Gaming Freedom: Neverending fun with Infinity Wars

INFINITY WARS. Take your card games to a new level with Infinity Wars. Screen shots taken from the actual game play.

MANILA, Philippines – Last week, we flung ourselves into the far reaches of the solar system wearing battle armor, shooting and slashing our way to fun in Digital Extremes’ Warframe.

For today’s Gaming Freedom, I thought to take a detour away from space ninjas and focus on a new card game I discovered, this time from a developer called Lightmare Studios.

Lightmare Studios has been hard at work at a fun card game that has some serious strategy behind it, in a game they call Infinity Wars.

BATTLEGROUND. The author prepares for battle against a computerized opponent as part of a new campaign.

Animated cards, tactical fighting

Currently in open beta testing and available on PCs, Macs and Linux using the WINE emulator, Infinity Wars calls itself an Animated Trading Card Game because of its astounding art direction.

Each card, along with the battlegound you play on, shows off animations when you play. While some might find the draw of collecting new cards and seeing new animations as fun, others are drawn into the game for the competitive aspect of it, which is derived from fighting other players, winning card battles, and completing objectives that reward free cards.

Infinity Wars can be played without any upfront investment, requiring only a download through the Infinity Wars website or through the Steam digital distribution platform to pick up and play. Just make an account on their website, and log in to the game with your credentials, and you’re ready to learn how to play and eventually become a master death-dealer with your chosen deck of cards.

FIGHTING. Two cards face each other, taking damage.

The complex game

Infinity Wars has a guidebook available on its site, and a substantial tutorial inside the game itself that plays as card battles, but the basic idea of battle is simple enough.

Using a pool of resources, you summon creatures or warriors with different strengths, weaknesses, and abilities, and with these cards, you’re trying to reduce either the Health and Morale – which you can think of as physical stamina and mental stamina – of your competition to zero.

Unlike games like Magic: the Gathering or the previously overviewed Hearthstone, Infinity Wars gives you two primary ways of defeating the enemy. You can overpower the enemy with your strength and whittle away his Health, or you can withstand the enemy’s assault, demoralizing him to win the game through superior defense.

The game has a number of factions you can choose from with different playstyles, and you can mix and match faction types to combine offense and defense as you see fit.

There are currently 7 main factions, plus a pair of recently-introduced factions coming from the Star Trek universe: The Federation and Klingon forces. Combining cards from these different factions can be a bit of a hoot, mostly since you can now imagine weird teamups!

For instance, Star Trek: The Next Generation’s android, Data, can be a part of a deck filled with less intelligent robots from the machinists of the Genesis Industries faction in a bid to win battles.

Watch this tutorial video for an overview of how Infinity Wars’ gameplay works:

Earning new cards

The game is quite generous when it comes to earning new cards. Unlike Hearthstone, players of Infinity Wars can trade cards with one another to help build their ultimate deck for battling.

Users can also earn Infinity Points while playing, which can then be redeemed for items from the game’s store. For instance, users can start off by picking up a small pack of new cards for 1,050 Infinity Points, with some card packs costing more the newer they are in the series.

STOREFRONT. The Infinity Wars game relies on microtransactions to keep going.

The game is funded by microtransactions, which means players can also buy redeemable currency called Lightmare Points to buy new cards, card decks, and even new decorations such as avatars for your profile, deck backings for the back of your cards, or battlegrounds to play on.

The strangest thing about Infinity Wars is in this Lightmare Points system itself, as you can buy anywhere from US$1 to US$1,000 (or the Australian equivalent) of Lightmare Points from the in-game store. The interface for buying the Lightmare Points takes some getting used to, but you can forego buying cards that way if you so wanted.

That said, It’s very difficult for me to see the need for a thousand-dollar points purchase, but I’m supposing having the option will pay dividends for the company as the game gets traction from even more serious gamers.

Recommendations

I recommend Infinity Wars as an alternative to Hearthstone for those who enjoy some aspects of card games more than others. If you enjoy making good trades, tactical battles, and a small, yet well-informed fanbase that has a friendly, yet competitive mindset, then Infinity Wars is a game you’ll come to love.

At the same time, if you just enjoy really good art direction, and enjoy playing card games and questing to learn more about the game’s lore and world, the game is also a good fit. You’re not required to fight other people, and can safely learn and master the game at your own pace.

Trust me: the only thing you’ll lose from this game if you try it is a well-spent hour here and there, and it’ll be time well-spent indeed.

Watch this trailer for the game, featuring Star Trek: The Next Generation: