Really wish I could have played this more before it was taken offline. Had to go away this weekend.
My Initial review is very positive.
This game should fill the HS itch nicely, I don't see anymore reason to log into HS. I was already "done" with the game, but found myself logging in every few months to scratch the itch.
HS feels so outdated/old now compared to this game.
My initial reaction to the trailers was that this game was very busy/loud, but playing it & watching streams was the exact opposite.
The interface/animations/art are all so nice. Nice polish and good (intelligent) design choices. Should work well on mobile and also reads well on streams/spectating.
Gameplay:
RNG is the nature of card games, the big problem is when RNG can decide an entire game. For example, you are soundly defeated and have been outplayed all game, yet 1 card turns the entire game to your favor, or outright wins (Yogg). RNG can exist, but needs to be done well, needs to have pros/cons or still involve decision making. I do not believe Riot devs will always make the best decisions. They are human. We will get some broken-ass shit and all complain about it. It's inevitable. But maybe they can do a little better than Blizzard.. we'll see.
The game does mitigate RNG factors due to the "reaction" system. Every action involves a reaction. So that's REALLY nice and is something people wished HS had since forever. The game does have some RNG elements already, such as Karma & some others. RNG card generation has always (mostly) been fine imo.
The Action/Reaction system is real nice. Games can get bogged down with the action queue a bit with always needing to wait for the Reaction before playing your next action. Games might drag on a bit more than HS, but 20 health Nexus also means games come to a tipping point faster and can outright end. I also dread the players that turn "auto-pass" off and let time rope every move. I hope they find ways to avoid this type of griefing.
Decks: Allowing 3 copies of each card means you get decks with 13.33 unique cards @ max copies compared to HS that can have 15. So RNG draws are actually mitigated more if you use max copies, even though deck size is larger. 6 Champion cards is a good trade-off to mitigate RNG compared to HS. You can build around a champion and include 3 copies, giving you 3/40 chance to draw compared to HS 1/30 chance. The trade-off is you can't have more than 6 unique champions. And if you spread yourself thin by including 1-ofs, you have a less likely chance to draw them (worse than in HS). I can see "generalized" decks having a mixture of champions, and "build-around" decks requiring 3 copies of a single champ. (Most decks are likely to be build-arounds, so always at least 1 champ with 3x)
20 Health: Having a lower health count makes sense when you consider EVERY unit essentially has "Taunt"/"Counterspell".
Meta: Like every other "deck/comp building" game, the true test is what the meta looks like and if it's varied & strategic enough & without huge outliers (+55% winrates). Ideal meta means the best decks at a 50-52% win rate. With a game this new, it's way too soon to judge the meta and if it'll be fun, or frustrating.
Right now, it's definitely a breath of fresh air and will be a tough decision between LoR, TFT, or LoL:Wild Rift for my mobile gaming time.
PC gaming may soon disappear for me.
