A few years ago TCGs exploded onto the gaming scene, and unlike MMOs, seem to still be going relatively strong, developing their own followings and loyal fans. It seems like everyone has their own special TCG offering on the market: Blizzard has Hearthstone, Bethesda has Elder Scrolls Legends, and, of course, Magic: the Gathering has its own offering for online play. Out of all the choices, it can be difficult to find one that’s a good fit, with just the right amount of progression, strategy, and novelty. While each has its own theme, they all seem to be largely similar, in some cases nigh identical, in mechanics. Unless it seems, you’re willing to venture out of F2P territory looking for something entirely different. This is our Faeria review.
Faeria is a TCG offering coming from the Indie company Abrakam, based out of Belgium. While it’s been available for some time, it’s largely been under the radar for a lot of TCG fans and that’s a shame.
It should be noted that Faeria remains one of the few TCGs that maintains overwhelmingly positive reviews, and the quality of the game certainly deserves it. Granted, it’s a buy to play offering, with bundles for expansions and premium upgrade as separate costs, but when compared to it’s F2P competitors, the cost seems largely worth it.
On their Steam page, they claim that you can get all 300 cards in 50 hours of play time, and with my experience, that’s more than highly likely. Chests, in which you gain five cards per, are awarded with great frequency, via daily quests and events that can be accomplished with a certain amount of ease, though, of course, some might mean a greater time investment than others, as they can range from “play 10 amount of <insert color> card” to “complete 2 wild packs”. Wild packs are under their PVE adventures tab and are a series of battles vs the AI.
Wild packs, however, are just one of several PVE offerings. Unlike many TCGS out there, Faeria offers a wide variety of objective and play modes, not just the basic battle mode (though that is included), and honestly, I find it hard to revisit f2p offerings as a result. Like many players, I crave variety as opposed to repetitive battles. Not to say some offerings haven’t gotten better, but they have a long way to go to catch up to Faeria.
For PVP, you have your standard battles, and for PVE, you have adventures (which are broken up into missions, oversky, world bosses and dragon’s lair), pandora and puzzles, and some of those puzzles will have you scouring google, like the latest one I received which gave me four cards and I had to win the game in one round with what I had.
If it wasn’t for the plethora of different game options alone, then the strategy, wherein you build your board as well as your deck and ponder card play choices, would set it head and shoulders above. No more basic boards with maybe interesting graphics, instead, you have a hex map where you build the lands you need as you go, to access your cards or to claim particularly important strategic points (like mana wells that give resource, or spots next to the “god” that you ultimately have to knock down). Making a bad choice on land building can be just as bad as having a terrible deck, and even a starter deck can win out over bigger more skillful decks, if the player pays attention to land placement.
Given that Faeria is on the Steam summer sale right now, if you’re looking for a new TCG to scratch that itch, but burnt out over the constant round and repetition of player versus player or player versus AI battles, it’s most definitely worth the purchase price. Even at full price, you’ll likely end up spending far less than you would on F2P offering to get even half the amount of cards and content. Constant updates and lack of nerfs just polish off this particular hidden gem, along with the delightful painterly styles and easy to navigate UI. The special currency is also only obtainable via special events, making the F2P/P2W an absolute nonentity, and truly secondary to skill.
While it doesn’t have the brand recognition of other TCGs, Faeria should absolutely occupy your top spot when searching for a TCG to play.
COMPARE TO: Hearthstone, Gwent, Magic: The Gathering
