Merry Naxxramas: Hearthstone Single-Player Announced

The wonder and terror of collectible card games is that they evolve and expand over time to continue demanding your time and money and attention and love and it's just too much and I can't deal with it, as I may have mentioned earlier today. Blizzard are hooked into this cruel cycle with Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft, and today announced the first major addition to its virtual CCG since last month's launch.

Hearthstone will kick off its single-player Adventure Mode with Curse of Naxxramas, an adaptation of a raid from World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King. Expect boss battles, new cards to collect, and new ways to pay.

Like the original WoW raid, Curse of Naxxramas will send players into the fortress of the lich Kel'Thuzad. It's similarly split up into five parts, each with their own boss battles. The first wing will be open to everyone then another will open each week, Blizzard explains in the announcement, and players will need to cough up a little in-game gold or real cash money to enter each. It's nice that paying actual money is only optional, and if Blizzard is sensible it won't set the fake money price too high.

Like WoW raiding, shiny prizes are up for grabs. Naxxramas will add 30 new cards in all, earned by progressing through the zone, beating bosses, and besting new Class Challenges. It also has a pretty new game board to play upon, with new bits to click on until something funny happens.

I'd like to give Hearthstone a bash, I really would, but this weakness for CCGs is so troublesome. I'm a grown adult now and this one teenage anxiety still clings to me. "You're not strong enough to say no," it hisses. "Hearthstone has a deck-builder. You know how much you enjoy building decks!"