Closing in on finishing my third battle pass and seeing the direction this game seems to be going with everything from feedback to pricing and more I finally feel confident I can add some words and a score to this.
Marvel Snap is as everyone knows a Marvel themed digital card game created in-part by some ex-Hearthstone devs.
Mechanically you get an energy each turn which you use as a resource to pay for cards from your hand to enter the battlefield, so-far-so-Hearthstone.
Marvel Snaps two main USPs are that rather than the cards simply attacking each other or a player you are aiming to control three locations.
Turns are taken simultaneously and games (typically) last 6 rounds. Your objective is to have the most power in the most locations and in the case of a draw having the most power total.
This interesting back and forth, tug of war for control has many of the elements of good table top games.
Strategy, potential for bluffs and more.
A further wrinkle and an element of luck (or variance as TCG players like to say) is that each of the three locations also give abilities, these are revealed over the first three turns one after the other and this can make your strategies and tactics completely change.
Some locations you really want, some you want to stay clear of.
A location may be very strong for your strategy or actually mess up your entire game plan.
This added variance is for the most part good. Sure it can mean that some deck matchups that should be 50:50 suddenly turn into and 80:20 but it also means that a 60:40 matchup may spin around to the other sides favour.
Also if this wasn't obvious it gives each game a much bigger amount of variety, especially great in the early days of game with a smaller card pool.
The second USP (I'm getting there) is the awful name: Snap.
Yes, this is a card game but no this isn't about matching cards instead the developers (or whoever) decided that Thanos famous click should be the name of represents a minor gambling mechanic.
Don't worry it's not taking money through your phone via apple pay or whatever it's in game currency that is simply for levelling up your rank.
Without getting into the exact numbers (it's 1 to 8 fwiw) you can "Snap" when to get a higher chance of a bigger pay out, if both players do this then you're both all in.
Much like a game of Poker this can be used to intimidate, hedge your bets or even completely bluff when you have nothing it's a wonderful mechanic that actually encourages "escaping" Marvel Snap's version of folding and that in itself adds to a great strength this game has.
It's, pardon the pun: Snappy.
Games are typically six turns, each turn has a timer and escaping is encouraged meaning they will not always go that long.
So much is squeezed into such a short amount of time, a TCG distilled in a way and this makes it perfect for playing while waiting for the bus, sitting on the toilet, waiting for the kettle to boil or the opposite, just grinding tons of games out to see where your strategies take you and if those new cards you added are any good.
If you're even somewhat into card games or even tcg curious there are still two things that may put you off this game.
The first is a simple one: the IP.
Maybe you hate Marvel, this is much more comics than MCU as it digs surprisingly deep for the roster of characters it shows although at the same time it doesn't require you to have any knowledge.
Personally I am a Marvel fan, I'm not an MCU obsessive but I've been into the universes of Marvel for a long time and the use of this franchise is both a plus and a minor negative for me.
Seeing lots of cool and different characters I am mostly used to is great, the lack of synergies in a more obvious TCG way though is sadly off putting.
Do not get me wrong - there's lot of synergies, a good dozen archetypes already and many of them include characters that tend to have relations Moon Girl goes with Devil Dinosaur, Cloak goes with Dagger and Morbius, Blade and other Vampire things all share a theme.
However not all do and maybe this is a personal thing but characters such as the X-men don't seem to really share synergy. Now maybe that's because there is so many characters who have been in so many teams over time but sometimes I see two cards together and it leaves me wanting.
The second and main thing I can see putting people off giving Marvel Snap a go is simply because it's a free-to-play mobile game and what exactly it's version of "free" really is.
I can for the most part relieve you of any worries about that.
There's a shop and in-game transactions but you are either buying cosmetics (many, many different card styles) or upgrading your cards (purely cosmetic again) to unlock further options for your the collection.
Collection level is what the games match making is based on though so don't worry, you won't come in with nothing and play someone with all the cards.
All real money can do except making cards look different is push your collection level up higher but people doing that will end up playing others who've done the same or managed to grind their way.
The general loop of the game and it's in game currency is you have dailies and a battle pass challenges (half of which unlocks for free) - by doing these and going up ranks via winning games you unlock "Energy" this is used to upgrade cards cosmetically, starting with art breaking out of frames leading to animated 3D cards with shiny logos.
As you do this your collection level rises and you unlock new cards.
You then continue, maybe upgrading those new cards to unlock even more and so on and so forth.
You can easily spend zero real money on this game and be fully involved.
My only issues currently are that battle passes, which are themed, lock a single card behind a pay wall. These are added into general rotation a few months down the line so it's not all that bad (yet).
You want Black Panther now? Cough up £9.
Now £9 for a Battle Pass feels pretty standard but the issue for me is frequency, these aren't seasonal but practically monthly and whilst you don't need to spend money on them if you want it all that would mean almost £100 in a year.
My other issue is the randomness of the cards you unlock via collection level, hitting a certain level opens up a pool of cards so you do have the fun of pulling a surprise for your collection but if you start to enjoy a certain deck, see it's missing something currently there is no way to get that specific card you yearn for.
Collection caches aren't also even guaranteed to be cards and that is a very feel bad moment...
...thankfully it is "currently" and recently they have said that those caches will be adding a currency that can only be used to buy cards. I hope this is good and it's serving what the people want, it also should mean that anyone potentially spending lots of money to make more pulls will not have to rely on luck and therefor hopefully hold back more addictive qualities.
In summary I really have been enjoying this game, it took me a little while to get stuck in but now I play it every day.
Some of the randomness is a bit much but games are fast so you can't be annoyed for too long.
The money they want for cosmetics and battle passes is too high, but I don't have to spend anything to play the game.
