Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft

 PC
User Score
5.7

Mixed or average reviews- based on 2373 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1,045 out of 2373
  2. Mixed: 527 out of 2373
  3. Negative: 801 out of 2373

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  1. Antipika
    Apr 26, 2014
    4
    Won't talk about the whole "P2W" element. Anyone educated enough on CCG and TCG knows that they're a money drain. MTG is just as bad, especially Type-2. MTGO is awfully expensive too, more than Hearthstone.

    Why 4/10? Because in Hearthstone is far from being balanced and that's kind of an issue for a card game. Warlock and Hunter are completely OP while Mage are plain awful. Most of    Won't talk about the whole "P2W" element. Anyone educated enough on CCG and TCG knows that they're a money drain. MTG is just as bad, especially Type-2. MTGO is awfully expensive too, more than Hearthstone.

    Why 4/10? Because in Hearthstone is far from being balanced and that's kind of an issue for a card game. Warlock and Hunter are completely OP while Mage are plain awful. Most of matches are a battle of luck rather than skill. As a Mage, I already know at turn 5 or 6 if I'm going to lose or not. Especially if facing a Warlock or Hunter (which is about 70% of the population from Rank 10 and above.)

    So HS forces you to play the Flavor of the month and off course if you want to move from one class to another, you have to spend more money. Only class-less legendaries/Epics will be able to be re-used, all your Class Specific cards becomes useless the moment you want to play something else.

    Then the whole matchmaking system is MOBA-style garbage, a big play button, impossible do anything beside choosing "Casual" or "Ranked". No in-game chat, no chat room, impossible to play with the person YOU want (unless he's on your friend-list). How hard is it to implement a system not based on sh*tty matchmaking? I want to decide against who I'm playing.

    The Arena now is a huge joke:

    1. You cannot choose the class you will play (off course the game balance is so awful that everyone would pick Paladin or Mage in Arena)

    2. The matchmaking system is once again awful. Can't I just have a proper tournament-style Drafts like MTGO does? No instead the game just matches you against random people. Would be way better to have tournament either Swiss-Style, either with direct elimination.

    3. The drafting system is bad, I'd rather open a pack, pick a card, and pass that pack over another player. Again like MTG does well. No instead the game just feed me with 3 random cards, and I got to pick one. So everything is based on luck. With a proper draft, luck is way less important. Why? Because if the pack you open is full of garbage, then the whole table is going to get garbage.

    Beside that the game is fun, mechanics are fun too.

    TL;DR: Awful balance, bad matchmaking system, no proper tournament. Fun mechanics.    … Expand
  2. madattak
    Oct 30, 2015
    4
    There's a lot to like about Hearthstone. It's very addictive, fun, and good to play with friends. The only problem is, it is completely Pay 2 Win. If you decide to play this game for free don't expect to win against anybody who's been paying. Don't expect to play competitively. There are normally about three decks which are viable to play and have a good chance of winning, and if you don'tThere's a lot to like about Hearthstone. It's very addictive, fun, and good to play with friends. The only problem is, it is completely Pay 2 Win. If you decide to play this game for free don't expect to win against anybody who's been paying. Don't expect to play competitively. There are normally about three decks which are viable to play and have a good chance of winning, and if you don't have the cards required for them you can either grind losing games for hours and hours or pay up.
    Good game in theory, but like almost every other F2P in existence, a good theory is ruined by need to extract money.    … Expand
  3. paprik
    Apr 30, 2014
    4
    Nicely polished card game with pretty UI that is completely ruined by its lack of features and depth. Two game modes, no statistics, no single-player outside of 'practice', not enough cards etc. And the meta card pool at any given moment is so small that you keep seeing the exact same decks all the time in constructed. Arena is still luck based (you can get 5 legendaries/epics or noneNicely polished card game with pretty UI that is completely ruined by its lack of features and depth. Two game modes, no statistics, no single-player outside of 'practice', not enough cards etc. And the meta card pool at any given moment is so small that you keep seeing the exact same decks all the time in constructed. Arena is still luck based (you can get 5 legendaries/epics or none whatsoever). The business model is pretty bad as well and with the new expansion it's gonna get much worse.… Expand
  4. Antek
    Jun 23, 2015
    4
    Was an addictive balanced game while played with base decks/cards. Further becomes total pay to win. Overpowered cards which can be played for nothing are here and there. If you don't invest in this game - you won't be able to stay competitive at higher ranks.
  5. PersonalRiot
    Apr 23, 2014
    4
    Hearthstone is a quality casual card game that will dominate the mobile market for a long period of time. The aesthetics of the game are top notch and hearing the roar of "FOR THE HORDE" while your minions attack never becomes dull. Thought the game does suffer heavily from its current play systems. Cards can only be obtained in a few ways and completing a "powerful" deck may takes weeksHearthstone is a quality casual card game that will dominate the mobile market for a long period of time. The aesthetics of the game are top notch and hearing the roar of "FOR THE HORDE" while your minions attack never becomes dull. Thought the game does suffer heavily from its current play systems. Cards can only be obtained in a few ways and completing a "powerful" deck may takes weeks even months without buying cards. While the F2P system of the game should be commended for its accessibility; without quests the gold earned is 10 gold per 3 wins. It cost 100 gold for a deck of 5 cards. Assuming 50% win rate that is 60 games which is absurd. To make any progress it is best to play the game every three days or so in order to complete quest together. Disappointing that the game is behind a massive paywall that cannot even be overcome with paying due to RNG.… Expand
  6. BestNoob
    Jun 4, 2015
    4
    Completly unbalanced game.

