Rock, Paper, Shotgun

By Nathan Grayson on November 29th, 2012 at 2:00 pm.

It’s entirely possible to do a good many things with cards. You can stack them, scatter them, throw them, boil ‘em, mash ‘em, stick ‘em in a stew, etc. And after humanity realized that Card Stew was a disgusting affront to tastebuds everywhere, people even started playing games with them. Slowly but surely, though, the phrase “card game” took on a rather unsavory stigma – relegated to pitch black basement dungeons and videogames without punching or explosions. But the mad card and mustache scientists at Blue Manchu have engineered a means by which to hunt cards, and the end result – Card Hunter, naturally – is quite a different creature from standard cardboard slip trading fare. Basically, if you normally flee at the sight of anything with “card” or “TCG” in its description, this might make a believer out of you yet.

It’s quite an interesting fusion of turn-based role-playing and collectible trading card games, if you ask me (and Alec, too!). I especially like the idea of equipping card sets as pieces of limb-specific equipment. On one hand, it might limit the flexibility of being able to customize your entire deck as you see fit, but on the other, this seems to strike a nice balance between clutter-reducing intuitiveness and player control.

Battles, meanwhile, look to take more cues from the likes of Final Fantasy Tactics and games of that ilk than Card Hunter’s tabletop brethren, so snazzy spell effects and environmental hazards abound. That said, the locations do seem a bit drab. I mean, I know Blue Manchu’s attempting to replicate a tabletop vibe, but couldn’t line-of-sight-blocking pillars at least jut out from the ground like, well, pillars often do?

(It is at these moments that it’s necessary for a man to face himself in the mirror, gaze unflinchingly into his own eyes, and take stock of his life. I am criticizing videogame pillars. This is – in all likelihood – the point of no return for me as both a writer and a human being. Before long, I’ll probably start standing on street corners and ranting about the importance of flushable toilets in videogame bathrooms. Because seriously, if they don’t even so much as gurgle, it totally kills the illusi– no, Nathan. Stop. You’re stronger than this.)

But anyway, Card Hunter looks pretty great! At least, I think so. Do you think so? I mean, aside from the pillars. Because let’s face it, those are completel– no. No. I refuse.