MTG: Duels of the PlanesWalkers - PC Review - Gamecenter

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MTG: Duels of the PlanesWalkers
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CNET Gamecenter Review
By Hugh Falk
(3/12/1998)

Game at a Glance
Recap: The ultimate MTG
Ups: Multiplayer action, various upgrades
Downs: Not much new here if you own MTG and the add-on
Multiplayer: Excellent
Single player: Good
Demo: NA
Patch: NA
When I reviewed the original Magic: The Gathering for the PC (MTGPC), I recommended it as a great tool for any MTG fan. My biggest complaint was the lack of a multiplayer feature, which would have put the original over the top and allowed it to appeal to a wider audience. Well, that multiplayer feature, ManaLink, arrived in mid-February, and was it worth the wait.
You can also get your hands on the ManaLink add-on as part of MicroProse's new MTGPC product: Duels of the PlanesWalkers (DOTP). If you're unfamiliar with MTGPC, check out the original review, so I can focus on what's new in DOTP.
First off, DOTP, not to be confused with Spells of the Ancients (SOTA), is not your usual expansion pack. This is a robustly updated version of the original game, and then some. New features MTGPC owners will notice in DOTP--the new-look interface, the facemaker utility, the ability to save/load duels against the computer, and the sealed deck tournaments--will be familiar to users of SOTA. (No, this isn't a government manual, although you'd think so with all the acronyms flying around.)
So what's new with DOTP? Well, if you already have Magic for the PC and the SOTA expansion pack, and you've already downloaded ManaLink, you'll find barely anything different, with the exception of 80 new cards, which unfortunately aren't denoted or described in the manual. If you already own the original version of Magic, you get the new interface, the new cards, and the multiplayer suite (if you haven't already downloaded it). And if you never bought Magic, you can't miss with Duels of the PlanesWalkers.
Besides the fact that MTG is an addictive game in its own right, ManaLink adds some great features that make the game even more enticing. Enticement number one: a ranking system that permanently ranks every player according to the real-life rating rules. Enticement number two: you can assign badges (icons) to people you consider friends or want to avoid.
Another plus is the variety of tournaments. Variations include sealed decks (opening a random pack of cards), unrestricted decks, and tournament legal decks, which are checked for legality before MTG: Duels of the PlanesWalkers each match. As an added bonus, performance is great. Card games are perfect for the Internet and its modern-day limitations. In fact, until action and real-time strategy games can completely conquer the lag we've all come to accept as normal, DOTP is the perfect Internet game.
The biggest limitations on the PC version, as opposed to the real-life card game, are the lack of sidebars, Type 2 tournaments, and truly multiplayer games (with three or more people).

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MTG: Duels of the PlanesWalkers

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