Felt a little pigeonholed, more an excuse to bring back established characters for new legendaries n single player content, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; think of 2018, when they did something kinda new (RR/WW), they were for the most part poor expansions that saw little influence outside of very select cards. RR especially seemed to garner little to no interest from the playerbase, so Blizz clearly were paying attention to that, though largely because weak lore sets equate lower sales.
If they continue the trend of a year long story, if they continue to rehash old characters to fill the gaps of the story I will have 0 interest, you can only pull off the 1 trick pony once because it's completely used up and benign.
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
If you thought you knew what you think I know, then you'd know I knew you knew I know.
I personally loved it. But obviously they ain't gonna do this every year as there is only so many characters they can introduce for an original Hearthstone story. Maybe in like 3-4 years we might get something of this scale again.
NOt well balanced again...too many nerfs, too much moneybait in previous showcase of the cards. Idk, this was a bad year for this game,the last one, too many good ideas without proper executions. The good part of this year is that LORT is coming out 24/01/2020. Enjoy HS while u can
Uldum, for example, was a cool expansion that I thematically really liked. Maybe one of my favorite expansions of all time. But it felt a bit like it was just the next chapter, not an independet and new expansion as all the others before. It wasn't "predictable" in any way, but in tone and atmosphere, like with the expansion logo and the cinematic trailer, it is mostly line with Rise of Shadows, except for the surprising little detail, that they play the Uldum Sountrack from WoW in the in-game store. But compare that with the huge difference in tone between Un'goro, Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs. I personally felt like something was missing by the time DoD was announced. It's just not the same kind of excitement when you know it's gonna pick up where the last one left. Kind of like the more recent James Bond movies.
Something I liked was the way they tie expansions together mechanically, like adding new lackeys and lackey-synergy, adding sidequests to quests, or adding another Highlander card. It's nice that they try to support archetypes within one year more consistently with new expansions, though some classes feel more focused in design than others. For some classes, I was really missing new class-defining cards, especially Paladin and Priest (except maybe for Amet). Then again, it sometimes felt like paint-by-the-numbers, especially in DoD - every class gets either 2 Invoke cards or 2 Sidequests, every class gets their legendary dragon, and their non-legendary dragon, and their dragon breath spell. We had it before that every class gets the same things in different flavors, like Spellstones or Quests, but 5 card out of 10 is a bit too much.
What also kind of bothered me were returning characters. As much as I liked League of Explorers, it feels a bit silly to me that we are now getting the third Reno Jackson, and already have three Dr. Booms. Cards have an identity; you associate a name with an effect. Decks were called "Reno Decks" and "getting rich" was a known phrase in the Hearthstone community. I don't mind that they spread out the Highlander theme, and with the original Reno in Wild, it's fair to call them "Highlander Decks" instead now, but just talking about "Reno" is no longer the original card or even decktype, but possibly the mage legendary or the new hero card. There's also now a second Ysera, a second Malygos etc. It's not a huge deal breaker, but it makes characters less uniquie, and I think Hearthstone should focus more on expanding its universe, instead of recycling old bits. The game isn't THAT old yet to justify nostalgia trips. I mean, Hagatha was just a year old.
All in all, I think the "story" element of Hearthstone has some pros and cons, and I admit that Witchwood and Rastakhan felt rather bland, but I honestly prefer the old model. Not saying they should never do that again, but not in a way that the first expansions sets the tone for the rest of the year.
Also, as limiting as the game is for storytelling, they could try a little harder, like creating more than one gameboard or multiple music tracks per expansion. You travel through 5 entirely different sections of Dalaran, but the environment is always the same and it's mostly the same music, whether you are in the streets or in the Underbelly... that just feels lazy and cheap. I don't know how much more effort they actually can put into expanding the atmosphere during games (with resources and all) but if they are so ambitious about adding a storyline, I think they need to go a bit further. Similarly, cards need to feel more like they belong to a set with more unique effects and animations. Good examples are mechs in GvG with their very distinct metallic soundbits, or the Plague spells from Uldum with their very dramatic animations. Ideally, I see a card and can immediately tell that it must be from a specific set. Sadly, a large portion of the cards still feels very generic and fails to deliver any atmosphere, especially non-legendaries. But if you want to tell a story through gameplay, you have to add such details.
I really enjoyed all the expansions linking this year and telling a story with art and cards linking!
what was your opinions on it?
I liked it! Saviors of Uldum song is still stuck in my head.
It's a masterpiece.
I don't really give a damn about the lore, but man this game has got me stuck for 5 years now...
I think they are nice touch, but nothing determinate about me playing the game.
