Apple By James Plafke Apr. 9, 2014 3:15 pm
Even if you’ve been living under a gaming rock, you probably haven’t been able to avoid Blizzard’s Hearthstone. The digital CCG rose through the ranks of PC gaming popularity throughout both its closed and open beta periods, but something bigger has always been looming on the horizon: the game’s mobile release.*Hearthstone*recently released on the iPad, but only in Canada, New Zealand, and Australia; however, you can still perform a bit of trickery and grab the app in other parts of the world.
We performed that very bit of trickery, spent some time with the official*Hearthstone iPad app, and can safely say that the game does feel different to play on a tablet. It feels even better.
The game itself — the cards, mechanics, and even the board destruction interactions — remains the same as its popular PC counterpart.*Hearthstone accounts are universal, so your collection and progress also remain the same so long as you log into the appropriate account. Furthermore, all instances of*Hearthstone connect to the same central server, so players using different platforms all play together. Considering the game is the same, we focused primarily on the experience of playing on the iPad.
You get a free card pack for winning your first iPad game. As is customary, I got nothing worth mentioning.
The interface has barely changed from the desktop to mobile; little UI changes have been made in order to better accommodate a mobile device, though, like adding a battery indicator next to the time in the bottom-left corner. A couple of the fan-favorite game board interactions — a way to pass the time while waiting for your opponents to take their turn by poking in-game board structures to trigger animations — have lost a tiny bit of flare. The rainbow that appears over the waterfall after repeated pokes no longer appears, and the smoke above the hut’s chimney is also gone. Other than that, though, the game looks almost identical to its PC forebear.
There are two noticeable gripes with the current iPad version, though: a bit of random sluggishness, and performing in-game interactions that would otherwise be performed with a mouse hover. The sluggishness isn’t too noticeable, and it doesn’t seem to happen very often. However, every now and then you’ll notice a card animation skip a beat, or a menu not invoke as smoothly as it usually does. As for the mouse hover movements, they’re replaced by a tap-and-hold movement, such as when hovering over cards while opening card packs. It doesn’t come up often, but will be a little jarring to seasoned players.
At least I have chicken.
Aside from these meager nitpicks, the game feels even better to play on the tablet than it does on the PC. Not only can you finally leave your desk and comfortably lie in bed or walk around the house while playing*Hearthstone, but the game’s cards and buttons feel like they were made specifically to be poked by fingers. It really feels like you’re flinging cards around a board, or tapping big mechanical buttons.
In all, the iPad version of*Hearthstone is same experience, except a little better. The sluggishness may have been the result of using a Retina iPad mini instead of the iPad Air, but it could also simply because the app isn’t ready for a worldwide distribution just yet — which is exactly what the current limited release is attempting to test.
For now, the game is great on mobile — better than on PC — and actually feels like the most polished mobile gaming experience on the market. Stay tuned for the official North American release (Android tablets and smartphones coming sometime after the iPad release), or get sneaky and get the app the now.
More...
We performed that very bit of trickery, spent some time with the official*Hearthstone iPad app, and can safely say that the game does feel different to play on a tablet. It feels even better.
The game itself — the cards, mechanics, and even the board destruction interactions — remains the same as its popular PC counterpart.*Hearthstone accounts are universal, so your collection and progress also remain the same so long as you log into the appropriate account. Furthermore, all instances of*Hearthstone connect to the same central server, so players using different platforms all play together. Considering the game is the same, we focused primarily on the experience of playing on the iPad.
You get a free card pack for winning your first iPad game. As is customary, I got nothing worth mentioning.The interface has barely changed from the desktop to mobile; little UI changes have been made in order to better accommodate a mobile device, though, like adding a battery indicator next to the time in the bottom-left corner. A couple of the fan-favorite game board interactions — a way to pass the time while waiting for your opponents to take their turn by poking in-game board structures to trigger animations — have lost a tiny bit of flare. The rainbow that appears over the waterfall after repeated pokes no longer appears, and the smoke above the hut’s chimney is also gone. Other than that, though, the game looks almost identical to its PC forebear.
There are two noticeable gripes with the current iPad version, though: a bit of random sluggishness, and performing in-game interactions that would otherwise be performed with a mouse hover. The sluggishness isn’t too noticeable, and it doesn’t seem to happen very often. However, every now and then you’ll notice a card animation skip a beat, or a menu not invoke as smoothly as it usually does. As for the mouse hover movements, they’re replaced by a tap-and-hold movement, such as when hovering over cards while opening card packs. It doesn’t come up often, but will be a little jarring to seasoned players.
At least I have chicken.Aside from these meager nitpicks, the game feels even better to play on the tablet than it does on the PC. Not only can you finally leave your desk and comfortably lie in bed or walk around the house while playing*Hearthstone, but the game’s cards and buttons feel like they were made specifically to be poked by fingers. It really feels like you’re flinging cards around a board, or tapping big mechanical buttons.
In all, the iPad version of*Hearthstone is same experience, except a little better. The sluggishness may have been the result of using a Retina iPad mini instead of the iPad Air, but it could also simply because the app isn’t ready for a worldwide distribution just yet — which is exactly what the current limited release is attempting to test.
For now, the game is great on mobile — better than on PC — and actually feels like the most polished mobile gaming experience on the market. Stay tuned for the official North American release (Android tablets and smartphones coming sometime after the iPad release), or get sneaky and get the app the now.
More...
