"Hearthstone" is a card battle game for PC, Apple, and Android devices. Unlike most other mobile games, it was developed by Blizzard Entertainment, the gaming industry juggernaut behind historic classics such as "World of Warcraft," "Starcraft," the "Diablo" franchise, and "Overwatch."
Build your deck and slug it out
"Hearthstone" is set in the Warcraft universe; that is, a fantasy setting with magic, orcs, druids, elves, and a host of different fantasy themes. The game is all about building a deck of cards and doing battle with an opponent. Each player selects a hero to guide their battle: a paladin, mage, hunter, warlock, warrior, druid, shaman, priest, or rogue.
Each of these classes gets access to special sets of cards specific to them. The game is centered around online play against other players. After each battle, you are rewarded with new cards to experiment with, and, aside from doing battle, the possibilities for deck-building alone are endless.
Unlike most other games you can play on your tablet or phone, "Hearthstone" is made by a real gaming company, in fact, probably the most respected gaming company in the industry. Not only does it have a level of polish unseen in the mobile market, the game design itself is beyond anything else available to play on an iPhone. These people know how to make a game fun, rewarding, and overall: addicting.
It's free and features crossplay
Possibly "Hearthstone's" best feature is that it is completely free. You can spend money on buying new cards, but ultimately you can just play matches to build up your deck (or, grind for new cards as we say in the gaming community). It also features crossplay: meaning that any progress you make stays with you when you start the game on your laptop for a late night match.
You may have never been interested in card-battle games before. You may have never heard of "Magic: the Gathering," and perhaps you missed the flash-in-the-pan popularity of the original Pokemon cards. Or, you may think this all sounds excessively nerdy. But really, in a day and age where nerds rule the world, you owe it to yourself to check out a great title like this.