Felt a little pigeonholed, more an excuse to bring back established characters for new legendaries n single player content, but that's not necessarily a bad thing; think of 2018, when they did something kinda new (RR/WW), they were for the most part poor expansions that saw little influence outside of very select cards. RR especially seemed to garner little to no interest from the playerbase, so Blizz clearly were paying attention to that, though largely because weak lore sets equate lower sales.
If they continue the trend of a year long story, if they continue to rehash old characters to fill the gaps of the story I will have 0 interest, you can only pull off the 1 trick pony once because it's completely used up and benign.
If you thought you knew what you think I know, then you'd know I knew you knew I know.
I personally loved it. But obviously they ain't gonna do this every year as there is only so many characters they can introduce for an original Hearthstone story. Maybe in like 3-4 years we might get something of this scale again.
I thought it was an excellent idea. Hopefully it happens again next season.
Check Out My KaC Review In Over 11,000 words!
Check Out My TWW Review in Over 14,000 words!
Check Out My TBP Review in Over 21,000 words!
Check Out My RR Review in Over 36,000 words!
NOt well balanced again...too many nerfs, too much moneybait in previous showcase of the cards. Idk, this was a bad year for this game,the last one, too many good ideas without proper executions.
The good part of this year is that LORT is coming out 24/01/2020.
Enjoy HS while u can
I have mixed feelings about it.
Uldum, for example, was a cool expansion that I thematically really liked. Maybe one of my favorite expansions of all time. But it felt a bit like it was just the next chapter, not an independet and new expansion as all the others before. It wasn't "predictable" in any way, but in tone and atmosphere, like with the expansion logo and the cinematic trailer, it is mostly line with Rise of Shadows, except for the surprising little detail, that they play the Uldum Sountrack from WoW in the in-game store. But compare that with the huge difference in tone between Un'goro, Frozen Throne and Kobolds & Catacombs. I personally felt like something was missing by the time DoD was announced. It's just not the same kind of excitement when you know it's gonna pick up where the last one left. Kind of like the more recent James Bond movies.
Something I liked was the way they tie expansions together mechanically, like adding new lackeys and lackey-synergy, adding sidequests to quests, or adding another Highlander card. It's nice that they try to support archetypes within one year more consistently with new expansions, though some classes feel more focused in design than others. For some classes, I was really missing new class-defining cards, especially Paladin and Priest (except maybe for Amet). Then again, it sometimes felt like paint-by-the-numbers, especially in DoD - every class gets either 2 Invoke cards or 2 Sidequests, every class gets their legendary dragon, and their non-legendary dragon, and their dragon breath spell. We had it before that every class gets the same things in different flavors, like Spellstones or Quests, but 5 card out of 10 is a bit too much.
What also kind of bothered me were returning characters. As much as I liked League of Explorers, it feels a bit silly to me that we are now getting the third Reno Jackson, and already have three Dr. Booms. Cards have an identity; you associate a name with an effect. Decks were called "Reno Decks" and "getting rich" was a known phrase in the Hearthstone community. I don't mind that they spread out the Highlander theme, and with the original Reno in Wild, it's fair to call them "Highlander Decks" instead now, but just talking about "Reno" is no longer the original card or even decktype, but possibly the mage legendary or the new hero card. There's also now a second Ysera, a second Malygos etc. It's not a huge deal breaker, but it makes characters less uniquie, and I think Hearthstone should focus more on expanding its universe, instead of recycling old bits. The game isn't THAT old yet to justify nostalgia trips. I mean, Hagatha was just a year old.
All in all, I think the "story" element of Hearthstone has some pros and cons, and I admit that Witchwood and Rastakhan felt rather bland, but I honestly prefer the old model. Not saying they should never do that again, but not in a way that the first expansions sets the tone for the rest of the year.
Also, as limiting as the game is for storytelling, they could try a little harder, like creating more than one gameboard or multiple music tracks per expansion. You travel through 5 entirely different sections of Dalaran, but the environment is always the same and it's mostly the same music, whether you are in the streets or in the Underbelly... that just feels lazy and cheap.
I don't know how much more effort they actually can put into expanding the atmosphere during games (with resources and all) but if they are so ambitious about adding a storyline, I think they need to go a bit further. Similarly, cards need to feel more like they belong to a set with more unique effects and animations. Good examples are mechs in GvG with their very distinct metallic soundbits, or the Plague spells from Uldum with their very dramatic animations. Ideally, I see a card and can immediately tell that it must be from a specific set. Sadly, a large portion of the cards still feels very generic and fails to deliver any atmosphere, especially non-legendaries. But if you want to tell a story through gameplay, you have to add such details.
There might be magic monsters...