From the Butlerniverse

Tonight, I review a great but ungodly expensive game (in the grand scheme of things) for the PS3, as I eagerly await the much less expensive PSP game in the franchise.

Game Title: The Eye of Judgment

Platform Reviewed: Playstation 3

Also Available: N/A

Created by: Japan Studio

When I was younger, I did not get into Magic: The Gathering when it was all the rage. In fact, I only acquired MTG cards and played MTG  years later, when I was able to buy a bunch of them cheap from a friend, just so we could play against each other. That is not to say that I didn’t enjoy card games. I was a huge fan of the Star Wars Customizable Card Game (SWCCG) from Decipher (the precursor to the great WARS Trading Card Game franchise that I’m now writing a novella for, if you hadn’t heard). I hunted down virtually every main character’s rare cards for several years, spending far too much money on that particular game. In later years, I played a tiny bit of Net Runner and even Pokemon (due to that same friend), but none of those games held my attention in later years, except for a quasi-CCG from Steve Jackson Games called Knightmare Chess, which included only two pre-created sets of cards (no booster packs) that were played alongside a game of real chess.

Then I purchased a PS3. After years of not having played CCGs/TCGs at all, I found myself intrigued by an unusual game for  the Playstation 3. The game, entitled The Eye of Judgment used specially designed cards with coding on them. As the game is played in front of the Playstation Eye with the PS3 game running, the battles “come to life” on the screen for a very dynamic experience. Best of all, I could play it without another player, now that my time is limited, as is my array of friends in this area who enjoy such games.

But is the game worthwhile, you ask? Therein lies the purpose of this review.

Story: The story of The Eye of Judgment is really incidental in the PS3 version of the game (though more prominent in the PSP version that is coming soon, The Eye of Judgment: Legends). In essence, there are numerous factions vying for power in a mystical land, each of which is aligned with an aspect of nature (and one unnatural “element”): Earth; Fire; Wood; Water; and the unnatural, mechanical Biolith alignment. You play as a wizard (mage, wizard, Harry Potter wannabe, whatever you prefer) that is casting spells to bring these factions into combat. Beyond that, the story is a somewhat convoluted fantasy tale, but it is all told in the manuals and such (or in bonus features of the game, in text form), so it does not play a major role in the game. The card gaming is the star of this experience, not the story.

Gameplay: Rather than going into all of the details of the card game’s mechanics, which would bore the living hell out of anyone now heavily into card games, let me try to summarize the most salient points of The Eye of Judgment and its approach to gaming.

When you first purchase the game, which originally retailed for $70 ($10 more than a regular PS3 game) but is much cheaper most places now, you receive: the PS3 game; a 30-card starter deck; a booster pack; a game mat; and the Playstation Eye camera with a special stand.

Now, let’s be clear on what I just said: you get actual, physical cards here. This is not like the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game or its ilk, where all cards are digital. You literally play with real cards, all of which have special coding on them, so that the Playstation Eye can recognize the card and certain actions, so that the card game literally interacts with the video game (which requires the cards to play).

You lay out the “mat” (your “field of battle”) on a flat surface, with the PS Eye camera on its stand in a specific position in relation to the playing mat. The field consists of nine squares, laid out like a tic-tac-toe board. As you “summon” creatures and such, they are placed into those squares, facing a particular direction. (On the TV screen, you will see these creatures spring to life atop their respective location on the board, and when they battle each other, you see animations of those actions in a full-screen battle sequence, or you can skip that part when it becomes tedious.)

Your goal here is not to wipe out the other player’s (or computer’s) life force (deck in most games). Instead, your goal is to end a turn while controlling five of the nine spaces on the board, while trying to stop your opponent from doing so by kicking the ever-loving asses of his or her creatures.

The Cards: The cards for this series are quite well done, and there is a great variety of characters and factions in play. I actually find the selection about as intriguing as the WARS TCG, which is really saying something here.

There is a catch, however.

The original set of cards (aptly called “Set 1″) consists of about 100 cards. You are playing with a starter deck and one booster pack, from which to develop your 30-card deck for dueling. As you defeat the CPU, you unlock different themed decks to play against, but you need actual cards to use a card on your end. In other words, to play with more than just the cards the game came with, you’ll be needing to purchase more cards, and that becomes difficult because, quite frankly, I have never seen The Eye of Judgment cards on sale anywhere except on Ebay or Amazon. You won’t have much luck finding these in brick and mortar stores, most likely.

To make matters more frustrating, you not only have to purchase more cards if you want to use different characters (like in a regular TCG, which is to be expected), but when you want to start using cards from Set 2 or Set 3, the other two 100-card (or so) expansion packs, you will have to spend $14.99 per set to obtain a license that unlocks that portion of the game itself (after downloading the newest update to the software).

In other words, expect to spend some cash here.

That being said, the array of cards is nice, and the fact that each set has only 100 cards (instead of 300 or more as in some card games) makes collecting the sets at least a bit more feasible than it otherwise might be.

Moreover, Set 1 (built into the game upon purchase) and Set 2 (the first expansion of cards and DLC) both include theme decks that you can purchase instead of loading up on a ton of booster packs. That was the route that I took, outside of purchasing big lots of rare or other cards on Ebay.  Each Set (1 or 2) has five possible theme decks, one for each of the alignments in the game. Unfortunately, Set 3 did away with theme decks (for purchase, at least). You still play against Set 3 CPU theme decks in the one-player game, but they are not able to be purchased as such, making Set 3 the only booster-only set of the trio.

The Verdict: The Eye of Judgment is a game that never fails to entertain me, even as its “normal” difficulty level (the one necessary to unlock theme decks to battle against) continuously kicks my ass all over the field. As someone who, over time, has purchased the original game, all of the ten theme decks (five each from Sets 1 and 2), and a ton of other cards (now amounting to an almost full set), I really enjoy breaking out the cards and getting into some EOJ.

The visuals are nice, and, frankly, this is the kind of interactive card game that I have wanted for decades. I really enjoy this game.

The downsides, though, are pretty heavy if you don’t have both the patience to set up the PS Eye and play mat every time you want to play or the money to purchase cards beyond the original starter deck that comes with the game.

If you have the cash and the time, this is an awesome experience for TCG/CCG fans.

However, let me offer a different piece of advice this time, rather than “buy it” or “don’t buy it.”

Later this year (Spring 2010, they say, though it is already out in Japan), a new entry in the series is being launched. The Eye of Judgment: Legends will be launched on the PSP (yes, PSP, not PS3) and feature the same great gameplay. However, the PSP version will lack the battle animations (at least the larger ones) and will use virtual cards, not physical cards, which you can earn, among other ways, through in-game victories. The PSP version will also include a story mode for single player outings. This PSP version, with its virtual cards, seems as though it will be a lot cheaper (and require zero setup time with a PS Eye or other peripherals), which might make this the better choice for someone new to the Eye of Judgment franchise.

Even better: the PSP game has a demo available for download already. While I still think the original EOJ experience is the better of the two for card gamers, the PSP version is such a close second that I’d recommend either one very highly to those into TCG/CCG play.

Grade: B+ (if we count setup time and cost) or A (ignoring setup time and cost)

A trading card game that blends seamlessly into a PS3 game, finally bringing such card games to a whole new level. Highly recommended for those with the time and money to play.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 10th, 2010 at 7:28 pm and is filed under Non-SW Video Games, The Eye of Judgment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.