Gods Unchained Early Beta - First Impressions

Disclaimer: This is a preview of a very early beta for the Gods Unchained digital Trading Card Game. Only a small subset of cards and Gods are currently available for play. This article does not represent a view of the completed product.

If you find this article useful, interesting, or amusing, consider using my referral link if you decide to purchase any cards.

In short, fun and addictive. It carries on the tradition of Magic: The Gathering, allowing players to build decks from a slew of cards to try and create powerful combos and creatures with which to defeat their opponents.

Being purely digital, Gods Unchained will be often compared to Hearthstone (which I have not played). The main difference between the two, is that in Gods Unchained, players can actually own the cards they play with! The cards will be represented as tokens on the Ethereum blockchain and will thus be given an explicit ownership, allowing them to be bought, sold, and traded.

There is also a set of 'Core' cards, which are not owned but can be used to build a deck so that anyone can play the game, even those who have never purchased or owned a single card.

Anyway, on to the beta experience! Setting up the client and starting the game was easy enough. The deck-building screen could use some work, but it is usable. The pre-built decks are trash and should only be used if you just want to get a feel for a God you haven't played before. They are in no way competitive.

The AI is pretty feeble. Singleplayer mode is really just for learning the game and testing out new decks or combos. If you want a challenge, you'll need to get into multiplayer. Games are generally fast paced and often over by turn 7, though some players' decks are designed to draw the game out longer. Available spells are limited, and controlling the board with creatures is the current name of the game.

It's buggy, as should be expected for betas. Sometimes finding a game can be a bit trying. And other times the server connection will crap out in the middle of a match. There is no in-game chat, so every concession feels like a rage-quit. Taking actions too fast can sometimes cause weird effects. Oh, and Single Player could really use a pause button!

But overall it's still a fun experience. The game basics are in place, playable, and enjoyable. The client itself seems solid. I haven't had it crash or lockup on me.

There are plenty of UI issues to go around. Here are a few things I've noticed that could be improved.

• The game needs a visible, numeric turn timer.
• The time running out indicator should start sooner. 30 seconds perhaps? Enough time so that the alert is a notice to stop thinking and start acting rather than a panic moment.
• More indicators on the cards for things that have an effect on gameplay such as tribe affiliation and special abilities.
• Frontline creatures should be placed further forward on the board to make their defense more apparent (it took me a good dozen games before I realized that the Frontline creatures have a little extra hump on top of their cards).
• Roar effects are not broadcast well. Would be nice if the game would pop-up a summary of the roar effect as it is being applied.
• When your opponent plays a spell card, the card is only visible for a fraction of a second. It is often difficult to tell what is happening and why.

I wasn't familiar with this spell and it took me some time to figure out why my opponent kept getting his health back

Note: I sometimes stream my PvP matches. No sound, but it might still be interesting to watch, especially for those who are not yet able to play themselves. Feel free to critique my desks and play!

My current deck is a Viking War build. I've only played 8 or 9 matches against other players so far and have about a 50/50 win rate.

It's interesting to see the deck building strategies arise even with only a small subset of the game available. Before I was accepted into the Beta I was planning on creating a low-cost Nature deck. But, it turned out that was one of the first things that everyone tried, and it was found to be quite powerful! Since then some other viable deck types have arisen -- the Light / Heal deck and  the Magic / Control / Spiral Golem to name a couple. I'm still working on making more my War deck more effective against the onslaught from these folks. Rumors have it that a large number of additional cards will be available for deck building soon. I am very much looking forward to seeing some more variety and options!

Overall, I give the Gods Unchained Beta a solid thumbs-up. I find that I have to control my time spent on the game to keep my real life productivity from taking too much of a hit. It is definitely a game to keep an eye on if you enjoy the genre. If you need a guide on gameplay, check out NewMeta's guide for Hearthstone players. If you're new to Cryptocurrency and need help setting up an Ethereum wallet and purchasing cards for Gods Unchained, Fuel Games has an article explaining it all.

Now, back to the battles!