    And this just because of Blizzard only want money from the Players. They should shame !

    New players have to play against players with much bigger card pool and experience.
    Matchmaking is also very bad.

    The game itself is one of the best card games i have ever seen but this doesn´t matter in front of the problems.
  7. TenchuuKhan
    Jun 9, 2015
    4
    Hearthstone is a bit like playing Backgammon against an opponent that has dice where 3 sides are jokers and he can just pick a number suiting his needs.
    There's really not much you can do from a tactical point of view to outplay someone with a better deck.
    A massive waste of time unless you are willing to throw in some coins to build your decks. While that's the business model of    Hearthstone is a bit like playing Backgammon against an opponent that has dice where 3 sides are jokers and he can just pick a number suiting his needs.
    There's really not much you can do from a tactical point of view to outplay someone with a better deck.

    A massive waste of time unless you are willing to throw in some coins to build your decks.
    While that's the business model of course, there's not much a free-to-play player can do except getting wrecked every game. Thus, the f2p model is ****    … Expand
  8. Toddler
    Apr 17, 2014
    4
    When I started off with Hearthstone, it was really fun and interesting game. I would have definitely given it 8/10 easily.

    Sadly, the game has taken turn for the worse: Nowdays you'll constantly run into few dominant decks (which people have been kind enough to share with others, thanks to wonders of the internet) and you can basically predict the outcome just after 1-3 Turns. The game    When I started off with Hearthstone, it was really fun and interesting game. I would have definitely given it 8/10 easily.

    Sadly, the game has taken turn for the worse: Nowdays you'll constantly run into few dominant decks (which people have been kind enough to share with others, thanks to wonders of the internet) and you can basically predict the outcome just after 1-3 Turns.
    The game that COULD have been a tactically demanding card game has now devolved into braindead zerg-rush 24/7.

    Oh, and thank you "Unleash the Hounds" card, you single handedly made the whole game worse.    … Expand
  9. WryMouth
    Aug 25, 2014
    4
    Same as all games the game is "free" unless you want to spend real money in the game...optional "spending". Decent game, not as good as Magic card game but its cute. Mostly made for eSports gamers that get donations to buy decks etc etc. Overall one major issues, as most battle.net games is their network. Game lags, sometimes you cant log in at all, even when you play vs computerSame as all games the game is "free" unless you want to spend real money in the game...optional "spending". Decent game, not as good as Magic card game but its cute. Mostly made for eSports gamers that get donations to buy decks etc etc. Overall one major issues, as most battle.net games is their network. Game lags, sometimes you cant log in at all, even when you play vs computer sometimes it takes them 2 to 5 minutes to make a move or pick a card.… Expand
  10. maxsmiley
    Mar 17, 2014
    4
    The animations and mechanics are extremely satisfying. The voice acting is as good as Blizzard has always delivered, and makes you reminisce about what made WC3 so great. But this game is plain and simple a pay to accelerate to drain the pockets of preteens. Not worth anyones time.
  11. Timeflows
    Apr 17, 2014
    4
    The game is fairly entertaining for the first hour but then you will find that it's very unbalanced. Classes like Mage, Priest and Warlock are the best and destroy everyone and each other while Classes like Rogue, Druid and Hunter are handicap with cards that aren't even capable of holding there own ground. Comparing the first 3 classes to the next 3 is that the cost of the cards are theThe game is fairly entertaining for the first hour but then you will find that it's very unbalanced. Classes like Mage, Priest and Warlock are the best and destroy everyone and each other while Classes like Rogue, Druid and Hunter are handicap with cards that aren't even capable of holding there own ground. Comparing the first 3 classes to the next 3 is that the cost of the cards are the same, but the first 3 have a large gap in damage and benefits in there cost while the other 3 are utterly weak and have not a large range of abilities. I'd say this game is still incomplete as it's whoever has the better class will usually win and it's certainly unfair for those who want to play with different cards other the being the most powerful.… Expand
  12. COHL7500
    Jun 29, 2015
    4
    Hearthstone may be the best game when it comes to digital card/board games, but holy **** it has the typical Pay 2 Win, and for some reason, many times Blizzard **** this up, relentlessly. But that's not the only problem in all honesty.

