War of the Fallen iOS Review

The concept of collectible card games, or CCGs, in a video game is becoming a bit of a thing. Big names in both the video game industry and board gaming industry, such as Blizzard, Minecraft creator Mojang and even Wizards of the Coast are developing games based along the concept of collecting and trading cards and then using them to battle each other. As with a lot of concepts, as soon as it becomes popular there is an explosion of games using the same mechanic and so it is that Zynga, a company made famous by a social farming game have released War of the Fallen, a collectible card game for iOS.

This sums up the entire game.

Right out of the gate something feels a little shanky with War of the Fallen. It starts with your guide to the game being a poorly armoured well-endowed fairy. She thrusts her assets at your face and guides you through the game, explaining the battle mechanics: tap to attack. I’m very tempted to leave the review there, as those three words define this entire game. Tap to Attack. You can’t choose which card you want to attack with, you can’t use any of your cards special abilities because they don’t have any so as soon as combat begins you have but one option: tap to attack. Combat in a fantasy collectible card game has been devolved to its most basic level and each encounter comprises of prodding your touch screen until the enemy dies. The magical tit fairy also commends you on how great a fighter you are, strange I didn’t even feel I was watching the fight, never mind pivotal to its success because all I did was tap to attack.

The only skill, hell the only options available to you, is to select which five cards to take into a battle. There is some balancing to be done as cards cost both stamina and mana, so the type of cards you can put into your deck are limited by mana and how many times you can jab at the touchscreen is limited by your stamina. Of course both stamina and mana limits can be raised by the spending of real money.

Boss battles involve even less interaction.

At the end of every stage is a boss battle, these work slightly differently but involve even less involvement. You are presented with your deck and a series of options with which to bolster your combat strength, such as inviting your friends. The scores are then combined and you’re told if you win or lose. It suddenly makes the normal part of the game seem highly interactive.

You are constantly being rewarded with new cards or crafting items. You can evolve cards, combine cards and otherwise bolster your deck and make it stronger. This is where the majority of the game takes place, there are plenty of options to combine, destroy, buy and sell cards meaning that every deck can be tweaked to your style. Zynga have managed to get the collectible card sections of CCG spot on it’s a shame there’s no game here.

Free to play and mobile game mechanics litter this game, your stamina recovers over time, so you’re constantly being encouraged to play in short bursts, unless you buy stamina potions that cost money. You can buy all kinds of enhancements to cards with real money and of course you can use real money to get extra in-game currency. Its free to play at its very worst.

Jab him in the face!

War of the Fallen isn’t a game, it’s a slot machine. It’s full of bright lights, shiny images and constant rewards designed to draw you in and create a Pavlovian response. But there’s still no game here, there’s no decisions, no strategy, no gameplay of which to speak. I feel guilty now for being so harsh on Solforge, because even with all of its flaws and disappointments at least Solforge is a game. Stay away from War of the Fallen, don’t even download it to see how right I am, because every download of this game will be seen by Zynga as a success and the name of collectible card games will be besmirched by even more of this dross.