Review: Orions: DeckMasters Expansion Pack

Posted by: dgoldring on Jun 25 2008

 

I have long considered Orions: Legend of Wizards to be among the best games ever created for the Windows Mobile platform.  But I always felt there was one major feature missing.  In the past you could not create custom decks.  Now, anyone who has ever played a customizable card game, such as Magic: The Gathering, knows that creating your own customized deck is part of the thrill of the game.  It gives you an opportunity to test various cards and find exactly the right combinations.   In fact, this lack of customization over the default deck was one of the few criticisms I had when I originally reviewed the game and again when I reviewed the Second Age expansion pack.

With the new Deckmasters expansion pack, this criticism has finally been addressed.  You can now create and store dozens of custom decks at a time.  These decks will be available in Custom Duel Mode, which I found myself playing quite a bit.  

When you create a custom deck, you will have access to every available card.  Scroll through these cards and select the best combination of 24 in order to complete your custom deck.  In order to facilitate building a custom deck and  make your choices even more difficult, PocketMoreGames has added a whopping 45 new cards to the deck.  And these are some amazing new cards.  I’m not going to discuss each of the new cards individually.  To be honest, Werner beat me to the punch on that one with his fantastic Review and Strategy Guide.  So, head over there if you want to see an overview of the best of the new cards available to you.

In addition to Custom Deck, you can also now play the game in Draft Mode (which is also available under Custom Duel.)  This differs slightly from Custom Deck Mode, in that both players have access to a limited pool of cards.  The pool consists of ten cards from each of the six elements.  You take turns drawing cards until you have four from each element.  The randomness of the pool can make this mode more exciting and unpredictable than Custom Deck Mode.  Unlike Custom Deck, however, you will have much less control over your deck.  You also cannot save any of the decks you create in Draft Mode.

I was really impressed by the Deckmasters expansion pack, which finally addresses one of the biggest criticisms which I, and other reviewers, have noted with the game.  I was also impressed to see how many of these new cards were derived directly from the Orions forum  It is clear that Pocket More Games listens to their user community, and I really think the game has benefited from the developers’ involvement in the forums.

All of these cards, however, did leave me wishing for a little more.  In campaign mode, you can only get many of the new cards through the Black Market or by defeating an enemy and stealing them.  I wish the next expansion would include additional structures to build, which would allow you to produce the new cards directly.

I have long thought Orions: Legend of Wizards was among the best games available for Windows Mobile.  The DeckMasters expansion pack confirms that opinion.  The addition of 45 new cards, custom decks, and the Draft Mode are just what this game needed.

You can download the DeckMaster expansion pack from the Pocket More Games website for $12.95.  Make sure you have the original Orions:Legend of Wizards already installed, though.  This is an expansion pack for that game, not a sequel.  As such, it will not run without the original game installed. 

[Screenshots courtesy of Pocket More Games]

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