Magic the Gathering: Battle Grounds

List Price: $19.99 Discount Price: $3.04

Features:

• Real-time, fighting-strategy game with epic one-on-one battles
• Over 70 different spells from 5 spell books
• 9 battling wizards, 16 epic arenas
• Online content--spells, wizards, and assorted extras--for player download
• Comprehensive, single-player quests, allowing duelists to acquire spells and artifacts

Accessories:
PC Gamer (1-year)	Games for Windows: The Official Magazine

Customer Reviews:

Good, if you own a game controller and lots of patience [Posted on 2004-01-29]
First of all this is an arcade game. Players of the card game be warned. This is nothing like "magic the gathering" but rather a quick-paced button-clicker that relies mostly on your reflexes to succeed but has a fair amount of strategy to it as well. Oh and, the "spells" your wizard uses have names that will be familiar to you, if you played the card game...

I had to buy a game controller (only $15) to really appreciate this game, due to the extreme manual dexterity required to do well at all the fast paced action. Still it took me more than 15 hours of playing the "quest" and "arcade" modes before I really got the hang of this game. Up until that point there were some very frustrating "quests" that seemed impossible until I spent the hours to train my reflexes and learn the strategies.

Once you master the Quest mode however, it is a rewarding experience to create your own collection of spells then go online to compete live with other players. Playing against other people is a real challenge so expect to lose quite a few games until you adjust to the new strategies being used.

good luck [Posted on 2004-01-31]
Good luck trying to get this game to run! I've been emailing atari,compaq,creative for over a month now,installed more ram,reflashed my bios installed new mouse drivers,cd drivers,vidio & sound card drivers. I'll probably have a very large tech support bill = to several times the cost of the game.Atari was the least helpfull of the three tech supports. 1.2gig n 80gig hd n 384k of ram n it willnot run on my machine

Amazing game [Posted on 2004-02-17]
Pros:amazing graphics, immensely fun to play, challenging, but not impossible, and it can be used as multiplayer.
Cons: Need a very fast computer to use.
Avised highly

Magic the Gathering this is NOT [Posted on 2004-05-01]
MTG Players take heed, this is not MTG, but is Mortal Combat with MTG themes and words. If you are looking for an online MTG (similar to the one offered for Win95/98 a few years ago) this ain't it. Save your money.
If you want Mortal Combat and a few hours of frustration, this is the game for you.

A Real Review... [Posted on 2006-01-25]
I had played the demo version of this game when it came out. It needs a very fast system, and even then, it can take a long time to load. The rules are moderately complex, and it requires the player to focus on many different aspects at once - your mana count, the creatures coming to attack you, your spell book, power up bonuses and the enemy wizard. The graphics were decent, and cool at times. It takes a while to get used to it, and even then you might move your character in the wrong direction. Magic is a complicated game, and it was hell for the programmers who originally made the AI that plays.
The spells 'come to life' to give it more action, and less strategy, and make it less complicated. Seriously, you (the wizard) can block or deal one damage. If I was playing MTG (the card game) and I got attacked by a 1/1 I can't say, I smacked it dead. We all want to see the epic wars / duels we play come to life, but without sacrificing the game.

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