While today’s PAX East 2020 adventure was busier than it was on day one, I was finally able to get some hands-on with Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios Magic: Legends. An action RPG meets MMO that is set on the iconic planes of Magic: The Gathering, which fuses the card deck building aspect of the popular card game, while providing a fresh take at the same time.
During my time with the game, I had the pleasure of learning more about it from the Principal Lead Designer, Adam Hetenyi. Who happens to be a huge fan of the Magic: The Gathering universe, which was welcomed as I am a complete novice when it comes to anything Magic related. Thankfully, he was able to ease me into playing the game, while my previous experience with both action RPGs and other fantasy games helped me pick up where I was lacking elsewhere.
My hands-on consisted of playing as a Geomancer, which was available on the PAX East 2020 expo floor, and the Beastcaller, a class that was only shown to press. In both sessions, I was able to get a good understanding of how the basic attack system worked. With you controlling the character and using simply melee attacks. While also outputting damage, healing and even controlling minions that assist you along the way. While the Geomancer (think battle mage) was all about dealing with fire and lava based attacks and using summons to lay waste to the battleground. The Beastcaller was about using pets to control the battlefield, healing the pets and using buffs to increase the damage output of those pets. There’s a lot more involved but that’s the high-level explanation.
However, as this based in the Magic universe, there’s also a big focus on deckbuilding. While we didn’t get to play with that aspect during the demo, the system was explained as I played. Deckbuilding is still a big part of the game, and you’ll need to use these decks to further increase your abilities. You’ll have a limited number of cards at first, which are used in a rotation. Meaning each button will have several cards bound to it. To get to the next card bound to that button, you’ll have to play the current card in the deck. It seems at first but once you understand that this is done in the name of synergy, it starts to make sense.
Since Magic uses a color system (white, blue, black, red, and green) to represent the different playstyles and elements, this also holds true for Magic: Legends. You can stay with a single color, but going with multiple colors will enhance your gameplay style, as you dip into different branches. Fans of the series are fully aware of this and know of the meta this creates. This will be fully accessible in Magic: Legends as well. Being able to customize is a key component and the game is built around this. For those who’ve never played Magic, like me, Adam assures me that the game will ease you into the universe and while it won’t make you an expert. You’ll be able to grasp the basics and learn the advanced stuff if you are brave enough to dabble.
As this is a hybrid of both an action RPG and MMO, fans of those genres will be right at home. Games such as Diablo, and Torchlight come to mind and the game is reminiscent of those. The action was plentiful, and there’s also lots of gear to be had throughout the game. Everyone will also have their own loot, it won’t be shared among other players. Gameplay will be restricted to four or fewer characters in and instance. There will be a hub where players can meet up, show off their gear, crafting and other social aspects. There might be something similar to the armory for World of Warcraft, but don’t hold them to that just yet.
The game will be about 30 hours in terms of the main campaign, as well as different levels of difficulty I also learned that there is an AI Director that will ramp up the difficulty based on how well you’re doing. Do well and you’ll be rewarded with tougher enemies tossed into our game. I also dropped the idea of possibly adding a hardcore mode. No idea if there is going to be one, but if the fans ask for this it could make its way into the game.
There’s still quite a bit of the game that hasn’t been shown yet, and I could tell that Adam and crew have huge plans for the game. From what I’ve played, it felt great. The only thing I didn’t like about the demo was the long lines to get another chance to play it, as they were easily an hour long. They wrapped around the Magic: Legends both, it was crazy. Though it was worth it to play the demo again.
Magic: Legends will begin beta testing later this year, 2020, and it will possibly include two regions from the full game. Though this depends on far the development of the game is when the beta takes place.
