Battleforge

by Electronic Arts

Product Features

• Fight for supremacy in intense player-vs.-player combat or team up, with up to 12 players, for epic co-op quests and warfare on massive battlegrounds.
• Use the unique forces of Fire, Frost, Nature, and Shadow to stake your ground and battle for survival.
• Card-based gameplay makes BattleForge easy to pick up and play yet provides countless hours of challenges and strategic action.
• Win, trade, auction, and buy cards online to create your ultimate deck and build the most powerful army possible.
• Wage epic warfare on 40 expansive, detailed maps online or in singleplayer mode.

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B001AVTY0U
• Item Weight: 4 ounces
• Media: DVD-ROM
• Release Date: March 23, 2009
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #16,712 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
  • #28 in Video Games > PC Games > Action > Military & Espionage
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Product Description

Build the perfect army and lay waste to your foes in BattleForge, an amazing new fantasy Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game from developer Phenomic. Combining strategic cooperative battles, the community of MMO games, and trading card gameplay, BattleForge is set to take the RTS world by storm. Unlike other RTS games, BattleForge players are free to put their creatures, spells and buildings into combinations they see fit. These units are represented in the form of digital cards from which you build your own unique army. With minimal resources and a custom tech tree to manage, the gameplay is unbelievably accessible and action-packed.

Large-scale warfare. View larger.

Unstoppable units. View larger.

Card-based battles come to life. View larger.

Elemental forces drive your attack. View larger.

Story
Journey to a fantasy realm where mortals are caught in a clash between gods and giants, and standing together is their only option. Command amazing creatures in battle while casting spells to sustain your forces or wreak havoc among your foes. Whether or not you triumph on the battlefield will depend on how you build your deck of digital cards and how you deploy them in the heat of combat.

Gameplay
Select a deck of 20 cards consisting of creatures, buildings, and spells. The cards represent your tools of war: units, buildings and spells that are conjured directly onto the battlefield. Assemble the perfect fighting force before the battle, choosing from your ever-increasing collection, and lead it into the battle. Rare cards open up completely new tactics for you. You can also buy boosters online, win cards in events and quests, and trade and auction cards online. Cards are organized into four different colored groups known as 'the Powers' and present players with different ways to play. More powerful cards have higher power costs (and thus take longer to play) so build your deck carefully to strike just the right balance and forge your victory. When your army is ready, head into battle with your friends, charge through a singleplayer campaign, or take on fellow players.

The Four Powers
Four powers determine the balance in the world of BattleForge. Each of these has its own special abilities, strengths and weaknesses that can carry the day depending on the conditions of the battlefield and game. Each also has a general theme. These are: Frost - Defensive; Fire - Aggressive; Nature - Control; and Shadow - Risk. Use the full array of spells, magical constructs and powerful units assigned to each to devise your strategy. Surprise your opponents with a perfectly armed fighting force - for every battle situation.

Key Features

• Use the forces of Fire, Frost, Nature, and Shadow to stake your ground and battle for survival.
• Card-based gameplay makes BattleForge easy to pick up and play yet provides countless hours of challenges and strategic action.
• Win, trade, auction, and buy cards online to create your ultimate deck and build the most powerful army possible.
• Take full advantage of a wide range of community-based features including guilds and cooperative online battles with friends.
• Wage epic warfare on 40 expansive, detailed maps.
• Fight for supremacy in intense player-vs.-player combat.
• Up to 12 players can team up for epic co-op quests and warfare on massive battlegrounds.

System Requirements:

	Recommended Specifications:
OS:	Windows Vista/Window XP with SP2
Processor:	1.8Ghz XP or faster
RAM:	1GB Vista/512MB XP (1GB recommended)
Video:	DirectX 9.0c compatible; NVIDIA GeForce 6 series or ATI Radeon 9500 or better; 128MB
Sound:	DirectX 9.0c compatible
DVD-ROM:	4x DVD-ROM drive or faster
Hard Drive Space:	12GB of Free Space
Other:	512Kps or faster broadband connection required for online play

Product Description

Build the perfect army and lay waste to your foes in an amazing new fantasy RTS from developer Phenomic. Combining strategic cooperative battles, the community of MMO games, and trading card gameplay, BattleForge is set to take the RTS world by storm. Unlike other RTS games, BattleForge players are free to put their creatures, spells and buildings into combinations they see fit. These units are represented in the form of digital cards from which you build your own unique army. With minimal resources and a custom tech tree to manage, the gameplay is unbelievably accessible and action-packed! Journey to a fantasy realm where mortals are caught in a clash between gods and giants, and standing together is their only option. Command amazing creatures in battle while casting spells to sustain your forces or wreak havoc among your foes. Whether or not you triumph on the battlefield will depend on how you build your deck of digital cards and how you deploy them in the heat of combat. Select a deck of 20 cards consisting of creatures, buildings, and spells. You can buy "boosters" online, win cards in events and quests, and trade and auction cards online. Four different colored card groups have their own strengths and weaknesses, giving you many different ways to play. More powerful cards have higher power costs (and thus take longer to play) so build your deck carefully to strike just the right balance and forge your victory. When your army is ready, head into battle with your friends, charge through a single-player campaign, or take on fellow players.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fans of Magic the Gathering will enjoy this., March 31, 2009

By 

Christian James "Reluctant Shopper" (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: BattleForge (DVD-ROM)

What it is:

This game is basically a combination of Magic the Gathering and Age of Mythology (or Warcraft). It's a real time strategy game, but instead of collecting resources needed to "cast" items, you collect energy needed to "cast" cards from your 20-card deck.

