I AM MT: Card Battle Review

I’m going to be honest here right from the start, I AM MT is a bizarre game and I don’t think I’ve got my head around it yet. If you’ve ever fancied mixing collectible card games, dungeon crawler s and mystical sword wielding cows then I AM MT may be right up your street but I’m not sure it’s up mine, I’m not even sure it’s got the right post code.

I have no clue as to what's going on.

I AM MT is a Chinese made machinima cartoon about those cow things (Taurens I think they’re called) in World of Warcraft, kind of playing World of Warcraft, I think. I’ve watched an episode on Youtube and quite frankly I had absolutely no idea what was going on, all I could work out was cartoon cows and the use of the Warcraft assets which I don’t think Blizzard have sanctioned, but there’s none of that in this game. No, this game is about dungeon crawling to win cards then using those cards to evolve your heroes into bigger and better fighters so they can go into deeper dungeons and kill bigger and harder baddies, you get the idea.

So a card collecting dungeon crawler, sound great doesn’t it. Well it might if you actually did any dungeon crawling. While deep down in the ground your only control is to adjust the formation of your team, picked from your collection of cards. You team then advances and battles are all handled automatically. It’s a very hands-off approach that feels a bit odd to me and makes me feel a disconnected from the game.

The best aspect of I AM MT

Being taken away from the action wouldn’t be so bad if the game wasn’t so bewildering. During combat spells, missiles and attacks are flying right left, right and centre and most of the time you have absolutely no idea what’s going on. In also makes it a bit nonsensical about your actual formation, if you don’t understand the effects of placing a fighter at the front rather than the back then what’s the point of giving the option. I ended up sticking the traditional fighters in front, healers and archers at the back but that still left my archer dead on several occasions and I’ve no idea why.

The interested aspect of I AM MT is the levelling system. Instead of gaining experience for killing the bad guys you get cards, either monsters or equipment. Levelling up a card involves sacrificing other cards, the higher level the card you sacrifice the more experience you gain. You can also choose to add these cards you’ve gained into your team and in turn level them up. It’s by far the best part of the game, making the decisions on which cards to sacrifice and which cards to level up is the toughest choice you’ll make and it’s the backbone of the game.

Like a BOSS

I AM MT is strangely addictive. It’s not addictive like exploring the frozen wastes of Skyrim or just one more go of blah, no it’s addictive like sitting in front of the television and then twenty minutes later realising you’ve been watching a documentary on cheese. You just seem to get lost in the game but there is little in the way of rewards for your efforts making it feel like you’ve wasted your time.

Of course I AM MT carries all the trappings of the modern social gaming experience. You can invite your friends to aid you in your quest. You can spend real world money to gain extra cards or gold, and when you think of I AM MT in this way it starts to feel like a Facebook game and upon that realisation the entire thing comes crashing down like a cow being tipped.

I could rip into this game even further but I should probably refrain, especially when the seemingly random art styles and wildly varying audio quality really don’t have any effect on the game.

Screw you!

I AM MT is a distraction and nothing more. It’s easy to get lost in its repetitive gameplay but the lack of any feasible goal, progression or rewards for your efforts leave the game feeling hollow.

The card experience system is the stand out aspect and it would really shine if incorporated into a more coherent game. Here it stands out because it’s the only part of the game you actually have any control over. The absence of any strategy or meaningful choices is the real deal breaker and this is why I AM MT left me empty.

I AM MT is available for free on all iOS devices from the app store.