Magic: Duels of the Planeswalkers 2015

 Xbox 360
User Score
4.3

Generally unfavorable reviews- based on 28 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 28
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 28
  3. Negative: 16 out of 28

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  1. Meshen
    Jul 17, 2014
    3
    All of the build up to this game has revolved around the fact that true deck building has finally been implemented. This seems like great news, until you realise that there's a measly card pool of approximately 300, which has been split into a 'basic' pool (unlockable by playing) and 'premium' pool (only unlockable via cold hard cash). This 'pay to win' approach would be a little moreAll of the build up to this game has revolved around the fact that true deck building has finally been implemented. This seems like great news, until you realise that there's a measly card pool of approximately 300, which has been split into a 'basic' pool (unlockable by playing) and 'premium' pool (only unlockable via cold hard cash). This 'pay to win' approach would be a little more palatable if the rest of the game was rife with content, but it simply isn't.

    Gone are the prebuilt decks that were great to just jump in with on a level playing field, and also gone are fan favourites in the Two Headed Giant and Challenge modes. Deck building should have been a separate element to coexist with the format DotP fans have come to love. For those who wanted deck building as the centrepiece of the game there has always been MTG Online, so to take away so many great elements and replace them with a limited, micro-transaction filled husk of a game is appauling. Shame on you, Wizards.    … Expand
  2. Sielas
    Jul 19, 2014
    0
    A huge step back from the previous games, which weren't perfect to begin with.
    -Two Headed Giant mode removed,not replaced with anything. making the only multiplayer mode free for all.
    -Less singleplayer content than previous games. -28$ of premium cards, which are simply better than the base ones. -Even counting the premium cards 2015 has the smallest and least interesting card pool    A huge step back from the previous games, which weren't perfect to begin with.
    -Two Headed Giant mode removed,not replaced with anything. making the only multiplayer mode free for all.
    -Less singleplayer content than previous games.
    -28$ of premium cards, which are simply better than the base ones.
    -Even counting the premium cards 2015 has the smallest and least interesting card pool of all games in the series.
    -Hamfisted deckbuilding with very little room for creativity due to the extremely limited amount of cards you have available, made even worse by completely unplayable or sideboard cards.    … Expand
  3. ChildOf1981
    Jul 18, 2014
    3
    Duels of the Planeswalkers has always offered a nice casual way for new and experienced players to enjoy some casual magic. After several games that were pretty much as good as you could get they did almost everything wrong on this one. The only part they got right was the actual interface when you are playing a duel. I am going to presume that you are familiar with prior duels games forDuels of the Planeswalkers has always offered a nice casual way for new and experienced players to enjoy some casual magic. After several games that were pretty much as good as you could get they did almost everything wrong on this one. The only part they got right was the actual interface when you are playing a duel. I am going to presume that you are familiar with prior duels games for my pros/cons.

    Pros: Mouse over text removes the need to zoom in on a card to see what it does.

    Cons:
    Premium (not just cosmetic) cards only unlockable via premium purchase.
    Automated Mana Tapping has regresses to worse than other duels games
    AI gets cards that you don't (and you can't unlock)
    User interface is unnecessarily slow
    Less game modes as compared to prior DotP games

    And perhaps the worst part of this Duels game is how shallow it is. The Single player is not nearly as compelling as prior titles and you never get the sense that you have grown from a scrappy little mage to a powerful planeswalker. They added in deck building and took away any remains of a carpool you would even want to build with (without paying extra).

    When I reflect on this purchase I wish I had taked the money I spent on Duels 2015 and spent it on Magic Online instead. When I was writing that last sentence it dawned on me what the problem with this game is. With Duels 2015 Wizards has not made a Sweet Supercharged Duels of the Planeswalkers game, they made an inferior Magic Online.    … Expand
  4. Kriostyx
    Jul 26, 2014
    0
    First things first : Do not buy this game. It is an absolute pay-truckloads-of-cash-to-play (a.k.a. free-to-play) scam, a massive downgrade from Duels 2014 and the opponent AI has been **** to the point of hilarious unbeatable challenge.

    Okay with that out of the way, let's concentrate on the issues a bit more. First off, unless you want to grind hundreds of hours for absolute crap    First things first : Do not buy this game. It is an absolute pay-truckloads-of-cash-to-play (a.k.a. free-to-play) scam, a massive downgrade from Duels 2014 and the opponent AI has been **** to the point of hilarious unbeatable challenge.

    Okay with that out of the way, let's concentrate on the issues a bit more. First off, unless you want to grind hundreds of hours for absolute crap cards, you need to take a loan from your local bank to afford the premium boosters and deck unlocks that cost enough to make you lose your house. The features have been stripped from Duels 2014 with shocking viciousness and anti-consumer philosophies in mind. No Two-headed giant, no challenge puzzles, even the battle board has been erased of all color and vividness and has been replaced by a depressing bland grey table of terrible design.

