Earlier this week I was contacted by a gaming entrepreneur who has taken his love of games into his own hands, and has created a new online collectible card game. The name of this game is Orbs CCG, and it was created by Jeff Pickhardt. The game is a throwback to some of the favorite card games of the tabletop world, and with some bright artwork the game is interesting and intuitive. I got a chance to check out the game and after having some time with it I wanted to post a review so others can find out more about this enjoyable online game.
A Little About The Game
Orbs CCG is an asynchronous collectible card game that’s played right in your browser. It’s completely free-to-play, though players can opt to purchase booster packs that will offer up new cards for their decks. All that’s required of the player is to sign up at the website, and you’ll grab a free starter deck of your choice. This will grant you everything you need to jump right into the game.
Now that we’ve learned a bit about what the game is, let’s take a look at what the game’s about. Orbs CCG is a card game dealing with Orbs, magical creatures that have many different abilities. There are four different colors (or factions) that represent different things in the Orbs world. You’ve got red – representing fire and aggression, green – the color of animals and nature, blue – the color of water, planning, and intuitiveness, and yellow – the color of wizardry. Each color plays to a different strength, and there are colorless cards that remain neutral.
The different types of cards found in the game, which are Orbs, objects, actions, and traps. Orbs have Attack Points and Health Points, and they are the main soul of your deck. Objects are things that can offer up abilities as long as they’re in play, like adding more energy or causing damage per turn. Actions are one-use cards that do something when you play them, such as healing Orbs or dealing damage. Trap cards are played face-down, and they trigger when certain things happen.
How Do You Play?
So, with all that, how is the game played? The object of the game is pretty simple, really. Each player starts the game with 18 Health Points. The goal of the game is to reduce your opponent’s life points to zero by any way possible. You’ll take turns, playing Orbs and other cards in order to gain the upper-hand on the field.
When the game starts each player draws a hand of 7 cards. Then the first player makes the first move in the game, which is sacrificing (or trashing) a card for its energy. Once per turn at the beginning of your turn you can discard one card from your hand to add energy to your pool. Energy is required to cast cards from your hand. For whatever the color of the card that you sacrificed you add one energy of that color to your pool.
Cards have different casting costs as listed in the middle-right of the card under their artwork. These costs reflect the energy needed in order to play the card. As long as you have enough energy you can play as many cards per turn as you wish. Once you’ve played your cards you can attack with any Orbs you have (as long as they’ve been on the field for a whole turn) and then you’ll end your turn.
Going second, and each turn after that, you’ll draw a card at the beginning of your turn from your deck. Then your turn will follow the same format as above, only you’ll have a chance to defend against attacking Orbs.
Combat is really simple, and it’s really the heart of Orbs CCG. When an Orb attacks it assigns its Attack Points (AP) to the defending player. He can then choose to defend against the attack or let it go through. If he does not defend the Orb assigns damage to the defender’s current HP. If the attack is defended, however, the defending Orb takes damage equal to the attacker’s AP, and it attacks back, dealing damage equal to its AP to the attacker. Sounds confusing, but I assure you it isn’t, especially if you’ve played a collectible card game before.
Players will continue to take turns, playing cards and making attacks until one player is reduced to zero HP. When that happens the game is over and the player with HP left is the winner!
The Verdict
Orbs CCG is a fast-paced game that’s a lot of fun to play. With the asynchronous game mode, it makes playing with friends easy and fun. There are plenty of different cards available, and there are tons of different deck combinations to try out. The rules are listed right on the site, and there’s even an option to try the game through a demo, wherein you will learn all you need to know to play the game.
The only qualm I have with the game is that the card art is a little too cartoony for my taste. This has nothing to do with how the game plays out, however. The art is great, don’t get me wrong, but it’s just not my style. Does it make the game unplayable? Not at all, as it’s only aesthetics.
Overall, Orbs CCG is a game that, once played, you can tell the developer took a lot of time to create. It’s perfect for pickup games, and you can play against an A.I. opponent whenever you wish, whether it be for training or just killing some time. For a game that was based off of great classic tabletop card games, this is worth your time. If you’re looking for something new and intuitive to try out, head on over to the game’s official website and give it a shot!