SHARDS OF INFINITY Review for Steam

Shards of Infinity, by developers Temple Gates Games, is one of the virtual card game contenders looking to carve out a niche for themselves in the realm that Hearthstone built. Shards of Infinity is based off a real card game, though one I haven’t played. I’ll get this clear from the start – Shards did not do a good job explaining its lore to me.

I know we’re not supposed to come to multiplayer card games looking for a plot, but a basic understanding of the universe helps you figure out how cards relate to one another, and without plunging into a user-wiki, there was no real way to make sense of anything of the information being presented to the player. This made the first few hours of trying to play a little alienating.

Onto the mechanics. I said that Shards’s resource pool is similar to other card games – both players start the game with 50 health and zero mastery, a resource that works a bit like mana, if collecting mana made everything in your deck stronger. The more mastery you have, the more powerful your cards become, even the weakest and cheapest. Scaling zerg tactics? The cheap, cheap Shaman/Hunter play in me was hooked. But if your more of a control player, you could always save up your mastery for a guaranteed instant kill spell.

Oh yes – you could theoretically sit on your mastery, hit thirty, and drop an instant win. A baked-in Exodia, if you will. But the game is surprisingly fast paced, and the temptation to use your mastery earlier on to build advantage is strong.

For some reason, I found getting into the game difficult; I’m assuming this was made with people who’d already played the game in mind. But once you get past the first hurdle and began teasing with the games pacing, and exploring the new trades offs the Mastery system off, it makes up for the lack of, lets say, thematic cohesion among factions referenced in the card lore. Building a deck on the go every time took some getting used to, and forced to me to familiarize myself with a much larger range of cards – but as mentioned, the mastery mechanic enables even a basic starting monster to turn the tide eventually.

As an on the go, fast to medium paced deckbuilding game which I entered into without playing the first in the series, Ascension, or having ever played the physical game, it had a hard learning curve – but an interesting pay off. No game I’ve played has turned out the same way – for fans of card games, I think there’s a lot of rewarding payoff here. For those new to the genre, however, I wouldn’t advise as an introduction.

Rating: 8/10

Check Out the Shards of Infinity Trailer:

Shards of Infinity is available for PC via Steam for $7.99.