Coming from BNA Studios and S2 Games (Heroes of Newerth, Strife), Brawl of Ages is a Collectible Card Arena Game in the same vein as the mega popular Clash of Clans (mobile) or Minion Masters (PC). Your goal is to build a deck of cards (spells, minions, and structures) that dominated the playing field and takes out the opposing team’s towers and base. The question here isn’t whether Brawl of Ages is fun, because it is. The question is whether or not the game can compete with its contemporaries. It’s an early access game on steam (available here), so features can and will be added. But right now, it feels like it’s missing the “magic”.
Right off the bat, throw Clash Royale aside and let’s say that Brawl of Ages is directly competing with the PC dark horse hit Minion Masters. However, BoA is different – it plays almost exactly like Clash Royale in that there are two towers and a keep, as opposed to MMO’s two controllable bridges and a main base. This is a small but crucial distinction because it makes each quick three minute game play that much different.
Instead of focusing down on the “base”, a bit more strategy can come to light as you want to first tackle the towers. MM is more about controlling lanes to earn more mana, where Brawl of Ages tends to be more of a push and pull of attack and defense combined with solid deck building.
That said, Brawl of Ages does something I was hoping S2 would avoid – it uses the menu UI in a separate window from the actual game UI. You manage your deck and settings in one small “launcher” window, and then when you launch a match, it goes into a full screen interface. It’s dated, and frankly, kind of “cheap” feeling. The same can be said of the overall presentation. Compared to its contemporaries, Brawl of Ages feels hackneyed and “low budget”. It’s a shame, because while it plays well, I can’t help feeling I’d rather be playing Clash Royale or Minion Masters. The thought being – do I really need another one of these games if it doesn’t do anything different or unique?
S2 was revered for the risks and design of Heroes of Newerth, even if that MOBA never became the insane hit like DOTA2 or LoL. When Strife came out, perhaps too late to the party, I was worried it would be the last we heard from S2. Now, as we’re getting a Clash Royale clone, I’m even more unsettled. It just doesn’t feel like a wise move. Brawl of Ages is fun, surely… but it’s so unoriginal that I can’t see myself devoting any serious time to it.
Minion Masters works as a game not because it’s just Clash Royale on PC, but because it’s different and it’s on PC. It has full Twitch integration, fantastic visuals, loads of customization. Brawl of Ages plays well, but feels like “Clash Royale Budget Edition” which is funny because they’re both Free to Play games. Still, if you’ve never tried Clash or Minion Masters, and what I describe here sounds intriguing, give it a look. You may find some fun here, but whether there are others to play with for long depends on if BNA and S2 can add more meat to the game and how fast.
