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Athenion: Tactical CCG Review – Fast-Paced and Incredibly Deep

Athenion is a game that doesn’t pull any punches. It’s filled with bright ideas and unique gameplay twists, all bundled together in a package that screams of quality and polish. This isn’t one for the faint of heart, but if you’re after a hefty, tactical card-playing experience then you’re going to fall head-over-heels in love with Athenion.

The game sees you taking on other players in one-on-one card-laying duels to the death. This isn’t just a Hearthstone or Magic rip-off though. There are a whole bunch of fresh concepts that make sure Athenion feels new and familiar at the same time.

For one thing, the game takes place on a gridded board. That’s where you play your cards. Those cards have arrows on them, which let you know the directions they can attack. Sure you might have a super-tough character to throw on the board, but if you can’t find somewhere it’ll go where its arrows are pointing at a foe, you won’t be able to attack.

Pick Your Sides

There are six different factions in the game, and choosing one limits the cards you can use. Starter decks are available for all of them, and you can build your own custom decks as well. You’ll unlock new cards by opening packs, and you can craft cards as well. Once you’ve got the hang of the action, it’s time to start experimenting with different set-ups.

The battles here are fast-paced, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have time to think. In fact, thinking carefully about what you’re going to do next is the only way to stay ahead. It’s easy to play yourself into a corner or fall into an opponent’s trap if you’re not paying close enough attention.

You win a game by reducing your opponent’s hit points to zero. To do that you need soul points, which the cards you play will grant you. You’ll hit your foe for as many points of damage as the cards on the board at the start of your turn grant you. That means that taking out some of the other player’s units will reduce the power of the hit they deliver when their turn begins.

A Card Shell

There’s a lot going on around the gameplay too, with different modes, events and challenges waiting for you. There’s never a dull moment in Athenion, and whenever you log on you can expect something new to discover. There are a lot of different crafting materials and currencies to earn, but there’s no ticketing system for fights which is going to please a lot of people.

Athenion blends together ideas from a number of different genres, stuffs them in a deck-building shell, and then paints the outside with a gorgeous anime art-style that really flies off the screen.

This is a bright, deeply engaging and massively tactical card-playing experience that’s going to get under your skin if you let it. There’s so much to do, so much to see and so many strategies to explore that you’d be hard-pressed to even get close to discovering everything that Athenion has to show.

You can download Athenion: Tactical CCG via Google Play (and the App Store) right now.

An engaging multiplayer blast

Athenion: Tactical CCG ticks almost all of the right boxes. If you're a fan of card games it comes highly recommended.

8.7
Aesthetics:
8.8
Gameplay:
8.5
Innovation:
8.5
Value:
8.8

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