    As a Duels 2013 veteran I am used to the fact that sometimes the campaign opponents cheat so much it causes unneeded frustration (such as Duels 2013 Revenge Campaign Grenko, you who have played that, know what I'm talking about), but that issue was more or less resolved in Duels 2014. Now get this : Even before the actual campaign the "Final Chapter of the Tutorial" cheats so hard it is ridiculous. In a game such as this the challenge very simply is and always has been for descent players this : Is the match winnable or not, without any middle ground, since a good player what is the best move in each situation. And this statement tells everything you need to know about the cheating unbeatable AI in this game : I played flawlessly experimenting with different colored decks and the final *TUTORIAL* level just spawned mathematically unbeatable matches one after another and it absolutely destroyed me *fourteen times in a row* before finally giving a winnable scenario. That is not just bad design, the coders actively hate MtG players and wanted to sabotage their own game. Wow. Just wow. It is insane how terrible this piece of garbage is. A massive money grabbing scam woven into a frustration automaton made out of crap and bullsh*t. It doesn't even count as being a game. Do. Not. Buy. This.    … Expand
  5. saratrotter73
    Nov 16, 2014
    1
    First I love magic and actually bought this game 3 times on different xboxs so several of us could play. To say I am massively disappointed is an understatement. The card pool is boring, the AI cheats to the point of ridiculousness in the single player. They removed It is nice to be able to build your own deck but every other part of the game became horrible.
  6. hevers1981
    Dec 5, 2014
    4
    While the playability and general appearance of the game is nice, it doesn’t follow the real game mechanics the way that it should. There is a big difference between killing, exiling, and destroying a creature. Also it doesn’t allow you to select which lands you tap when casting spells. Other than that its an okay game. If they fixed these two major problems I have with it I'd probably buy it.
  7. JPNixion
    Dec 15, 2014
    1
    Interface is fine. Graphics are artistic. The speed is a bit slow. The AI is much improved. They still degrade your shuffle as the difficulty level increases (you know - to make things more difficult for you) while granting your opponent an extraordinarily "lucky" hand that seems to counter your deck very nicely. You get to select a deck (color combo) in the beginning, and everyInterface is fine. Graphics are artistic. The speed is a bit slow. The AI is much improved. They still degrade your shuffle as the difficulty level increases (you know - to make things more difficult for you) while granting your opponent an extraordinarily "lucky" hand that seems to counter your deck very nicely. You get to select a deck (color combo) in the beginning, and every victory grants you a booster pack. The first dozen levels in the single player are quite fun.

    But what really gets my rating down is that regardless of which color combo you start your deck with - sooner or later you hit an opponent that your chosen colors will simply not be able to overcome without a most fantastic shuffle (see earlier comments)... Where does this leave you? In the gift shop, paying to unlock all the cards from this expansion or that world... There are not enough opponents in each world/section to allow you to unlock all the cards from that world. Whats more, you never quite get enough cards of colors outside your initial choice to build a functional deck of any other color.

    If you don't mind Apps that micro-charge you to get ahead in the game, you will have no problems here.. But charging your XBOX account for a full game ($40-50) and then trying to nickle and dime us... To make it worse, you don't quite realize what they are doing until you hit that infuriating opponent that stomps your pride into the ground and gets you all primal-brain ... that's when you start seriously looking at a $5 charge to unlock one section of cards. I guess they are counting on parent funded children or young adults who wont admit they can't get past a certain point in the game. Really, quite infuriating... Not so much the game itself, but the way they built a cash register into it.

    Please do the world a favor - don't positively reinforce this kind of larceny. If you bought the game - enjoy it for what you can do. If you haven't bought it yet - I hear cocaine is more fun while you sell your life away to an unscrupulous dealer you can actually meet.    … Expand

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
64

Mixed or average reviews - based on 5 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 5
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 5
  3. Negative: 0 out of 5
  1. Official Xbox Magazine UK
    Sep 3, 2014
    50
    A comprehensive intro to Magic, but Duels is hardly the showcase it needs to be. [Oct 2014, p.92]
  2. MondoXbox
    Aug 20, 2014
    60
    Magic 2015: Duels of the Planeswalkers finally adds a deck editor, but cuts away many previous game modes resulting in a quite poor offering compared with the older games in the series. We didn't like the too-invasive microtransactions model, too.
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  3. IGN Italia
    Aug 4, 2014
    55
    A dumbed-down version of Duels of the Planeswalkers with less game modes than the previous entries. Yes, there is a full deck-building option now, yet it is marred by a clear shift towards microtransactions.
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