Having found success as a more traditional tabletop card game, the artist formerly known as The Lord of the Rings: Living Card Game has finally made the transition to the world of virtual decks. Having emerged from Early Access on PC, The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game arrives on consoles with cross-play and all the story content that’s been patched over the past few months. But with so many CCGs (Collectable Card Games, in case you were wondering) to choose from on Nintendo Switch, does this Tolkien-flavoured effort prove itself worthy of your fellowship?
While multiplayer support of sorts has been added to the mix in the form of co-op play, The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game is primarily a PvE experience that doubles down on the rich narrative reservoir of Middle-earth and uses it to craft an experience that looks like a card game but with more of a focus on roleplay. With almost 10 years of card updates and adjustments from its real-life counterpart, The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game comes pre-loaded with a lot of cards, although the rules and card effects have been simplified somewhat to make it easier to pick up. There’s still room for strategy, but if you’re coming directly from the tabletop game, you might find this digital iteration a little too diluted.
At first glance, The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game is your usual CCG affair. You’ll create multiple decks of cards, then take one into battle with various AI-controlled beasts, monsters and foes. You’ll unlock new ones as you complete story-driven quests, with each encounter broken down into a series of turns where you’ll manage resources in order to play certain cards. Heroes are the most powerful cards at your disposal, representing well-known characters from Tolkien lore. You can play three Heroes per deck, with Allies (less powerful character cards) Events (one-time cards that are basically just spells) and Attachments (equipment to help support your Heroes and Allies in battle) rounding out your deck.
You can have up to 30 cards in a deck, with four types to choose from: Tactics, Lore, Spirit and Leadership. You can only use cards of a certain type if you have a Hero of that type in your deck (unless you’re using some of the limited ‘neutral’ cards), so you’re given a clear means of building decks suited to certain playstyles. And while the rules have been simplified in places, there’s still a lot of systems to keep track of as you make your way towards your final showdown with Sauron. So far, so CCG.
Games like this often use story elements to tie one battle into another, serving as little more than a loose justification for various encounters. And while The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game plays fast and loose with Tolkien’s lore (don’t worry, we’ll get to that), there’s been a concerted effort on the part of the developer to give each scripted battle a sense of contextual purpose. The extensive five-part tutorial campaign does a great job of explaining how all of this works, such as how to complete Quests by visiting key locations. From stealing keys to sneaking past parties of orcs, each challenge offers a little extra spice to the usual ‘reduce enemy units to zero’ schtick.
To keep things interesting, The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game introduces Threat and Fate meters. The latter fills over time and enables you to unleash specific abilities tied to your Heroes, but it’s the former that causes more issues than it solves. This being a Tolkien story set before the events of The Lord Of The Rings, Sauron remains a constant presence, with said meter representing the danger he poses to you and the rest of Middle-earth. Let it fill all the way before your journey’s natural end and it’s game over, so you’re effectively always playing against the clock – a bizarre mechanic when you consider just how long it takes to clear a great number of locations. Painfully protracted encounters aren’t helped by the seemingly random nature of Sauron’s influence, which adds additional resources to your enemies when you’ve spent ages tactically burning through your own.
How compelling and enjoyable you find The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game's storytelling will come down to just how sensitive you are to changes to lore. Developer Fantasy Flight Interactive has opted to create some new stories that bridge the gap between The Hobbit and its grander, larger sequel, creating new fellowships and quests as you go. The production level is pleasingly high, with full character voice-overs really helping sell the narrative focus of the story. Thing is, Tolkien’s stories are so well known that making changes to key characters and events makes The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game's enjoyable if occasionally frustrating gameplay feel like nothing more than expensive fan fiction.
The lack of proper multiplayer is also an odd choice. CCGs live and breathe via their ability to attract a community of competitive players, but The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game is more focused on providing additional stories through planned expansion DLC. You can play cooperatively with another player on Switch, but as fun as it can be to share tactics against the CPU, it’s never going to compare to the pride you get from building a custom deck and using it effectively against an unpredictable human player. There’s also a considerable lack of players currently hosting rooms, so even if you wanted to play with someone else, you might not have the chance.
However, while it does lack any form of online PvP, The Lord Of The Rings: Adventure Card Game does away with the microtransactions we see all too often in CCGs. Every main card in the game can be unlocked through natural play, with those added in via expansions only serving to enhance an already substantial library in the main game. With so many CCGs focused on competitive multiplayer – and the constant allure/pressure of buying new card packs – it’s still a good thing to see gamers who love deck-dealing but don’t want to play competitively have a game that caters to that specific need.