    If you have legendaries from this or that expansion pack, you'll ****ing EASILY rape others. I cant count how many times i've got ****ed up in Casual    Hearthstone may be the best game when it comes to digital card/board games, but holy **** it has the typical Pay 2 Win, and for some reason, many times Blizzard **** this up, relentlessly. But that's not the only problem in all honesty.

    If you have legendaries from this or that expansion pack, you'll ****ing EASILY rape others. I cant count how many times i've got ****ed up in Casual cause some person bought an expansion pack, where he gets this card cause he accomplish this and does that. It's just no okay, it just shows how Pay 2 Win it is, and when i see these occasions, i eventually just quit.

    And listen, this thing's a thing for ALL Blizzard's newly updated games (Such as WoW): Skills are not a thing, it's what you have on hand, not what your intellect is strongest at.    … Expand
  13. xenoxinius
    Jun 1, 2014
    4
    The over simplified mechanic doesn't do it for me
    I'm a great magic and yugioh fan
    I played quite some heartstone, and I just don't feel it's as good the higher tier cardgames I know a lot of people will disagree and I'm fine with that This is my humble opnion, If you like simple card games or want to pick up a cardgame to start off with this is certainly a great game. Maybe if    The over simplified mechanic doesn't do it for me
    I'm a great magic and yugioh fan
    I played quite some heartstone, and I just don't feel it's as good the higher tier cardgames
    I know a lot of people will disagree and I'm fine with that

    This is my humble opnion,
    If you like simple card games or want to pick up a cardgame to start off with this is certainly a great game.
    Maybe if there are a ton of new cards and abilities I'll concider picking it up again    … Expand
  14. HadeEAlder
    May 22, 2014
    4
    If you like Pay 2 Win, you'll love this game. Because Hearthstone is about as pay 2 win as you can get without placing a button that says. "Click to win ($4.99)"

    First the positives. Hearthstone is a functional game that has decent flow to it. It has minimal issues with bugs and runs well on older machines. The game does have a rather kitschy feel to it, as well as a sense of    If you like Pay 2 Win, you'll love this game. Because Hearthstone is about as pay 2 win as you can get without placing a button that says. "Click to win ($4.99)"

    First the positives. Hearthstone is a functional game that has decent flow to it. It has minimal issues with bugs and runs well on older machines. The game does have a rather kitschy feel to it, as well as a sense of self-parody for the WoW mythos. The gameplay is smooth and the interface is easy to navigate.

    Hearthstone falls short in several areas, however. For example, players must either buy boosters or earn them at an extremely slow rate, made slower by the fact that in-game currency is only earned through victories. Players are started out with the same set of basic cards and must grind packs or buy them. There are daily quests, but they usually involve winning matches to gain extra gold. While it is possible to win with the basic set of cards, many of the pack cards far stronger and some are actually game breaking. Which makes a player who pays for packs far more likely to get ahead in the game. Discounting daily quests, booster packs can be obtained with gold for WINNING 30 matches. I emphasize that intentionally, as no gold is gained for a loss, essentially punishing the player who is learning or can't afford to buy cards. Exacerbating this problem is that matchmaking is quite poor, and so called "Casual Matches" are well populated with "noob-stompers" looking for easy gold which slows down the rate which gold and subsequently packs are acquired. Another problem with the game is there is a lack of balance. Priest and Hunter decks have access to cards that swing the game too much, IMO. (Mind Control and Unleash the Hounds being the most infamous.) Other classes also have cards of this type but not nearly as strong or numerous.

    In addition to this is the Arena mode which can be entered for 150 game gold. (Whereas a pack costs 100 gold.) But can be instead accessed with cash, You are given a choice of three random decks and them create a deck from card options given to you. Everything is RNG based. Then you take your deck and play other players must win as many games as you can (up to 9) before losing 3. The mode rewards you with booster packs, gold and dust depending on how well you did. If you did well you will get more, if you did poorly you will get little and possibly not get a pack. Again this feeds into the demand that players win in order to progress.

    There is also a way to craft cards using the aforementioned dust. Although it is not at all efficient, cards can be broken down using dust, but creating one of a certain rank requires the equivalent amount of dust from breaking down 8 cards of the same rank. Like everything in this game it is a slow process, crafted to exasperate the player and make the cash shop more appealing.

    Finally the game deserves criticism for doing little to instruct new players in basic deckbuilding strategies. And has a notably annoying "response" system that many players use to taunt their opponents. It can be disabled, but only for the duration of your current game and must be disabled every single time you play a game. There is also no function for players to trade cards which was omitted simply to push the P2W game system.

    Hearthstone is hardly the worst game out there right now. In fact it could be good, but the P2W model and the frustrations involved with CCG mechanics that are quite faithfully ported over from card games like Magic: the Gathering are front and center without any of the social benefits. A potentially good, game but ruined by the P2W model. Only the most diehard CCG enthusiasts with money to burn will enjoy this game. For everyone else, it's more frustration than actual fun.    … Expand
  15. APG_Dizzee
    Jun 19, 2014
    4
    Although this game is a fun game i would really like to get into. It is also a game which is not friendly to new players. There is a sort of tutorial, which includes 6 missions however they never actually teach you the mechanics of the game and the last missions is a pain to even try and finish.