A few tweaks to these things and some more cards leading to new archetypes and a bigger variation of match ups will mean I can easily see this 4 star review actually being too low.
Marvel Snap is as everyone knows a Marvel themed digital card game created in-part by some ex-Hearthstone devs.
Mechanically you get an energy each turn which you use as a resource to pay for cards from your hand to enter the battlefield, so-far-so-Hearthstone.
Marvel Snaps two main USPs are that rather than the cards simply attacking each other or a player you are aiming to control three locations.
Turns are taken simultaneously and games (typically) last 6 rounds. Your objective is to have the most power in the most locations and in the case of a draw having the most power total.
This interesting back and forth, tug of war for control has many of the elements of good table top games.
Strategy, potential for bluffs and more.
A further wrinkle and an element of luck (or variance as TCG players like to say) is that each of the three locations also give abilities, these are revealed over the first three turns one after the other and this can make your strategies and tactics completely change.
Some locations you really want, some you want to stay clear of.
A location may be very strong for your strategy or actually mess up your entire game plan.
This added variance is for the most part good. Sure it can mean that some deck matchups that should be 50:50 suddenly turn into and 80:20 but it also means that a 60:40 matchup may spin around to the other sides favour.
Also if this wasn't obvious it gives each game a much bigger amount of variety, especially great in the early days of game with a smaller card pool.
The second USP (I'm getting there) is the awful name: Snap.
Yes, this is a card game but no this isn't about matching cards instead the developers (or whoever) decided that Thanos famous click should be the name of represents a minor gambling mechanic.
Don't worry it's not taking money through your phone via apple pay or whatever it's in game currency that is simply for levelling up your rank.
Without getting into the exact numbers (it's 1 to 8 fwiw) you can "Snap" when to get a higher chance of a bigger pay out, if both players do this then you're both all in.
Much like a game of Poker this can be used to intimidate, hedge your bets or even completely bluff when you have nothing it's a wonderful mechanic that actually encourages "escaping" Marvel Snap's version of folding and that in itself adds to a great strength this game has.
It's, pardon the pun: Snappy.
Games are typically six turns, each turn has a timer and escaping is encouraged meaning they will not always go that long.
So much is squeezed into such a short amount of time, a TCG distilled in a way and this makes it perfect for playing while waiting for the bus, sitting on the toilet, waiting for the kettle to boil or the opposite, just grinding tons of games out to see where your strategies take you and if those new cards you added are any good.
If you're even somewhat into card games or even tcg curious there are still two things that may put you off this game.
The first is a simple one: the IP.
Maybe you hate Marvel, this is much more comics than MCU as it digs surprisingly deep for the roster of characters it shows although at the same time it doesn't require you to have any knowledge.
Personally I am a Marvel fan, I'm not an MCU obsessive but I've been into the universes of Marvel for a long time and the use of this franchise is both a plus and a minor negative for me.
Seeing lots of cool and different characters I am mostly used to is great, the lack of synergies in a more obvious TCG way though is sadly off putting.
Do not get me wrong - there's lot of synergies, a good dozen archetypes already and many of them include characters that tend to have relations Moon Girl goes with Devil Dinosaur, Cloak goes with Dagger and Morbius, Blade and other Vampire things all share a theme.
However not all do and maybe this is a personal thing but characters such as the X-men don't seem to really share synergy. Now maybe that's because there is so many characters who have been in so many teams over time but sometimes I see two cards together and it leaves me wanting.
The second and main thing I can see putting people off giving Marvel Snap a go is simply because it's a free-to-play mobile game and what exactly it's version of "free" really is.
I can for the most part relieve you of any worries about that.
There's a shop and in-game transactions but you are either buying cosmetics (many, many different card styles) or upgrading your cards (purely cosmetic again) to unlock further options for your the collection.
Collection level is what the games match making is based on though so don't worry, you won't come in with nothing and play someone with all the cards.
All real money can do except making cards look different is push your collection level up higher but people doing that will end up playing others who've done the same or managed to grind their way.
The general loop of the game and it's in game currency is you have dailies and a battle pass challenges (half of which unlocks for free) - by doing these and going up ranks via winning games you unlock "Energy" this is used to upgrade cards cosmetically, starting with art breaking out of frames leading to animated 3D cards with shiny logos.
As you do this your collection level rises and you unlock new cards.
You then continue, maybe upgrading those new cards to unlock even more and so on and so forth.
You can easily spend zero real money on this game and be fully involved.
My only issues currently are that battle passes, which are themed, lock a single card behind a pay wall. These are added into general rotation a few months down the line so it's not all that bad (yet).
You want Black Panther now? Cough up £9.
Now £9 for a Battle Pass feels pretty standard but the issue for me is frequency, these aren't seasonal but practically monthly and whilst you don't need to spend money on them if you want it all that would mean almost £100 in a year.
My other issue is the randomness of the cards you unlock via collection level, hitting a certain level opens up a pool of cards so you do have the fun of pulling a surprise for your collection but if you start to enjoy a certain deck, see it's missing something currently there is no way to get that specific card you yearn for.
Collection caches aren't also even guaranteed to be cards and that is a very feel bad moment...
...thankfully it is "currently" and recently they have said that those caches will be adding a currency that can only be used to buy cards. I hope this is good and it's serving what the people want, it also should mean that anyone potentially spending lots of money to make more pulls will not have to rely on luck and therefor hopefully hold back more addictive qualities.
In summary I really have been enjoying this game, it took me a little while to get stuck in but now I play it every day.
Some of the randomness is a bit much but games are fast so you can't be annoyed for too long.
The money they want for cosmetics and battle passes is too high, but I don't have to spend anything to play the game.
A few tweaks to these things and some more cards leading to new archetypes and a bigger variation of match ups will mean I can easily see this 4 star review actually being too low.