Not a pay-to-win title?
Many people would agree that they rather enjoy games that reward players in recognition of their in-game achievements, not the amount of money they've spent in the game. Let's see if Heroic - Magic Duel, a brand-new strategy-driven PvP battle game for mobiles, is worth your time, according to the criteria above.
It seems that waiting for a PvP game release with no microtransaction is not a practical idea nowadays. New titles, especially for mobile platforms, will have at least some kind of pay-to-win features. Because profit is always the biggest target of developers after all.
In Heroic - Magic Duel, there is a lot of extra features purchasable. Just like other PvP games, it has two types of in-game currencies which are gems and gold. The game even offers many different character cards and chests in its in-game store. Some people may find this kinda annoying. Why don't they just release a "starter pack" so that players can get all of these things in a single click?
In fact, almost every modern mobile games follow the same pattern. They all have, like, an endless list of "optional" purchases which are really necessary if you want to have some advantages while playing these games. However, Heroic - Magic Duel does have a referral system. You can open treasures instantly using the points that were given for successfully inviting your friends into the game. This is a nice idea, to be honest.
Basically a tower defense
The gameplay of Heroic - Magic Duel is basically about tower defense. There are 3 lanes, each lane has a portal. Players will protect their own portals while trying to destroy the enemy's counterparts. Each unit spawn requires a different amount of energy, and every 30 seconds in, you can use a tow god powers to make a large impact on the battle. Heroic - Magic Duel offers a vast variety of collectible and upgradable cards. While you can upgrade their basic stats like health and damage using runes, stacking different copies of them could result in more powerful stats and more levels as well.
Downside
However, some players might find this game's combat system is kinda boring. Heroic - Magic Duel is seemingly so easy to approach, and that's very likely to leave people unsatisfied. Of course, many different characters mean that the strategy will vary. Unfortunately, the combat seems to stay the same. Sometimes, you end up with an easy win by spawning more units into each lane than your enemy. And other times, you will get overrun by your opponent, having no chance to fight back. That's actually how the game plays at the moment.
Despite being described as "an intense strategy-driven PvP battle game", Heroic - Magic Duel offers its players too little time on planning any actual strategy. Shortly after a match begins, if you hold back a few seconds to send in a powerful unit, your enemy can easily destroy it in no time and possibly overwhelm your lane eventually.
As your opponents tend to target big strong ones, the ideal strategy is probably to spawn cheap and easy guys at the early stage. After that, don't hesitate to unleash tanky characters when the game goes into double energy.
All in all, Heroic - Magic Duel is still an interesting title for those who're into tower defense genre. It just the strategy aspects that make the game less appealing (if you're okay with microtransactions, by the way). But with some potential updates or balance patches in the future, this problem should be addressed soon.
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