Conclusion
The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game offers up an unusual mixture of cooperative play and narrative-driven battles that flies in the face of more traditional digital CCGs. If you’re looking for a card game more aligned with the rules of a tabletop effort, with more of a role-playing focus, this is definitely going to appeal. The lack of proper support for online PvP is an odd omission considering how popular that feature is in other entries in the genre, but a refreshing lack of suffocating microtransactions does help soothe that wound.
Comments 22
“Hobbit Forming”.... the Pun heard round the world.
I enjoyed the Lord of the Rings games that appeared on the GameCube.
Not into digital collectible card games as being digital the cards aren’t really collectible in the keeping for rarity, value and resale later in life.
Bring a remastering of the GameCube games or a new action RPG/MMO
That pun was so bad, it was actually physically painfull.
@Laxeybobby
Those are EA games and I doubt EA is onboard.
Good review, but just have in mind - the game is based on (The Lord of the Rings The Card Game by FFG) is a co-op game with no PvP variant. It was never meant to be played against another human player. So it is only natural that there is no PvP in the digital version.
@KitsuneNight I laughed then punched myself. 🤣
@Yanguss Yeah, the co-op is baked into the design from the beginning - I don't see how multiplayer would ever work without a total resign. Also the game isn't a CCG - but the review calls it one so many times!
Ah yes, that line which LoTR is famous for:
‘All hands on deck’.
That tagline is honestly the best you could come up with?
Weak.
I love the Lord of the Rings Living Card Game so, so much. It was my gateway to modern solo boardgames, and after years of boardgaming it is still one of my favorites. I've sunk several hundred dollars into buying its expansions and played it more - a LOT more - than any other tabletop game since Dungeons and Dragons.
I still have no intention of buying this. Partly because of the afore-mentioned investment in the cardboard version, and partly because they've changed some of the rules in ways that I don't want to have to adjust to. When a game is practically perfect, changing its rules doesn't sound like a good idea.
I've also heard that it's online-only, which is a deal-breaker for me. If I have to have an internet connection, I can't play this anywhere I couldn't just play the card game.
I'm still pretty confident that it's a good experience and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys video card games like Hand of Fate, Slay the Spire or Hearthstone.
Also, the art in this game is magnificent. It makes pretty much every other card game look like amateur hour. The only other card game that comes close is MTG.
Hobbit forming? Blasphemy! Only the All High One, Eru Ilúvatar, can form hobbits.
@Dm9982
i winced so hard at the pun, I nearly popped an eye.
I was wondering about this game. I just noticed it’s on Xbox Game Pass as well. I’ll give it a try there, if I enjoy it I’ll probably pick it up on Switch since it seems a better fit to me.
@JasmineDragon I'd even put it above MtG. I couldn't play this game electronically because I'd miss holding those beautiful, beautiful cards.
@KitChan the original Lord of the Ring Adventure Card Game came out 3 years before Hearthstone
@JasmineDragon
Only only? Ugh, that’ll be a hard pass if true.
EDIT: I just read this in an article on Destructoid.
“Having primarily played it on PC for the past year and change in Early Access (it arrived in earnest this past summer), I had a chance to check out the brand new Switch version, which launched alongside of the PS4 and Xbox One editions this week. With the boon of portable mode (and offline play, since the PC edition is firmly rooted in Asmodee's system for now) I was drawn back into its clutches yet again, crafting decks (parties, really) and cutting through Sauron's minions all over again.”
So that’s good news.
EDIT 2: (last edit ha) From Reddit
“Offline mode confirmed for switch only. You have to start the game with no WiFi I think, then you can play offline without worrying about server crashes. However, I don’t think you can earn Fellowship or something. Someone should test it and report back!
EDIT: You can not earn Fellowship or Cards in offline mode.“
So does that make it a deal breaker? I’m leaning towards yes.
I think I’ll stick with my GameCube LotR games and my PC version of Battle for Middle-Earth II
I've played the PC version since the Beta last year. It's a great game, but content isn't being released at the pace I'd like.
Also, this game is not a Hearthstone clone. It's based off of a physical card game that's been ongoing since 2010.
@Laxeybobby Your point is very valid, but this isn't a CCG. It's what Fantasy Flight calls a Living Card Game. They were invented to counter players' complaints about having to chase rare cards. In LCGs you don't buy random booster packs, you buy set packs which give you new quests and new player cards. There are no rare cards, and you know exactly what's in a pack before you buy.
I can't say how much the digital version differs from the LCG model. I do know that you unlock cards through playing. But it's still not a CCG, and there aren't any loot boxes.
Cool! Now do this with Arkham Horror LCG.
Without the PvP this makes Culdcept Revolt 3ds a better choice
Is this anything like culdcept revolt on 3ds?
It's on sale now for $9.99
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