HearthStone for iPad impressions

It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of Blizzard games in general, and I’ve been waiting for HearthStone to release to have a Blizzard title to enjoy casually on my iPad. Now that that time is here — my biases aside — let’s dive in for a quick look.

Once you go through the initial setup of your account and get the game started up for the first time, you’ll notice it looks just like the desktop edition for Mac or Windows.

The same thing is true for all of the menus. If you click on “My Collection” you’ll see any of the decks you’ve put together so far. Making a deck and naming worked just the same as on the desktop edition of the game with one caveat; you need to drag the cards over into the deck staging area on the right side of the screen.

One of the cool benefits of trying this out last night and taking these screenshots was being awarded a free pack of cards just for completing a single game in any game mode. Here is a quick look at a few shots from the couple hands I played between last night and this morning.

Identical to the desktop version — noticing a trend here? — you’ll start out the pre–match ritual of keeping or replacing a card in your starting hand.

Let the battle begin! Here’s where I start to prefer the iPad version over the desktop edition. It is so natural and intuitive and just feels nice to drag a card out of your hand and plop it onto the game-board, or tap and drag to target an enemy.

While I’m not a “seasoned” HearthStone player the computer AI obviously had no chance against my “draw more cards, full taunt mob” hunter deck.

Needless to say I had a blast trying this out and can’t wait to face my friends and other opponents online in the comfort wherever I can plop down and get some wifi. Feel free to friend me via my battle-tag (Giddeon#1794) and join me for a game.

Lok’Tar Ogar! - Victory or Death!