unlocked cards for each deck. Want more spells or creatures in your deck? The choice is yours!
• Fifteen puzzling challenge levels: Puzzles are back and better than ever with difficulties ranging from easy to (really) hard including new Archenemy challenges.
• Three- and Four-Player Enhanced Co-op Play: Co-op play is enhanced in Duels of the Planeswalkers 2012. For the first time, players can invite their friends anywhere in the world to partner up with them to take on the Archenemy or play against live opponents in Two-Headed Giant competition.
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Review by: tucker (Karl)
Dated: 24th of January, 2012
Never having encountered a virtual adaptation of a physical trading card game before, I thought this was going to be an all-new experience for me. It was more than I imagined... expecting something a bit fluffy and lame like the cartoons of Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon, I was instead treated to a virtual tabletop whereon cards are played, simple animations are brought to delightful clarity, and many aspects - except my own lack of skill - were customisable.
The artwork on the gamecards is, as expected, the same as on the physical cards, so for beginners it's a great way to get a feel for the powers, and weaknesses, of the cards before going out and buying a deck or three, and for the experienced players it's perfect for diving in and playing to a time limit - because unlike the realworld version - the other player will not wait while you -hmmm- and -haaaa- over a particular play. Only the quick... and the beaten.
We got to play-test this on a PC, using the Steam framework. It seemed to play fairly well, and there were some epic battles - which always ended in my unmitigated humiliation - but we did manage to progress a little way through the game, enough to try out some of the puzzle challenges and unlock some amazing cards and decks. Frankly, I am really starting to get addicted to this game... I just hope I can keep away from the many, many outlets that stock it because I doubt the credit card would survive a shopping session!
Overall, a great way to play an amazing game if you don't want to invest in the physical cards just yet, or to play against other combatants who can't make it to your local playing venue - multiplayer mode looks to be amazing! At $9.99 to buy it online, but with a free trial available, it's worth giving the trial a go at the very least. If you get hooked - which is easy to do - then it's a great investment that doesn't have huge ongoing monthly bills just to keep active.
NOTE: Be sure to check out the online Event Locator - http://bit.ly/zM1UCX
for nearby tournament events! Great way to learn more about the game - watch the pro's at work. 
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