I did not beta test the game -- I bought it on its release date. The game has a very small community, and I worry that it may be too small. But the community is engaged, active, and much more articulate than what you'd find in a typical MMO. I spent $100 on the game and some cards, and that's PLENTY. I don't have everything, but I have enough to build very competitive decks. Executing those decks competitively is another matter...

THE GOOD:

1. It's a collectible card game, and I love collecting cards. One can spend hours studying the 200 available cards, tinkering with decks, etc. That's almost as fun as playing the game. I'm already addicted to my desks.

2. The game has both PvE (player versus computer) and PvE (plater versus player) maps. If you're up for a quick challenge, play PvP. Want to relax and play slow? Try PvE. Games are short enough to be manageable if you have a family to care for (my average games are 5-25 minutes).

3. There are only 200 cards for now. That's plenty. I quit playing MTG because there were like 3453767634 cards. It was impossible to keep up.

4. Gameplay has been great. I've never crashed, never noticed a bug, and have thoroughly enjoyed the graphics and play. It truly is a fun experience.

THE BAD:

1. There appears to be a shortage of things to do long-term once the PvE missions are completed. At that point, as far as I can tell, you're stuck with PvP if you want to do something new.

2. You can't practice against the computer on the PvP maps. Why is this a problem? Because if you're new to the game like me you'll get utterly destroyed in your first 10-20 PvP matches. But you still gain experience points for those matches, and I believe you're seeded against opponents based on your experience points (if I'm wrong, please correct me via comments). So you end up getting killed time and time again but keep getting seeded against better and better players. You can practice PvP in a "non-ranked" sparring mode, but I get crushed there even more often than I do when I'm seeded according to my ranking. It sure would be nice to practice tactics on the PvP maps against the computer (or even accessing the PvP maps without an opponent). That leads me to my third complaint:

3. The community is too small. I sometimes have to wait 15 minutes for the computer to find me an opponent. That's not because I'm seeded so low. It's because there are only 20 or so other people available to play.

4. The manual is way too sparse and the game's website doesn't have enough information about actual gameplay. I had to post forum questions just to get simple answers about how the game works.


Despite the "bads," this game was certainly worth my money and I'm happy I'm a part of it. I would recommend it wholeheartedly to any former MTG player who likes RTS games and can readily shell out $50 for the game and at least another $20-$40 for extra cards.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun game, fast delivery, February 14, 2011

By 

Benjamin J. Michael - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: BattleForge [Download] (Software Download)

The game itself is free2play. Downloading it from the battleforge website will let you play through the entire game but with a very limited deck of cards (to summon units, spells and buildings). Buying this will give you more cards and, more importantly, points for the game that will let you buy specific cards from the in-game auction house. The best part of this digital download is that as soon as you purchase it, you are directed to your amazon game center page where the activation code is given. This means that if you already have the game installed, you can just paste the code from that page into the game client and unlock all the cards and points, no waiting for a package or even a confirmation email, it's instant. Much better reviews of the game itself can be found elsewhere, but I wanted to let people know how easy and fast it is to pick up this digital copy.

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Collectable Cards without the Cardboard, March 29, 2009

By 

hubcat - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: BattleForge (DVD-ROM)

I am enjoying this game. Being able to mix and match from the different factions is a unique and enjoyable addition to the RTS scene.

There is two things I wish I had known about, however, and am passing on to you, reader:

1) this game is online only. there is no offline game.

2) You have to buy the cards with real cash. True to EA style, in order to get the most out of this game you have to spend more and more. I can already guess that there will be expansion sets of cards that you will have to pay for to stay competitive.

you do get quite a few cards to start with, and a 'free' 3000 points in your account ($30 worth) enough to play the game, and enjoy it. but if you want to shine, if you want to win in PvP, it's about strategy, sure, and skill, yes, but it's also about who spent the most cash, just like any other CCG (collectible card game).

Unfortunately, you don't get the nice little benefit of being able to sell the cards 10-20 years later, because everything is digital.

At the time of writing this, cards come in packs of 8 and cost 250 points, buying 250 points costs $2.50 so it is exactly like buying a booster pack of any other CCG, but without all that troublesome cardboard.

I am enjoying the game, and am going to go back and play some more, after writing this. I just felt these 'little' details should be mentioned to perspective buyers.

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