If you’ve ever wanted to play Blizzard Entertainment’s wildly successful MMO World of Warcraft on your iPad, you just got your wish. Uh, kind of. After debuting on Mac and PC, Hearthstone: Heroes Of Warcraft has now been released on App Stores worldwide. But it’s actually a lot more like Magic: The Gathering than the MMO you’d expect.
Unveiled last year, Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a free-to-play collectible card game set in the Warcraft universe. That means a lot of orcs and dwarves hitting each other with magic hammers.
In Hearthstone, each player will pick one of World of Warcraft’s nine classes to construct a hero, then duel against other players using up to 300 cards, with more cards available either through in-app purchase or by playing. You’ll also be able to put together your own decks, craft new cards and disenchant duplicates. You play in one-versus-one battles, either against computer opponents or on Battle.net, to grow the size and power of your card collection.
It’s a fun game, but like all free-to-play games, expect to be inundated with “suggestions” to make expensive in-app purchases to get ahead. If you’re looking for a good strategy game, though, Hearthstone is getting great buzz. Give it a shot. After all, it’s free.