    At this point you may think it's okay i'll just go play against AI or even online against    Although this game is a fun game i would really like to get into. It is also a game which is not friendly to new players. There is a sort of tutorial, which includes 6 missions however they never actually teach you the mechanics of the game and the last missions is a pain to even try and finish.

    At this point you may think it's okay i'll just go play against AI or even online against people my level.
    This however is not the case. The majority of the ai is pretty easy to defeat, except for the warrior which requires one of two things. Luck, or skill. This is painful because of the fact that the game has not yet taught you the skill you need to defeat this opponent.

    After getting tired of this AI, i though "Maybe going online against people my level is easier." However after loosing almost 10 games in a row, i thought maybe not. And i don't mean to say they just beat me by inches. I mean to say if i had done any worse i think i would have reported the game for a bug where i lose 30 hp at the end of the third round.

    Another problem i had with the game is that although the people online were my level, almost all of them had cards i'd only seen in popular Hearthstone videos " e.g. Baumi or Blitz" It's at this point where i realized they had payed for these special cards which i had to access to as a free to play player.

    To summarize this game has some really fun features and is very entertaining, but its lack of noob friendly setting and pay to win features mean its very frustrating to play, and overall its just another Blizzard pay to win which feels as if an indie developer would have done better.    … Expand
  16. Pheo112
    Sep 9, 2014
    4
    Magic the Gathering: Warcraft Edition. Ages 6+. That is all this all hearthstone feels like, a simplified MtG.

    There is too much grinding for even the basic cards, let alone the strong legendary cards. Games usually come down to the RNG of card draw. Arena doubly so with the RNG of drafting. Constructed play consists of everyone playing only the strongest two classes with the same two    Magic the Gathering: Warcraft Edition. Ages 6+. That is all this all hearthstone feels like, a simplified MtG.

    There is too much grinding for even the basic cards, let alone the strong legendary cards. Games usually come down to the RNG of card draw. Arena doubly so with the RNG of drafting. Constructed play consists of everyone playing only the strongest two classes with the same two decks.
    The UI is amazing. That is the only nice thing I can really say about the game.    … Expand
  17. JigiSix
    Oct 3, 2014
    4
    No. Just, just no. This game is definitely not up to par. Because of one reason. Microtransactions. I mean, I think it's a decent concept. It's a trading card game with no trading. So it's a card game. A card game slightly related to the Warcraft series. But it's a bloody MMO. Which means the developers are going to milk money out of it. Things cost a lot if you use in-game currencies. TheNo. Just, just no. This game is definitely not up to par. Because of one reason. Microtransactions. I mean, I think it's a decent concept. It's a trading card game with no trading. So it's a card game. A card game slightly related to the Warcraft series. But it's a bloody MMO. Which means the developers are going to milk money out of it. Things cost a lot if you use in-game currencies. The in-game currency is quite hard to get, so things seem to cost a buttload of money. Guess what you can get more in-game currency with so you can buy some more cards and stuff? Real money. This... this. This is not a good thing. I mean look at all the games out there, which, after you've downloaded or purchased them, ask you for more money. DLC. Microtransactions. "Win by giving us more money". Things take quite a long time to unlock. Would suggest to stay away from it.

    In conclusion, I would wish to say that the game is a complete grind (or grindfest, if you will) and it gets repetitive fast.    … Expand
  18. ad505
    Mar 15, 2015
    4
    positives:
    *Its fun to make new and creative decks
    *The arena is great fun Negatives: -Multiple balance issues especially concerning the warlock -slight pay to win elements (3 wins for 10 gold? SERIOUSLY? ) -Legendary cards are too rare and too powerful -The meta rules the game,if your not playing a certain deck on ladder, your screwed, eliminating my first positive point. Overall,    positives:
    *Its fun to make new and creative decks
    *The arena is great fun
    Negatives:
    -Multiple balance issues especially concerning the warlock
    -slight pay to win elements (3 wins for 10 gold? SERIOUSLY? )
    -Legendary cards are too rare and too powerful
    -The meta rules the game,if your not playing a certain deck on ladder, your screwed, eliminating my first positive point.
    Overall, its fun, but not with other people (unfortunate as that's the only way to get gold) and the balance issues and meta out weigh the positives.    … Expand
  19. DKR
    Jun 13, 2018
    4
    Randomstone! Randoms of Randomcraft!

    Remember the first days of the grand Pokemon phenomenon? No, bc you're too young. Roughly 20yrs ago, Pokemon trading cards was like drugs for kids. I'm surprised it didn't make its own ghettos with gang wars and Snoop Puppy making a rap song about them. It had every kid fighting, every teacher banning them, and every christian pastor was losing    Randomstone! Randoms of Randomcraft!

    Remember the first days of the grand Pokemon phenomenon? No, bc you're too young.

