January 13, 2013

Rage of Bahamut Review

Rage of Bahamut
Reviewed by Steve Fisher on .

Rage of Bahamut is a game for Android and iOS devices that works like a combination of a role-playing game and an electronic Magic: The Gathering. My experience with Magic: The Gathering was limited to a few games during college. It was interesting, but did not really grab me. I was not sure what my reaction to Rage of Bahamut would be. It turned out to be more addicting that I would have expected.

In Rage of Bahamut, you build up a deck of cards that consist of monsters, mythological figures, and the like, each with a cost of how many points it takes to use the card, an attack rating, a defense rating, and a realm (Man, God, or Demon). You create an attack deck and a defense deck, each consisting up to 5 cards, plus a leader card. Cards can be evolved a limited number of times to change form into a more powerful version of that card. Cards can also be enhanced to gain levels, which increases their attack and defense power. It is recommended to enhance cards to their highest level before evolving them. Evolving increases a card's attack and defense by 5% of the attack and defense of each card. If the cards are enhanced to the maximum level, that increases to 10%. Each card has a rarity, ranging from normal to legendary. Each day you get a free card. You can also spend real money to get a special card draw which has a chance to get a card of a high rarity. Those cards can also be gained from logging in daily or as prizes, so I would not recommend spending your money on them.

When you start the game, you choose a realm (which gives you a bonus to all cards of that realm) and assign points to stamina, attack, and defense. As you get experience, you gain levels and the ability to add friends, which gives you points to contribute to stamina, attack, and defense. Stamina affects how long you can go a quest, which consists of killing monsters that get you money (for evolving and enhancing cards), other cards, or treasures (when you collect all colors of a particular treasure, you get a special card). After you complete 5 "chapters" of quests, you face a boss monster, which uses your leader card to attack it. Attack and defense determine how many total points of cards you can have in your attack and defense decks as well as how many times you can attack monsters/players and defend from other players' attacks.

You also have the opportunity to join or start an order, which allows you to group with other players. This can be helpful if you need help getting particular treasures, particular cards as a gift or via trade (which can also be done via the Bazaar), and get prizes during special events. Donated money and treasures helps grow the order for more players to join, buy buildings to give realm cards attack/defense bonuses, and build walls during Holy Wars (an event where orders battle each other). Special positions within the order get attack and/or defense bonuses.

As there are a limited number of quests, the game would get old quickly if not for the special events. Special events usually introduce new cards and special prizes for individual and order rankings. These can range from the order vs. order Holy Wars to events where you go on special quests and fight boss monsters to collect the most of a particular collection item for a ranking, to events where you try to collect special treasures for special cards. These happen about each month and can range from a few days to a couple of weeks.

The thing I probably do not like about this game is the heavy player vs. player focus. You just lose defense points (which are regained over time, just like stamina and attack) and money if you lose. Winning battles (or losing if you attack) get you honor points, which can get you gems each week which can be traded for items to regain stamina or attack/defense points, protect treasures from attacks, special enhancement cards, or a special card draws of a particular rarity or higher.

If the idea of this game interests you, use referral code osn12222 once you complete the training quest and you'll get a special card.

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