The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game Preview - It provides a refreshing experience

It started as an evolving but simple card game, in which you were confronted with a 'game master' through a story or via missions. Over the years, however, extensions have been added, which made the whole thing more and more interesting. Now there is a digital version coming up, developed by Fantasy Flight Interactive and published by Asmodee Digital.

Before we go into further details, we should note that this game should not be seen as a TCG; just like the original, we are dealing with a scripted campaign and the focus is very much on PVE. The competitive aspect is completely absent in this digital version. In short: it should not be compared with Hearthstone or Gwent ; it comes closer to something like Hand of Fate.

The story forms the basis of The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game and aligns with the gameplay choices that the player makes in-game. The action takes place during a period around the first part of the famous fantasy trilogy, although that is also something that the studio likes to keep flexible to keep more freedom for the story.

The first campaign, entitled Lost in Mirkwood Forest, takes you to the north of Mordor. The mission - Escape the Spider Colony - has a fitting name, as the goal here is to escape from the eight-legged servants of the Lord of Darkness without much hassle. Possible escape routes appear as tokens on the board and if you use a token you take that path. However, the enemies will follow you. Progress plays content, goals, routes to take, monsters that block you or force you to change course, free; everything is designed so that each section feels unique.

Graphically, without being exceptionally beautiful, it looks pretty good, especially for a deck of digital playing cards. However, there are no cutscenes, voice-acting (apart from haunting slogans while playing) and visual aspects to enrich the story or to immerse the player in the experience. Players must settle for a few lines of text during the loading screens or the menus. However, it is expected that adjustments will be made towards the final version; when this is exactly to happen is still unclear.

We are also not sure if the artificial intelligence knows how to convince. It is not uncommon in this type of games to see computer-controlled characters make a series of choices that put themselves at risk. During our preview of the beta, our opponent did not seem exactly cut or cunning. Although he is not subject to the same rules as the players, which could make it all a bit more interesting, unless the player finds an easy way to abuse some weaknesses of game.

The quests and daily challenges are there to keep players involved, as well as the presence of a multiplayer mode. The co-op option is to allow players to experience the campaign with friends and take it together against the Lord of Darkness. From what we understand, a virtuoso circle has been added; finding alternative solutions and completing missions lets you unlock cards and try out different tactics. It seems that players who like to achieve everything will have more than enough to collect.

The game is free-to-play from start to finish and you do not have to keep your fingers crossed with every package you open, as with many other such games. Fantasy Flight Interactive moderates the random aspect and you know roughly in advance what each package contains what you buy. There is of course a chance element present, but it is so small that players do not have to make excessive investments to get a certain card. It is true that this policy ensures that there is no 'crafting' or exchange. The only way to buy packages is with real money or Valor, the in-game currency. There is also the Palantir system to free up content, but it is extremely random.

The gameplay is simple: you play cards against those of your opponent, where the higher scoring wins. The cards have attack and defense statistics and general imposition costs. Building a deck offers more freedom here than in certain other card games, but remains based on a fairly standard set-up: three heroes and no more than two identical cards, with 35 cards in total. The biggest change of the "norm" is that there are not so many "Spell" cards (as far as we could see in any case). Profit is based on the value of your heroes, there is nothing strange to discover, except that their position on the board sometimes changes to the type of mission you play.

Preliminary conclusion

This transfer of the game from paper to digital does not seem to do much in terms of maps based on gameplay choices. It is, however, more extensive than a simple Hearthstone adventure, where final boss battles follow one after the other. However, the use of maps to get to the story in a slow and personal way seems to work. The absence of competition and PVP is a choice, but it provides a refreshing experience that we normally can not enjoy in the genre. However, this choice also entails the risk that it only appeals to a niche audience, even though every Tolkien fan can try this out.

The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game will soon be available on Steam in Early Access, but only Solo mode. The game officially launches in 2018.

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