    Roughly 20yrs ago, Pokemon trading cards was like drugs for kids. I'm surprised it didn't make its own ghettos with gang wars and Snoop Puppy making a rap song about them. It had every kid fighting, every teacher banning them, and every christian pastor was losing their s* over it. They copied Magic cards verbatim and made them cuter.

    Problem: your viability depended on how much money your parents were willing dump into your endless addiction.

    You'd buy a pack full of s*y cards hoping 1 or more were decent. It was like legalized gambling. One thing's for sure: it was printing money for Japs faster than our Federal Reserve ever could.

    HoW didn't learn (correction: didn't care) from past mistakes (correction: good marketing). All the starting cards suck, and viability is fortified by a paywall the size of a skyscraper. There are top-teir cards that give such an advantage, it should say "click here to win", Or better, "click here to win for 5.99".

    The presentation - contrarily - is brilliantly done. Shiny, flashy, pretty, soothing sound track, great voices, beautiful art, and Warcraft's charming humor often makes its way in (ie dropping the Raid Leader card and he shouts 'HANDLE IT!'). Critics have compared it to a glorified slot machine, and I couldn't say it better myself.

    It's laughable that people can take this competitively in any way. A game that has the word "random" twice or more isn't competitive. Let's see how HoW plays out:

    The game begins. You are RANDOMLY selected a few cards from your deck. You can choose which ones stay, or to RANDOMLY switch it out for another. You then draw a RANDOM card. Your opponent draws a RANDOM card. You place a card that RANDOMLY attacks friend/foe. They play a card that RANDOMLY kills everything on the board except for one RANDOMLY chosen card in play. They RANDOMLY draw 2 cards they combine that's ready to end the game in just 2 turns. But did you RANDOMLY get the card to counter it? No? WHAM! 1 more turn....still nope. WHAM gg. OR....you DO get the card, counter him completely and gg; YOU WIN. F* what is happening to video games??? With a pair of die and a little imagination, you can play this game for free w/o electricity!

    There's also single player, but it's even worse. I played against a boss that 2 shot me in the 3rd turn. I didn't even get a f*ing chance to draw 4 card and he 2 shot me 5x in a row. Who designed this SP?? Dunkey?

    And these gold-brick critics and their perfect scores. I'm gonna puke.

    "DID SUM1 SAY MOAR MUNNYZ??//1!"    … Expand
  20. 4Tifier
    Apr 24, 2016
    4
    There are many reasons why I have come to absolutely hate HearthStone after playing the game for over a year. Here is my entire list as to why I now absolutely despise this game and Blizzard as a company.

    1.) The Game Has Never Been Balanced And Never Will Be Hearthstone has an infamous history of overpowered decks and cards, and the solution of Blizzard for these broken game    There are many reasons why I have come to absolutely hate HearthStone after playing the game for over a year. Here is my entire list as to why I now absolutely despise this game and Blizzard as a company.

    1.) The Game Has Never Been Balanced And Never Will Be

    Hearthstone has an infamous history of overpowered decks and cards, and the solution of Blizzard for these broken game mechanics is to rather nerf the decks/cards to the point where they are absolutely useless, or just do nothing at all. Cards that have received heavy nerfs include the Starving Buzzard, the Undertaker, and Warsong Commander. While cards which have been powerful for an extremely long time and clearly need a nerf, such as Emperor Thaurissan, Alexstrasza, and Dr. Boom.

    At the same time, there are also classes in Hearthstone that are completely imbalanced. A common example is the Paladin class which features an incredibly variety of powerful card types and combos(Secrets, Weapons, Equality+Concecrate, etc) which allow players to create any type of deck that's possible to make; be it Aggressive, Secret, Mid-Ranged, Control or even an OTK deck.

    While other classes, such as the Rogue class, have been desperate for buffs for an extremely long time because their decks are as effective as a Basic-Card-Only Deck.

    2.) Always 50/50

    While many people constantly criticize HearthStone for being a "pay-to-win" game, not even the most overpowered cards will guarantee your victories. Whether you have every legendary in the game or have just started playing Hearthstone, the matchmaking system sets up games so that every player has the closest to a 50% win-rate as possible.

    This is especially evident in Ranked Ladder; where less than 10% of players within a region ever make it to and past the Silver League in a season.

    3.) The Recent Expansions Have Been Epic Failures!

    With the recent expansions in HearthStone, it is clear that the guys at Blizzard have done terrible jobs to make the game fresh, exciting and balanced. In the two recent expansions for HearthStone; "The Grand Tournament" and "The League of Explorers", less than 10% of the cards from both expansions see regular use in decks. Not only did Blizzard completely fail to create a new card mechanic "i.e. 'Inspire'", they also completely failed to change the META; instead STRENGTHENING it.

    4.) Whispers of The Old Gods and Wild/Standard Formats

    This was the most money-hungry failure from Blizzard so far!

