Magic the Gathering: Duels of the Planewalkers - PC

Brand: Atari

Platform : Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows 95

16 ratings

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Product description

Review

As the television ads for the card-based version of Magic: The Gathering proclaim, "All you need is a brain, a deck, and a friend." Until the release of the multiplayer ManaLink patch in early February, MicroProse had provided plenty of decks but didn't allow players to compete against human opponents. Fans of the series were beginning to think the designers at MicroProse were the ones lacking brains. Duels of the Planeswalkers, the latest installment in MicroProse's Magic series, combines ManaLink, over 480 cards, and the Magic game engine - but the original release of Magic: The Gathering for the PC was over a year ago, and fans may find this add-on to be too little, too late.

In giving credit where credit is due, Duels is not solely an expansion pack. All of the elements found in the original Magic package can be found in Duels: 403 cards from the Fourth Edition set, two modes of gameplay (duel and campaign), a video-enhanced tutorial, faithful card art reproduction, and a plethora of pre-built decks. Duels even includes several interface enhancements and tournament options à la Spells of the Ancients, as well as 80 new cards from Legends and The Dark sets.

All of this makes Duels more of a rerelease than an add-on, but those of you who bought Magic when it hit the streets may be a bit peeved at MicroProse. Duels is the product that should have been released last year: a full-featured Magic engine that allows mano-a-mano duels via the Internet. Even if you own Magic and Spells of the Ancients and you only want the 80 new cards to enhance your decks (ManaLink is available to registered users for free via the Internet), you have to shell out another $30 for Duels ($45 street price with a $15 rebate). This means that dedicated players who have been with the series since the beginning will have to pay approximately $120 to play multiplayer Magic via the Internet with all of the available cards, giving way to the real magic behind both the card and computer-based version of Magic: its ability to mysteriously suck money from your pocket.

Duels is definitely aimed at newbies to Magic and, as a stand-alone product, it's a damn fine translation of the card game. However, for players who have been behind MicroProse's Magic from the beginning, Duels is almost useless and really just serves to piss you off. If you're new to Magic and are interested in the possibility of playing against your friends over the Internet or via a LAN, modem, or direct connection, you may want to check out Duels. But for you old-school Magic players out there, Duels of the Planeswalkers is simply not worth the price. --Tal Blevins
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited. -- GameSpot Review

Product information

ASIN

B00000K4D2

Customer Reviews

16 ratings

4.0 out of 5 stars

Best Sellers Rank

#149,258 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
#12,381 in PC-compatible Games

Pricing

The strikethrough price is the List Price. Savings represents a discount off the List Price.

Package Dimensions

5.6 x 4.9 x 0.4 inches; 4 Ounces

Binding

Video Game

Rated

Everyone

Item model number

50647

Is Discontinued By Manufacturer

Yes

Item Weight

4 ounces

Manufacturer

Atari

Date First Available

April 1, 1996

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Customer reviews

5 star		53%
4 star		29%
3 star 0% (0%)		0%
2 star 0% (0%)		0%
1 star		18%

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Jason A. Pollock

Very Good

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2010

Verified Purchase

I bought the original game right when it came out and was so excited about it. But due to lack of multiplayer and that it was missing many of my favorite cards, it became forgotten. I missed both expansions when they came out. Both expansions together addressed the above issues. I recently bought both expansions (and combined with the original) have been having a blast. If you at any time liked MtG and had fun with it, I recommend both (All 3). Also, I am amazed a game made for Windows 95 works great under Windows 7.

One person found this helpful

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lolwaut

CD needs old operating system. I think the license ...

Reviewed in the United States on December 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

CD needs old operating system. I think the license is transferable to the updated new available one. Just search for it.

Helpful

Mid American Mom

incompatible with current computer platforms

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2011

Verified Purchase

I do not recommend buying this game. I got it for my son, who loves playing the card game. After many frustrating hours trying to load this on two different computers in our home, we finally gave up. I have read enough online to see that this is a problem shared by many others, one not cannot be solved by an average computer user.

2 people found this helpful

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Sheila

Keep the gam listed

Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2003

Verified Purchase

This is a great game. It is good to have this game listed. I pre-ordered this game back in Oct/Nov. Two weeks ago, someone in CA had an UNOPENED copy of the game to sell thru the Marketplace for 24.95. Since I we listed as a pre-order, the game was automaticly sent to me! It was truly an unopened copy!

One person found this helpful

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Blake Watson

Pick a card...any card--no, not that one!

Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2003

Magic: The Gathering is a fantasy-themed card game--as I like to joke, the world's most elaborate form of "Go Fish"--which is, of course, more fun to play against a human than a program. But this game turns out to be a lot of fun and a great way to learn the game, which has its share of subtleties and nuances. Although it will take a while, you'll learn the game well enough from the program that you eventually spot the flaws in the computer's playing as well as the numerous bugs in interpreting cards.
Around the solid mechanics of the card game, Microprose built a spare but interesting gaming premise. Your avataar wanders around the mythical land of Shandalar running errands and fighting monsters. (Said fighting occurs, of course, as MtG duels.) What makes it interesting is the tweaks of the MtG rules that occur in Shandalar. In a "straight" duel, which this game allows you to play outside of Shandalar, you and your opponent have exactly 20 life points and the deck of your choice. In Shandalar, you start with a weak deck, fewer life points, and (by doing specific errands) you can build up to 20 points (and somewhat beyond). Other errands allow you to collect cards. Special "dungeons" themed around the game's five magic types allow you to fight certain creatures "in their element" for a chance to collect rare cards. (Not required, but fun.) Some of the creatures of Shandalar have "meta-powers", and can go into a game with certain advantages, like a card already in play. One kind can actually swap your deck for another (decent) deck. You can obtain similar bonuses by defeating these monsters, or through various "world magics" as they're called.
You're in a race against the five wizards of Shandalar, whose job it is to take over X number of cities, at which point they'll have the power to cast the Ultimate Magic Spell. In other words, game over. As they capture more cities, they get stronger. As you defeat their minions, they get weaker. In the final analysis, this game is rife with good ideas and a still too buggy implementation.
To make matters worse, retro-PC-gaming is a difficult and often unrewarding thing. Microsoft has never been much for backward compatibility and you'll have trouble running this on Windows 2000, though it can run on XP with some tweaking, I'm told. It'll run on your Windows 95/98/ME machine, but for a near fatal flaw: It'll run WAY too fast even on a 400mhz machine. (Note the 100mhz Pentium "minimum".) Shandalar, grievously, was made into a "real time" game, and your quests have time-limits. You can use a utility (MoSlo, Throttle, CPUKiller) to slow your entire computer down and make Shandalar go faster--but the kicker is during the duels, your computer opponents will take proportionally longer to decide their moves.
The "real time" aspects of the program were an unfortunate design decision ironically and irritatingly out of pace with the rest of the game. Shandalar could've just as well been set up like a board game.
With all its warts, though, this is a fine game. The real tragedy is that it wasn't maintained and updated. I'm not big on on-line games, and I don't like the MtG Online pricing scheme even if I did, but I'd shell out three Hamiltons yearly for a new version of this game, with new cards, new world "tweaks" and increasingly improved AI. It's a shame we'll never see it.
Finally, the timeline for these games, courtesy GameSpot: The original was released in February of 1997, followed in September of '97 with "Spells of the Ancients", followed at last by this version, "Duels of the Planeswalkers", which has all the new cards, bug fixes, and multiplayer. This is the last version, the version you want if you're going to play it at all.
The new Online, pay-per-pack version is not related to this game, nor is the older 1997 "BattleMage". (The latter only takes place in the MtG world, with no resemblance to the card game, so beware!)

31 people found this helpful

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Soren M. Saggio

A grand game.. that STILL holds my attention...

Reviewed in the United States on February 23, 2003

"Duel of the Planeswalkers" is a GREAT game. It was released in 1998 AFTER the initial release of "Magic the Gathering" (for PC) and the expansion pack "Spells of the Ancients". "Duel of the Planeswalkers" includes BOTH of the initial releases and also allows you to play online or via LAN. There are even a few "cards" that were designed specifially for playing on the PC... you will never find this in an actual MTG deck, they have random effects assigned by the computer when you play them!

My biggest complaint about MTG the CARD game was that it was impossible to keep up with all the rules... banned cards... and if I use this card with that card in this particular circumstance this will happen... MIND boggling problems. Its true MTG was the "father" of all other card games since 1992, and most are a far cry from MTG... but trying to seriously play and keep up on every expansion set was insane!! THUS MTG Duel of the Planeswalkers was born and is the answer to every "causal" MTG player's Prayers.
My 2 complaints about this game are as follows:
1) On today's 1.5+ Gigahertz machines this game needs to be slowed down if you play the "single player" theme game. Not a problem at all during actual DUELS, but in the "Shandalar" world everything moves WAY too fast. No big deal, just find a CPU reducer utility on the internet. Older machines might not have a problem in the "Shandalar" area, but might bog down in the middle of a duel where over 20 cards are on the "table". The CPU really has to do some massive computing to figure out it's next move.... (newer machines DON'T have this problem!)
2) This game hasn't been updated/added on to since 1998... great game... an expansion would be exquisite!
I have yet to take advantage of the online/lan playability... and I wonder if anyone is STILL playing this online... I'm not sure.
It's 2003 and I still find myself going back to this game... fun to play, easy to walk away from when necessary, no long term monatary investment.
If you are a casual player or fan of Magic the Gathering, this game is an excellent purchase. Serious players might find the game slightly old and outdated... but may yet enjoy it.

9 people found this helpful

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