Magic: Legends graced the cover of Game Informer a while back, and now we have the date when all aspiring wizards and summoners can get into the mix. On March 23, PC players can jump into an open beta. On console? No worries, the game is still launching on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC later this year.
If you’re on PC, you can get in on March 23 and start whacking away at classic Magic: The Gathering adversaries, make friends with planeswalkers, and craft yourself a powerful deck of summons and spells! One of the coolest things we had a chance to check out during our cover story trip was an overarching artificial intelligence “Director” that changes the pace of the game as you go to create intensity. Crushing the enemies too hard? Expect things to get harder as elite spawns come to ruin your day, but there are added rewards for the challenge. The ever-shifting risk-reward cycle that this director can conjure up based on how you and your friends are playing is an ambitious and interesting addition to the ARPG space, and I can’t wait to try to break it in a bunch of different ways.
But before you go about trying to game the system, you’ll need a deck. Yes, Magic: Legends utilizes cards from Magic: The Gathering to bring the action, but it’s much more fast-paced than a cerebral tabletop face-off. Your deck constantly cycles through options, and you can build it any way you like, forming synergies with your selected planeswalker. There’s even PVP if you want to take on other players for rewards, but much of what we have seen so far boils down to open-world style maps, campaign experiences, and bite-sized “ordeals” which give the players a quick goal that leads to a boss battle. Ordeals are gameplay-oriented get in, get loot, get out runs which are perfect for small blocks of time solo or with your crew.
Never played Magic: The Gathering? Interested in how the classic card game translates into the fervor of the ARPG? Check out a new deckbuilding video from Cryptic that helps explain just how deckbuilding works in this new take on Magic: The Gathering.