    While Blizzard had promised that their cards would be relevant forever, they have not completely broken their promise by removing the Naxxramas and GvG expansions from "official gameplay" (i.e. the "standard" mode). At the same time, they are also releasing an expansion and updating cards which promises to balance the game and make it fresh.

    The first reason why this is bad is because instead of doing all of this, Blizzard could have instead just updated all the cards to balance the game. The only thing wrong with this in their eyes is that there's no $$$ in simply updating the cards.

    The second reason this is bad is because Blizzard knows how great their Naxxramas and GvG cards are and know how their latest expansions were complete failures both game-wise and profit-wise because only a few cards were actually useful, and those cards only made the Naxx and GvG cards stronger. So in order for people to purchase their newest expansions they're just getting rid of Naxx and GvG all together.

    The third reason this is bad is because of the design mechanics of the WoTOG's cards. A great example is C'Thun, which is a legendary that Blizzard clearly wants to make the newest "overpowered" card. Only problem with this is that this card is really hard-countered by a deck that's been the prime competitive and overpowered deck for over a year (Grimm Patron Warrior)! At the same time, they are once again releasing cards in the expansion which only make the current META stronger, and once again I refer mainly to the Grim Patron Warrior deck!
    ___________________________________________________________________________

    In one long sentence, in case you didn't read the extremely long rant above;

    HearthStone is (and always has been) completely unbalanced, most of the cards in the game are completely useless, you will never stop losing 50% of the time no matter how many cards you buy, and Blizzard's only solution to the many problems in HearthStone listed above is for players to buy more useless cards.    … Expand
  21. Lepstrung
    Jan 17, 2016
    4
    Game is good but its pay 2 win. Thode who have most money can buy best cards and those cards are owerpowered and can only be beaten if you buy cards too. I have lost countless times to some idiots who cant othwerwise play but because they have 3 legendary cards in their desks, witch all are only obtainable by buying expansions, I lose to them. So its good but really unfair.
  22. Opalitic
    May 13, 2016
    4
    Tried the game for the first time in 2014. Didnt have time to get into it at the time. Fast forward to 2016. I try the game again since I now have the time for it. I enjoyed it but it soon became clear that I had to pay some cash to get a quick start into the game as others have progressed with their card decks for 2 years now. Bought 40€ worth of cards. Got jack **** to show for it. MyTried the game for the first time in 2014. Didnt have time to get into it at the time. Fast forward to 2016. I try the game again since I now have the time for it. I enjoyed it but it soon became clear that I had to pay some cash to get a quick start into the game as others have progressed with their card decks for 2 years now. Bought 40€ worth of cards. Got jack **** to show for it. My current W/L ratio is around 1 win per 10 games and that is purely because the matchmaking in any mode does not consider decks into the matchmaking when finding a opponent. There is no way to win someone who has put more time/money into the game than I have and since the matchmaking cant see that I am facing opponents with better cards and more experience in the game than myself. It was fun for a while but after a 20 lose streak I started wondering if theres something really wrong with the game. There is. Its pure pay to win if you dont have the time to grind months for full decks before facing off against other players. I found a compiled list of cost / time to own all the cards in the game. As of 5/2016 it would cost you thousands of real life currency to get all the cards to play in an even field with the veterans the matchmaking places you with. Or in time. A whooping 8 months of daily grinding to get your decks to the state the veterans have them already.

    All in all. The game itself is really good but if you want to compete with other players you either need to drop over 1000 USD at once when you start playing or grind matches against bots for 8 months to stand a chance against veterans players.

    I am disappointed. I expected more from a "free to play" game.

    Shame on you blizzard.

    The only game mode that gives a fair chance at winning is the arena. Which lets you choose 30 cards from totally random cards to form a deck that you compete against other players whom have forged their own random card decks. But that game mode costs you. The entry fee for the arena is 2€ which lasts you until you lose 3 games in total or 100 ingame gold. After 15 hours of farming I got 160 gold. Not worth it.

    DL;DR Money grab. Pure p2w. Stay away.    … Expand
  23. IntestineFiesta
    Nov 30, 2017
    4
    I began playing Hearthstone less than a month after the game came out in 2014, and for quite a while I found the game highly enjoyable. For the first two years the game was on the market, it was completely feasible to play the game either for free, or for about $40 a year should one not be willing to grind as much in game currency. Then, late last year, Blizzard decided to begin steadilyI began playing Hearthstone less than a month after the game came out in 2014, and for quite a while I found the game highly enjoyable. For the first two years the game was on the market, it was completely feasible to play the game either for free, or for about $40 a year should one not be willing to grind as much in game currency. Then, late last year, Blizzard decided to begin steadily increasing the rarity of necessary cards in their online store with the release of the Gadgetzan expansion. Since then, all three expansions in 2017 have proven to continue the climbing cost of building decks for the game. Should Blizzard return to their original system of card rarities in packs and reduce the pay to win aspect of the game, I will adjust my review accordingly. Until that happens, however, avoid the game at all costs. If you are reading reviews in an attempt to find an enjoyable ccg, Shadow Era, CD Projekt Red's Gwent, CyGames's Shadowverse, or even MTG online all provide alternatives to Hearthstone that cost less real money while offering a comparable level of quality.… Expand
  24. Enark
    Nov 10, 2018
    4
    I have been playing Hearthstone every single day since 2014. It has been as much a part of my daily routine as putting on pants. If I had reviewed this a couple years ago, I would have given it a solid 9/10. However, I am sad to say that I played my last game of Hearthstone 2 days ago. What started as a mostly fair free to play model has succumbed to corporate greed and graduallyI have been playing Hearthstone every single day since 2014. It has been as much a part of my daily routine as putting on pants. If I had reviewed this a couple years ago, I would have given it a solid 9/10. However, I am sad to say that I played my last game of Hearthstone 2 days ago. What started as a mostly fair free to play model has succumbed to corporate greed and gradually switched to pay to win. This type of business model should not be supported.
    -
    Let me first say that I have been mostly a free to play player. I purchased one of the single player campaign releases with gold (earned in game) and the rest with cash. I also occasionally purchased bundles of packs when they were on sale for around $1.00 per pack. This worked out just fine for me back in 2014 through 2016. I wasn't able to earn every card available by completing daily quests (which award gold to be used to purchase packs) but I was able to stay competitive. When an expansion was announced, I'd stop buying current packs and save my gold for the next expansion. This would give me enough gold to buy about 30 packs when the expansion released. It would then take a couple months of completing daily quests and buying packs with gold to get competitive again. I naively believed that, if I kept doing daily quests without missing a day, that I would eventually be able to get all the cards... that it would just take me longer than those who shelled out a bunch of cash.
    -
    That all changed in 2017 because, instead of 7 or 8 months between expansions, expansions are now pushed out every 4 months. Because of this, I have not been competitive for 2 years. By the time I get enough of the new, higher end cards to build some of the better decks, it's time to start saving up for the next expansion which will make many of the current cards obsolete. I never get a chance to try to climb the ladder anymore.
    -
    It is also my belief (though I can not prove it) that they (Blizzard) reduced the odds of getting epic or legendary cards from packs. I used to get a handful of legendaries, several epics, and a lot of rares when I opened 30+ packs at once. The last three expansions awarded me 1 or 2 legendaries, 4 or 5 epics, and little more than one rare per pack. Now, this could just be attributed to poor luck but that doesn't make it taste any less sour.
    So, of course, the thought occurs to me that, if I enjoy the game, perhaps I should support the developers and put some money into it so that I can continue to have the same experience that I had back in 2014. But how much would that cost?
    -
    Let's say that a person could be competitive with only half of the legendaries of the current expansion (so about 13 out of the 25 available). Let's also assume that buying enough packs to get 13 legendaries will also give us enough epics and rares to also be competitive. I was able to get 7 legendaries from the current expansion before I started having to save up for the next one so I need 6 more. At a generous rate of a legendary every 15 packs and $3.00 per pack, that means we would have to purchase 90 more packs for a total cost of $270. That's not the cost to complete the collection - it's just enough to stay somewhat competitive with the current meta. And it will only be enough if you also complete your dailies every day. And that cost is every 4 months!

    Also of note: If you are a new player, you can expect to spend thousands of dollars if you want to have a healthy amount of the cards from previous expansions.

    Summary: In order to stay even mildly competitive in Hearthstone, you will need to spend a minimum of $270 every 4 months. The only way that this type of business model will go away is if we stop feeding it our cash.

    Thank you for taking the time to read this.    … Expand
  25. Slava12321
    Feb 21, 2020
    4
    + easy rules - very easy rules. - donators are much stronger.
    - a lot of unbalanced cards
    - and random
  26. SLTYSPTOON
    Feb 25, 2020
    4
    A fun game to play casually but you have to pay to get any decent cards and it gets boring after a while. The good thing is that it's barely any storage and its free.
  27. shostakn
    Oct 15, 2020
    4
    Summary: Hearthstone is a free-to-play digital strategy card game that anyone can enjoy. Players choose one of nine epic Warcraft heroes to play as, and then take turns playing cards from their customizable decks to cast potent spells, use heroic weapons or abilities, or summon powerful characters to crush their opponent.
  28. Solo_Player_8
    Dec 31, 2020
    4
    I'm one of the idiots who spent a ton of money on this game, I started in 2016 and I'm planning on quitting in 2020. They improved the game a lot but it's too expensive, the game is pay to win because getting gold in this game takes way too long. Crafting cards in this game with dust is just so unfair as well. If Blizzards cuts crafting costs by 50%, I'll give hearthstone a positive reviewI'm one of the idiots who spent a ton of money on this game, I started in 2016 and I'm planning on quitting in 2020. They improved the game a lot but it's too expensive, the game is pay to win because getting gold in this game takes way too long. Crafting cards in this game with dust is just so unfair as well. If Blizzards cuts crafting costs by 50%, I'll give hearthstone a positive review but at the moment it's just negative or mixed, the game is too expensive for people to get into, I understand Blizzard needs to make money but the crafting costs make this game way too expensive. Sadly the game mechanics and the 10 card, 7 monster, 30 life, and 30 card system is really fun but the card pack prices and especially the crafting costs ruin the game. A good game ruined by its costs, try Legends of Runeterra instead, even Yu-Gi-Oh is a bit cheaper if you just buy a few structure decks.… Expand
  29. tekjester
    Apr 23, 2014
    3
    The amount "random" cards makes this not a lot of fun to play. Granted, it works both way, but the game's winner is determined by luck more times than Poker. The only strategy is in the deck building. But stuff like "Destroy Random Minion" "Deal 3 Damage to two random minions" "Deal one damage to a random minion" "Take control of Random Minion" "Copy random card from opponents hand" TheThe amount "random" cards makes this not a lot of fun to play. Granted, it works both way, but the game's winner is determined by luck more times than Poker. The only strategy is in the deck building. But stuff like "Destroy Random Minion" "Deal 3 Damage to two random minions" "Deal one damage to a random minion" "Take control of Random Minion" "Copy random card from opponents hand" The list goes on. Then of course the randomness in the deck. I've played many CCGs, Magic, Pokémon, Star Wars, LOTR, and get there's always an element of randomness, but this goes way beyond that. The game is fun and well put together, but the luck factor is way too high.… Expand
  30. Jinxter
    Mar 30, 2014
    3
    I have played this game a LOT, and there is a LOT of depth in this game, however, there is very little in way of strategy to this game. It is an overly simple game that relies upon 'luck of the draw' than anything else. I have taken all of my characters to 20 and a couple to 35. Regardless of what deck you build, what expert you follow, your 'strategy' WILL fall apart when you do NOT getI have played this game a LOT, and there is a LOT of depth in this game, however, there is very little in way of strategy to this game. It is an overly simple game that relies upon 'luck of the draw' than anything else. I have taken all of my characters to 20 and a couple to 35. Regardless of what deck you build, what expert you follow, your 'strategy' WILL fall apart when you do NOT get 'that one card'. I have built decks with only 6 spells, and I HAVE ALWAYS seen the majority of my first 7 or 8 cards to be spells. In a completely random system this CAN happen, but the frequency to which I HAVE seen it tells me that the system is NOT completely random but weighted to spells so as to balance to game out against players with more spells and less minions.

    I wish they would have spent more time on this game and truly developed a strategic system where in people could ACTUALLY USE strategy, but when you have a game where you have to "hope" your card comes up, is NOT hat good a game. There is NOTHING worse than to be at the beginning of a game, you only have 1 mana available and the first card from your deck is 5 mana or higher.

    Due to the current system, they have cards that are literally worthless to have in your deck. Cards that WOULD have strategic use if they used a system of a weighted draws. However, since they allow ANY card to come up, it IS fair, but the decks you will fight against the majority of the time is FULL of cards costing less than 5 mana, and almost ALL decks are a version of a RUSH deck. It makes the game VERY predictable and ultimately BORING. What purpose is there to 'building' a deck, when the cards that you put in there, to FIT the way YOU WANT to play, NEVER show up in your hand until it is past the point that you could use it to ATTEMPT to win.

    Don't believe that hype of people posting "THIS DECK GOT ME TO LEVEL 5!!! I used this build and GOT A 70% WIN percentage." DO NOT believe these people at all. I took one of these so-called Mid-budget 4000+ dust to craft and after 200 games with the deck could do no better than ~50%. I have found, that due to the way the cards hit your hand there is NO WAY that anyone gets more than a 50% percentage win unless they just plain have better luck. The only strategy is in keeping track of how many cards your opponent has that could possibly hurt you, then realizing that you are not getting the cards you need and then losing yet another game.

    I had hoped for an actual strategic card game...this is NOT it. If you like it, now worries, but I do NOT think this is a good game. It is actually rather poor.    … Expand
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Awards & Rankings

4
#4 Best PC Game of 2014
7
#7 Most Discussed PC Game of 2014
41
#41 Most Shared PC Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
88

Generally favorable reviews - based on 42 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 42 out of 42
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 42
  3. Negative: 0 out of 42
  1. Hardcore Gamer
    Jul 6, 2014
    90
    When Blizzard announced they were making a digital CCG, we all expected it to look and sound beautiful, and there was little doubt that it would be well-balanced, but I don’t think anyone anticipated this level of sophistication and subtle brilliance.
    Read full review
  2. CD-Action
    Jun 28, 2014
    85
    Simple rules, high production values, low system requirements and huge tactical freedom make Hearthstone one of the best card games available. And if you take into account the free-to-play model – it’s the best one. [05/2014, p.62]
  3. GameOver.gr
    Jun 7, 2014
    85
    A fine example of a great free-to-play game. Hearthstone is not only an addictive and well designed card game, but absolutely fair with gamers that do not wish to spend money on it.
    Read full review
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